Best Endings Are Happy Ones
Dear Ann Landers: Please continue to recommend the armed forces for young people with no direction in their lives. It works for daughters as well as sons.
We did not have the money to send our daughter to college, but I’m not sure she would have been interested anyway.
“Suzanne” seemed to have no goals or aspirations. As she worked her way through middle and high school, she grew more distant and hostile. We didn’t know most of the kids she hung out with, and we worried about her constantly.
In high school, several of the local boys joined the Army, and Suzanne did, too. Our relationship was so poor by then that we didn’t even know when she left town for basic training. She never said goodbye.
The change in her attitude was obvious in the first telephone call home, and it has continued to this day. Suzanne has just started her third tour of duty. During her first tour, she met and married a wonderful fellow soldier. During her second tour, she and her husband were sent to Germany, and both were promoted. Now, they are both back in the States and own their own home.
When Suzanne gets out of the service after this tour of duty, she is determined to finish college. She is a joy to be around. Everyone who knows her thinks highly of her, and so do we. - Suzanne’s Mom
Dear Mom: I love stories with happy endings, and yours certainly is one. Thank you for a great plug for the armed services. Bravo.
Dear Ann Landers: Although some of your readers consider the “how we met” letters corny and boring, here is my story for those who enjoy them.
On Jan. 28, 1955, two Catholic clubs jointly rented a local nightclub for a dance. Although I am a Protestant, I went to the dance with a pal of mine and his fiancee, who thought it would be a good way for me to meet some nice girls.
As I stood at one end of the dance floor talking with my friends, I glanced across the packed club, dark except for a series of floodlights shining down on the dance floor. Suddenly, just like a scene from a movie, the crowds parted as though on cue, and I was staring at the most attractive girl in the room.
When the music started, I walked across the floor and asked her to dance. I learned that she, too, had come with a friend and she thought she was the only Protestant present. I asked if I could drive her home. She accepted.
After four months of dating, we were married. Forty-three years and four children later, we still hold hands when we walk, and to me, she is the most attractive woman in any room. - R.G. in Dallas
Dear Dallas: What a beautiful tribute to your sweetheart. I hope you two will be holding hands for many years to come.
Dear Ann Landers: Why do women on talk shows sit with their legs crossed so you can see Catalina on a clear day? Have they no shame, or are they simply not aware of what they are displaying?
Please, Ann, tell all women who go on TV (or sit on an elevated stage) to cross their legs at the ankles or keep both feet flat on the floor. Also, someone should suggest that they quit wearing such short skirts. They look ridiculous on any woman over 20, no matter how great her legs may be. - Corpus Christi, Texas
Dear Corpus: I’ve dealt with this before, and I agree wholeheartedly. A better idea is for these women to wear slacks or pants suits.