Letter to Peter Hannerman.

Debbie Reynolds.

Peter…hello…well,I have to tell you because I know you know also that women have a way of communicating that is like an inquiring caress…I suppose that is how they learn so much about their men. I was the youngest of four children born in quick succession..then there were several miss-carriages after me, so there was a gap of seven years between myself and my younger sibling..and in those years, I believe my mother kept me especially close as a kind of reassurance and comforting security…and I believe it was from that closeness to my mother that I learned many instinctive womanly intricacies…the whispered secrets, the anguish and desire soft spoken into a babe’s innocent ear, secure that he could never repeat a woman’s most hidden desires…I have to speculate on this, because I was too young to even be aware…but I do remember one incident…My mother was fond of those B-Grade western movies, particularly with Glen Ford..I remember “The Gunfight at the OK Corral”. and she used to take me to the city in the daytime while my father was at work and the others were in school, to the Regent Theatre..and this one day we went to see “Tammy and the Bachelor”…not that I was interested in the movie, but I was enthralled by the little square windows high at the back of the theatre where the flickering lights of the projector shone through ( I know that now, of course) and I would turn in my seat to watch them…and this one moment when I was watching the flickering lights, I saw the side of my mother’s face as she watched the film and I saw a tear form in her eye and then roll down her cheek…..that little moment has stuck above all in my memory of our outings…and now, in my aged years..I do know why…..anyway..I’ve now got to go do the dishes..goodnight.
Btw…I also have a special fondness for the song from that movie, corny as it is…I almost weep every time I hear it…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etExP7050GI