October 20, 1943

October 20, 201301. October 1943, Dart's LettersSusan

On October 20, 1943, a correspondence began which would grow to 6,000 hand-written pages over three and a half years. It spanned the globe and laid the foundation for an epic romance.

The stars of this story are my parents. You can find an introduction to them on the “Background” section of this site.

This blog is my commitment to share their incredible war-time correspondence day-by-day, as it originally unfolded. Here, you will see images of their letters, pictures of Mom and Dad and a little commentary about what was going on around them as they exchanged their letters. I welcome questions and comments and I hope my mother and my siblings will chime in with details and more stories.

The Set-up

The first letter from Dart came very shortly after the two teenagers met on a group blind date. The date was arranged by a classmate of Dot’s at Andrews School for Girls. It involved four girls from that school and four guys from Case University in Cleveland. Dot and Dart were not each other’s assigned dates that night, but they only had eyes for each other. In this first letter, Dart is returning a little program from the dance they had all attended that Dot had asked him to hold for her. He wastes no time in asking her out for her next “date night,” an occasion which did not occur very often at Andrews School. We get a clue to his character when he writes that he hopes her next scheduled date night is not this coming Saturday, because he’s already made rather firm plans. He says he could get out of them, but it would require telling a whale of a lie – which he is most reluctant to do.

Dart keeps the letter light and newsy, but his intentions are clear. He wants to hear from her!

October 20th; Dot’s response

October 21, 201301. October 1943, Dot's LettersSusan

Dot’s reply to Dart’s first letter is dated the same day as his letter. “How could that be?” I asked my mother. “How could you get a letter the same day he wrote it?” She explained that there were two mail deliveries on weekdays back then. If Dart sent something out from Cleveland in the morning mail, Dot usually received it that afternoon in Willoughby!

Dot’s first letter reveals the pattern that much of her correspondence would develop. There was often a chatty part, describing the “goings-on” around the dorm, followed by a minor complaint about the rules at Andrews School. Her general mood was almost always positive. There was one theme that runs throughout; her self-deprecating humor. She was always poking fun at her lack of talent, brains and beauty – a habit that contradicted reality and one Dart would try repeatedly to break her of. It amuses me to see the woman I’ve always known and loved as my mother reflected so clearly in her 17-year old self.

In this letter, she deftly describes the reactions of her housemates to the recent date night. Some seemed to be in a dream state, rendering them oblivious to the surroundings; others, at the mention of “the dance” would turn so green that everyone in the room knew to drop the subject. Says Dot, “If one could keep from laughing long enough to take some notes on the situation, I’m sure they could write an excellent novel.”

She makes some wise crack about whether or not she should accept his offer of a date. After all, she wouldn’t want to disappoint all the boys who have been waiting for a chance to escort her. Immediately, she deflects and says she hopes he didn’t believe that for one second, but, as he is quite intelligent, she doubts he did. She happily accepts his invitation, telling him that the next scheduled date night is November 6. Then she drops the little hint that she may be coming into Cleveland next weekend with some friends. She’s hoping Miss Lee will allow it, but the only reason the girls have for wanting to leave is so that they can have a little time off campus and perhaps see a decent movie. Lacking a Presidential Order, she fears their plans will be squashed.

October 22 – Present Day

October 22, 201301. October 1943, Dart's Letters, Dot's LettersSusan

Well, there are no new letters to post until the 24th, so that gives me a chance to reflect on this letter-writing thing Dot and Dart had going on.

When I spoke to Mom after posting the first letter, she was a little nervous, but mostly excited. “I could never have imagined when I was writing those letters on my bed in that freezing dorm room, that 70 years in the future, people would be reading them,” she said. “It’s still hard to believe that images of those old pages are showing up on my computer.”

That got me thinking once again about the differences between the hand-written correspondence of a past age and the electronic communication we rely on now. I’m trying not to judge which way is better, because I see the advantages of each method. In years past, the recipient of a letter had a more direct connection to the writer. They could study the hand-writing and maybe catch a whiff of perfume oR after shave lingering on the pages. Can we feel that connected by the choice of font an email writer uses?

In the old days, the time it sometimes took between a letter being written and then answered allowed both parties to reflect on what was said. Responses could mellow or evolve over the course of a few days. Today we have “instant” communication. Skype and FaceTime even allow us to see and hear each other. I’m so grateful for those advances when I think about our military families today. How blessed they are to have almost face-to-face chats while separated by continents. Wouldn’t Dart and Dot have given almost everything they had to share that kind of closeness during WWII?

I have to wonder, though. Will someone be reminiscing in 2083 over a string of emails and texts sent by their loved one way back in 2013? Will families preserve them in a special place and count them among their greatest treasures?

October 24, 1943

October 24, 201301. October 1943, Dart's LettersSusan

Dart’s second letter to Dot reveals that she has cemented the positive first impression she made on him. It also suggests that he is corresponding with a number of other people. As their relationship develops, we will learn that most of Dart’s pen pals are buddies from high school who are in various branches of service all over the world.

Our two “kids” have already discovered they have a few things in common. They are both students and they each share their living quarters with multiple people. More importantly, both can tell funny stories about the antics of their roommates and poke fun at themselves as well.

Dart’s suggestion that Dot invite herself to ride along with a classmate who is coming home to Cleveland for a date with one of Dart’s friends underscores how eager he is to see her again. Will she manage to come to the big city for a second evening with this young sailor?

He begins and ends his letter with positive assessments of her letter to him; first on the content, and then on its neatness. This marks the beginning of a lifetime of Dart finding things to admire about Dottie.

To read the letters, click on the pages below.

October 25, 1943

October 25, 201301. October 1943, Dot's LettersSusan

Another cheery letter from Dot with a great deal of space devoted to plans and alternate plans for a Saturday date with Dart in Cleveland. I often hear about the simpler times of a past era, but the era of these letters doesn’t seem at all simple to me. Plans were made primarily by mail because long distance phone rates were so expensive. If the mail was too slow, plans remained incomplete. To top it all off, there was that pesky problem of gas rations which could throw icy water on any travel plans. It’s a wonder anyone ever got together!

Dot shows her sense of humor again, first by bragging about her “B” in chemistry and then slamming her intelligence. She wraps it all up in a flippant little bow when she suggests her good grade was a result of her “wisdom teeth coming in.”

In this letter, Dot mentions having seen the film “For Whom the Bell Tolls” with friends. The sharing of film recommendations is a recurring theme throughout the long correspondence of Dot and Dart. I think I’ll make a list of the titles they suggest and see if I can track some of them down on Netflix!

October 29, 1943

October 29, 201301. October 1943, Dot's LettersSusan

October 29, 1943

In this day’s letter, Dot reveals her typical exuberant self. A little sarcastic, but not bitingly so; somewhat flirtatious, but in a sort of shy way. She is obviously thrilled with the attentions of a certain handsome sailor. The two correspondents have decided to try to maintain the pace of a letter each day and Dart has left the V-12 unit at Case, joined the active Navy, and is on his way to Great Lakes naval base in Illinois.

Dot fears that the “letter-a-day” pace they’ve set for themselves may be hard to maintain. She claims life at school is so dry that she doubts there will much fodder for her letters. Her writing style is breezy, yet sweet, and Dart is so enamored with her that she could write a two-page description of the wallpaper, and he’d be enchanted.

How she hopes she’ll get a letter from Great Lakes Naval Base tomorrow.

November 3, 1943

November 3, 201302. November 1943, Dart's LettersSusan

Dart explains his lack of letters when he writes this one from a westbound train. Although this letter doesn’t go into detail, he is finished with the engineering program at Case and is being assigned for active duty. First stop, Great Lakes naval base near Chicago.

We see in this letter his first reference to one of the great loves of his life – trains. He mentions having to pack up his model railroad layout from his university housing before leaving town, and he talks about being distracted from letter-writing because he wants to see everything he can out the train window.

One of my favorite passages of this letter is “It seems the Navy works fastest when a fellow would like to see his girl and say good-bye to her. I tried to get some of the leave which is due to me, mainly so I could get out to see you Saturday, but the Skipper seemed to think the Navy was more important. Dag-gone his hide.”

This paragraph seems so poignant when put in the context of a young man with a new love interest who is being sent off to war. Think of the questions that must have nagged at him: Where am I going and how long will I be gone? Will she write? Will I see her again? Will I be coming home?

I have to smile at his use of the name Dorothy in the salutation. I believe the only time Dot ever tolerated being called that was when she had no choice. Perhaps she associated it with being in trouble with a parent or teacher. How long will it be before she tells him to cease and desist?

Dart gets a little wistful at the end and boldly signs his name “Yours with love, Dart.” I think the young sailor is smitten.

To read the letter in Dart’s own hand, just click on the images below. Most computers will allow you to magnify the images which is a handy tool on this letter – written in pencil on a moving train.

Also, thanks to my sister Nancy who sent me a great photo of the young couple. See it on the Photographs page of this blog.

November 4, 1943

November 4, 201302. November 1943, Dart's LettersSusan

This brief note was Dart’s first from his new place in the “real” Navy. Among all the fresh new recruits at boot camp, Dart and his fellow “washouts” from the V-12 unit at Case seem like worldly old men. Dart immediately finds himself placed in a position of minor authority.

There’s little time for sweet talk in this letter, but he signs it once again with “Yours, with love, Dart.” A new addition, however is the little “dart” he draws beneath his signature.

November 5, 1943

November 5, 201302. November 1943, Dart's LettersSusan

This is the shortest letter yet from Dart- in fact, it may be the shortest of the 1,000 letters he will write over the next few years. He is so short on time that he dispenses with the “Dorothy” salutation and opts for “Dot.” He speaks somewhat modestly about his assignment as a sort of assistant drill master.

With Dart apparently distracted by all that is new and different in his current circumstances, I wonder how Dot felt when she received this quick and somewhat impersonal note.

November 6, 1943

November 6, 201302. November 1943, Dot's LettersSusan

Finally we hear from Dot again. I love the newsy style and youthful zest that fill her letters. In this one she recounts her delight in a rare visit by her mother, all the way from Connecticut. A parental visit AND a new beau seem to have made Dot a bit of a celebrity around the school.

She also relates a bit of intrigue between some boys named Johnny and Jackson and a girl named Lois. Because Dart seems to know them too, I can only guess that the boys were classmates of his at Case and were involved in the original group blind date that brought Dot and Dart into the same orbit. I also believe that Lois was the master mind who planned that initial gathering. Romance, drama and intrigue among teenagers – I guess human nature doesn’t change that much from one generation to the next.

As always when I read these letters, I truly enjoy Dot’s self-deprecating humor. She rarely talks trash about anyone else, but seems to get a kick out of making herself the brunt of her own jokes. In responding to Dart’s request for a photo, she enclosed one, dubbing it “The Awful Truth.” She explained that having her mother sit in on some classes with her was a morale booster. She thinks she’ll need a bigger hat to wear to church because her teachers’ compliments made her head swell. She claims the comments were so positive, it was a dead give away that the teachers were lying.

She wishes Dart well on the surgery he is slated to have. Little did either of them know how that chapter would unfold…