In Dart’s letter today, he reminds Dot that she has not sent him her Greenwich address where he can write to her over the Christmas break. It has become a more pressing issue now because he received a lovely note from her mother and he would like to answer it as soon as possible. I guess this was decades before those little self-stick address labels became ubiquitous – mailed to every American home by all those charities seeking money.

It was another red letter day in Dart’s recovery. He asked for and received permission to put on his regular clothes long enough to go out into the hallway and call his parents. This strikes me as quaint in two ways: one, that he had to put on clothes in an all-male military hospital, rather than just his skivvies or a robe – how formal! The other is that the only available phone was out in the corridor, not in his pocket!

Anyway, he was so happy to hear his parents’ voices after four weeks away from home. (It seems like so much longer!) They told him they were hoping to come see him on Dec. 18. He expressed concern that there would be a hotel available for them in Chicago at that time of year. Although he’d rather be in Willoughby, escorting Dot to her formal on that day, since that was not possible, he would be thrilled to see his folks.

He asks Dot if she had been able to read the tiny writing at the bottom of his previous letter (the charming declaration of love), and suggested she might consider the diminutive words to be whispering. Awww!

Finally, he posed the question any reasonable person would: Why wait six  years to tell him the meaning of her earlier coded message? Signing off with love, he added a teeny pencil drawing, which I’ll let the reader enjoy without comment from me.

Dot’s letter begins by describing a magnificent dinner the girls had in the dining hall that evening. I’ve noticed when either of them talks about food, they are especially excited by having butter. It’s hard to imagine what it was about butter than made it so scarce during the war years, but it was obviously missed.

She tells that her friend Nancy has fallen prey to the cold that’s been burning through the house. Then she tells about an impromptu trip to Cleveland with the aunt of one of the other girls. While there, Dot gathered her courage and called Dart’s parents, Dart, Sr. and Helen Peterson. She was astounded how similar father and son sound. She rejoiced in the news that Dart had just called his parents and had been dressed for the first time in weeks. Dot said that she had been nervous to call, but Dart’s mother was so sweet that it felt like she was talking to an old friend.

At a house meeting that night, it was announced that all 36 girls in the class were expected to attend the formal on Dec. 18, even though only six of them had dates. Apparently, men were as scarce as butter these days. Dot dreaded the thought of going without Dart, and predicted she would be very sick when that night came!

Dot confesses to Dart that she thinks of him, and only him, constantly.