Again, a solo letter from Dot – as usual, it’s charming and full of life.

First, check out the weird little illustration on her stationery! The caption says “I’m all prepared if you don’t write!” and that is under a drawing of a woman surrounded by all methods of destruction; a noose, rifle, poison, gas canister and what seems to be a land mine. How very strange!

Her opening paragraph tells the small-world story of Dot’s mother getting a letter from an acquaintance, Mary Forte. Mary was a Wave/nurse on Dart’s ward at the hospital. She has written that Dart seems to be “mighty fond” of Dot. To quote Dot, “Bet Mom was surprised to hear that cuz from what I told her she thought we were more or less ‘pen pals.’ ” Apparently Dot wasn’t completely forthcoming with her family over the holidays because she was scared of the teasing that would follow. As she explains to Dart, up until quite recently, she was one of the biggest “man-haters” on the planet and her family always told her they would tease her mercilessly when the “real thing” came along.  I guess the cat is out of the bag now!

She tells one of her amusing stories about her retail teacher, Miss Hutton. Dot has quite a talent for describing interesting characters. I could just hear a classroom of teenage girls fighting to keep the giggles from overtaking them as they sit in class with this unusual teacher!

She wraps up with the latest news of her roommate, Andy and the formerly ex-beau. Since receiving an air mail special delivery letter from her Lt. this morning, all the way from England, Andy has been grinning dreamily all through class. I guess the couple has patched things up.