Dart’s cheerful and newsy letter reports another long phone call with his folks. His mother has asked that he be sure to invite Dot to their house for dinner when he’s home on leave. His mother, Helen once taught sewing at Andrews, so she is familiar with the proper channels for invitations and permissions for the girls to leave campus.

He is very enthusiastic in his praise of the Great Lakes canteen, and it’s no wonder! This modern military marvel offers for our sailors’ enjoyment: a library, bowling alley, boxing ring and gym, magazine and candy stands, soda fountain, ping-pong and billiards, a phone room (with two operators and 16 phones), post office, comfortable furniture and fluorescent lights. I’m amused by his mention of the lights – that must have been something fairly novel back then. Also, note the lack of televisions! How did they survive? When I think about the operators, I’m reminded of so many jobs that used to be common place and are now virtually extinct. I wonder what occupations we have in the present that our grand kids will never know about?

He mentions that the church service that morning was punctuated with coughs and sneezes throughout the congregation because of the colds going through the ranks. He also conjectured that the brevity of the service added to it’s pleasantness.

He closed the letter out when his whole group was ordered to attend a basketball game.

Dot writes the briefest of notes, explaining that studying must begin. She also resorts to one of her old themes of thinking that maybe they should cut back on all the “pretty talk” and “mushy” stuff until they know each other better.