This is an amusing letter from Dart, complete with his stream-of-conscious self-editing of all his grammatical and handwriting errors. After several expressed corrections, he refers to his old-maidish traits, like a school teacher. That made me smile because it reminded me of how Dad used to chide “spinster high school English teachers for their fixation on enforcing archaic, petty, or passe rules of grammar. For example, Me: Dad, is it true you’re not supposed to begin a sentence with the words “and” or “but?” Dad: That’s a spinster English teacher kind of rule. If it makes a better sentence, do it.
He writes about is folks’ review of their second evening with Dot. The verdict? They like her even more than before. They like her as much as Dart does, “and that’s saying quite a lot.” He is happy they all stayed at home together rather than going to a movie – “more chummy and friendly.”
Dart decides to agree with Dot about eschewing passionate phrases and endearments for now. He sees the wisdom of keeping their feet planted closer to the ground, even if their heads are in the clouds.
Responding to her surprise for her parents by arriving a day early, Dart imagines how she must have felt when she walked in the front door of her house. As he describes the physical symptoms of such joy – heart throbbing in your neck, walking like you weigh a few ounces, the shout caught in your restricted throat – I realized he was describing his feelings when he received the first couple of letters from Dot. How sweet this guy is!
There’s some other chat about the broken record player at his parents’ house and his “shocking” attempts to fix it, the washing and mending that are still not done, his need to write letters to his family. Then he closes with this: “Almost everything I do all day long is with you in mind. When I work or walk alone, you are beside me.”
It’s letters like this one from Dot that remind me I come from a double line of writers. Although her style is different from Dart’s, she can certainly fill the pages with funny, interesting and well-expressed thoughts.
She talks about her first full day at home by reciting all the household chores she accomplished while the rest of the family were at work or school. Laundry, kitchen clean-up, ironing, cooking and letter-writing. A note from her “little sis” at Andrews caused a wave of homesickness for her school and friends.
She fulfilled Dart’s request for a travel guide of Greenwich. She began by saying how awkward she felt trying to “sell” him on the place when she herself was sold on Ohio. Greenwich is a beautiful old town with great wealth. She loves it because it’s home, but aside from her family, she doesn’t feel the average Greenwich resident cares much about other people. Her home is very near Long Island Sound and most of her family members love being in or near the water at every opportunity. (“I’m in hot water most of the time,” she quips.)
She has an interview tomorrow at a shop in Greenwich. She’s decided she’d rather work locally than commute into the City. She will not start college this coming September because it would break up the year too much when she had to return to Ohio for her formal graduation after the second semester of college was underway. By delaying a year, she will also have more of her own money saved for tuition.
Her final Andrews report card arrived and was the best she’d ever received. She’s glad her parents have proof that they didn’t waste their money on her education.
She says she needs to get to bed so she’ll look awake and beautiful for her interview. Her secret to looking happy, she has discovered, is to simply think of a certain young sailor in Ward 83 South and she has a radiant glow.
She tells Dart that she’ll never be able to express her feelings for him as beautifully as he does, but the feelings are real, nonetheless. She is grateful he is is where he is, rather than where her brother Gordon is right now. (Somewhere in the Pacific.)
