This exuberant letter from Dart is the result of receiving 19 letters at mail call, most of them from Dot. He responds to them one at a time.
His biggest thrill of the day was receiving the irreplaceable picture of Dot, along with the snapshots that were taken in Greenwich. She is now proudly on display next to his bunk. He noticed that in the background of the ones taken in the park was the little bridge where they parked the car. He tells Dot that scene will always be sacred to him because it is the first place he ever made love to the girl he wanted so deeply. His use of the term “made love” seems a little quaint now because it has a different connotation nowadays, but the memories of that afternoon still take his breath away.
He reassures her that she shouldn’t feel bad about not being able to say the words she longed to say. She has written them in her letters and he has the memory of her head on his shoulder, their fingers entwined. Those memories are worth more to him than spoken words. “Thank you, my darling, for the poem, your letters, and for being – well, for being alive and for being mine.”
He cautions her to make no more cracks about his taste in women. After lots of trying and several fizzles, he knows he has come home with the prize of prizes.
He asks he not to worry about “a few ounces or pounds.” He hopes it helps when he tells her that he thinks she’s perfect! “Maybe you’re a bit heavier than the willowy movie stars, but you’re every bit as pretty and ever so much more refreshing to look at than they are. It’s you I like and not just the wasted remains of the Dottie that has been.”
He’ll have to save comment on the rest of her letters for another time because he has duty. He tells her a brief story about a celebration the night before. A classmate received his ensign designation and took the whole class to a burlesque show in San Francisco. Dart went along, but left the party before the drinking started. He took a long streetcar ride to the Pacific Ocean and “got home more or less enlightened by 12:15.”
