Dart has had another busy day with little time for answering the stack of Dot’s letters that he carries with him in case he gets a moment to write. Aside from the pre-embarkation processing he had a few days ago, I’m not exactly sure what keeps him so busy. Mostly, he goes from one watch assignment to some other task. It almost seems as though Shoemaker exists simply to give sailors a chance to practice being busy!
He left Oakland around 11:15 last night and didn’t get back to base until 2:30. The line for the bus was 2-1/2 blocks long and required 40 buses to carry everyone. “And to think the Southern Pacific scrapped an electric line three years ago which could have handled the whole crowd all the way from ‘Frisco in half the time it takes buses to run. Oh well, such is progress.”
He hopes she’s able to squeeze in lots of bowling and he accepts her challenge to a game. He admits to being a very poor bowler, a description that remained apt throughout his life.
Yes, he’s glad he made the trip to Cleveland! It would have been worth any amount of discomfort he had experienced even if he was only able to be with her for five minutes.
He’s serious, too, when he says he can’t think of a thing he wants or needs for Christmas. Besides, he suggests that a gift that isn’t asked for or hinted at is a much sweeter gift. He’s as stumped as she is about what to give her.
Reacting to her admission that she regretted not crossing the basement to give him a squeeze when she felt the urge, he says, “Speaking of times when squeezing would have been in order, there are times when I would have liked to squeeze you, too. If we were psychic, we would have had a squeezing session in the cellar. I love the way you put on the old apron and got to work with me. I felt the same way when you were in the kitchen flipping water on me (and dodging ice), and sucking the froth off the Pepsi bottle.” Isn’t it marvelous that the most touching and alluring moments with loved ones are those fleeting, “meaningless” looks or actions that set our hearts aflutter?
He fills the final page with a huge “I LOVE YOU, DOT!!!”
Dot got most of her Christmas shopping done today and now she just has to wait for the fun part – watching people open their gifts on Christmas morning. She and El are giving their father a suit and their mother a coat this year, because those are the last things they’d expect. “I love Christmas and all that goes with it, so the sooner preparations begin and the later they end, the happier I am.” What she gets for Dart is still a mystery to her.
She writes that she misses practicing on his sweet potato and splashing him with water. In fact, she misses his whole family almost as much as he does. They make her feel so welcome when she’s with them!
She’d like him to know that she’s reading “Steel Trails – the Epic of the Railroads” by Martin D. Stevers. She deems it “most interesting.” Now, that’s devotion!
