This letter from Dart is a little confusing because it refers to things I’ve not seen mentioned in letters before. Again I have a feeling that we may be missing a letter here and there.
Dot may have said something to him about the nearly identical letters he wrote last week describing the Russian concert in San Francisco. One of them was addressed to Dearest Sweetheart and the other to Dearest Dot. She may have questioned who “Sweetheart” was. He says he thinks one of those was intended for his folks, but he must have been tired when he wrote it.
Dart mentions that he is alone tonight because Spiegler has gone to the hospital for surgery tomorrow. He has a cyst exactly like the one Dart had removed in Chicago. Leffman will go to the hospital tomorrow for one or two operations. He has a cyst on his head. Cryptically, he adds that “we don’t speak of his other trouble.” That of course leads me to imagine what ailment might have been considered taboo; testicular cancer or erectile dysfunction? It seems almost quaint to witness a time when medical conditions were considered too sensitive to discuss with others. Now it seems that everybody shares everything and we see ads for all manner of intimate products and conditions on television.
Then Dart tells a surprising tale on himself. It seems he is about to get into big trouble, or as he so picturesquely puts it, “Your sailor’s about to wear his anatomy in a sling.” It’s a complicated story that I’m not sure I follow completely, but it has something to do with Dart ignoring regulations about the handling of his liberty pass, holding on to one signed by the former commander for a special use. Under the former commander, the rules might have been more loosely enforced, so Dart took advantage of that. Now the new commander is more of a stickler and Dart’s liberty pass is missing. He’s a little worried that his clean record will be tarnished and, worse yet, that he’ll have to go the rest of his time at Shoemaker without liberty. Dot’s “weegie” board says he’ll be there five more weeks, and that’s a long time to be stuck in this pit. He says other guys can get away with murder, but the minute he tries “a mild job of underhanded dealings,” he chokes on his own feet. It serves him right, he says, because he’s been “caught with the goods.” He hopes Dot won’t think less of him.
Now I wish even more than before that I knew what these two were talking about with Dart’s clever response to Dot’s little prank about dropping him a line. Now he confesses that his retort was indeed all original. Everyone thought her line that started it was very good and he’s glad she liked his reply. Well, as long as they can make each other laugh, I guess we don’t need to be in on the joke, too.
He’s decided to keep both his Christmas billfolds. The one from his folks is too big to fit into a Navy uniform pocket, so he’ll use it to store precious photos. Dot’s will be used for its intended purpose.
He must clarify that his recent phone call was not the one she told him to make collect. Besides, he can’t be expected to do everything she tells him to. “You don’t want a henpecked BF do you?” While he’s on that subject, he asks her where she got the idea that she has 51% of their partnership. When he asked the married guys about this arrangement, they said, “You don’t know it yet, but she’s right.” Now, that’s funny!
With a slight hint of caution, he tells her that her tailor and shopping scheme at work sounds a bit like the deal he’s caught up in now. At least he was saving his contraband liberty pass for a good reason – like the East Bay Model Engineers operating night!
He’s decided to keep her guessing tonight and not tell her how much he loves her, so she won’t know.
It sounds like Dot and Betty had a great night on the town – another topic I don’t recall reading about. With Betty’s generous Christmas gift from Gordon, he suspects she may have a few more grand times.
It comes as no surprise that Dot has made a big impression on Mr. Goldstein. He knows a good thing when he sees it and he knows what draws in the customers.
Several days ago, Dart tried writing a letter while on the local train back to Shoemaker. His handwriting suffered from the bumpy track. Dot quipped in her reply to him that the track must have been made of cobblestones. Dart now replies with a little railroad humor. (And I do mean “little”) that when they were building the first section of the track, they had the blueprints upside down and they placed the rails underneath the ties. After discovering the mistake, they didn’t want folks to notice the screw-up, so they did the second half of the track the same way. Ouch.
After breaking his vow to keep her in the dark about how much he loves her, he adds a P. S. that reminds me of the early letters between these two. He asks her what I.W.D.G.M.P S.I.G.N. means. Will she break the code for him?
Dot’s short letter, which she begins at work, spans two days. In the first part, she asked him to confirm the names of his aunt and uncle who live in Ashtabula. Are they Arthur and Flora Crowthers? She was paying more attention to Dart than to them the one time she met them in Cleveland, and she forgot their names. Today she received a Christmas card and a lovely handkerchief from the Crowthers from Ashtabula. Since his relatives are the only people she knows from that town, she assumes it was they who sent the items.
She picks up the letter the next day to tell Dart she’d gone to the movies by herself the previous night. The film was very different from what she expected, but she liked it all the same. There was an actor who reminded her very much of Dart’s Pop.
Today on one of her trips to the tailor, she stopped by home to see if there was mail for her. She was rewarded with three letters from Dart. She says there have still been no packages, but she’ll try to be patient. She signs off, saying she’ll write more tonight.
