Monthly Archives: February 2015

February 4, 1945

This is Dart’s first letter aboard his new ship! He’s been assigned to the USS Haggard, a destroyer of a new design. He says most guys wouldn’t trade their destroyer duty for anything, so Dart is hopeful he’ll learn to like the small ship eventually. “It’s a good thing I’m already stoop-shouldered. Now I won’t have so far to go when I duck for the low overheads. I guess I’ve bumped my head a dozen times on things, as these ships do not seem to have been designed for long people,” he reports.

He explains to Dot that he’d tried to send more letters from the Admiral Coontz but running a censor board for such a huge ship became problematic and the men were ordered  to stop submitting letters. Now, he says that his active duty will render his letters shorter and less frequent from now on.

At orientation today, Dart was assigned to the deck force, along with all tho other newbies who came aboard with him. He hopes to get assigned to the fire control stations in short order so that he can use the technical skills he was trained to do. For now, he’s a lowly deck-hand.

He was one of three fire control men added to the Haggard crew today. The other two were in his barracks at Shoemaker and in his compartment aboard the transport for the last several weeks, so he’s not entirely friendless on the ship.

He’s fervently hoping for mail very soon. He says he’s read all of the letters he’s received from Dot lately about 20 times. Now he longs for the time they can hear the sweet endearments rather than read them.

In his spare time on the previous ship he did several more sketches for “their” house, which he’ll send along as soon as he’s able. “We don’t have to have a second floor, do we?”

He loves her so much that he can hardly believe she happened to him. After his signature of “Goodnight, my Darling,” he signed his first name, but he also wrote his full name at the very bottom of the page. I’ve noticed that is his new practice for all the letters he writes from the ship. Perhaps that’s to help the censors identify whose letter they’re reading, although I don’t think it would be too hard to nail down which “Dart” was the author.

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February 5, 1945

With this two-page letter, Dart’s prediction about the his letters getting shorter came to pass, if not the one about their frequency.

He begins by telling her about another meeting today that explained more policies and regulations to the new guys. The ship’s Executive Office even said the Navy had no trouble with the crew griping about conditions. With that permission, Dart begins, “They can take their tin can Navy and push it as far in any direction, any place, as they care to. It’s rough, wet, cramped and crowded. I slept on the deck inside last night. Some fellows were not so lucky. They slept on the deck in the rain. It threatens to be months until we get bunk space. I’m disgruntled.” Bear in mind, all this was said in clear view of the censors!

His next complaint was about the daily “Dear John” letters received by men on board. He refers to the bitter pills wrapped in sugar that announce that Miss So-and-so is now Mrs. Somebody Else. Dart says it’s tough to watch these men as they read the painful news and feel their hearts break. He confesses he wouldn’t know what to do if Dot left him. He hopes this letter doesn’t give  her any ideas. “I’ve seen stronger, more level-headed guys than I am sit down and cry like babies.”

Finding his way back to a more positive note, he thanks Dot for the pictures she sent of the Chamberlain house at Christmas time. He thinks Gale has a cute, devilish look and Doug looks much like Dart’s brother Burke at the same age.

He reminds her that even if he can’t write as often, he thinks of her just as much as before and his love grows daily.

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February 6, 1945

This is an rather upbeat note from Dart, except for a brief commentary on the war near the end of the second page.

He was put to work in the fire control area today – an assignment he hopes will last. He can say nothing more of what he’s doing, except to say that it’s “interesting.”

The ship is having an inspection later today, so all hands are polishing shoes and scrambling to find clean clothes in their sea bags.

Dart reports that last night he found a nice airy section of floor (deck) on which to unroll his mattress and get some sleep. When he returned there today, he found “wet paint” signs, so he must locate another place for his nightly snooze. What a strange set up!

He writes that Dot’s comments about the people getting rich inventing tools for the killing of people closely reflect his own recent thoughts. “Here I am, with most of the fellows my age, chasing all the heck over the biggest ocean in the world, taking pot shots at a few measly hunks of coral or lava with only useless monkeys and palm trees for shade on them. When we get through, the monkeys are dead, the palm trees are charcoal and toothpicks, and we have to erect our own shade. Why did we ever teach the monkeys to throw rocks anyway? It’s a giant farce.”

He’s decided that he and Dot’s new friend Nancy Lou have something in common; they both like the way Dot sparkles when she’s having a good time. “Your eyes and teeth are brilliant and your whole face radiates warmth and joy. Boy! do I want to see you again.”

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February 7, 1945

Letters from Dart for four days in a row, and we finally hear from Dot again. I’ll let her explain why we haven’t heard from her in so long. But first, a little one-page scrawl from the sailor.

This is a rapid-fire list of non-related thoughts: Time is flying by because the days are so busy; they had a live band concert last night and movies every night, unless it rains; days are hot and he’s still getting sunburned; he had powdered milk for breakfast and it tasted like “Petrolagar” (I have no idea what that is, but I don’t think it’s a compliment); he got another “fuzzy” haircut; he must hurry to get his shave and shower before taps. The most important bit he slipped in at the tail end. “I’m beginning to like it here.” Well, that was quick.

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And now, here’s Dot.

Two weeks ago, exactly, she received a letter from Dart. Stamped on the outside was an official notice that she should no longer write to the Shoemaker address but instead wait until she had his permanent address. And so the waiting began. Waiting for the mailman to come every day with nothing for her but a discouraging look. Waiting to hear from her beloved and learn details of his current life. Waiting to write the same to him.

Today, she’s thrown in the towel and decided to write to his old address in hopes it’ll get to him eventually. At least that way, he’ll know she was thinking of him all this time.

She has spent the last three days in bed with a whopper of a cold that she’s trying to shake it off before she leaves for Ohio the day after tomorrow. Her graduation from Andrews is looming. She claims to look a fright, with chapped lips, red nose, runny eyes and hair that resembles the broom her mother threw out last week. Feeling as unattractive as she does, she has begun to imagine that the five photos of Dart that surround her have ceased to smile sincerely and have begun to sneer at her instead.

With her departure imminent, she doesn’t see how she’ll get everything done by Friday. She’s thrilled to announce that her mother will be accompanying her, but sounds quite disappointed that her father will stay at home. She was hoping he’d come, but he says his business needs him to stay in Greenwich. She says that she doesn’t see how it will matter to the business 10 years from now, and I tend to agree.

The best part of the trip is that she and Ruth will be staying in Dart’s home with his parents! She can’t wait for Dart, Sr. and Helen to meet her mother. She’s looking forward to spending lots of time with them and having them at her graduation.

Then comes a surprise ending: She writes that since she started this letter one week ago, she may as well stick it in the envelope with the other stuff she’s sending him from Cleveland. That means three weeks have passed since she mailed him a letter! I sure hope he didn’t spend too much time fearing that a “Dear John” would be arriving soon.

She signs with a slightly impertinent “I love your family. In fact, I even love you.”

I trust we’ll hear more about her graduation weekend festivities and her visit with the Petersons in other letters.

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February 8, 1945

At first blush, this seems like a simple, chatty letter. If you read between the lines, however, I think you’ll find much deeper meaning.

Dart opens with a comment that having a brother in the Navy, Dot must be accustomed by now to the Navy mail service. Perhaps she has gone weeks in the past without hearing from Gordon. He suggests that things might be that way for him shortly. He talks about his “work beginning to pile up,” making it necessary to cut way back on his correspondence. Could that be his way of getting past the censors his hint that he has seen, or is about to see some real sea battles?

“If the time ever comes when you must go for several weeks without a word from me, please keep writing. Remember all the letters you’ve had from me in the past. Remember our visits to each others homes; our dates; the little things we like to remember. Remember our plans and hopes for the future, and when you write, if it’s at all possible, enclose a picture or two. A snapshot once in a while does worlds of good.” I believe this is his effort to nullify the notion of “out of sight, out of mind.” He doesn’t want her to either mistake his silence for a loss of interest in her, nor for her to forget what they mean to each other. I think the “Dear John” letters that so many on his ship have received might haunt him a bit. We’ll see more evidence of this fear when we learn shortly of things he’s written to his parents.

He refers to some of her letters he received while on the Admiral Coontz – now already a month old. He says he’s heard the song she mentioned, “You Always Hurt the One You Love” several times on the ship. He hopes that’s not true, and he believes they’ve never even had a quarrel. “That’s nice. I hope we keep it that way. (But if you don’t stop making political cracks, we’re going to have mild altercations.) Your letters aren’t censored, so you can say anything in the way of politics that you please. I don’t think Mr. Roosevelt will eat your head off for saying things about him.”

Referring to the note from Bob (Dot’s boss) that was enclosed with one of her recent letters, Dart sends his greetings. He’s confused about one thing, though; Bob refers to Dot as Dart’s “best girl,” but Dart insists she’s his only girl. He also said Bob reports that Dot will soon be a “perfect 12.” Dart thinks that might be a little small. He also tells her to remind him to tell her the story of another “perfect 12” he knew once. She did him wrong, and he’s not too impressed by her these days. He can tell that Bob is crazy about Dot, but Dart wants to remind her that there’s a sailor from this war who likes her a lot, too. In fact, one might say he even loves her.

Responding to her request that he someday tell her everything he and his buddies talked about on the long ocean voyage, he says that before he can tell her what half of the conversation was about, the big fireplace and all of their plans will have to have become reality. Then, he hopes there’ll be no need to tell her. The other half of the time, they talked about food and machinery.

He closes with “Good night, my darling. I love you with all my heart. Don’t ever think any differently.” That sounds like one last effort to drive home the message that his feelings for her are constant, and he hopes she feels the same about him.

We don’t hear from Dart again until February 14, but it’s an incredibly powerful letter. Don’t miss it. Meanwhile, Dot writes again on February 12. See you back here then.

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February 12, 1945

Dot’s letter today is actually two letters, written from Dart’s home in Cleveland, where she and her mother have had a nice long visit for Dot’s graduation from Andrews. She began the first letter at 1:24 PM, according to the new watch she received as a graduation gift.

As she writes, the three parents are in the Peterson’s living room looking at Dart’s baby pictures. The photos are so cute that Dot vows to throw all of her baby pictures away when she gets home, lest they pale in comparison. She feels a little guilty going through his childhood photos and laughing at them when he’s not there to defend himself, but she’s sure his vocabulary is sufficiently large to convey to her how he feels about her behavior.

His parents have been very generous in allowing Dot to read the seven letters that have arrived from Dart since she got to Cleveland. She’s hoping that today the mailman will deliver one to her that might have been forwarded from home.

When she read that he’s been on the USS Coontz, she remembered that a coworker at Franklin Simon has a brother stationed on that same ship. Unfortunately, he’s a Marine, but Dot hopes he’s a nice one, like Fred. She asked if he’d happened to meet a PFC Pfeiffer.

She explains that her mother is returning to Greenwich tonight. Just before they left to come to Ohio, she received the tragic news that her brother, Dot’s beloved Uncle Carl, had been killed in a train accident. He left several children, including Dot’s cousin Waddy, who’s in the Navy and looks very much like Dart. I grew up hearing a family story about the death of Uncle Carl:  When Dot’s brother Gordon was aboard ship in the South Pacific, he was dismayed to read the news of his uncle’s death. Just as he was reading the letter about it, he heard a shipmate cry out in anguish. The other guy was at that moment reading about a dear family friend who’d also been killed in a train accident. When he and Gordon compared stories, it turned out they were both talking about Carlton Pierce!

Dot closes the first letter in order to accompany her mother to the station. She follows later that evening with her second letter of the day.

She draws a cozy picture of his family in the living room; Dart Sr. is sitting at a table, writing a novel-length letter to his son; Burke is fiddling with his camera across the room and Helen is taking a cat nap at the other end of the couch. I imagine it gave Dart great comfort to visualize Dot in familiar surroundings in the company of his family.

She describes the beautiful locket that his folks gave her as a graduation gift. As lovely as it is, the part she treasures the most, of course, is a great picture of Dart that Burke took.

Her graduation weekend went well, with 60 of the 63 classmates returning for the festivities. She already misses the girls and wistfully wonders if, or when, she’ll see any of them again. She’s a little unsettled by high school being behind her now. She doesn’t like the idea of growing up, and says it’s a sad day when a girl her age delights in hearing she looks 15 years old! She wishes especially that the war would end so that Dart would be around to grow up with her. Would he please speak to the Admiral and see if there’s anything that can be done about that?

She, of course is waiting for the day that he comes home, and she reminds him that he’s not to tell her when that day comes. She’s quite sincere about wanting to be surprised.

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February 13, 1945

Dot is over the moon with joy! She was awakened this morning by Helen Peterson throwing a stack of 11 letters from Dart onto her bed! (She also received a $10.00 money order from Gordon for graduation.) She declared that she would always have a wonderful day, if every morning brought a pile of letters from Dart,

Although much of the news in his letters was the same news she’d already read in his letter to his parents, she was delighted to read it all again. “Some of the humorous passages, of which there were many, I read to your mom and pop, but I didn’t think the idle ‘sweet nothings’, as you call them, would have held much interest for them.”

She writes that his mother and Burke came to her graduation ceremony along with her own mother and Cynthia, visiting from Oberlin College. She says Burke practically went cross-eyed, looking at all the pretty Andrews girls. Now he’s trying to make arrangements to get out to Andrews for a date night. “If he succeeds, I hope he and his date hit it off as well as his brother and his date did. Or should I say as well as his brother and and his brother’s roommate’ date did?”

He has her permission to collect that congratulatory kiss whenever he wants. Although she received kisses from both her mom and his after the ceremony, they somehow just weren’t the same as one from him!

She doesn’t envy him the tropical life. Sometimes she feels discouraged when she sees more snow, but she’s cured of her self-pity by thinking of Dart and Gordon in the hot South Pacific.

Because she has heard Gordon’s description of the Marines aboard his ship, she wouldn’t be shocked to hear Dart’s, so he needn’t hold back.

How sad that he was gypped out of most of his 21st birthday, but the day made quite an impression on his folks. They shared with Dot a beautiful letter he’d written them on the occasion, and she reports that they were thrilled beyond words by what he wrote. How she wishes she had his gift for writing!

Speaking of wishes, she would pay nearly any price not to be a blusher. Yesterday when reading a letter from Dart aloud, his mother got to the part about hoping Dot would keep her promise to wait for him. When she heard that, she blushed to the boiling point. Ever since, his family has teased her about it. She curses the fate that reveals all her inner-most feelings by the redness of her face.

She concludes the letter with a gentle chiding that he should ever doubt her promise to wait. She’ll never send him a letter telling him that she’s married someone else! He better get that through his head right now!

To get him the mail promptly, she didn’t take the time to check for mistakes, “but it’s no mistake that I love you.”

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February 14, 1945

This is not a typical Valentine’s Day message. The letter from Dart is sometimes grim, sometimes majestic, always powerful. They only way to do it justice is to quote most of it verbatim.

“This year, like last, there can be no stereotyped Valentine’s day message, No printed card to proclaim my love for you. I prefer the more personal approach of a letter, but the cards would be a welcome supplement. But this year, there can be no poem, either. All that poetry that was in me has been pushed aside by the realities at hand. One doesn’t often write poetry when he realizes that every word he writes, every word he speaks, every thought and action may be his last. Morbid, yes, but so is the business in which I’m engaged at present.

None of us knows for sure if the words we’re writing now will ever reach the intended sweethearts, wives, children, families. They may be written in vain, only to repose in, and be obliterated by, salt water. Let us hope and pray that the words will arrive at their destination, undisturbed and dry, and that other words will follow in due course of time.

I really should not be writing this letter. It’s so hard to keep it from becoming apprehensive. I should have been writing daily, as I wanted to, but will resort, instead, to an excuse or two for not doing so.”

He continues with an explanation that he suffered a recurrence of terrible seasickness for several days. By the time he recovered, he was standing watch several times a day and trying to find time to wash his clothes and his body. The tasks were made especially difficult by the fact that his gear is stowed in four different locations around the ship, due to lack of space.

“This business of fighting a war demands that we be at our posts many hours a day, ready for all that may come. Then too, there are the incessant tasks of maintaining the equipment, of keeping abreast of the eternal battle against salt water spray.”

It has now been nearly a month since his last mail call, and that was the only one since the day before they left Shoemaker. “Oh Dot, how I long for a letter or two addressed in the familiar block lettering! They are the only link between me and the girl I love so dearly. Those letters are my bread and butter.”

Having said that the war has suppressed whatever poetry was within him, he nonetheless writes in lyrical prose of his growing affection for his little ship, the love he has for the beauty of the sea. Of the ship, he writes, “She’s rough and wet and rugged, a busy little gal in a big blue ocean. She wallows sedately, (if it’s possible to wallow sedately) in the huge swells, then takes out like a dog hunting for a trail, scouting here and there, now fast, now slow, now going as if all the searing flames of a roaring hell were reaching out for her little fantail.” Of the sea, he tells of water so calm and smooth that it seems a shame to run a ship through it and disturb its unruffled loveliness. He writes of being enchanted by the phosphorescent waves, the brilliance of a nighttime sky, the splendor of the rising and the setting sun. “When I mentioned a few letters ago that there’d be so much to talk about after this war was over, I was making a vast understatement.”

“Darling, if (the ‘if’ element looms terribly large out here) we come out of this unharmed, I want only to spend the rest of my days making you happy in that little house with a big fireplace. Would that we could forget forever that all this adventure were connected with war.”

He beseeches her to never forget that he loves her until the end of time.

A pretty good Valentine, after all.

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February 15, 1945

Just before Dot leaves to go shopping in downtown Cleveland with Dart’s mother, she jots off a quick note to tell him about her recent activities.

She went to Oberlin College yesterday to visit Cynthia. While they were touring the conservatory of music, they ran into Dart’s cousin, Margaret practicing piano. As soon as Margaret saw Dot, she jumped up and asked where she had seen that face before. Then she instantly remembered all the pictures Dart had shown her of his girl, and she began to pepper Dot with questions about him. Dot was happy to tell all she had learned about his situation from his 11 letters to her.

The beauty of the Andrews campus has spoiled Dot. She wasn’t too impressed with the Oberlin dorms, but says the girls she met there were very nice. The school has recently opened a beautiful new gym, complete with swimming pool and a three-lane bowling alley.

Dot plans to leave on the 8:30 train tonight, even though his parents have asked her to stay longer. She doesn’t want to over stay her welcome, and she knows the longer she stays with his family, the harder it’ll be to leave. Oh, how she wishes she lived in Cleveland!

With a reminder that she loves him very much, she says she’ll try to write more later – maybe from the train.

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February 16, 1945

Here’s a 10-page novel from Dot. I guess she had a lot to say after her trip to Ohio and visit with Dart’s parents. She’s homesick for her adopted state already. “Gee, I hope it won’t be too long before I can find another excuse to go out there,” she exclaims.

She’s enclosing some airmail stamps, but demands that he send them back to her as soon as possible. I think he can send V-mail letters for free, but maybe airmail arrives faster.

The first sight she saw this morning after opening her weary eyes was a letter from Dart. It was dated Feb. 4, about the same date as some of the other letters she’s already received, but she is ecstatic to get it, whenever it arrives.

Honoring his frequent request, she enclosed Gordon’s address so Dart can keep an eye out for his ship. As Dot says, there are lots of ships in this Navy, so the odds of finding a particular one in the giant Pacific are slim. Still, it would be fun if these two important men in Dot’s life could meet each other out there.

She remarks about the number of movies Dart has seen onboard ship. Now that he’s assigned to his destroyer, she assumes he may have other things to do. She saw one of the films he mentioned with Deanna Durbin, Can’t Help Singing. Dot quipped,  “She certainly can’t! Even when the hero was trying to make love to her, all she did was sing! Of course, it relieved the deadly silence there may have been otherwise, but I think silence has lots to offer in times like that, don’t you?”

Dart has asked her to describe a snow storm to help cool him off. After denying she had the descriptive ability to do that, she did a fair job of telling him about the snowfall that came to Greenwich just before her Ohio trip. Then she told him to feast his eyes on the huge icicle her dad is holding in the enclosed snapshot. “Imagine it dripping down your back. Maybe that will cool you off.”

Referring to one of Dart’s letters in which he called himself a “parasite” for not having done more to earn his Navy benefits, she jokes, “How dare you call Peterson a parasite! He’s a darn ‘site’ better than that. I’d say he’s a monosite.” She apologizes for the bad pun, blaming a lack of sleep. Dart the punster will appreciate that groaner.

She told him that his letters have had a few bits cut out by the censors, but not as much as the ones he wrote to his parents. Even though some of them were full of holes, they all guessed that he was passing some time earlier in the Marianas. Is he able to confirm if they were right?

Dot confesses that no matter how many times she reads his letters, she still marvels at the beautiful way he expresses himself. She thrills to his descriptions of nature, people around him and his own thoughts. “But the thing that thrills me most about your letters is that you’re saying them to me! That of all the millions of girls who would give anything to be your girl, you picked me. Sure you’re crazy, but I’m not going to let you know that until I’ve convinced you that you’re right to have done so.”

Finally! The answer to Dart’s question about the mysterious puff Dot got for Christmas. It turns out a puff is like a comforter, a warm, puffy blanket. It’s nice for her to realize there’s something he doesn’t know.

At this point in the letter, Dot comes down pretty hard on Dart’s doubt about her. She doesn’t mince words when she tells him that he will never receive one of those letters “dipped in sugar,” asking him to release her from her promises because she’s met someone else. She assures him she never makes a promise she cannot keep, and even though she’s a little shy when they’re together, and has a hard time saying the words that convey her feelings, her feelings for him are strong and sincere. She implores him to be patient until the day when she can show him just how much she loves him, and how many ways.  “Just pretend the way you feel about me is multiplied by one thousand, and then you’ll have barely scratched the surface of how much I love you.” For a girl who claims to be poor at description and short on words, I’d say she expressed herself pretty well just then.

She agrees with Dart that a second floor on their house will not be necessary. Maybe they could have a partial upstairs that could be finished out in the future, as needed.

Wanting to end the letter before it requires additional postage, she warns him not to get too stoop-shouldered in the destroyer. She likes him nice and tall, just like he is.

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