I’ve found only one page of Dart’s letter today, which ends abruptly, mid sentence. I hope the remainder of the letter will surface in a day or so. Meanwhile, here’s what page one contained.
He’s grabbing a few minutes to jot this letter while he waits for the chow line to get shorter. He has a midnight to 0400 watch tonight, so if he has any free time, he’ll try to spend it sleeping.
No mail today, nor does he expect any. The laundry is so backed up from being closed for painting that he has completely run out of anything clean to wear. He says he really must devote some time to hand-washing a few things very soon. By the end of page one, he’s still getting reports that the chow line is quite long. The guys who get liberty this afternoon get to eat first, so Dart must wait his turn. He writes that he has grown to hate the word “chow” and must remember to refer to meals by their civilian names when he’s writing letters. That’s all until the rest of the letter turns up.
Dot finally got to that long letter she’s been promising. In the upper right corner the first page, where Dart often writes either “in port,” or “at sea,” she has penned “in bed.” Clever girl. She begins, “Today, Yours Truly, who anticipated being a mighty WAVE is nothing but an insignificant ripple.” She has learned that a woman must be 20 years old to enlist in the WAVEs and she’s just shy of 19. She’s terribly disappointed that she won’t be permitted at this time to do something important or meaningful.
And now, to answer some of Dart’s recent letters. She confirms that her father’s birthday is just two days before Dart’s, on January 13th. She corrects Dart’s assumption that her cousin who’s moving to the Belgian Congo with her husband and kids is not happy about it. On the contrary – Cousin Dottie is anticipating the adventure with great glee. The Spanish class she told him about a long time ago was cancelled after two weeks, to her regret. She enjoyed learning the few phrases that she did. She also clarified that when she talks about his “millions,” she wasn’t referring to actual cash. She was thinking more about his other riches like, brains, health, and good humor. She says he has so many riches that he’s the wealthiest and nicest millionaire she knows.
She regrets to inform him that her bowling has been neglected of late. Too much babysitting and not enough extra cash. She’s going to try to get a game in every now and then, just to keep in practice.
With a fervent plea, she tries to extract a promise from Dart that the two of them will take dance lessons when he returns. She loves the way couples look in the movies, gliding across the floor so gracefully. That’s a promise, that if made, was never kept. If Mom ever danced at weddings or the like, it was generally with her brother, a cousin, or a family friend. Dad never developed an interest sufficiently great enough to actually learn to dance.
How happy she is to read that he occasionally has some good times. Although his letters are usually cheery and upbeat, she liked reading about his time on liberty island and him going into the water fully clothed. She once did that in March, on a bet. She had to swim 50 feet, fully clothed in an outdoor pool, for which she was paid $5.00. She still wonders if it was worth it.
He has piqued her interest. She’d love to hear more about this sequined evening dress he took to a dance once. “Someone did go along inside to hold it up, didn’t they?”
Dart will find a snapshot in this letter – a picture of Dot and El in their Easter finery. She complains that she’s wearing the same toothpaste grin she can’t seem to shake, but it”s the one that Dart is so crazy about. She asks that he take particular note of the corsage she’s wearing.
She’s alarmed to have to stop writing briefly so she can attend to the buzzing mosquito! How could he be here in mid-April?
Hooray! He has finally started to get some of the letters she’s been writing. That makes her feel much better.
His plans for the post-war development of the tropical islands he’s seen are impressive. She’s glad the guys can exercise their wild imaginations while they’re out there. Still, she has some post war plans of her own that she’d rather Dart focus on, and they are much closer to home than a South Pacific island. She wants Dart to tell his mother that she likes her idea of dropping in to see Dart’s folks frequently. Dot recalls that when she first went to Andrews School, she wrote and told her mother that she wanted to live in Ohio someday. She still intends to, even if she’s there to run her Old Maid’s Home for Bachelors. (That idea became a very remote possibility the moment she met Dart!)
She ends by telling Dart that 1) she loves him heaps and heaps, 2) she’s glad that what he wants to do with his life and what she wants to do with hers are very much the same, and 3) the next time he whispers “sweet nothings” in her ear, she’ll be much more responsive than in the past.
