Dart writes a short letter today. It’s been more than three weeks since he’s received any mail at all, making it very hard to keep his vow to not write disgruntled letters home. When that mail delivery finally gets there, it’ll be a whopper!

Rather surprisingly, he asks Dot an out-of-the-blue question: What would you think if I signed up for 6 years in the regular Navy? He’s heard of the many benefits, such as opportunity for advancement and higher pay, a chance to learn a trade, plenty of time off, if you’re in the US to collect your liberty, and education through travel. “What would you say? It would mean a lot.”

Then, the tone changes. “It would mean signing away every single thing I’m fighting for now, and every bit of happiness I’m looking forward to when this war’s over. Being the wife of a Navy man is no fun, I hear. And being a husband in the Navy is equally ‘no fun.’ But those recruiting promises sound awfully enticing!” (Was this his subtle way of saying “Beware the WAVEs,” without harping on her again?)

He enclosed a snapshot that someone took of him on deck after the previous set taken a few days ago didn’t turn out.

His P.S. says, in tiny letters “Don’t worry about my signing over. I won’t do it.”

This reminds me of a story Dad told occasionally – one of the few he told about his time in the service. As he was disembarking for the final time from his ship, leaving the Navy for the long-awaited return to civilian life, he was being processed out by one of the more senior crew members. The other guy read from a clipboard Dart’s name and rank, except it was a rank a couple of steps above where Dart really was. Dart told him that the name was correct, but the rank was wrong. The officer replied, “That rank is right, if you’ll sign up for the regular Navy.” Dart smiled, saluted, and scurried down the gangway, leaving the Navy forever behind him.

This succinct note begins with “Well, I have yet to hear from your mother, and then the cycle will be complete. Today I received a letter from Fred saying -you know what.”

And the WAVE issue raises it’s head again. She says that Fred writes in a very similar style to Dart (“Four pages of the same sort of stuff.”) She’s not sure how to respond to him. She says that Dart is used to her incorrect spelling and poor grammar, but she fears she’ll shock Fred with it. She hopes his opinion of Dart will not be diminished by getting a letter from his B.G.F. Unlike the two guys, she claims she’s not able to make words sound like music. (Well, I think the music they’ve sent her has it’s share of sour notes.)

Too tired to stay awake, she closes with the hope that she’ll dream of Dart and with a prayer that God bless and protect him.

Dart’s letter today is his best attempt to keep in touch, even though he has still not received any news from home. His job in the kitchen (galley) has begun to wear on him. He say’s it’s a great assignment for those who don’t object to petty theft (or grand larceny), but for him, it’s just plain hard and tedious work. It’s made more difficult by the “gold brick twins,” two men who are on permanent KP because no other division on the ship will have them. They are lazy and surly and Dart tries to keep his distance. He’s gone from scullery to steam table to bread table and is now “cox’n of the spuds,” peeling all manner of vegetables all day long. He still doesn’t know if this is a 6-week or a 3-month assignment, but either way, he’s looking forward to its end.

“As in everywhere else I’ve been, there’d be some changes made if I were in charge. I don’t intend to be, nor do I expect to be, so my changes will remain inside my head. They probably wouldn’t be much good anyway.”

He saw a movie last night that he remembers Dot writing about months ago. It’s called “The Navy Way” and it’s a kind of soft propaganda film about boot camp at Great Lakes. Dart enjoyed seeing all the familiar sights of his months there, but thought it was a fairly sanitized version of boot camp.

Some of the guys created a diving mask so they could explore water deeper than Dart wants to swim in. They used some rubber hose and an old gas mask – ingenious! Recently they brought up a piece of live coral. Rather than the brown, twiggy stuff Dart was expecting, it was a beautiful thing – dark glossy green at the base, bright red in the middle, and pale pink at the tips. He reports, however, that it really stinks as it’s dying and drying.

Now comes a clear example of how fouled up communication can become when mail is delayed by weeks. We see that he is still obsessing about the whole WAVE issue. “Dot, I’ve thought a great deal about your wanting to join…Perhaps I should never have said a thing. Regardless of the censure…I believe that all I said was true. But I also believe that it’s your decision to make as you see fit. So do as you please. I’ll be proud of you and my faith in you can’t be lowered by a mere thing like that. It’s my nature, though, to say ‘I told you so.’ There, you know what I thought when I first heard the news, and what I think a month later. I hope that when mail again gets to us, I’ll have the news that you changed your mind.”

The lack of mail is having an affect on the whole crew, especially when they see ships all around them getting regular mail deliveries.

“Goodnight, my Darling Dot. I look forward always to the far-future date when every evening can be like our last Thursday in Cleveland; and more than that.”

Dot writes that today was E-Bond Day at Franklin Simons I’m not sure what ‘E-bonds” are, other than war bonds, but maybe Mom will remember and can enlighten me. Anyway, for one hour, starting at 11:00 AM, no merchandise could be sold at the store so that sales clerks could concentrate on selling the war bonds. Dot reports that some customers resented the idea, but others got into the spirit of it all. She sold a total of $150 worth to add to her $100 sale the other day, putting her at half her quota. She certainly hopes she can sell a lot more.

Tonight when she got home from work, she decided to mow the lawn. She was rewarded with several blisters and very sore hands, but the place looks much better. I wonder where her teenage brother Doug was when the lawn needed mowing? That reminded me of a story that became family lore when I was a kid. Doug, who spent most of his life living at home with his mother, was very concerned when her saw his old mom struggling to mow the lawn with an old push mower. He was so excited and proud when he gave her a power mower for her 75th birthday!

Dot got new glasses today – not much of a change from her old ones, but she hopes it helps with the headaches she’s been getting.

Betty B. is feeling poorly today, so Dot’s father brought some ice cream home to make her feel better. She’s sharing it with the whole family, but Dot is determined not to fall into temptation. She’s still trying very hard to trim down.

She’s sorry this letter is short and uninteresting, but she’s sure Dart could help if he’d just come by and change up the routine of her days a little. She also hopes that by now he’s received word that she is NOT joining the WAVEs! She reminds him to please write to her friend Nancy, or ask one of his buddies to do so.  With that, she signs off with all her love, forever.

Dart is jubilant! It’s a red letter, front page news, call-out-the-Marines kind of day. He got mail; two letters from the “most adorable girl God ever sent to a fellow,” and one from his parents. Ironically, neither letter from Dot was the one he yearns for. Neither was written on April 10. Neither gave him the answer to his nagging fear about the WAVEs. Still, he was overjoyed to get them.

He heartily supports any method Dot uses to get his parents to agree to a trip to Greenwich for their 25th anniversary celebration. He thinks it would be a great idea for them for many reasons.

In the final paragraph, Dart slips in a teeny zinger when he asks Dot about her upcoming vacation. “Is it a pre-induction leave, or just a plain vacation?”

I hope this poor boy gets some relief from the burning question soon.

Dot’s letter was quite brief. She went into New Your City yesterday to attend her friend Nancy’s graduation. While there, she met Nancy’s English teacher, who “if he wasn’t married and hadn’t two children, and if I didn’t love you so much, and if he were about 10 years younger, I could really go for. He spoke almost as beautifully as Ronald Coleman and was almost as good looking as you.”

Because she got back to town so late, she’s really tired this morning. She’s hoping a letter waiting for her at home on her lunch break will wake her up a little.

That’s all, but both Dot and Dart will be back tomorrow.

When the mail deliveries start, they come in a flood. Dart got five letters from Dot today, plus three more from other folks. Finally, the one bearing the news that she was too young to enlist brought the sheer relief Dart was hoping for. He admits to feeling like a heel because she is so disappointed and he is so very happy.

He loves the Easter photos she sent. One of the old married men in his group was very impressed with the picture of Dot and El in their Easter finery. When he said he’d like a date with either one of those gorgeous sisters, Dart let him know that Dot was spoken for (by him) and El was engaged to a young soldier.  Dart was especially fond of the photograph where Dot is wearing her “Ipana” smile and the corsage he sent.

He promises to learn to dance when he gets home for good. He likes to dance, and he wants to dance with her always. He looks forward to all the practice they’ll need to do together. (Anything to get his arms around her, I’d say!)

As he continues to answer that long-ago letter, he wonders what the story is behind her swimming in an outdoor pool in March with all her clothes on. He knows it would have required far more than a $5.00 bet for him to do something like that.

Yes, he tells her there was someone wearing that sequinned dress he took to a school dance. They had two dates, neither of which was much fun. Dot has seen her photo in his high school annual, and that’s all that needs to be said on the subject.

He explains that in a few days the ship is having an all-out inspection of the decks and below-deck spaces. Everyone is working full bore with paint brushes, soapy water and elbow grease. Because I know that the Haggard has been crippled and towed to dry dock, I’m curious why they would be undergoing such a heavy-duty inspection. Perhaps it’s to give the guys work to do while they await the fate of their ship. Must maintain that Navy discipline!

That’s all he has time for tonight, except to dream of their future together and wonder how long they’ll have to wait until their dreams come true.

When Dot was walking home from work last night, her mailman passed her in his car and held two fingers out of his window. Since she’d already received a letter from Dart yesterday morning and since afternoon deliveries of his letters are rare, Dot thought the mailman was just teasing her. Surprise! There were two letters from Dart waiting for her when she got home! “And what swell letters they were! Filled with the kind of thing every girl loves to read. Gee, but I love you!”

She says that if he doesn’t get the letter she wrote on April 10 soon, they will all go nuts. She fully expects more letters to arrive any day telling her not to join the WAVEs.

Just between the two of them, Dot would rather see spring in Ohio than in Greenwich. Maybe it’ll work out by the time she’s an old woman, she jokes.

Mr. Miller must have been discouraged about Dart not getting back to the States soon enough because he sold his old bike which he’d offered to let Dart ride next time he was in town. Dot says he shouldn’t fret. By the time he gets out her way, maybe she’ll have bought the little Crosley car she’s always wanted. A girl can dream, can’t she?

She shares Dart’s wish that she could be in on the planning discussions for their little house. She knows absolutely nothing about planning and building houses, but Harriet and George built their own home by all by themselves, and Harriet is grateful for the skills and knowledge she acquired in the process. From what Dot can tell from the drawings, the bedrooms seem a a little small. Is he able to incorporate some of the hallway space into bedroom square footage? She’ll enclose some plans she found in McCall’s this month for a kitchen/laundry combo. Maybe he can garner some new ideas from there.

She’s also enclosing a small clipping of the actor Walter Abel. Both she and Dart think he bears a striking resemblance to Dart, Sr.

He will get no argument from Dot about what a nice name “Mrs. Dorothy Peterson” is.  She also likes “Mrs. D. G. Peterson, Jr.” She’s tickled that he, too, likes to spend his time writing that name over and over again.

She resumes the letter very late that same day, after enjoying an evening rain shower and a beautiful sunset. “it may be tomorrow where you are now, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some ‘shut-eye’ before tomorrow rolls around these parts.” She reminds him how much she loves him and then signs off.

It’s an exuberant sailor who writes today. He received 18 letters in today’s delivery! He has so much to write now, but top on his list is how grateful he is that she’s not bitter over the letter he wrote about the WAVEs. He feared he’d overstepped, and she has put his heart at ease. Another bit of proof at how well suited these two are for each other.

He’s curious about that long letter she promised – something about a chat she wants to have over something that kept her awake so late one night. Where’s the letter? he asks. What’s the topic? I think that’s the one she wrote earlier this month asking him to think long and hard about why he loves her, as she considers herself so unworthy. I’m sure it’ll catch up with him soon.

Among all those letters were eight from his parents and one from Readers’ Digest telling him they have received word of his change of address and will send back issues immediately. Finally, his Christmas gift from Ruth Chamberlain will reach him.

The letters from his folks are full of praise for Dot. They seem to be aware of the pair’s plans for after the war, and they approve whole-heartedly. Again, Helen mentioned how nice it would be if the “kids” lived nearby and would stop in to see them frequently.

He needs to cut this letter short and write a long one to his parents because he’s been neglecting them lately. He fills in most of the rest of the page with the repeated stanza “I love you!” The he adds, “Endless, isn’t it? But I’m sure it’s true. Never mind about those big ‘ifs’ I wrote. I don’t feel as though they apply anymore, at least for now. Goodnight, my Darling. I miss you ever so much. Can I ever tell you how much?”

Dot is planning on a movie tonight with Nancy, so she’s dashing off a letter today from work. It’s written in pencil on a cheap yellow tablet and has not weathered the intervening 70 years as well as good stationery and ink, Still, it’s a treasure.

Her big news today comes in the form of a story. Last August, Readers’ Digest announced a contest on how to run a small business. It was intended to help returning servicemen know exactly what was needed to begin a business of their own. Ruth encouraged Arthur to take a stab at the contest, so in 300 words, he told how much start-up capital was needed, how much physical space would be required and how many employees were needed to maintain the business, etc.

Not long after he sent his entry in, the magazine called him to ask that he write a more detailed piece, not needing to count his words. He put it off for a very long time because his business keeps him so busy. When he finally returned his story in January, the family was sure he was too late.

This morning he called home from his shop. “Don’t tell me there isn’t a Divine Providence who looks after fools and drunkards,” he said. “And I don’t drink. In this morning’s mail, there was a letter from Readers’ Digest telling me I had won first prize of $250.00 and a check for same was enclosed!” (Imagine what that was in 1945 dollars if a fur coat could be had at Franklin-Simon for $80!)

Dot says it made the whole family so happy that some of Arthur’s hard work was finally rewarded. The check came at an opportune time because there was some big bill due today that neither Arthur nor Ruth knew how they would pay. Dot’s father had been saying all along that the Lord would provide, and it certainly feels like he did.

Arthur P. Chamberlain was never much of a religious man in the traditional sense, but he has a stronger faith than any man Dot knows. She’s so proud of him, on so many levels.

Wondering what to write on the third page, she tells Dart that it’s quite warm in Greenwich today, but unless they want to pick up neckties all day, they dare not open the windows on her floor.

She resumes the letter later that day. Nancy told Dot about a dream she’d had last night. In the dream, she’d received a letter from Dart telling her he’d be home in a couple of weeks but she musn’t tell Dot. “Oh, if only it were not a dream! I might as well warn you now that when the time comes and you walk up to me and tap me on the shoulder, I’ll pass out on the spot. Oh my darling, may that day come sooner than any of us dare to hope.”

She continues, “Sometimes I have the feeling that the few days we had together were only a dream. And yet other times I know they were real and you seem so close to me I could reach out my hand and touch yours.”

Her final paragraph reveals that Readers’ Digest had 49,000 entries in their contest and only 10 were awarded first prize checks. She’s wondering if her parents are both so smart how she got left short on brains. That’s just the thing, Dot. You weren’t left short!

Dart has an hour and a half until the lights go out for the night, and he still needs to write to his parents. He’s doing all he can to convince them to take a trip to New England this summer.

As he writes, he keeps looking at the Easter picture Dot sent. It sends him over the moon. In fact, he thinks it’s about the best picture he’s ever seen of her. “After almost two years of knowing you I’m still amazed that such a wonderful, pretty girl should be in love with a rawboned sailor like me. I don’t think there’s a thing to worry about, as far as our bright-eyed dreams’ coming true is concerned. With you and me together, we can have a share in each other’s fun and hardships for the rest of our days. There could be nothing better than sharing everything I have with you forever.”

He sounds a little like Dot in the next paragraph, trying to convince her that he’s unworthy of a girl like her. He calls himself a “dimwit,” (Hardly!) and a “hypochondriac.” (Well, maybe, but that’s not so bad…)

In her letter of April 10, Dot mentioned that by the time he read that letter, it would be time for April’s full moon. As it turns out, the letter didn’t arrive until nearly time for May’s full moon. He’ll run topside soon to check it out, and urges Dot to do the same so they can watch it together. Then he tells her that regardless of how romantic and dreamy full moons can be, they are not always so good for for military security.

He asks her if she’d read in Readers’ Digest that the military had reduced regulations to the bare minimum:

1) If it moves, salute it. 2) If it doesn’t move, pick it up. 3) If it’s too big to pick up, paint it. Funny!

Referring to some remark Dot made about him not hanging her picture up among all the “pin-up girls” lest she suffer by comparison, he says he wouldn’t dare display her photos in public “for these wolves to howl at.” He says most guys who are serious about their sweethearts keep their pictures private. Then he adds that perhaps by the time he’s been at sea for 15 months, he will have devolved into a “chip off the old fur-pile” himself, but he hopes not.

Dot assumes it was Dart’s intention to scare her out of her wits with his suggestion that he was considering joining the regular Navy. She says she should just act nonchalant and agree that it’s a fine idea, but she’s afraid he might think she means that and do something drastic. She has no desire for him to make the Navy a career. She advises him to think back to the arguments he made against her joining the WAVEs and he’ll see that many of the same points would apply to him in this case. She strongly urges him to resist the idea. “I don’t want you coming home for good at an age when we should both be grandparents.”

Referring to a snapshot of himself that he enclosed in a resent letter, she disagrees that he looks “glum.” She rather likes that far-off look in his eyes, especially if his eyes are looking toward Greenwich. She can’t get enough of his pictures. When she shows them to everyone, their envy for her grows. She asks if he ever got the photos she sent from Easter. (Isn’t it interesting how their letters so often mention the same topics on the same day,?)

Her friend Nancy is coming to live at the Chamberlain house for about a week. He family has to move out of the house they’re in, but the new place won’t be ready for about a week, so everyone is scattering around Greenwich to stay with friends. Soon after that, Nancy will begin her training with the Cadet Nurse Corps at the University of Connecticut. Dot is sure she’ll make a great nurse because she’s such a sweet kid. She again asks Dart to write Nancy a letter to give her a thrill.

Dot was just recalling Dart’s July visit to Greenwich. They had each other convinced that his mother would be happy to allow him to stay an extra day in Connecticut so that he would  be well rested for his return trip to Cleveland. She remembers how happy she was when she heard that Helen had, indeed, given him her blessings to stay on a little longer. She was so happy that she ran up the stairs and gave him a huge hug. She still thinks of that moment every time she passes that section of the stairs. How she wishes she’d said more during his brief stay, but if he’ll come home soon, she’ll say everything she can think of to convince him just how much she loves him.

Dot enclosed a clipping of Arthur Chamberlain’s story about the Fix-It Shop published in the Readers’ Digest. Very interesting reading!