Still no mail for the lonely sailor. Hal got word from Ira, who is still aboard the Haggard that there is no equipment left on the ship. It won’t be long now until there’s nothing left of the old girl.

Dart probably won’t go on liberty, unless he decides to see a movie. There’s really not much to do on liberty these days.

There was some sort of official inspection in Dart’s vicinity today, but he never saw any evidence of it. All he did was work, work, work, and then wait around for four hours when an announcement on the PA system reported that the farce was over.

He fears that Dot’s English teacher is following in the grand tradition of those at Shaw and Case; never asking for the assignments that she gave the class. “Do not be bitter, Dot! As they say, ‘It’s good training for your mind.’ Yeah, sure. If you don’t go batty while being trained.”

Now he wishes he’d called tonight because he doesn’t know where to call over the weekend if he wants to find Dot.

During all these letters of loneliness, I’m surprised the subject of Dot taking a train down to Norfolk has never been raised. I guess a) she’s busy at college, b) she has no money for travel, c) there’s no one who could be her chaperone, and d) no nice girl, even with a diamond on her finger would travel unescorted to visit a man out of state. What a pity she can’t see his living quarters and meet some of his buddies.

Dot’s letter is nearly glowing. She’s over the moon after her phone conversation with her beloved tonight. She’s sorry he’s feeling so blue, but his voice made her feel better than she has in days.

House mother Miss Olin poked her head into Dot’s room while she was writing this letter and asked Dot if she would be able to get any sleep tonight after such a nice phone call from her man. Dot responded that she sort of hoped she wouldn’t sleep because it was much more fun to think about Dart and how lucky she was to have him. Miss Olin confirmed that Dot had found herself a very nice young man. In a separate incident, Phyllis, a housemate that Dot is becoming quite fond of, asked Dot when she knew she was in love with Dart. Dottie answered that it couldn’t have been more than 10 seconds after she first laid eye on him.

She’s chiding herself a little about spending so much of the phone call griping about college. But then, that allowed Dart to talk with her in that way he does, easing her concerns and making her feel so much better. “It was almost as if we were sitting on your couch at home and you were trying to convince me that I shouldn’t be discouraged. Thanks loads, my Darling.”

The thing that bothers her the most about school is how much she and her roommate Eleanor fight and bicker. She says it shows that neither of them is mature enough to be in college, but she vows to take another path. If she refuses to fight with Ellie, Ellie will have to quit fighting altogether. Dot’s so glad she was not raised an only child like Eleanor,  who was raised to believe she’s second only to God. Her plan now is to disarm with charm and try to make Ellie like her.

Shortly after she and Dart hung up, Dot called his mother, who was still aglow from her talk with Dart earlier. “I broke the news to her that I was going up to their house next weekend and she took it like a sport. Why, in no time she will have built up such an immunity to me that I won’t bother her at all.” In truth, Helen Peterson loved Dot from their very first meeting and always treated Dot like a daughter.

After wishing Dart a “Happy Navy Day,” Dot suggested that as disgusted as he is with the Navy, isn’t he glad he’s not in the Army or the Marines? He would have likely fought the war in the mud instead of at sea. Most importantly, if he’d not been in the Navy, he and Dot would likely never have met! That fact alone should help him endure whatever the Navy dishes out.

She has no intention of boring Dart by tooting her own horn about that A+ she received on her Robert Frost essay. After all, good English grades are the only ones he’s ever received. She still claims to “know nuttin’ about grammar,” but both Dart and I would disagree.

“I’d give almost anything to be able to do exactly what we were doing two weeks ago at precisely this time. That was the best night of my life – and to think that even better nights are yet to come seems almost unbelievable! The kiss you gave me over the phone wasn’t quite like the ones you gave me two weeks ago, but it was far better than none at all. After the talk we had that night, I felt as though I couldn’t know you any better, but I realize there are still a few things to be discussed later – much later.”

How she wishes she could squeeze him right now and tell him all the ways she loves him, but she’s not much good at expressing that. Because she claims to bottle up her feeling inside herself, she warns him to watch out the next time they are together, because it will all come out in an explosion of emotion.

She thanks him once again for the phone call and for making her feel so much better about things.

It’s a long letter from Dart today, covering such topics as the enchanted phone call, Navy Day, the trouble with people, and Dot’s most recent letters. Naturally, he throws in a little romance too.

He estimates that he feels 11000% better after talking with her last night, even believing that life may be worth living. He thinks they should agree to stop letting Norfolk and Kent State get them down and just let sleeping dogs, like the “hillbilly roommate from Pennsylvania” lie.

Her episode with the hillbilly roomie reminds him of another thing they have in common; their inability to concentrate on uninteresting material if there is noise in the room. That got him into trouble at Case when he was trying to study amidst the chatter, chaos and bedlam of his roommates.

He describes Navy Day on base. There are countless visitors to the place, including the one men’s barracks and the one WAVES barracks which are open to the public. All hands must be in uniform all day. Overhead, navy planes are putting on a constant demonstration of their formations, including turns, loops, and dives. It reminds him of the show the planes from the Shangri-La gave the Haggard as she was on her way to join the fleet last April.

The one thing he should be doing now is laundry, but he still has a few clean clothes and no place to wear them, so he’ll continue being lazy for a while longer.

He’s full of rare praise for the helpfulness and efficiency of the base postal office where he collects his mail. His good opinion may have been boosted by the fact that there were two letters from Dot waiting for him today. Then, for no apparent reason, he launches a brief salute to the 24-hour clock system used by the military. That seems just a little random, but now we know his feelings on the subject.

Another random thought is how many people he’s seen today with a particular emblem on their uniform; it’s the affectionately named “Ruptured Duck”, a golden eagle inside a circle which is the the highest decoration the Navy awards.

As Dart is sometimes prone to doing, he gets a little preachy on the subject of his fellow man (and woman, for that matter.) It seems to him that all most of them think or care about is sex and they debase themselves by taking it all so casually. At least animals limit their public displays to certain seasons, but the folks he’s surrounded by seem to be emulating the debauchery of the old Romans and Greeks just prior to the downfalls of their civilizations. Letters like this seem to show Dart as a judgemental prude, but I think that’s an indication of his relative youth. In spite of the fact that the man I knew was a noble guy of great integrity and self-control, he always had an appreciation of sexual inuendo in language, a passion for bawdy limericks, and he could accept the foibles of his fellow man with a twinkle in his eye. I think he became comfortable in his own skin as he aged, and therefore, more comfortable with people who were different from him.

In response to Dot’s letter, he writes, “You said the the ‘I love you’ you wrote came from the same heart and lips that said it a week before. Does it still come from the same mind, too? I think that a certain amount of mind belongs there, too. The same eyes and ears, heart and mind received those words here, Dot.  And all those parts are wishing for the everlasting continuance of those words from you. The way I want to see ‘I love you’ is to watch your lips as you form the words.”

He hopes that if he ever sees her mean roommate again he can be polite to her, because that’s what Dot would want from him. If it were up to him, he’d treat her as badly as the brat has treated Dot.

He wishes her continued good grades and he sends his love. Then he added a P.S. “Every minute of the day, I  love you. You are my guiding star, the greatest gift from Heaven that a man could ever receive. You are Happiness and Peace of Mind. You are the one I love, the one who loves me, the one who will be my wife. There is no greater longing, nor greater love, nor greater happiness. I love you, Dot.”

Dot’s letter borders on silly. She’s writing it from her friend Janie’s room and Janie is cracking her up by speaking in weird voices and funny accents. Each girl is too busy trying to read what the other has written to her fella that neither is writing much.

Dot and Janie are two of only four girls in the house this weekend, so the place is relatively quiet. Dot took the opportunity of her roommate being gone to thoroughly clean their room, even going so far as to scrub the closet floor.

She’s going to try to write some more tomorrow before she and two other girls go to church. (As it turned out, they slept too late for additional writing and she left for church after simply adding that she loves him oodles and oodles.) Janie adds a note that they are rebuilding the staircase this weekend after Dot tore it down trying to get to the telephone when Dart called.

Dart’s greeting is a cheery one today as he enjoys the beautiful local weather and hopes Dot is having the same so they can enjoy it “together.” He tells her he’s felt so close to her the last couple of weeks that at any moment he wouldn’t have been surprised to look up and see her watching him.

Bringing her up to date on his activities, he tells her that he read the Sunday newspaper this morning and wrote a letter to his brother Burke. Yesterday he made a final walk through of the soon-to-be former USS Haggard. He hopes he’ll be able to attend the decommissioning ceremony later this week. They’ll probably play Taps as her flag is lowered for the last time and this feisty little fighting ship “dies in disfavor and disregard.”

If he ever tires of writing letters, he may do laundry. For now, he still has more clean clothes than dirty ones, by a slim margin. He’s toying with the idea of just washing all he has of one item, such as socks or shirts, and saving the rest for another day so he can extending his griping a little while longer. Oh well, at least he’s having fun with his griping now.

He believes he heard a lecture by Robert Frost when he was in junior high school. He asks, Isn’t he the one who writes in free verse about things like the fog creeping in on little cat feet? No, Dart, that’s e.e.cummings, but I guess a junior high boy can be forgiven for mixing up his poets.

He just ran into some former Haggard men who were transferred a while ago.The general rule of thumb is that one can expect transfer papers roughly three weeks after returning from a 30-day leave. If that’s true, Dart can expect his papers in about a week. He fully expects the Navy will continue its practice of assigning men as far as possible from their homes.

Miss Garnett’s grading method of S and U grades is not too pleasing to Dart. How can a student really mark his or her progress if that’s all the feed back they receive? It also gives the teacher a chance for some underhanded practices. Still, he’s happy to hear the old dame likes Dot’s ring!

After great effort his penny collection is growing steadily at last. She may call him Penny Pincher now. “Every one I get has my fingerprint superimposed forever on Lincoln’s face.”

Last night, Dart and his pals went into town for dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant and then to see a movie. “Betrayal From the East” was a rip-roaring spy story with some romance thrown in. It would make a good B picture in a double feature, but it only cost him 30 cents, so he won’t complain.

It’s fine with him if she wants to learn to jitterbug. He’d love to watch her do it, but has no great urge to learn how himself. He has enough to do to learn how to slow dance with her. “It’ll take some time to get rid of the rust and the creaky hinges, but we get along so beautifully in other ways that we should be able to dance well together, too.”

Rather than calling her Robin Hood on account of her prowess with a bow, he prefers Wilhelmina Tell. And he can’t wait to see her Rockette impersonation with the tap dancing.

“Gosh, I’m all through answering your letters. That looks bad. What I mean is: I have no more of your letters to answer.” With that, he sends his love and signs off.

Such a great letter from Dot that completely reflects her spirit! As she was listening to Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony today, she felt especially close to Dart. “Somehow, music like that is more soothing to me than anything else in the world, save your arms around me holding me very tightly. Oh, there’re so many things I want in the furnishings of that ‘dream house’ of ours that it’s hard to know where to begin. We surely want a varied and extensive record library.”

She went to a Lutheran church this morning with Janie and Joyce. She was surprised by the amount of ritual there was in the service compared to what she’s used to, but the sermon was excellent. It was entitled “Has Christianity Failed?” and left her with plenty to think about. She was shocked to learn that fewer than 50% of Americans call themselves Christians, but then she recalled that she hasn’t been inside a church since she went with Dart in August.

She just looked over at Dart’s picture and he winked at her. She’s glad none of the other girls were there to see it or they’d get jealous. As long as they’re not around, he should feel free to wink at her as much as he wants.

This afternoon she and Janie had a wonderful talk and she felt so good afterward, after both girls had a good cry. She sure wishes Dart had a chance to meet Janie because she’s such a good thinker and loads of fun. In fact, since so many girls are out for the weekend, Janie will sleep in Dots room tonight. “We’ll have oodles of fun, but get precious little sleep.”

She’s frustrated that her radio only plays when it feels like it, which is mostly during the Roy Rogers “hillbilly hour.” She fears the train trip from Greenwich didn’t do it much good.

There’s lots of romance in the air at her house. Mid called to say she’s spending an extra day at home because her man came home unexpectedly. Joyce’s crush called her from Illinois yesterday and told her they’d be married a year from now. She’s 17 and he’s 18, so the youngsters are getting a jump on Dot and Dart. Phyl just came back from a weekend with friends and is wearing her boyfriend’s big class ring. Looks like Dot and Dart started something!

Immediately after Dot wrote to Dart that she loves him, Janie came in and told her to tell Dart that she (Dot) loves him. “I just told him that,” said Dot. “Well, you still love him, don’t you, so tell him again!”

Dot filled the rest of the page with multiple “I love you’s” before saying goodnight.

Dart hit the jackpot today with six letters from Dot and three from his parents. One of them was mailed from Ohio just 25 hours before he received it! He’ll get right to answering as many as he can just as soon as he checks to see if the dryer is done. (Yes! He finally started doing some laundry!)

There’s an air field a few hundred feet from where Dart’s staying. The planes barely miss the top of the barracks as they take off. “Its fun to watch the fellows pull their heads down between their shoulders  and cast furtive glances at the ceiling as the planes pass over.”

A couple of notes Dot mailed several days ago finally showed up, stapled together by the Haggard’s mailman. It’s nice that he’s able to fill in the gap of news.

He likes the sight and sound of his letter salutation, “Dearest Dot,” so he writes it again, followed immediately by a slightly altered version, “Dot Dearest.” He likes the sight and the sound of both phrases almost as much as he likes the feeling of being “mutually in love.” As he says, “There’s nothing like it. I heartily recommend it to other young couples. No family should be without it. ” See what a few letters can do to lift this guy’s spirits?

His parents are fully aware that he’ll be returning to sea. On that subject, he reports on all the Haggard men who left today for scattered destinations. Nearly all have been transferred to places where they’ll eventually be assigned to another ship. Dart still waits. There’ll be no statewide service nor Presidential Citation for Dart. His luck has been spent on being in love with Dot and he can ask for nothing more. But, he’s hoping the proposed bill that would release from armed services former college students whose studies were rudely interrupted by the war. If it passes, he’ll be the first to apply. It’s a long shot, but he’s revived the practice of stepping on Lucky cigarette packages just in case.

Switching gears, as he recalls, his Miss Palmer never required her students to construct three “well-rounded, well-constructed interesting sentences, as Miss Garnett requires of her class. He does recall having to make several three minute speeches which he never scored well on because he always spoke too long. Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?

When he starts to discuss the long talks he and Dot had, he gets quite mushy and romantic. They helped him get over his guilt of thinking “unwholesome thoughts” because their talks helped him see that when one is so much in love, there’s nothing unwholesome about it. He misses their kisses – all varieties thereof, and he misses the long silences between them while they just reveled in holding each other. “I miss the lovely look in your eyes and the softness of your cheeks, and the touch of your hair. I miss the sharp, convulsive movements of your diaphragm when you laugh as we’re clasped in each other’s arms. In other words, Dot I MISS YOU!”

Commenting about Dot’s acquaintance whose engagement ring is not as pretty as Dot’s, he writes “I tried to make sure of that. No other ring had the same friendly simplicity and clean-looking sparkle which I found in the ring that matches you so perfectly. It was made for you, whether the maker knew it or not.”

He’s happy, if also perhaps a little jealous, that she’s joining clubs at school. He never had time for them at Case, but he suspects they’d be fun. Aghast that she’s already been at college for four weeks, he says she’ll catch up with him in no time. “Oh Navy, PLEASE let me GO! (To college!)”

Dot writes so many beautiful things in her letters – things that make him feel so very homesick. “But I thrive on that kind of homesickness. Please don’t ever stop saying and meaning those things.”

The phone call he made to Dot lifted his spirits at least as much as it did hers. He hopes she means it when she says his talk encouraged her and he tells her not to beat herself up about arguing with Eleanor. He reminds her that nobody can get along with everyone, and says it may even turn out that she and Ellie become good friends someday. From what he wrote, it seems as though Ellie’s dislike of Dot began with the New England way that Dot says “aunt” and “tomato.” She says Dot’s speech is “affected” and she plays hillbilly music just to rub it in to Dot’s “snobby” face. Obviously, Ellie doesn’t get out much, and she’s not a very good judge of character if she thinks Dot is affected and snobby!

He argues with Dot’s supposition that if he’d not been in the Navy, they would not have met. He’s convinced they would have met some way, some time. It was meant to be.

Before signing off, Dart returns again to the topic of their long conversations and gives a peek into how inexperienced and naive these two kids are. He tells her how much closer they’ve become since having that talk, how he hopes she’ll never be timid about asking him about such things. “I don’t know many of the technical terms, but I can guess at the principles.”

It’s uncanny how similar these two lovebirds are! The first sentence of Dot’s letter is nearly identical to the first one of Dart’s on the same day. She hit the jackpot with mail, too; three letters from Dart and one from Helen, the foster daughter of her sister Harriet in Greenwich.

At the risk of sounding harsh, she wishes he’d just hurry and get sent overseas. After all, the sooner he goes, the sooner he returns. If she thought he was having fun in Norfolk, she’d never wish him far away, but his letters from there sound so down that she wants him out of there!

Tomorrow in English, she has a “theme test.” Choosing one of ten topics provided on the board, students must use their class time to write a theme. Then, their papers will be graded by three teachers using the “S” and “U” grading scale. If the student receives two “S” grades, they pass, but if the Us prevail, the student must keep writing themes until they are successful. Dot wagers she’ll be writing themes until Christmas, but I suspect she’ll sail right through the first one.

Today Dot discovered that Phyllis shares Dot’s opinion of Eleanor – rude, selfish and spoiled. Dot admires Phyl’s ability to keep her feelings hidden and she suggests to Dart that nothing is gained by her sniping about Ellie to Dart in her letters. She vows to stop and learn to get along with her roommate.

If it weren’t for Dart and his beautiful letters, she’d be much more discouraged about college than she is now. She wants so much to be successful at it so that she won’t disappoint him. Whenever her mood slips, all she needs is a chat or letter from her favorite guy.

She’s enclosing a picture of Dart’s third favorite girl (presuming that she’s #1, his little cousin Susie Brown is #2). She hopes he’ll have a chance to drool over Katie a bit. Because the photo didn’t survive with the letter, I can only guess that she means Kathryn Hepburn.

Dart has time tonight for only a “wee note” because he was caught up in an old fashioned Navy-style bull session. A bunch of guys sat around telling each other sea stories. When the topic turned to burlesque experiences, he and Hal bowed out and went to see a pirate movie in Techicolor.

Hal wanted to add his 2 cents to Dart’s letter to Dart, but had to get some sleep before Dart finished.

He tells his beloved fiance that he wishes he could write every night like he he wrote on the last page of his letter on the 27th because he feels that way so often.

Dot writes two very short letters today – one in the morning before her science class and one later in the evening.

Cynthia, her dear friend from Greenwich who goes to Oberlin College stopped by yesterday with her parents to see Dot. What a great surprise! They were just bringing Cynthia back to school and decided to hang out with Dot for a while. It must have been wonderful for Dot to see some friendly faces from home.

Last night was a Halloween party which Dot will write more about tonight. She’s amazed that it’s been two years since she and Dart went to see “The Phantom of the Opera” and she wonders if Dart remembered that. (Of course!)

Later that day, she reminds him that they both knew the time would come when her letters would be fewer and shorter. That time is now. She has five tests this week and much to do before going to his parents’ home in Cleveland on Friday. Her eyes are bleary from studying so much, but there’s no end in sight if she wants to get good enough grades to be able to face him the next time they’re together. She’s so thankful she has him to think about while she studies.