Dart writes two letters today. The first tells of his liberty the night before with Hal and Ira. They had a nice spaghetti dinner in town, saw a mediocre movie and then had dinner again. (Pork chops this time.) They also bought their new sets of campaign ribbons, including their victory ribbon. The Haggard crewmen had put off buying ribbons until the final moment of their ship’s life, hoping until the end they would receive a Presidential Unit Citation for their destruction of an enemy submarine and their saving of another ship. Alas, the citation did not come.

None of this trio of friends has much interest in going out on liberty again tonight.

The second letter follows his impromptu phone call to Dot. It had the opposite effect he was hoping for, because now he’s more miserable than he was before talking to her. He’s lonely, bored, discouraged and disgusted.

He writes nearly six pages of grumbling and grousing about his idle life. He’s sick of sharing a room with 200 other guys who are equally lonely, bored, discouraged and disgusted. If he can’t be home, he longs for an assignment that would give him something to focus his mind on.

There was an inspection today. “The old buzzard walked up and down row after row of white-capped sailors, until he’d inspected, personally, the shave and haircut, the uniform and shoes, and the military bearing of each man. After that, he looked over the hovels these men live in. He was displeased. So to heck with the old man. He displeased us, too. He made us stand around in the hot sun. And he did us the dishonor of being 40 minutes late for his rounds. Such is the privilege of men who are leaders. Leaders by rank, rather than by choice of the men they lead.”

He thanks Dot for the picture of his #3 girl, Kate Hepburn) although he deems her “out of his price range.” Still, if he had even a remote chance with her, he’d pick Dot over every other girl in the world. “And I wish I could reach you now to take permanent possession. Maybe permanent joint management would be the right idea for us. Each of us has already traded a half-interest in himself for a half-interest in the other. And I like the arrangement.”

He breaks into a nice little daydream of the first time he’ll call her wearing civies. He’ll need to purchase an entire new wardrobe and hopes the $300 the Navy gives him for the purpose will cover it all. He draws a big cartoon style “POP” on the page and explains that the “pop” was his nice dream bursting.

How impressed he is by her determination to succeed at school. “You frighten me sometimes with your conscientiousness. I hope the Navy hasn’t knocked all the ambition out of me. Right now, I have no ambition for anything except to sleep and to make love with you.”

The first time Dot wrote today it was to dash off a quick note to Dart telling him to cheer up. She promises to write more from his home tonight. Now she’s off to take her big science exam. She’s studied hard, but she’s still scared.

She’ll try to write long letters while she’s visiting his folks this weekend because she has mid-term exams next week.

The second letter from Dot is written at Dart’s desk, in his bedroom in Cleveland. She’s thrilled to be occupying the space where her beloved has spent so much of his time.

She was happy to hear his voice tonight, but was too shy to tell him she loved him in front of his parents. She makes a valid point when she chides him for a comment he made about her science exam. When she told him she thinks she did okay on it, he cautioned her not to be too disappointed if she doesn’t score as high as she hopes. “First you tell me I don’t have enough confidence and then you turn right around and tell me I’m too confident!”

It’s 12:30 AM and she’s very tired from too many late nights studying, so she decides to finish this in the morning. She hopes she dreams of a tall, handsome sailor.

The next morning she fills him in on the Halloween party that he’s asked her about. After a wonderful wiener roast by the backyard grill, complete with pickles, donuts and cider, the girls went upstairs to get into their costumes. Dot dressed as a Beau Brummel-type character and the girls said she made a better looking boy than girl. They tried to convince her to cut her hair in a boy-ish style, but she promises she won’t.

All the girls plus the landlord and his sister gathered downstairs, and each room put on a little skit for the others. Her group did a corny dance routine and acted out the lyrics of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” There was more food, and then they all left to see what other food they might find elsewhere.

First, they all went to the Dean’s house where his wife invited all 10 girls inside for some caramels. The girls treated the couple to a song, “I go to KSU, now pity me. There’s not a man in the vicinity…” The Dean knew the words and joined in with the girls. Then he asked if anyone could play boogie woogie, and Dorie volunteered. She played piano while the Dean jitter-bugged all over the living room.

The group visited a few more houses and then Holly (their landlord) asked them if they’d like to go for a ride in his piano trailer. What fun! All 10 girls stood in the 3’x5′ open trailer and he drove them through the countryside to Ravenna, hollering and singing the whole way.

Holly and his sister go out of their way to make sure all of “their girls” had a really good time, and everyone agreed it was the best Halloween party they’d ever attended.

If she doesn’t get downstairs soon, his mother will wonder what’s keeping her. Dot really misses Dart even more at his house than elsewhere. She’s surrounded by evidence of him and wishes with all er heart that he could be there with her. Is there any chance he could get a 72-hour liberty for Thanksgiving if he hasn’t shipped out by then? He has an invitation to both Cleveland and Greenwich.

Now she’s going to take a bath in a real tub and hope she doesn’t drown!

There’s a letter from each of our young lovers today. As usual, we’ll start with Dart’s.

He begins by telling Dot of the announcement that just came over the PA system on the base. It says that liberty will commence at 1330 November 4 and end at 0730 on October 5. It set the whole place dreaming about an 11-month liberty as they await the correction that will surely follow.

It’s a cold, wet, blustery day and the place has poor drainage, so there’s standing water everywhere. Unpleasant to venture outside the barracks and downright miserable waiting in line for anything.

The huge bunch of rude, loud sailors that have been annoying Dart and others for several days just received orders for their leave time. It’s a relief to those who remain that this group is gone.

Two other big drafts were just announced: One was for duty on the Midway, the largest warship in the world and scheduled to depart on a world cruise making 40 stops. The other was for the Randolph, a former aircraft carrier being converted to a troop transport for service in the Atlantic. Dart knows the Randolph is not a “good ship” but he wouldn’t mind Atlantic duty. The Randolph nearly rammed the Haggard by getting out of place in the convoy one night. Dart recalls her captain and crew had a reputation of never really getting things right. She was damaged several times during the war, often by poor performance of her duty. “I’ll probably get some bunged-up old ship like that.”

He included a couple of quotes about Dot from his parents’ letters. They love it when she comes for a visit and would enjoy it if she’d come every weekend. They’re thrilled that he’s chosen a young lady they like so much to be his wife. His mother remarks about how lucky he’s been in many ways. That’s exactly what Dart’s been thinking! Lucky to know her and to love her. Lucky she feels the same way about him.

Yes, they’ve talked about the time when her letters will become shorter and further apart, and he’ll try to be patient. He truly wants her to succeed at school, so he’ll just tell himself when the time comes that as much as he wants her to write to him, he also wants her to study.

So, she slept in his room! He’s sorry now that he left it a bit messy. He hopes his mother fixed it up for her stay. “She’s pretty nice that way. How do you like being prodded by the springs in the studio couch?”

Having run out of things to say, he’ll head off to the mailbox and the canteen now. But first, he asks her if she’d do him a favor. When she has time, after mid-terms, would she copy the last three or four paragraphs of that “thing” he gave her? He’d like to have them because he thinks occasionally about completing it. I have no idea what he’s talking about here, but maybe Mom will remember.

Dot explains that she’d intended to write to him last night but she stayed up so late talking with his folks that when she went upstairs, “Both my good intentions and I fell fast asleep and didn’t wake up until 9:45 this morning.”

She tells him that yesterday morning they drove out to the fish house. She’s not sure of the location, but it was past Collinwood, so he knows what she was thinking. They went in search of shrimp and they found it. She knows he doesn’t appreciate how delicious shrimp is, and she pities him for missing out on it, but she and his dad really enjoyed it. Even his mom liked it more than she’d expected to.

They ate lunch in the livingroom while listening to the Navy-Notre Dame game. As he must know, it was played in Cleveland’s Municple Stadium. Dot was so excited by the game that when it was over, she was as exhausted as if she’d played in it. She takes the better part of two pages describing in detail the fantastic plays – all of which came in the last eight minutes of the game. The final play by ND was a particular thriller with the announcer screaming “Touchdown! No, wait, ladies and gentleman, there was no touchdown. Oh, now it looks like maybe they made it. I don’t know what’s happening. NO! They failed to make it across the goal line before the gun went off.”  Dot says it took a lot out of her, and then says, “Golly, now I hope you didn’t hear the game, ‘cuz if you did, that last part has all been repititious and will make my letter duller than usual.” Does she really suppose that Dart has thought any of her letters dull?

Last night as she was muttering something about looking up bus schedules for her return to Kent, his father scolded her. She’s to never again buy a round-trip ticket to their house. They will always be happy to driver her back to campus – in fact, they insist on it! That gets her started again on how lucky she is that the man she loves also has parents who are so wonderful and easy to love. They are so nice to her that she feels like she could cry out of sheer happiness. She feels unworthy of all this good fortune.

Her enjoyable visit has made it that much harder to go back to studying, but mid-terms loom and she must go. She’s cheered by the thought that in 47 days she’ll be home for Christmas. If only he could be, too, life would be perfect. But just wait until next year!

She bids him so-long and turns to her English homework.

It’s another long letter from Dart today, beginning with the news that he hit pay dirt twice today: the first was in receiving two letters from Dot and the second was an unexpectedly large paycheck from Uncle Sam. The $30 he received is greatly needed and appreciated. It included 65 cents per day for “living expenses” while on leave. My, how times have changed in 70 years!

Hal got a very nice letter from Clare that made him feel much better. She’s disappointed but she understands his feelings and hopes they can still be friends.

Dart’s “boys” are being drafted right and left. Many are being sent to separation centers for discharge, but most are going to destroyers. Dart wouldn’t mind destroyer duty again, but he’s a little tired of the wet and rough rides, so he’s hoping for a larger ship, if he must go out on another cruise.

He writes a strange question to Dot — asking whether his letters of late have seem weak, ineffective, stale. They’ve seemed that way to him. “Maybe it’s because I’ve forced a couple of them to be long when I had nothing to say. I wanted so much to write to you yet I could think of nothing but small talk which must have seemed as uninteresting to you as it was to me. I guess those letters would have been better shorter, but I didn’t have sense enough to realize the merits of brevity.” (And then he goes on to write several pages of flat minutia!)

He begins by describing (almost frame-by-frame) a movie he saw on base, starring Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pigeon and Van Johnson. He professes to like it, but proceeds to nearly murder it with a tedious description of every character, subplot, and musical interlude. Yikes! In the end, he tells Dot he hopes he’s confused her enough that she’ll have to see it to figure out what it was really about.

Last night, he and Hal went into town for the usual recreation – dinner and a movie. This time it was “Having a Wonderful Cruise,” which he liked alright. Tonight he’ll probably keep Hal company during his late night watch. If both of these guys are still here for their next mutual evening off, they plan to see “Rhapsody in Blue.” Thank heaven for movies or these men would surely go stir-crazy!

When he was living a more action-filled and busy life on the ship, he could get by on very little sleep. Now in his idle state he feels the need to sleep all the time. “I wonder if I’ll ever again be able to do a full day’s work or a full hour of serious thought. Hardly possible, I’m afraid.”

He knows she found it hard to say “it” in front of his Mom and Pop, but he hopes that someday she will. He remembers how she stuck by him when he was so sick. Every moment they’re together gives him many moments of wonderful memories when they’re apart. Oh, how he misses her!

He wishes he could have joined in the merriment of her Halloween party. He loves doughnuts and can’t remember any he’s had since the ones he ate at the Andrews dance over two years ago.

There’s no chance he’ll have another 72-hour pass before he’s re-assigned. He also doubts he’ll be home for Thanksgiving, but if he gets an opportunity, she can bet he’ll be in Cleveland. He expects to be discharged by April or May which seems like an eternity to him.

With that, he bids her goodnight, with all his love.

Dot’s roommate Ellie brought her a pen and some paper so that Dot could write from her top bunk before even getting up this morning. She has some time before her first class at 9:00.

His parents ended up driving her back to school yesterday. It was a pleasant drive, made pretty by the dusting of snow they got. With the sun shining so brightly today the snow can’t last long.

In his telling of the last day of the Haggard, he said the 29-year old captain had had this command for only a month and a half. Didn’t he mean Captain Soballe, which would mean a year and a half, or does she have something confused?

“Another week of school. Ugh! I don’t really mean that. I like school, but I like going to Cleveland and your house so much better that the comparison really isn’t fair. But in less than three weeks, I’ll be back in Cleveland.”

She needs to get on the ball and get ready for class, but not before bringing something of great importance to his attention. As much as it grieves her to repeat herself, she noticed that once again, he failed to place the stamp on one of his letters upside down. “But in spite of the way you treat me, (maybe it’s because of the way you treat me) I still love you very much.”

Well, Dart’s big news actually belongs to Hal Martin. He’s just received orders to report tomorrow to his home port of Boston for his duty assignment. He’s running around the base now to see if he can learn any more about what’s to become of him once he gets to Boston, but he’s an extremely happy sailor for now.

Dart would give anything to get shore duty anywhere – but to be stationed in or near his home would be ecstasy. Most of the men he knows from the Haggard who have the same number of points as he are being sent to ships. Dart believes that’ll be his fate as well.

For now, he and Hal are planning a nice celebration tonight in honor of Hal’s great fortune. Dart is very happy for his friend, but he sure will miss him!

He wishes he’d been in Cleveland on Sunday to share the first snow of the season with Dot. It’s usually such a pretty sight in his favorite city. He’d predicted that Dot would write to him about the Navy-Notre Dame game, and he was right. It’s sweet how patient he is with her detailed reporting of the game that she found such pleasure in. For his part, Dart wouldn’t know a touchdown from a hole-in-one, but he humors Dot.

A guy just came in with the news that Hal has been assigned to a destroyer based in Boston. Looks like sea duty after all. I guess he’s not as lucky as he and Dart had hoped.

He’s happy that she thinks his parents are swell. He’s happy that they think his fiance’ is so perfect. He’s happy they’re all in agreement that he has the best folks and the best girl in the world. “Oh, Dot. We’re all very happy abut the whole thing. I wish I could punctuate that by a sweeping embrace and a well-aimed kiss.”

He closes with, “Dot, I love you more all the time. So much more after our leave that it’d have seemed impossible before.”

Dot zipped off a quick paragraph at 10:30 Monday night, but had to stop because both her roommates were asleep and Miss Olin was coming up to massage Dot’s back. She’s done something to he shoulder that’s causing her quite a lot of pain.

She picks up the letter early the next morning, with her shoulder feeling much better, thanks to Miss Olin’s magic fingers.

A year ago this very day, Dart arrived at Union Terminal for his brief two and a half day leave. Oh, how excited she was to see him and how much she loved him, even then. But this day is so much better because all that was ahead of him — the fighting and the months at sea — is behind him now and he’s safe. She wouldn’t trade that for anything!

She’s intrigued by the USS Midway’s worldwide tour. She asks that Dart let her know if they’re looking for passengers, because she thinks it sounds like a perfect opportunity to see the world.

She’ll have to give serious thought to his question in a recent letter about how much is an “oodle” of fun. “Will answer that and whatever else I’ve left unanswered from yesterday’s letter this afternoon. Must get ready for school now.”

She enclosed the last three paragraphs of that “thing” he wrote, happy to hear that he’s planning on finishing it. Maybe we’ll get a peek at it in the future, if and when he does that.

Of the whole crowd Dart used to go on liberties with, he’s the only one left in Norfolk. Finch, Cotton and Harper are all on destroyers. Puckett is in the hospital with a fractured jaw, a fractured skull and a cracked roof of his mouth, all of which he had for 35 days before they were discovered. Hal just left for Boston, assigned to the USS Glennan.

Last night, he and Hal made a little bet, over which Dot will be the arbitor. Although Hal has been assigned a ship, he has no idea when he’ll board her. Dart, with his future still a mystery, bet Hal that he would board his, as yet unknown ship before Hal boards his. When each man logs into their new ship, they will enclose a note in an envelope, stating the date and time he stepped aboard. When Dot has received both envelopes, she will open them and determine the winner. The loser must then host a weenie roast at Lake Sunapee for the winner, at a time to be determined in the future. So much intrigue! Such fun!

Ira left base last night after joining Dart and Hal for a brief liberty. He’s been assigned to the destroyer Bordelon, one of 12 “tin cans” that will escort the Midway on her 18-month goodwill tour of the world. The tour left Norfolk this morning with Haggard men serving on 8 of the 12 destroyers. “The Hapless Haggard sails on, in spirit!”

Ira will serve as the senior quartermaster on his ship. The quartermaster is the fellow who navigates the ship and steers her through tricky waters and delicate dockings. He’ll make the rank of Chief before his discharge. His enlistment date was one day before Dart’s. “Just think, I might have been first class or chief if I’d gone right into it.” (Instead of the dead-end detour into the V-12 unit at Case.)

But for his three years’ service, he has no regrets. They brought him to where he is now, engaged to the world’s most perfect girl. He’s thrilled, proud and delighted with the outcome.

He mentions receiving Dot’s 12-page masterpiece in the mail today. Unfortunately, I’ve not found a 12-page letter from Dot in recent days. He says he read parts of it to Hal, who “suffered a a horrible and agonized demise at the close of your poem.” What could that mean? I hope it’ll become clear.

His final paragraph is a series of “I love yous” which she is to read with long pauses between while she imagines a healthy kiss in each pause.

Dot cut her first class today. She was feeling lousy and knew that tap dancing wouldn’t make her feel any better. The only thing that might would be a phone call from a certain someone, but she’s not counting on that happening. Still, just “visiting” him through this letter has soothed her.

She heartily disagrees with his assessment of his recent letters. They’re all masterpieces to her, and just about the only thing she looks forward to each day. She says he’d better not do a thing to change them, thus proving the old adage “Love is blind.”

Instead of him becoming a journalist, she suggests he try movie critic. He always makes his reports about the movies he’s seen so compelling that she wants to run right out and see them. Neither her time nor her allowance will permit such a luxury, but she sure values his reviews.

She makes him a promise that someday she’ll say “it” in front of his mother and father, but for now she wants some credit for how far she’s come in the last year. “Do you realize that a year ago tonight we were fools enough to go upstairs to bed almost as soon as your mom and dad did? And you were still asking permission every time you kissed me. But the worst part of all was that I hadn’t told you how very much I loved you. Considering the short amount of time we’ve been together this year, our advances would be stiff competition for science and all of it’s modern marvels.”

I was overjoyed when she reminded Dart of a very early letter she’d written to him on which she’d written the initials E.N.I.P.T.G.T.Y.W.L.M.S. He’d begged her to tell him what those letters meant and she promised to tell him someday. He’s probably forgotten about the episode, but she’s decided to reveal the secret message finally. The letters simply mean Every Night I Pray To God That You Will Love Me Someday. What a sweet thought, what an endearing sentiment. The fact that she was thinking such thoughts in the earliest days of knowing Dart is further evidence that these two were destined to love each other.

Finally she copies a free verse that Janie wrote tonight about her room here at the house Dot lives in. It’s a lovely little piece about the simple elegance of the shabby Victorian room she now occupies.

It’s late and Dot’s tired. She says goodnight.

Dart’s salutation today is “Dear Favorite Fiance’,” mimicking Dot’s sign-off from a recent letter. He got another nice bunch of letters today, from Dot, his folks and his old pal Fred. Fred warned him not to write to him anymore. What a strange guy he’s turned out to be.

The free verse that Janie wrote in Dot’s latest letter inspired Dart to try something he’s been working on since his days at sea. I won’t insert it here, but soon, I’ll add a new section to the blog to include some of his poetry written throughout these years.

He’s concerned about Dot having to cut class the other day and he’s discerned the reason for it — the debilitating periods that she suffers through each month. He worries she may be struck down during her final exams. She’d mentioned that getting married was often a remedy, and he asks if it was marriage or child bearing that brought relief. “If you’d rather we didn’t mention it, just say the word. I wish I could be with you to at least try and comfort you during these trying times. Knowing those things about you, especially learning about them from you, helped to make me love you so much more. It seems like things like our last talk bring us so much closer together. I love you more each day…but those talks and others of a less personal nature seem to double that day’s increase.”

I’ve thought about this before: Some of today’s young people struggle to find true intimacy in relationships, yet they have grown up in a world where intimate things are discussed openly and often, by nearly everyone. Could it be that one key to that personal closeness of the earlier generations is the fact that intimate talk was reserved for intimate relationships?

Dart continues that there are still some things about women that he’d like to clear up someday. “Later. Much later.”

He certainly gives her credit for all the advances she’s made since last November, as far as expressing her affection is concerned. “I’m glad we like each other so much. Some people are in love but they never get to like their partner.”

Another thing he’s happy about is that she told him what those coded initials on one of her early letters meant. He’d always hoped he’d learn their message someday, but had, frankly forgotten about them for a while. It’s a nice thought they expressed.

“I like that ‘favorite fiance’ thing. What’s great about us is that there could never be more than one fiance. With us, our favorite is our one, our only.”

How can I ever tell you how much I love you? The only thing I can do is try my best, and try it all the time.”

Between studying and dinner, Dot had time to squeeze in a couple of letters to Dart tonight.  A letter from her mother today raised the question of whether Dot would like to attend classes over the summer so she could finish college earlier. She rather likes the idea, but she’s afraid she’ll be so homesick by June that nothing will keep her from going home. She asks Dart his thoughts on the subject.

Ellie’s been calling Dot Dorothy Peterson all week. When Dot asked her why, she hadn’t realized she was doing it. She just said it seemed to come out easier than Chamberlain. She’ll get no complaints from Dot!

All evening she kept her ear tuned for the sound of a phone ringing, but there were no calls for her. She always loves to hear Dart’s voice, and was hoping she would tonight, but she’ll try not to be to disappointed.

She can only imagine how unbearable Norfolk must be with Hal gone. Although she’s happy for Hal that he was stationed close to home, she was hoping he and Dart would get to stay together in their next assignment. Now all she can hope for is that he’ll not be sent back to Shoemaker, which he loathed far more than he does Norfolk.

It had seemed like she and Mr. Chapman, her science teacher were becoming good buddies, but that delusion came to an end when he returned her exam from last Friday today. Although she got an 89%, it was labeled a C, and she was none too happy. Her only recourse is to get a 100 on the next exam. That’ll show him!

But her deflated ego got an influx of air in English class. She reminds Dart of that exam she’d mentioned last week where she had to write a theme that was then graded by three professors. While she waited for all her classmates’ themes to be returned and saw how many of them had failed, she broke out in a cold sweat. But…she passed! She’s more confident now about the longer theme she’ll have to write for her final exam. By the way, the topic she chose was “Why Go to College?”

She’s counting the days until her Thanksgiving visit back to his parents’ home for Thanksgiving. That weekend, some of her classmates from Andrews who are in the Cleveland area hope to have a little reunion.

It’s midnight and her heavy eyelids are begging for sleep. She recalls a year ago tonight as she lay in bed, thinking of Dart speeding west to California to await his assignment to a ship. Thank goodness the worst is over for him. Thanks goodness, also, for sleep and dreams…

Dart writes two letters today, totaling 12 pages, so hold onto your hat and let’s get started.

He claims that after the long letter he wrote yesterday, there’s no news, so he resorts to talking about the weather. It’s cold and blustery, looks like rain is on it’s way, but he has no cause for complaint because they’ve had so much nice weather recently.

He should do laundry, but he’s feeling lazy, so he may go to the canteen and buy a magazine.

Now that he’s made the record, there’s little need to go out on liberty, but maybe he will because he needs to get off base. “In short, there’s little I’m sure of except that I love you.”

“Life without you is so lonely. How will I ever stand the months until I see you again and the years until we’re married? Dot Chamberlain — no, Dot Peterson. Mrs. Peterson! My Wife! What a thrill to think about it. You’ll be so nice to come home to every evening.”

He begins again later in the day. “Do you know you’re engaged to a lout who’ll be as lazy as I am? I know what I should be doing, yet here I sit. In my present condition of slothfulness, the predominate attitude is one of ‘to Hell with it.'”

He explains that when the room was quiet, he lost himself in a John Steinbeck novel. Now, the place is full again, as noisy as usual, and he berates himself for not using the quiet time to write more to her.  “I began this second letter with millions of sparkling ideas blinking in the darkness of my mind, but now I find them slipping away. In fact they’ve slipped, and the darkness is blackness, and I can think only of how very much I like to be with you.” (I must interject here that his desire to be with her never wavered, faded or blinked until his last breath.)

When he thinks about it, he discovers that his needs are simple: He wants his arms around Dot, being her protector and her provider; he wants her arms around him, returning as much affection as he gives her; and he wants an occasional willing ear “to pour my many imaginary troubles into.”

“What makes me crave and desire these things now is the fact that they are mine, by your promise. They’re held in trust for me, by you, and very capably, too. But the lack of these things which are to be mine is felt so much now because they were mine, in sample form, for four glorious weeks which felt like four fleeting days.”

Gee, and most guys would just say “I miss you.” I guess there’s a reason for 12 pages. Poetry takes time and space to reach its full bloom.

He believes that their yearnings for each other are proof that their love is deep and abiding. “Love isn’t entirely a sensual desire for the body of some person…Of course, that desire is present too. But it is only a mockery to desire the body without also wishing to share the life and the spirit; the joys and sorrows; the secrets and prides and shadows.”

He espouses for several paragraph the role he believes Faith has in love such as theirs. Perhaps it is the reward and recognition from a benevolent God for those who try their best to live as He has asked them to. “Perhaps evil thoughts and unkind circumstances are all part of His will, for how can one be truly appreciative of His blessings unless he sees himself or others without those blessings? But far be it from me to philosophize on religion. I’m not equipped to interpret His words, except for myself, and then I never try. I wonder if my conclusions are forced rationalizations for my view on life. I hope not.”

Having primed the philosophical pump, his deep thoughts continue to flow for the next several pages. They are mostly about sex; it’s role in a satisfying marriage, his undeniable interest in it; whether it is the single greatest asset for a happy marriage, or simply one of the assets. He reaches the reassuring conclusion that, since he is convinced of their supreme compatibility in all other aspects of their lives, he is comfortable and willing to wait until marriage to establish their compatibility in the one remaining area they’ve yet to explore.

His final paragraph is the summary of the letter. “This looks like an awfully heavy letter, Dot. It all boils down to a few words: I love you with all the ways and means I have of loving. I’m proud of you and I’m proud of myself for being such that a person like you should fall in love with me. I’m thankful, always, for you, for Us!”

His PS asks, “Does this take the place of some of those long talks we’ve been missing? I think so.”

Dot’s letter is full of the happy news that she was able to drop in on Dart’s parents for a surprise visit this afternoon. Holly was going into Cleveland to find a piano tuner and he offered to drop Dot off. Much to Dot’s disappointment, Ellie invited herself along for the ride.

The visit was intended to be about 30 minutes, but Holly’s errand took longer than he’d expected, so Dot was at Dart’s home for two hours. During that time, Dart, Sr. took a bath, had a tooth pulled and came home with enough time to discuss the Navy/Michigan game with the girls. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peterson was packing Dart’s Christmas box with great care and fussiness.

That brings Dot to the subject of Dart’s Christmas box. What does he want? Where should she send it? When does it need to be mailed?

It was such fun to drop in on his parents like that. She loves them so very much. They asked her to spend the night, but she’d not completed the proper permission forms, so it wasn’t possible. “Besides, it’s less than two weeks until they’ll have to endure me for four days, so I thought it only fair to give them a little rest.”

“Before we left this morning I was rushing around to get everything done. Namely, my big washing. I got everything done with 30 minutes to spare. I took my clothes downstairs to hang everything outside. All was going splendidly until I turned to walk into the house and the clothesline broke! Mustering every ounce of self-control I have, I let out one big ‘HECK,’ and began removing my mud-covered garments from the Earth’s muddy face. I brought them inside, washed them all again and proceeded to hang them on a new clothesline. This time, it began to rain and I began to cuss (almost). So, as a last resort, I brought the d—- clothes in and hung them over backs of chairs. P.S. we started out for Cleveland 40 minutes late.”

She got two letters from Dart which will help to offset the lack of mail on Monday – Veteran’s Day. She’ll answer only one tonight because it’s already 1:15 and she’s dead tired. (Sure, with all that laundry, who wouldn’t be?)

She likes the bet he made with Hal, and she hopes he loses because she hates to think of him boarding another ship and leaving the country. She acknowledges that it must be lonely and boring with his friends all gone and nothing to do.

Barely making it to page 4, she gives up to sleep. She loves him, but writing it is not nearly as much of a thrill as saying it to him, or, better yet, hearing him say those words to her. She misses him far more than she thought was possible.