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.”
