November 30, 1945

Dart has settled in to a nice spot at the USO, using their paper and desk, and listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the phonograph. He’s brought all of his unanswered mail with him in hopes of getting through the stack tonight. The PA system just brought an announcement of a party for 15 to 20 servicemen. It gave Dart sweet memories of the lovely private party he attended in San Francisco many months ago.

He came to town in order to accomplish two things: buy paper and write letters. So far, he’s eaten, had a haircut and received a shoe shine.

He asks, “When you stayed awake until 2:30 thinking of us in 5 years, what was the general trend of your thoughts?”

He had a little fun with Dot when he teases her about his bowling scores. “Hey, you don’t really believe me when I try to atone for my low bowling scores, do you? My usual game’s usually in the upper 180’s or 200’s. Now which do you believe? That I was just lucky to get marks like the recent ones; that the recent ones are my true average; or that I’m trying to cover up for low scores when my usual average is 100 points higher than I’ve told you? How does that affect your nervous system, Dot?”

He says that maybe with the right partner he’d love roller skating again. When he skated as a kid, his “rink” was the bumpy sidewalk in front of the Methodist Church. After he and each of his friends had all suffered broken arms from the sport, he decided to quit before he broke something more valuable. All of the official rinks around Cleveland were “haunted” by the sort of wild kids that he tried to steer clear of, so he gave up the sport. But, if he had the right partner…

In response to her query about a 72-hour pass, the answer must be a resounding NO. He’s checked into it, but it is not possible.

Although he appreciates the thought, she can keep her mattress. Hers is about the same size as a Navy mattress, except hers is much thinker than a folded blanket. Unless you can make it a nice thick full-sized mattress, you can just keep it. Besides, they’ll have need of one like that one of these days.

Now he wishes he’d seen “Love Letters” when he had the chance. Every time he went past the theater to get his ticket, the line was too long. Now it’s left town.  He’s happy she had such a nice time with Mrs. Woodworth. He always liked her.

It seems she didn’t get his sarcasm about walking 97 miles on liberty. It was an illustration of the very long, seemingly endless walks to and around town, looking for things to do. He will try to send her copies of the pictures he’s been taking, but he’s not finished the roll of film yet. The size he needs is unavailable down in his neck of the woods. (Gee, Dot, maybe that’s a good idea for a Christmas gift!)

There’s been good music playing all night and he’s found it hard to concentrate on this letter. “But it never takes deep concentration to think of my love for you. That shows up in all my thoughts and actions. When I do concentrate deeply on it, something like that long letter comes grinding out, if I’m not interrupted.”

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It’s a blue Dot who writes this morning. There was no letter from Dart in the morning delivery and she rarely gets mail from him in the afternoons. “I s’pose it wouldn’t be too hard to go without mail from you for a day or two if I didn’t love you so much and if you didn’t write such wonderful letters and if  I could forget what you had planned to do this weekend. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that last reason, but I know what you had hoped to do, and even though I didn’t know about it until the plan had been abandoned, I can’t forget it.”

What she’s referring to is Dart’s hope for a quick leave so that he could pay her a surprise visit. His Dad was forced to spill the beans after Dart called home to tell his dad that the surprise was not going to happen. It was just at that moment that Helen Peterson and Dot returned from shopping and Dart, Sr. couldn’t hide the truth. It’s hard to pick who among this sad foursome would have been the most disappointed about the plans falling through.

Now all that’s left for Dot to do is reminisce about their past times together and dream about the future. “If patience is a virtue, I’m the most non-virtuous person in the world, ‘cuz I don’t have the patience to wait three or four years for something I have such a strong desire for now.”

At this point, Dot took a break for English class. How delighted she was to find a letter waiting for her when she returned! “Boy! Want me to happy tomorrow, too, Mr. Postman? Then bring me letter from ‘him’ again so the weekend at this hole will be bearable.”

There will be five girls in the house this weekend and they have so much to do that Ellie is already getting started on cleaning her part of the room. Not wanting to get in her way, Dot withstands the impulse to jump in and join her.

Only three weeks until she’s at Dart’s home again, awaiting her train that will take her home for Christmas! She’ll go into Cleveland next week to get her ticket, so she plans to combine pleasure into her business trip by paying a visit to her future in-laws. She also has final exams leading right up until the day she leaves. She really needs to buckle down and get serious about studying.

She got a sweet letter from Dart’s mom today, urging her to come for a visit whenever she wanted to. I suspect Helen really enjoyed having this cheerful, helpful young woman around the house. What mother doesn’t like the girl who loves her son?

Dot asks Dart if renewing his parents’ subscription to Life magazine would be a good gift from her to them again this year. As for her other Christmas shopping, she’s in a quandary. No time and precious little money to shop with before she leaves, and the situation won’t improve much when she gets to Greenwich. On top of that, there’s no room in her luggage to cram many gifts into.  “Ah, well. That’s life, I’m sure no matter what it involves, I’ll get home for Christmas and we’ll have a jolly time of it, too.” It’s the Chamberlain clan. Of course they’ll have a jolly good time!

Ellie, Joyce and Dot had a great dinner tonight, in spite of the fact that it was Dot’s turn to cook. They had ham, eggs, clam chowder, bread & butter and ice cream. She managed to get some vegetables into the clam chowder and now everyone’s too stuffed to have the cookies and coke they’d saved for later.

Why didn’t Dart join that dancing class at the USO?  “How are you going to be able to teach me how to dance if you don’t make an effort to learn yourself? We do want to learn, don’t we? I made a slight effort to pick up a few steps, but the cement ones in front of the house are much too heavy and the dance steps are much too complicated. Net result: I still don’t know how to dance. But remember, it takes time for one to learn to dance, and when one is a Chamberlain, it takes a long time!”

She agrees with Dart’s taste in music. She’s always loved Juliet’s “Our Love.” She bets that Tchaikovsky didn’t go to college, leaving him with plenty of time to think up all that beautiful music he created.

Maybe if they mention a phonograph to enough people before they’re married, they’ll get one (or two) as a wedding gift.

Here, Dot’s landlord, Holly dropped by the girls’ room for his Friday evening chat. When he saw that Dot was writing to Dart, he asked if he could add a few lines. Although his handwriting is difficult to decipher, but he seemed to be excited about some new business venture involving radios. He thinks the world of Dot and he’s happy that two such fine young people have found each other. I guess it’s true that all the world loves a lover!

Dot’s so grateful to have landed in a house with two wonderful “parents,” Holly and his sister, Miss Olin. All the girls in the house adore these two and could listen to them talk for hours. What a nice, homey touch for young ladies away from home.

Today, Ellie heard a story on the radio that reminded her so much of Dot and Dart’s story. The couple had met on a blind date, but they were not “assigned” to each other. Like D&D, they had fallen for each other at first sight. The judge of the “How We Met” contest felt their story should take the prize, and he thought it would make a great plot for a Hollywood movie. You see, I envision it also as great source material for a blog!

She hopes there was nothing wrong with his beautiful eyes, but she wants someone to find a cure for his headaches. She’s terribly concerned about his loss of appetite, because when she sees him again, she wants there to be enough of him for her to see.

Having come to the 9th page, Dot wonders why she can’t write of love as he does. Why, she’s barely mentioned it so far, she grouses. In her own way, I’d say Dot expresses her love for Dart more than adequately in her letters. Also, her life is full of cooking, cleaning, studying, and chatting with roommates. She lacks the luxury of unfettered time to dream up the lyrical paragraphs that Dart conjures so well. All she can say is that she loves him “to the height and width and depth my soul can reach.”

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