Dart writes two letters today, one started in the wee hours of the morning after he returned from his visit to Kent. “Can’t go to bed without writing to you. It must really be love if I can spend eight hours with you and then come home and write you a letter.”

He tells Dot that he had three companions on his trip home to Cleveland; he picked up two guys in Kent and drove them to the next town, and then picked up a guy in Hudson and dropped him off at the streetcar stop near his own apartment in Cleveland. The company and the warm blanket, generously donated by Ellie, kept him entertained and comfortable on the tedious trip back.

“I hope Ellie understands that we know she was serious when she told us what we already know; how fortunate we are. I know I looked silly, for I still had the spirit of the earlier moments, but I realized that she was being serious, and that what she said was matter for serious thought. Yes, Dot, we are fortunate.”

“I better stop here before I fall asleep. Thank you, Darling, over and over again, for being all that you are and for trying to be much of what I want you to be. I love you always, and forever.”

His next letter is written toward the end of the day. He spent nearly the whole day working on an old interurban car he’s building. He fears he’s botched the roof and will have to make a new one.

His Aunt Flora is in another bad way. Both his parents and his Aunts are preparing to bring her to Cleveland, if she’ll agree to come by ambulance. His mother is preparing to go out to Ashtabula to prepare Flora for the trip into the city, while Dart and his dad prepare a room for Flora in their apartment. The Aunts are also making room for her in their house, so she’ll have a choice of homes. Her stay in Cleveland, should it happen, could be a very long one, and Dart worries about the extra burden it will place on his mother. Everyone is all riled up about the situation right now.

Dart’s Uncle Guy – his father’s wealthy and successful brother, has asked Dart, Sr. to come work for him,  now that his customers have dried up, his business is failing, and Pop is no longer able to work. Dart describes it as quite a soap opera. I’m not sure what the whole situation was, except that Guy was the favorite son of his parents, and with all of his success, rarely had anything to offer his brother except criticism. The relationship between the brothers was always strained.

The whole family is concerned by the news of a giant tidal wave heading toward Guam, where Burke is stationed. Dart has learned from Fred that tropical storms and tidal waves are fearsome business on that small island. They all hope Burke has found adequate shelter. Dart also wonders about the fate of the John R Craig while the Pacific is wildly churning with severe weather.

In answer to Dot’s letter written from the infirmary, he expresses disapproval of that photo of Ellie.  “That Ellie girl must surely be proud of something, if she wants her picture taken with things (like legs) showing like those were. Be it cute or not, I don’t think much of the idea. They aren’t so beautiful anyway.” When I read passages like this, I hardly recognize the writer as the man I knew as a father. Here, he sounds like an old fuddy-duddy. The man I grew up with, while rather conservative in his own behavior, was not such a stick-in-the-mud about other people. With age came a more relaxed attitude – a willingness to let people be themselves, without judgement.

He hasn’t discussed Kent as an education option with his folks, but if he could get in there, he’d be willing to make a start. He feels strongly that he wants to at least begin the completion of his degree before he and Dot set THE DATE.  He doesn’t want to do anything that would delay the planning for their wedding day. Says Dart, “Oh, how I love the sound of those two words!”

“Goodnight, Dot. You were thinking of the same secret I was, and of course I knew you wouldn’t tell the girls. That kind of stuff is just too intimate, too lovely, too much our own to talk about with anyone else. Too bad about that big, lonesome bed of yours. Mine’s small, but just as lonesome.”

#          #          #

Today, Dot, Ellie and Mid walked into town to see a show; “The Harvey Girls,” starring Judy Garland. It was a lively musical and the three friends had a good time together.

Dot writes that when she was Ellie’s roommate, she noticed that all the girls congregated in their room for gossip and chats. She thought that by moving into a room of her own, she’d have more time to herself, but this evening, once again, the girls of the house gathered around her bed. She can’t even recalled what they talked about, but during the two-hour gab fest, she accomplished nothing but setting her hair.

There’s another dance on campus this weekend if Dart would like to come out for it. If he decides that would be fun, she again asks that he bring a date or two for the girls in the house. Dot made the grave error of telling the girls that most of Dart’s friends were taller than he, and Janie has made a point of reminding Dot every 5 minutes that she’s tall, too, and wouldn’t object to a date with one of Dart’s tall friends. “But really, Dear, you don’t need to supply the whole house. In fact, just one man is enough to satisfy me, if that one is you.”

She had loads of fun in swimming class today. The class was split into two groups – excellent swimmers and non-, or poor swimmers. Of course, Dot was in the former group and was asked several times to demonstrate various strokes as the instructor described it from the pool’s edge. She paired up with a non-swimmer and helped her learn the basics. She was pleased to have been singled out in such a positive way after the “beating” she took in biology. Later, Dot and Mid went back to the pool for open swim and had loads of fun.

Now she’s not sure if her eyes are burning from all the chlorine, or from lack of sleep, but either way, she’s ending this letter to get a little shut-eye. She wishes him well on Wednesday night, and then adds a PS saying that a letter from her mother today “brought the sad news that the deal in June is practically impossible.” I’m not sure what that means, but she may be referring to her hope that the Petersons could drive her back to Greenwich and then vacation with the Chamberlains at Sunapee.