Dot must have invited Dart to a weenie roast because the first part of his letter is a report on his efforts to secure a date for one of her friends. Homer is a no-go and Al is a probably not. He’ll keep trying.
He’s enclosing copies of the snapshot they both liked, but the copies have been poorly developed and aren’t as good as the originals.
He must have been half asleep when he counted their penny jar because he was off by about $10. Sadly, their total is actually only about $22. I hope they can get to $100 by the time they marry.
Warner and Swasey offered him no hope of a job with them. They have 200 of their former workers who are back from the war that they must find space for. Also a letter from the VA says he’s earned 43 months and 24 days of college tuition, if he can get into a school. Now he sits with no school, no job, and very little hope of marrying a year from June. He feels strongly that they must be established in at least one part of their lives before they take the big leap, but all he can think about is taking that big leap.
Last night he had a dream about Dot, followed by a nightmare that included her also. “How you and your family got to be living in the Windemere Methodist Church parsonage, he can’t say, but that’s where they were. The atomic bomb had just destroyed all of Cleveland except a handful of people. He awoke, sick with fear that they were all dying from “radiations,” but then he went back to sleep and dreamed that they were alright. At some point he and Dot were separated because he remembers a joyful reunion as they found each other again.
“Since I heard a radio program last week, and now since that nightmare last night, I’ve picked up the ill-at-ease, fearful, almost guilty feeling I had when the A-bomb was first announced. For my own sense of peace and that of the rest of the world, I wish that terrible weapon had never been possible to invent.”
When he sleeps tonight, he hopes he dreams of another reunion. Better yet, he wishes they could have one like it in real life, and never have to be parted again.
“Thanks for the big kiss goodnight you sent me. Here’s another one like it, with one of our favorite embraces thrown in for no extra cost.”
# # #
Another hurried letter from Dot brings him up to date on some of the details she didn’t have time to explain on the phone about the weenie roast. (I find it endearing that she was nervous about “calling a boy,” even though that boy was her fiance!) Anyway, Phyl tried to set up a date to the weenie roast for Janie, but he said he’d only do it if he could bring a friend and if Phyll would be his friend’s date. She agreed, and then asked Mid if she would be the date for the guy that Dart was hoping to bring.I found my self fretting a bit about the fact that Mid may be stuck without a date, when I remembered that these events happened 70 years ago and any hard feelings on Mid’s part have surely been long forgotten.
Although she’s excited about all these last minutes plans and a chance to see Dart earlier than expected, she hopes she finds some time to get a little studying in before the Wednesday night weenie roast.
Holly has no hard feelings about Dart’s curt response the other night. He confessed that he intentionally interrupted Dot and Dart’s farewell to create a little stir. He still thinks Dart is one of the finest young men he’s ever met, and Dot wholeheartedly agrees.
Dart shouldn’t stew about not being an expert swimmer. In swim class today, Dot was surprised to learn she’s not very good at floating on her back. Forget that old myth about “bigger” girls being good floaters. Her instructor resembles a toothpick and she floats just fine!
She must get to bed, but not without telling Dart how much she loves him and how eager she is to see him tomorrow night. Of course, that means there are no letters written on April 9, but our steadfast writers will return on the 10th.