Dart is counting down the days (a mere two) before his leave commences. There are threats of severe vengeance circulating through his company – vengeance against any poor sucker who curses too loudly, whistles at the wrong female, or in any way gets into sufficient trouble to delay leave for the remaining company.

Dart tells about his phone call home today, to discuss details of his arrival with his folks. When he asked his brother Burke about his lucrative summer job, all Burke could say was that it was hot. He must monitor the gauges on 14 furnaces in some factory somewhere in Cleveland. He did accept Dart’s helpful suggestion that “Hotter than the hinges in Hades” might be a more colorful description.

After church service today, Dart did all of his laundry, except the clothes on his back and his dungarees, “which I don’t intend to wear until they can stand up my themselves and crawl out of the sea bag when I whistle.”

Here’s a chipper note from Dot. She says to this soon-to-be-graduated sailor, “If you aren’t in the best of spirits and having a wonderful time – well, you better get in the groove.”

She talks about her family’s summer cottage on Lake Sunapee, NH. Until 1941, she had been there every summer of her life, beginning at age two months. Then gas rationing started, preventing the family from making the trip. Dot writes that her parents are going up next week for July 4th, and she wishes she were going with them. Now, it’s her job that prevents her from making the trip. She says that getting up to Lake Sunapee is yet another reason she wants this war to end.

That humble little summer place is still in the Chamberlain family, providing the glue that keeps our family close into the sixth generation. Mom still makes her yearly pilgrimage to recharge her batteries and commune with the spirits of those who have loved the place as much as she does.

She writes that she is going nuts, thinking of him being so much closer to Greenwich soon, without it doing her much good.