While at sea, Dart begins, “Right in the beginning I must tell you that I’m too much in love, to utterly homesick for you, to write a decent letter at all. Perhaps it would be better if I could lay this aside until such a time as I can write a letter which contains a fair share of each wit, news, conversation in general, and love. Now I have no witty sayings, no news to relate, altogether too much longing for you, and a strong desire for real conversation with audible words instead of these stale scribbling on paper.” This paragraph signals a beautiful letter ahead.
He continues, “If I’d done the right thing, I wouldn’t have mentioned your wanting to join the WAVEs in any letters but the ones to you. But I hopelessly bungled my hand and protested as violently to Mother and Dad as I did to you. I protested even more violently to Fred, for he knows I cuss plenty and is not averse to hearing, and lending a sympathetic mind to my frequent profane protestations. He must believe, when he receives my last letter that I’ve completely lost my head. As a matter of fact, I did.”
“I lost it a year and a half ago when I met the most charming and lovely young lady ever to capture the heart of a sailor and his family. I’ve been out of my mind, out of this world over you ever since. Perhaps these events of recent date have brought me back to earth for the first time since then. If so, I find that it’s as easy for one walking on earth, or even in the deep pits of despair and dejection, to be in love, as it is for one whose footsteps are stilled in the deep cottony softness of cloud-like paths.”
“And speaking of walking on clouds, I’ve done another interior sketch of our castle in the sky. Also made dealings for a nice half acre of alto-stratus, near where Cumulus Avenue crosses Nimbus Road. I don’t know yet how to dig foundations in alto-stratus, but maybe we won’t need a basement in our cloud home. (Might need a cloud mower, though.)”
He goes on to tell Dot that he showed his house sketches to more people. There was the shipmate who knows construction and believes it could be built for $8,000. Another guy with some knowledge of the building trade estimates about the same, built, insulated and landscaped. Both these men gave Dart some good pointers and lots of encouragement. One of them sent Dart’s plans to his wife, saying he likes them better than any of the 12 sets they’ve been working on. He told Dart that when they are complete, maybe Dart could get these designs published.
Fired up by such an enthusiastic response to his ideas, he set out to draw the first floor to scale. Starting with the living and dining rooms, and the bedrooms, he worked toward the back of the house. He found the rooms don’t fit. Did Dot ever see a kitchen that was three feet wide? That might work for skinny Dart, but he doubts most people would be comfortable. If she could learn to move about in a kitchen that small, their problem would be solved!
He tells her about engaging in a long-standing Navy tradition on the deck tonight. That’s the tradition of complaining about the Navy. To Dart’s mind, most of the complaints were justified and seemed to follow a theme: Why the heck are we using all these ships to fight over a bunch of insignificant little islands that have nothing we want on them, and for which the US has no use. Even if we win them, we’ll probably just give them back to Japan after the war, anyway. If we’re not fighting over the islands, then it must be the water. Lord knows there’s plenty of that to go around. So, this whole war is senseless and we should all go home. Dart’s take on the subject? “I, personally, don’t even see why we’re fighting over the water. You can’t breathe it, walk on it, or eat it. It’s too salty to drink and to deep to wade in.”
He tells Dot about one of the best books he’s ever read, written by the guy who wrote “Magnificent Obsession” and “Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal,” Lloyd C. Douglas. It’s called “The Robe,” and he highly recommends it to Dot.
In response to her wish that he had made a recording of his voice before leaving the Sates, he tells her that he was often tempted, but the lines were always too long. Anyway, he would have been so nervous that his voice would have sounded unnatural. “It’s very much natural for me to be saying sweet things to you, though. I’m glad I saved ’em all for you, Darling. I felt as if I’d been saying them to you all my life and I want to keep them, just for you, for the rest of it.”
Dot explains that she didn’t write last night because she was in a terrible mood and didn’t want her letter to reflect that. Then today, she got a wonderful letter from Dart, and her mood has greatly improved. Even better, she was assigned to the packing room at work, so she has time to answer that letter while she works.
Now it’s her turn to recall her first trip into New York City. She earned it by getting As in her three worst subjects of math, geography and spelling. She was 12 years old and her 20-year old sister Harriet escorted her into the City. That was Dot’s first ride on a train and when they got there, Harriet made sure that before the day was out, she would get to ride on every form of transportation available in NYC. They spent the day on subways, double deck buses, taxis, and even the Staten Island ferry. They toured Radio City and the Chrysler Building and visited the Statue of Liberty. They didn’t get home until 1:00 AM. Her Dad was angry when they arrived, but changed his tune as soon as he realized how much fun they’d had.
Yesterday, Dot got two job offers. One is for a new store similar to FS, but closer to her house and paying more money. The other is for a company called The Toy Mart. It sells new and second hand toys. She would be the only employee other than the owner, which would get her out of the situation she’s in now where she has three bosses who don’t talk to each other and who all expect her to be on call for them alone. Both offers are worth considering, so she’ll discuss them with her family tonight. She hopes that a new job would get her out of this rut she’s been in, even if she can’t join a branch of the service.
By the way, Gordon shares Dart’s opinion about her joining the WAVEs, so she says that’s the end of the discussion. She certainly couldn’t go against the wishes of her two favorite servicemen.
She guesses that neither of them will ever forget their meeting at Grand Central Station when Dart came to visit her. She was so nervous and had gotten no sleep the night before. She was out of bed before the alarm went off at 5:30. Dart was the last sailor off the train and Dot didn’t think her knees would hold out. She didn’t know how to act with this boy she liked so much, but whom she’d only seen three times in her life. When she asked El, her sister sort of winked and said, “Don’t worry about it. He may not be a Marine, but something tells me before too long he’ll have the situation well in hand.” It turned out that he was almost as nervous as Dot was! “Cheer up! Next time you see me I’m gonna talk so much you won’t get a word in edgewise.”
She turns serious then , when she tells Dart she doesn’t blame him for thinking about the “ifs,” but she begs him not to write about them. “I’m sure God doesn’t want us to anticipate sadness and heartache. Of course you’ll come home. They need a few million men like you to keep this cockeyed world on it’s feet, if it ever gets on its feet. ” Right now, her only prayer is that he and Gordon and millions of others get home to a peaceful life NOW! If every fighting man – German, English, Japanese, French or any other nationality – would simply refuse to fight any more, there’d be an instant end to the war. Then all these men could come home and do what men are supposed to do – teach their children and make a better world for them. “The grass on the other side of the fence may look greener, but if everyone keeps bombing cities, there won’t be any grass on either side of the fence, ever again.”
“There, now you have my opinion, better known as How Chamberlain Would Run the World If Given Half a Chance.
She enclosed a small photo clipped from a magazine of the newest Hollywood starlet, Lauren Bacall. She tells Dart she’ll look for a better picture of her – one where she’s not wearing a long-sleeved winter dress, if he knows what she means.
No letters tomorrow, but I’ll be back on the 29th with one from Dart.
