Dart begins this short letter by telling Dot he has selected three of her recent letters to answer tonight.

“Even though you may be cured of your lack of talkativeness, there are times when silence is a definite virtue. Just between us, what could you say in response to what I told you in the car that Wednesday? What does one say to things like that? I was satisfied with the way things were going. I remember those moments very, very well, Dot.” It really makes me curious about just what he said!

Now it’s his turn to rememeber the phone call he made to his home from Great Lakes last May 4. He was so glad that Dot was there, getting to know his parents. “That phone call was a grand thing for an ailing  morale.”

He understands how a year can seem like a long time to have accomplished nothing,  but Dot should not be too hard on herself. He feels his only accomplishments for his three years since graduating from Shaw were earning money for his year and a half of education, and falling in love with Dot. “I have yet to make my mark in the World. I even still must find the proper niche for that mark to be ensconced in for full effect. …When I come back, we can work out our future together.”

In response to a question she posed, he writes “Silly girl! You ask if any of the stuff I work on is pictured in that magazine clipping I sent you. Do you think I could answer a question like that without having my letter look like a bad attempt at paper dolls?” He explains that destoyers, affectionately called “tin cans,” or just “cans” do look big up against some of the tiny ships in the fleet, “But compared to a battleship or a carrier, a can is a pitifully small bit of metal.”

He comments about a pleasant customer Dot mentioned recently and recalls how much nicer a job is when one has pleasant people to work with. He also asks how her driving lessons are going.

That’s all he has time or energy for tonight. “See, no amount of love can do everything.”

Dot squeezes alot into her two pages. She received Dart’s letter written on May 24. It was postmarked May 26 and arrived in Greenwich on June 4. Not bad! I hope that means his masterpiece written on the 26th arrives very soon.

She’s glad the Easter snapshot she sent made such a hit with him. In turn, she’d happily accept as many photos of himself has he’s able to send her.

Perhaps the reason she’s in love with a “rawboned sailor” is because she’s jealous of his rawbones. She observes that people often want most what they cannot have, and she jokes that she certainly has no raw bones.

When he spoke of sharing each other’s fun and hardships, it reminded her of a movie she saw a long time ago called “Roughly Speaking.” Starring Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson, it told the story of a couple, who in spite of many hardships and trials were able to stick together and laugh at their troubles. With wisdom that belies her age, Dot says. “In my opinion (which is worth little) one can pretty much tell what sort of stuff a person is made of by the way they take hardships and disappointments. I’m ‘fraid I’m weak in that respect, but I’m sure it’ll be much easier when I have you to face them with me.” I’ve always thought that one of the things that impressed Dot the most about Dart and cemented their early relationship was the way he managed his seemingly endless run of bad medical news duing all those months at Great Lakes Naval Hospital. She has shown a similar degree of spunk and positive outlook in the face of setbacks.

Okay, she accepts his bargain. He gets her and she gets him. The two of them together. In true Dot style, however, she must say that she thinks he’s getting the raw end of the deal.

It’s time to be on the lookout for June’s full moon. By this time next month, Dart will have been at sea for six months. She implores him not to say that there might be 15 more months to get through! She’s already showing signs of turning gray.

If it stops raining, she, Janie and Nancy are planning a trip to Playland tomorrow. She describes it as “Euclid Beach of the East.”

Her closing line, “I love you my Darling, come home soon,” got me thinking. They write all the time about being together, about his homecoming, about how hard this separation is for both of them. But Dart’s home is in Cleveland, Ohio and Dot’s is several hundred miles away in Greenwich, Connecticut. I’m sure it will be a relief to have him “home” in the USA, out of harm’s way, but they’re unlikely to actually see each other any more than they do now, with him in the south seas. It’ll be interesting to see how they weather that challenge.