Dart hit the jackpot today with six letters from Dot and three from his parents. One of them was mailed from Ohio just 25 hours before he received it! He’ll get right to answering as many as he can just as soon as he checks to see if the dryer is done. (Yes! He finally started doing some laundry!)

There’s an air field a few hundred feet from where Dart’s staying. The planes barely miss the top of the barracks as they take off. “Its fun to watch the fellows pull their heads down between their shoulders  and cast furtive glances at the ceiling as the planes pass over.”

A couple of notes Dot mailed several days ago finally showed up, stapled together by the Haggard’s mailman. It’s nice that he’s able to fill in the gap of news.

He likes the sight and sound of his letter salutation, “Dearest Dot,” so he writes it again, followed immediately by a slightly altered version, “Dot Dearest.” He likes the sight and the sound of both phrases almost as much as he likes the feeling of being “mutually in love.” As he says, “There’s nothing like it. I heartily recommend it to other young couples. No family should be without it. ” See what a few letters can do to lift this guy’s spirits?

His parents are fully aware that he’ll be returning to sea. On that subject, he reports on all the Haggard men who left today for scattered destinations. Nearly all have been transferred to places where they’ll eventually be assigned to another ship. Dart still waits. There’ll be no statewide service nor Presidential Citation for Dart. His luck has been spent on being in love with Dot and he can ask for nothing more. But, he’s hoping the proposed bill that would release from armed services former college students whose studies were rudely interrupted by the war. If it passes, he’ll be the first to apply. It’s a long shot, but he’s revived the practice of stepping on Lucky cigarette packages just in case.

Switching gears, as he recalls, his Miss Palmer never required her students to construct three “well-rounded, well-constructed interesting sentences, as Miss Garnett requires of her class. He does recall having to make several three minute speeches which he never scored well on because he always spoke too long. Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?

When he starts to discuss the long talks he and Dot had, he gets quite mushy and romantic. They helped him get over his guilt of thinking “unwholesome thoughts” because their talks helped him see that when one is so much in love, there’s nothing unwholesome about it. He misses their kisses – all varieties thereof, and he misses the long silences between them while they just reveled in holding each other. “I miss the lovely look in your eyes and the softness of your cheeks, and the touch of your hair. I miss the sharp, convulsive movements of your diaphragm when you laugh as we’re clasped in each other’s arms. In other words, Dot I MISS YOU!”

Commenting about Dot’s acquaintance whose engagement ring is not as pretty as Dot’s, he writes “I tried to make sure of that. No other ring had the same friendly simplicity and clean-looking sparkle which I found in the ring that matches you so perfectly. It was made for you, whether the maker knew it or not.”

He’s happy, if also perhaps a little jealous, that she’s joining clubs at school. He never had time for them at Case, but he suspects they’d be fun. Aghast that she’s already been at college for four weeks, he says she’ll catch up with him in no time. “Oh Navy, PLEASE let me GO! (To college!)”

Dot writes so many beautiful things in her letters – things that make him feel so very homesick. “But I thrive on that kind of homesickness. Please don’t ever stop saying and meaning those things.”

The phone call he made to Dot lifted his spirits at least as much as it did hers. He hopes she means it when she says his talk encouraged her and he tells her not to beat herself up about arguing with Eleanor. He reminds her that nobody can get along with everyone, and says it may even turn out that she and Ellie become good friends someday. From what he wrote, it seems as though Ellie’s dislike of Dot began with the New England way that Dot says “aunt” and “tomato.” She says Dot’s speech is “affected” and she plays hillbilly music just to rub it in to Dot’s “snobby” face. Obviously, Ellie doesn’t get out much, and she’s not a very good judge of character if she thinks Dot is affected and snobby!

He argues with Dot’s supposition that if he’d not been in the Navy, they would not have met. He’s convinced they would have met some way, some time. It was meant to be.

Before signing off, Dart returns again to the topic of their long conversations and gives a peek into how inexperienced and naive these two kids are. He tells her how much closer they’ve become since having that talk, how he hopes she’ll never be timid about asking him about such things. “I don’t know many of the technical terms, but I can guess at the principles.”

It’s uncanny how similar these two lovebirds are! The first sentence of Dot’s letter is nearly identical to the first one of Dart’s on the same day. She hit the jackpot with mail, too; three letters from Dart and one from Helen, the foster daughter of her sister Harriet in Greenwich.

At the risk of sounding harsh, she wishes he’d just hurry and get sent overseas. After all, the sooner he goes, the sooner he returns. If she thought he was having fun in Norfolk, she’d never wish him far away, but his letters from there sound so down that she wants him out of there!

Tomorrow in English, she has a “theme test.” Choosing one of ten topics provided on the board, students must use their class time to write a theme. Then, their papers will be graded by three teachers using the “S” and “U” grading scale. If the student receives two “S” grades, they pass, but if the Us prevail, the student must keep writing themes until they are successful. Dot wagers she’ll be writing themes until Christmas, but I suspect she’ll sail right through the first one.

Today Dot discovered that Phyllis shares Dot’s opinion of Eleanor – rude, selfish and spoiled. Dot admires Phyl’s ability to keep her feelings hidden and she suggests to Dart that nothing is gained by her sniping about Ellie to Dart in her letters. She vows to stop and learn to get along with her roommate.

If it weren’t for Dart and his beautiful letters, she’d be much more discouraged about college than she is now. She wants so much to be successful at it so that she won’t disappoint him. Whenever her mood slips, all she needs is a chat or letter from her favorite guy.

She’s enclosing a picture of Dart’s third favorite girl (presuming that she’s #1, his little cousin Susie Brown is #2). She hopes he’ll have a chance to drool over Katie a bit. Because the photo didn’t survive with the letter, I can only guess that she means Kathryn Hepburn.