Dart apologizes for the terrible paper he’s using for this letter. He was on fire watch until after the canteen closed, so he was unable to buy any of the good stuff. I’m sure Dot wouldn’t care if he wrote on the back of a cereal box, as long as he wrote!
A package arrived from home today with nuts and cookies, Scotch tape, band-aids, etc. Most of the “eats” are gone. He also got a letter from his Aunt Flora who says she’s sending him some “goodies” and some political literature. The latter, he could do without, although some of her stuff is rather interesting. Best of all, he got a letter he’d been missing from Dot. It was stamped “delayed,” with no further explanation. He’s happy to have it, whenever it arrives.
“My liberty last night consisted of a walk of approximately five miles, punctuated by two cokes and a chocolate milkshake. It was terminated by a few minutes at the USO, where I was solicited to join a choir – until the lady heard me sing.”
At this point, he begins to gleefully sing the praises of his “handy, easy-to-use, clean CO2 fire extinguisher.” This boy can get so darned excited by slick technology and keen new gadgets! He extols the virtues of this extinguisher/refrigerant for several paragraphs, even trying to tie it into what Dot might be studying in physical science class. He concludes, comically , with “It’s the same stuff that’s in ginger ale that makes your mouth feel like your foot’s asleep.”
Has he mentioned that the John R. Craig’s stay in the yard has been extended? They’re now saying the ship will be in Charleston until at least mid-January. He half wishes he hadn’t used up all his 30-day leave.
Referring to the delayed letter that arrived today, in which she asks him to be less negative in his letters to his folks, he writes, “Your scolding’s well-taken, Dot. At least, it’s well-directed. To see if it’s well-taken will require some more time to see if I can resist the impulse to grouse about my situation. I didn’t write so much to you because I thought you were having it tough enough without my continual, ceaseless fault-finding and complaining.”
He wishes they could have one of their 0400 staying up sessions again. Maybe they won’t need to be so long next time because they won’t have to cling to every fleeting second they’re together. They’ll only need to cling to each other. There’s something so intimate and heart-warming about those times. He’s sorry if they’ve done anything to upset their parents by staying up so late those times, but he feels they needed that time together.
He loves that she’s getting so much better at expressing her feelings. He tells her he’s not sure their love would have thrived if she hadn’t answered his letters from the hospital so quickly and so well. In her third or fourth letter to him, she seemed surprised (and delighted) that he should have written to her so promptly and so often. He recalls that those early letters to her always began with “Dear Dorothy.” He much prefers the current openings of “My Darling” and “My Dearest Fiance’.”
“No, I’m not angry in the least for my scolding. I know I deserved it. You see, I do need ‘squaring away’ occasionally. So far you’ve done admirable jobs of it.”
“Goodnight my darling. I love you and miss you more than I can describe.”
Dot begins, “This will have to be a quickie tonight because we did what we thought better of last night – we went to see “A Bell for Adano” and “Having a Wonderful Crime.” The first was a very (that’s about the extent of my adjectives) good war picture, but there was no fighting. Perhaps that’s what made it so enjoyable. …The other was a mystery/comedy starring Pat O’Brien, George Murphy and Carol Landis. Funny and light, it was just the sort of thing we needed to boost our sadly sagging spirits.”
She forgot to mention that they have a new roommate. Her favorite, Phyllis, moved to a quiet back room because she needed a better place to study. In moved Joyce, another very nice girl. “The only trouble is, we’re both interested in only one thing – a certain man. Consequently, we tend to much discussion about our future, but rarely do we talk of things at hand – like physical science, for example.”
As Dot writes, Ellie is madly sewing, “as if she were planning to be married at 6:00 Mass tomorrow. She says it’s something for her ‘Hopeless Chest,” but at the rate she’s going, I think she’s got something up her sleeve. By the way, she told me to tell you that she isn’t Catholic, but that’s the only church open that early, and the drug might wear off if she waits until noon.”
She writes wryly, “I got a short letter from you today which was twice as long as the one I got from you yesterday.”
She wonders if one of the “what ifs” he was thinking about recently was the possibility that he could get discharged before June 1. Something he said in a letter made her think about that. She also wonders if she’s told him enough just how much she loves him, but says she loves him too much to ever say it enough.Her roommates want her to go to bed, and so she must, after drawing a little cartoon of the officer saying “Let’s go!”
