Dart was supposed to go to sick bay for a check-up this morning, but when the doctor saw he was on the list for liberty, he told Dart to do what he wanted. Maybe he can stop in and see the doc tomorrow.

He likes her resolution to attend church every Sunday. He won’t do that  until he’s out of the Navy because religious services here are not to his liking. Rather than being warming and inspiring, they’re more the ‘repent your sins, you lead a dangerous life, you may be dead tomorrow’ stuff. “Doesn’t rest at all well with men who are about to go into battle. …When I go to church, …I want to learn how to lead a good Christian life. Christianity is a warm and friendly religion, and I can’t see the use of making it a fearful one.”

In response to her comments about Foecking and Tupa, he agrees that they are unspeakably happy in their marriages. Both were as inexperienced as Dot and Dart are when they began their life together and are happy they waited. Then he writes that both men are “supposed to be going out with us.” I don’t know if that means on today’s liberty or out on the pending cruise.

Now he begins his response to her comments on his “hefty” letter. He knows exactly what she means when she writes that she feels so young and shy when speaking to his parents about such matters. He feels mature and sure of himself when he discusses things with Dot. He’s comfortable talking to his folks. But when he needs to address serious topics with her parents, he feels like a kid. How he wishes the two of them could speak to their parents together. It seems to me that they’re both anticipating more objections from their families than I think they’ll get, but they are eager for the approval of their parents. whom they love and respect so much.

If she goes to summer school and finishes at Kent in March, he’s not sure working for three months would really matter that much. He’s concerned, selfishly, that having a job for such a short time might impede her taking a honeymoon.

He closes his rather serious letter with the kind of  wonderful, loving words that Dot longs to see in every letter. “How I long for the sight of you, Dot! I want to see you in a kitchen – any kitchen but preferably our own. I want to see you in a front door. …I want to see you at a station, meeting me for the last time in uniform. I want to see you smile, and see you for that flashing moment we’re running to meet and kiss each other. I want to beam along with you as we go to church and out on dates together. Oh, my Darling, I love you.”

#     #     #

Dot is writing this clever letter from Dart’s bedroom in Cleveland, curled up on his bed. She can see that his mother’s been busy in here since she last stayed over in December. “The windows fairly glisten and the curtains have been starched so they look as clean and fresh as a spring morning. There has even been a mirror installed, which, as long as I keep from standing in front of it, doesn’t detract from the room at all.”

In spite of rainy weather tonight, his father took her and Helen to see “Captain Kidd.” It was a great movie, although Dot thinks Technicolor would have improved it 100%. She reports that it wasn’t an authentic story, but it ended the way the public wanted it to, to there are no complaints from her. “Pirate pictures seem to hold a strange fascination for me, although I don’t know why.”

She and Dart’s parents listened to records this evening, which would have been the perfect time to discuss when they should get married, but she didn’t know how to bring it up, and they didn’t. How she wishes he could be there when they discuss it. Does he think they could put it off for three or four months? No, probably not.

The bed beckons. She and Mrs. Peterson plan to shop tomorrow, she she needs to get some shut-eye. She’ll try to write a longer letter tomorrow.