Along with two letters from Dot, Dart’s mail also brought his Terminal Leave bond and check. The bond was for $50 and the check was slightly over four dollars. But the biggest thrill in his mailbox was Dot’s coded message: ” XXX OOO *** (to be continued)” Dart thinks they’re terribly clever to have come up with their secret code.
He has just spent a leisurely evening – completing his English assignment, reading Life magazine’s 10th anniversary issue, and listening to beautiful music on the radio.
In his Spanish test today, he knows of two questions he blew but he feels pretty good about the rest of the test. They also began an oral Journalism test today. He hasn’t been called on yet, but when he is, he’ll be graded on how fully he can answer the question and how many prompts he needs from the class and the professor to get to the complete answer.
He’s finally getting around to answering her letter of Nov. 4th which contained a newspaper clipping of some telephone switchboards. Naturally, he’s curious about how they actually work. “What I don’t understand is how you connect your customer with her destination. Do you have a jack (hole, or trunk, or whatever you call it) for each customer in Greenwich, or do you relay the calls to some other operator who then completes the calls?” It’s a pity we won’t get an answer from Dot due to the lost letters, because I’d like to know how that worked myself.
He continues. “Do your ears ever get tired from the headphones or have they figured out a way for such a thing not to be bothersome? How about the mouthpiece – did they ever make a breastplate that was lighter than they look?” When I remember that such devices as Dart mentions predate most plastics, I assume they were made from that obsolete material called Bakelite, which was extremely heavy and brittle.
There seems to have been news from Dot that either she or El somehow met a former nurse from the ward Dart spent so many months in – a nurse named Mary Forte. He recalls that she was rather unattractive and that she was confused about the names, ages, and personalities of Dot and El. It would be a small world story if somehow a Navy nurse who cared for Dart in a Chicago hospital somehow met his fiance or her sister in Connecticut. I wonder if Mom recalls the back story of this situation.
He writes that if he could ever do just one thing as considerate as her buying the chocolate for Mrs. Reynolds, he’d gloat about it for years. “Thank you for being that way, Dot. It makes me all the more proud to know you and to love you ; and it gives me great cause for rejoicing that a girl like you would fall in love, and continue to love a guy like me.”
He’s not surprised that she can see no resemblance between Gretchen and either parent, because he’s of the belief that babies don’t start developing real features until they’re much older. (He’s quite the expert, you know.) He shares Dot’s hopes that she’ll be able to “feed” their children. (I think he means breast-feed, but that was probably too racy a term for 1946.) He feels that some women forego this experience – in spite of the new scientific evidence that it is much healthier for both mother and child to “nurse” – because they don’t want to spoil their figures. Studies show that if women would follow their doctor’s advice, they can return to the figure they had before giving birth. (Does this sound a teensy bit sexist when viewed in 21st century light?) “Let’s hear no excuse from you, Dot. I’ll bet you’ll say that your figure is already bad enough (you do say such things) but look at some of the Italian and Polish women, and remember that you’re mighty well off. ” Well, I’d say that was one of the clumsier statements he’s ever put in print!
“Gee, that passage you wrote about being curled up on a rug in front of the fireplace, listening to music made me lonesome. It still does, every time I read it. Whad’ya mean, spend a Sunday afternoon that way? How ’bout lot’s of Sunday afternoons?”
She must have commented on how proud she is of his recent successes, for her writes that the best thing about having success at anything is knowing that he makes her proud. “How can I ever tell you how much it means to a fella for the girl he has a crush on (a permanent one, in this case) is thrilled over all his little successes? You’re wonderful. Gee, I wish I could see your face light up when you hear good news like mine of a week or so ago. I know you’re happy, and it just doubles my happiness to know it.”
“Speaking of crushes, I hope we’re always happily aware of a crush for each other. I love you, Dot, and I like you, too.”
He needs to get on the ball and get his application for the City Club. He’s already thanked Earle for inviting him, but he’ll be happy to thank him again on Dot’s behalf.
He’d better watch out if she loves him like 60 atom bombs, because that’s a lot of dynamite! He can’t wait for their next installment of XXX OOO *** !!!