The central characters in this story are young, as is often the case in war-time romances. He is tall and thin. If he were a woman, he might be described as willowy, but instead, he is just skinny. A sapling whose knobby wrists extended just a bit too far beyond his cuffs. His face is intelligent, his eyes serious, yet with a twinkle that reveals a sharp wit. The elder son from a family of humble means, he has the improbable name of Dart Ganes Peterson, Jr.

She is a beauty, but not a typical one. Chestnut curls frame her moon-shaped face. Her soft, curvy body belies her natural athleticism and contrasts with his angular form. She has a playful demeanor, but would never be considered silly. She has a tendency to disregard how smart she is, preferring instead to see herself as simply practical. Her name is Dorothy Chamberlain, but she’d likely cringe if you called her by her given name. Her friends call her Dot.

Dot and Dart. With names like that, surely they were destined to share a remarkable story. Could it have been the same for a Dart and Mary or a Dot and Bill? Certainly not as memorable.

When she met Dart, Dot was a boarding student at Andrews School for Girls in Willoughby, a suburb of Cleveland. Andrews was a sort of vocational school for young ladies looking for a practical education and vocational training. In later years, it would become one of Dot’s favorite lines to say she’d met the love of her life at an all-girls school. She had come to Willoughby from Greenwich of her own volition. She’d been miserable at her local high school where teachers often compared her unfavorably to her older brother and sisters. She never felt at home in the snooty atmosphere of this upscale community just outside New York City. After learning about Andrews School from a brochure her mother surreptitiously left lying about, Dot decided it would be her salvation. Her parents told her that if she could get straight A’s the following semester at Greenwich High School, she could move to Ohio and attend Andrews. That was all the motivation Dot needed to excel in her classes.

Dart had graduated from Shaw High School in East Cleveland.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he felt compelled to join the war effort. He’d always said that if he was going to fight for his country, at least he wanted a clean bed to sleep in, so he enlisted in the Navy. The Navy selected him for an elite assignment called the V12 unit. This was a group of promising young students whose job it was to study engineering. When our story begins, he was close to washing out of Case School of Engineering. As smart as he was, Dart’s math skills were not at the level required for an engineering degree. In later years, Dart would credit his failure in engineering for launching him into the emerging field of technical writing.

The two met when each was included in a group blind date, arranged by a classmate of Dot’s. Four students from Case used valuable gas ration points on the trip to a distant suburb of Willoughby for the chance to meet some nice young ladies. Dot and Dart were not paired with each other for the date, but the attraction between them was instant and mutual.

The primary author of this blog is Susan Peterson Darcy, middle child of Dot and Dart. I hope that my siblings Nancy Peterson Glidden and Tom Peterson will chime in and fill in my stories and comments with some of their own.

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