Dart updates Dottie on some of what’s happening in his neighborhood. First, Burke has planned what he thinks will be his last date with Edie tomorrow night. She’s been running with a fast crowd and doesn’t seem to have time for her old friends. Burke’s not too broken up about it because he’s had some other dates himself. Dot needn’t worry that he’ll be lonely.

Although Dart missed 19 out of 79 questions on his psychology test, things are not so dire as they might appear. His professor explained that he makes the tests so hard that no one can get 100%. But then, after he grades the tests, he puts the top 10% into the A group, the bottom 10% into the F group, then divides the middle into 20% B, 40% C, and 20% D. Dart’s score was the 9th highest out of 133 students, so he’s in the A group.

Last night Pop drilled out the dowels in the legs and body of the broken old buffet and then he, Dart and Helen reassembled the thing with new dowels and glue. The only glue they had on hand was linoleum cement, which they hope will do the trick. Dart claims that product “will hold anything to anything.”  After a good cleaning and polishing today, the grand old piece looks pretty swell, in spite of the checkered varnish in some places.

He plans to weigh himself soon. She won’t recognize him if he keeps gaining weight at the rate he’s been going. If Dot has kept to her plan to lose one pound for every one that  he’s gained, she’ll be positively skinny. He hopes he can hold onto the weight now that he’s found it.

In preparation for hosting the model railroad club tomorrow night, he’s been spending long hours in the basement. He’s quite proud of the results. Aside from one little thing that will require a bit of tinkering tomorrow, his layout is in pretty good shape. As a bonus, he swept the basement, but his tools away and tidied up his work bench. Lo, and behold, the place actually looks pretty nice.

Turning his attention to Dot’s recent letters, he wonders how much “stepping” out they’ll do at Sunapee. Will he need to pack a suit? He asks her to send the address so that his folks will be able to reach him in case of emergency.  Also, so that he can budget his share of gas and meals, can she give him an estimate on what his share might be? If she comes back with him, he must be back on, or before, the morning of September 20.

One of the letters he got from Dot today was the expected refutation of her “top-blowing” letter of the day before.  He tells her that the things he wrote that made her so angry he’d written as an attempt at humor which failed completely. He trusts her completely, at all times. “It was a big misunderstanding, Darling, but now that it’s been made clear, I’m still mad that my nature should have been betrayed, ironically, by a letter in which that nature entered only superficially and in attempted humor. Good night, my own darling. I do love you very much.”

#          #          #

Dot apologizes for “not much of a letter” tonight, but there was no mail from him and not much new around home.

The movie last night was wonderful, but she’d forgotten to take any tissue, so her sleeve was drenched by the time the film came to its happy ending.

She thinks tomorrow is the night of his railroad club meeting, She wishes him well and tells him how much she wishes she could be there to see the progress he’s made on his layout.

Her mother finished making a bedspread for her bedroom which certainly brightens it up. The fabric is a black, brown, tan, red, yellow, orange, blue and green stripe. She knows that sounds gaudy, but it really looks nice. She’ll send him a sample of the fabric if she can find a scrap.

She’s very sleepy, so she must end this here, with all her love.

There are no letters tomorrow, so I’ll continue on the 17th.

It’s 11:30 on Saturday night, and Dart misses Dot. Even her little radio by his bed doesn’t bring much solace. It’s dial is bringing in lots of stations, but they all seem to be playing such inanities as “Never Put Bananas in the Refrigerator.”

Last night’s gathering of his train buddies went over very well. The 10 members talked until about 10:15 and then adjourned to the basement to see Dart’s set up. “The gentlemen were fascinated with the trolley wire operation and with the odd-looking little narrow-gauge engines and cars. Everything worked far better than I had expected, including the fact that the bothersome little narrow-gauge cars stayed on the track most of the time. Of course there were some mishaps but as far as my fears were concerned, the derailments and inoperation were very minor troubles.” The guys were especially impressed when Dart’s little interuban cars navigated around the S-curve in his tracks, shooting sparks from the trolley pole, “just like downtown!”

The group returned upstairs for their “Dagwood” sandwiches, coffee and two kinds of his mother’s delicious cakes. They talked about the possibility of having a display at the Sportsmen Show next March to drive interest in their hobby.

With as clean as he got the basement prior to the meeting, he’s beginning to worry that the place is losing its character. Some of the nice, clean basements he’s seen lately “just look like a big, square, cement-lined hole under the house.”

Dart is more impressed with his psychology professor every class. On Friday, they had a long discussion on child-rearing. Dr. Wallen boiled all of the theories down to a simple statement. He believes children should be enjoyed and enjoyable. Dart loves the way the man talks so lovingly about his wife and daughter and their joyful life together. “He’s so sincere, and so effusive in his lectures that even the cynics and skeptics who believe such happiness can’t last in a marriage are becoming shaken. … His attitude makes me long for you, Dot, and it also strengthens my awareness that you and I have promise for the same sort of life.”

He speaks about how Dr. Wallen’s lectures about family life contrast so sharply with what Dart hears from his neighbor’s apartment. The Glanz children cry all day and night, lacking basic attention that their “too-busy” mama is unwilling to give them. Both parents yell, hit and threaten their children constantly. It grieves Dart to hear such chaos and sadness.

Speaking of the neighbors, another resident of their apartment block called the authorities about the Glanz’s failure to throw out their trash into the garbage cans – preferring instead to toss everything down their basement steps! When it started attracting rats, the neighbors had enough. The police came by the other day and gave the family two hours to clean out the filth in the basement or be evicted from the premises. Now Mr. Glanz is threatening to “sue the cops because of public humiliation.”

Dart is terrified about the political science midterm exam on Monday. He likes the lectures very much, but Dr. Heckman gives impossibly hard tests. As usual, Dart is feeling insecure about his ability to do well on the exam.

He’s sorry he forgot to remember the 11 month anniversary of their official engagement, but he’s happy they’ll be spending the 1-year anniversary together. To him, it seems like only a month ago that he gave her that ring.

“Good night, Dot. I wish I could tell you in a new way how very much I love you and miss you. I’ve told you so many ways, and now the biggest thing is to show you, now and forever, how much I love you and need you and trust you. It’s as hard to say good night to you tonight as it was the night you held onto my finger as I started to leave you. I wish we could be saying good night that way right now.”

#          #          #

Dot went to bed very early last night because she felt so poorly. After sleeping only about two hours throughout the night, she awoke suddenly at 6:00 am and lost just about everything she’d eaten over the last two days.

Of course this was the day she was supposed to judge the activities at Island Beach Day. Her boss was none too happy when she had to call off, but with a fever of 101 degrees, her father put his foot down and ordered her to bed for the day. A short time later, she decided to get up anyway. She took three steps and collapsed on the floor.

Mrs. Reynolds, the shut-in Dot has been caring for on Sundays, called today to say she had finally found permanent help and no longer needs Dot’s services. Dot’s relieved because “working seven days a week was beginning to get me down.” (And make her sick?)

She’s getting dizzy from sitting up, so she asks Dart’s forgiveness and puts her pen down.

When she picks it up again, it is the next day.  She’s feeling much better and has done a load of laundry and cleaned her room. Now she’s listening to Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor.” She notes that it started out quite melancholy but gradually became joyful. Curious, she read the album cover. She learned that the first two movements were written when the composer was preparing to marry, and the exuberant Finale was written as he was “liberated” from his marital bonds.

She writes in very glowing terms about a book she read this afternoon called “Men, Women, and God,” which she says is about “life.”  It was written by a minister, assisted by his physician brother, and it was the first such information that Dot has ever read, having found it by accident in the third floor bookcase. She was surprised to learn that it was written in 1922 because the ideas presented in it are very modern. “It was written for young married couples and couples about to be married. It answered many questions I didn’t know I had and gave me a new perspective on the human race as a whole.”

The book made her miss Dart more than ever. She’s so upset with missing him that she couldn’t even eat dinner. The reason she’s upset is that she has so much feeling locked up inside that she has no way to adequately express. “The feelings are there, but you will probably never know how very much I love you. That’s the best I can do now, but someday…!”

Three weeks from today, they will finally be at Sunapee together!

Dart begins by apologizing to Dot for neglecting her lately. Between studying for his tests, he wrote to Hal Martin regarding a certain wiener roast at the lake. After that, his Aunt Jean and his cousins stopped by the house around 10:00 pm for a short visit. He remembered at the last minute tonight that he had to write a character sketch for psychology class, so that’s how he spent his letter-writing time.

“Today brought the news of your illness. I wonder what it was. Once in a while a circumstance like that defies explanation. It didn’t sound like what I was expecting, but on the basis of something you said, I’ll bet that it happened a short time afterward. (We had a lecture on it in psych today.) There are seven or eight girls in the class of about 40 and some of the stuff that goes on in the class must really embarrass them.” From that quote, I would imagine that Dart is cryptically referring to the fascinating subject of menstrual cycles. I believe his frequent mention of Dot’s monthly troubles is his attempt to develop a deeper intimacy between them by discussing one of the most personal topics they have between them.

In poli sci class today they did a review of the test from last week. Now Dart thinks he did even worse than he’d expected. Since that midterm exam, Dr. Heckman has given the class six unannounced quizzes, including one the day after the big test, and another the day after that! Apparently, he likes to give pop quizzes when there is a high percentage of students who have skipped class that day, because they’re not allowed to make up work they missed by being absent. “His one question today, counting maybe 5% of the final grade: What is the name and number of the course? The guy must have been raised in a coal mine to be as dirty as that!”

He writes that Dot’s long, luxurious bubble bath must have felt great. He has a secret longing to see for himself what one of those things feels like.

His mother’s cold is much better, but she still has it. Consequently, they skipped their plans to go to an outdoor theater tonight, especially since it had rained all day and they didn’t want to sit in all that dampness.

Having a visit from Uncle Guy’s family last night got Dart to thinking about all the damage the mean and miserly Guy has wrought on Dart, Sr. over the years. He writes that he was shielded from his uncle’s nastiness while he was growing up, but now has come to see and recognize it. (He credits the study of psychology, and how it encourages the releasing of pent-up emotions.) He says his mother feels better when she can vent her feelings about Pop having been broken to an old man 20 years too soon. “I think that you, too, feel better after having told me some things about your feelings toward your own mother. An honest confession of doubts, worries, and feelings can be of the greatest value in relieving internal tensions.” Spoken like a true first-year psychology student!

In regard to Betty and Gordon being in $800 debt at the time of their marriage, Dart has a different feeling. Gordon was in the Navy, earning a fairly decent wage. Betty probably also had a job. That’s a different situation than he and Dot will face, with him in school and not earning much money. Still, he feels fairly certain that they’ll be able to manage alright.

He liked the fabric sample she enclosed of her new bedspread. It’ll surely brighten up her room.

How he prays that she’ll never keel over anytime when they are alone together because it would “scare the daylights” out of him.

He’s ready a “lousy biography” about Tchaikovsky for a psych report. “He was indeed a strange man. Lived most of his life in a strange love affair with his brother Modeste.”

“You weren’t very specific about ‘Life’ as you learned it from Men, Women, and God, but I think I know something of the nature of the subject matter. I’ll look for it in the library downtown. Can you tell me some of the questions you didn’t know you had?”

He hopes she feels, as he does, that their discussions of sex in general, and themselves specifically, have helped them both a great deal. ‘I know that I’m more sure of myself and generally more well-adjusted than before. Even though all reference to it, and our marriage in any way makes me almost unbearably lonely for you, I feel better for knowing what is in store for us.”

“Good night, lovely lady. I miss you somepin’ awful.”

#          #          #

El brought Dot another swell letter from Dart tonight. She and Norman were on their way to Stamford to see a movie – their third date in as many nights. “Hope it isn’t serious. Oh, he’s nice enough, but he’s very tall, very skinny, has a very high forehead, and is very quiet. He owns a jewelry store in Greenwich but I still can’t see what she sees in him.”

She’s glad his railroad meeting went so well, but she’s not surprised. Her little fella Chuck Pecsok is also a big train buff, and when she told him about Dart’s train layout, he practically demanded that she take him with her the next time she went to Cleveland.

She thinks Dr. Wallen sounds like the kind of professor who is very popular, yet very hard to come by.

She asks if Dart ever notices that when one of them is missing the other one more than usual, they both are experiencing that same thing? She knows it could be a coincidence, but she thinks there’s more to it than that.

How sad that his mother has a summer cold. They’re the worst kind. “Speaking of colds, let me emphasize again that you bring warm clothing to Sunapee. Mom writes that it’s plenty cool up there, even now. Ah, but there’s a consolation for you. There’s a whole forest full of trees that need to be chopped up into kindling. That does wonders for warming a person up, I hear. It may be that we’ll have to break a thin layer of ice before taking out morning dip. But we won’t let that stop us, will we, Dear?”

She answers that she’d love to go to dinner at Mrs. Carle’s with him and Homer, if she’s there. There’s still some question about whether she’ll be able to afford the rip without dipping into her savings, which she doesn’t want to do. And she thinks it would be a good idea to put their pennies in a bank account.

It’s only 10:30, but her days at the Pecsok home begin rather early, so she’ll turn in now, sending all her love to Cleveland.

Dart’s letter on this date is a long one, filled with news, chit chat and a heavy dose of passion.

He asks Dot to let him know before he leaves for Greenwich in two weeks whether she’ll be returning to Cleveland with him. If she’s not, then he thinks he’ll take the bus in both directions. It will save him some money and waste a little time, but he notes that his time is of little value, so the loss would be minimal.

His family’s old washing machine seems to have quit on them today. While he was at school, there was quite a discussion about who would fix it. Burke said that he and Dart would handle the job. Pop insists it will be him and Dart. Either way, Dart sees that he’s destined to become a grease monkey for the weekend. He doesn’t mind at all because he likes to tinker. Also, he writes with a gleam in his eye, if he’s unsuccessful, he’ll at least have a bag of spare parts to use at some future date.

When he and Tom Reilly went to a movie tonight, Dart had the idea that he and Dot should double date with Tom and a girl of his choice. He asked Tom if he ever went out on dates and Tom replied, “Not with you – only with handsome men.” After a laugh, Dart explained he was thinking maybe a double date with Dot and another girl for Tom. Tom assured Dart that he could dig up some “frail” somewhere, for the right occasion. Tom is working the midnight to morning shift at a printing office, doing hard manual labor while he awaits his post-graduate work at Case to begin in September.

The movie they saw was “The Kid from Brooklyn,” starring Danny Kaye. Dart claims to have no use for the actor, yet he admits to laughing uproariously at his antics. Parts of the movie seem to have brought out the prude in Dart with his comment about his disdain for a certain class of women “who hire themselves out so they can prove they a 15-inch waist and more weight just south of their shoulders than anywhere else on their bodies,”

At Dot’s urging, he looked for “Men, Women, and God” at the library today and was able to find a copy. He’s read all but the last chapter and seems as enamored with it as Dot was. In reflecting on the book, he writes, “It has at times seemed almost on the verge of blasphemy , but when we’ve been so very close, and when we’ve made our faltering steps, I’ve felt close, not only to you, but to God. I’m seldom moved to prayer, Dot, but when we are so much in love, I feel so humbled at the prospect, and too happy at its consequences, to keep my feelings to myself, or even between us. He who is responsible for us should know of our gratitude. I like the author’s idea of a few minutes of silent communion and thankfulness with Him after the ceremony and before our consummation of the marriage.”

He reminds Dot of “the night we couldn’t say good-bye” and how they sat on his bed and repeated the marriage vows to each other. He feels that they’ve been really married since then, although the marriage is not “wholly holy,” nor is it legal or physically complete.

The next few paragraphs express a sweet and tender love and a powerful passion in such an intimate way, as only Dart can do. I hope my mother will take some time today to read the actual letter Dad wrote on this day.

He pulls himself out of the clouds to respond to some of Dot’s recent letters.

If El is not serious about Norman, he hopes she will someday feel seriously about someone. Surely the pain and loss she suffered at the hands of her former fiance have left a deep scar, and one that may take years to heal. He hopes she’ll find that healing.

He was going to draw a little map of his train layout, but has decided to postpone that for a letter if she doesn’t return to see it in person. He asks that she tell Chuckie that Dart would love for him to visit his trains the next time he comes to Cleveland.

Yes, he’ll bring warm clothes to Sunapee. Does she think he should bring some “long-handled underwear?” He’s not too handy with an axe, but he’ll try to learn. As long as he doesn’t sprain an ankle jumping through the ice, he’ll be happy to take some pre-breakfast dips with her. He’ll be sure to pack his felt tooth pads so he doesn’t chip his pearly whites when they set to chattering.

That’s all for now.

#          #          #

Dot’s time got away from her last night, so she wasn’t able to write. First, Janie came to visit as soon as she got home from the Pecsoks, and stayed until 11:00. Then El, who’d been home sick all day with “one of the things that proves she’s female” asked Dot to fix her some tea and toast. Then Dot decided to iron a shirt for her father to wear to work today. “I had intended to write to you this morning, but I awoke to discover that I had ‘caught’ what El had yesterday. What a household! Too many women around here for anything to run smoothly.”

She tells that her father knew exactly what was going on with the sisters, but he, and they, would have been too embarrassed to talk about it directly. Before leaving for work this morning, he popped his head int Dot’s room and said, “I suppose you wish your mother were here to comfort you. True, I’m not a woman, and I don’t have a woman’s troubles, but I’ve lived with ’em long enough to know it’s hell. Stay in bed and grit your teeth.”

Two weeks from today, Dart will be on his way to see her! She tells him that he should feel no pressure to write to her that final week of school. All he needs to do is perform well on his exams and then come see her.

She believes they will be able to do better financially than just break even, Her bank account is now at $200 and she has money for the trip, to pay El some of her loan and to travel to Ohio. She assumes they’ll have to leave Greenwich on Thursday morning if he must be back by Friday morning and his parents object to them traveling together overnight.

She got a letter from Kent State today with her housing assignment for September. She was to have been part of an eight-girl house squeezed into a space that had been designed for four. No thanks! She sent her regrets.

In response to his question, she writes  “Yes, Dart. I do feel we both gained a great deal through our personal talks. I no longer have qualms when I think of us ‘getting acquainted’ after we’re married. You’re so understanding, though, I doubt it would have been much of a problem.”

He had asked her how she deals with the great pain of missing him so much. He really struggles, but she has an idea of what helps her cope. She has found that when she is missing Dart so much that it threatens to drive her nuts, she simply engages herself in a project that requires both physical and mental energy. All of a sudden she finds that it feels as though a great burden has been lifted off her shoulders, and life is in balance again.

She cautions him against over confidence in her ability to manage a household budget. She’s never had any experience at such things. She’d hate to disillusion both Dart and his parents, who seem to share his faith in her.

It was nice of Burke to spring for a new battery for the Peterson family car. Meanwhile, the Chamberlains must rely on Pegasus for two weeks because the other car is at the lake. The old car has been behaving himself, though. She reports that he only coughs occasionally and he always remembers to cover his grill when doing so.

Since she slept all day, she’s not very tired now, but she has a big day tomorrow at the Millers. On Sunday, she’ll be working at a nursing home owned by an old friend of Ruth’s. The lady has been asking around town and has heard Dot is the best person for dealing with elderly invalids.

She writes “This afternoon when I read the final sentence to your letter, my eyes filled with tears. It wasn’t so much what you wrote as that I could almost hear you saying it. That made me so lonely for your, Darling. Then I recalled a night last September when you looked at me and then turned away. You said you couldn’t look at me just then, and although I failed to understand then, I think I understand now. You’re a perfect gentleman, Darling, and I love you for it.”

Dart begins, “Did you miss me in church this morning? How could you? You were right beside me.”

Their pennies now total $35.59, which he will get into a the bank soon, if he’s able to open another savings account in his name.

The family drove out to the lake today, but Uncle Guy is still in the hospital. Dart thinks the whole trip was a blasted waste of time, and a huge strain on the car. How he wishes they could put the car up on blocks until they can afford to fix it, because driving it without the repairs is very bad for the car. But they’re forced to use it because a streetcar ride is too much of a strain on Pop and tires him out for days.

“It’s midnight now and I want to get 8 hours of sleep between now and 7 a.m. I better get started. … I wish I were bringing you home with me in September, instead of just for a visit. We need each other. I love you with every fiber of my body and every idea of my mind. Remember the night we stood in the vestibule here and watched the storm through the front door, and just couldn’t break up our passionate embraces? I feel that way tonight.”

#          #          #

After getting two beautiful letters from Dart, Dot had a burning need to place a call to him and hear his voice. She’s so happy she did, for she’s feeling much better now.

She tells him she’s glad he went to see Dr. Singer – not because she has the least concern about his habit, but because she wants him to have peace of mind. “I wasn’t concerned about a maladjusted sexual relationship between us. Perhaps it is something I should think about, but we have always been in such perfect harmony with everything we do together that the idea we may have some adjusting to do never entered my mind.”

She gently teases him, saying she’s always had a soft spot in her heart for “pampered” children. “It’s so pathetic to hear them being razzed and called ‘sissies.’ Being brought up in a large family has its advantages. One has to learn self-defense, and I speak from painful experience. I like your ‘We’ll show ’em’ attitude!”

Yes, she may miss the Bendix when she’s married, but not nearly as much as she misses him now. She thinks she’s getting the better deal of having him for a husband over a Bendix washer. Also, she’ll consider it a privilege to iron his shirts by hand, if he’ll let her.

There won’t be much fancy cooking up at Sunapee, but he should lay aside his fears because El will be doing most of it. The only cooking Dot will do is the fish she plans to catch for breakfast one morning while he’s still asleep.

His Sunapee wardrobe sounds sensible, but he can leave the long-johns at home. She assures him that they will certainly have plenty of time to sit by the fire, toasting marshmallows and popping corn.

She explains that her mother always talks about people being “journey proud,” a phrase that came to her from her own mother. It means thinking about nothing but an upcoming trip, staying awake at night imagining the journey, possibly losing your appetite, although that never happens to Dot.

Was he able to fix the washing machine, or has he simply added to his collection of spare parts? She’ll be happy to go on a double date with Tom Reilly and some “frail,” but she wonders who will keep the poor, fragile thing company?

She shares Dart’s low opinion of Danny Kaye and other similar “funnymen.” They have both discussed their mutual admiration of the “Men, Women, and God” book. See what she means about them always being in harmony?

Yes, she remembers when he prayed aloud one night. She thought he was so saintly then, and now. “The things you do are so sincere and good and right. You have already far surpassed my fondest hopes of the kind of man I would have for a husband. You’re everything to me, Darling, and I depend on you far more than you realize.”

She tells him that the time she waited between placing the call and actually hearing his voice was like an eternity, but when she heard him, it was as though the blackest cloud split open and the shimmering sun shone through.