This letter tells of a work detail that Dart was assigned to in the hospital.  The task was sanding, waxing and polishing the “deck” between wards. Dart’s sanding job consisted of attaching steel wool to his feet and shuffling around for a long time. I neglected to mention a tidbit from one of his letters a few days ago: Because of his infected wound, he has nearly no restrictions, except he cannot sit. After a day of sanding on his feet, his legs were throbbing. His hospital experience just gets weirder all the time!

No more news. He misses Dot’s letters, but knows she’s working hard on school assignments.

Dot started a letter while listening to the “Thin Man” and picked it up the next day during study hall.

She understands that he won’t be home for her prom, so she will save all her sock darning until the night of the dance. Her school work is progressing so slowly that she predicts she won’t be leaving campus for the summer until mid-June, so she hopes they’ll have a chance to see each other – or at least talk on the phone.

There’s been a long running discussion about which movie star Dot’s roommate Andy declares herself to look like. Some time ago, she told Dot to  tell Dart that she looks like Betty Grable. When she learned that Dart is not especially fond of Grable, she now says she meant to say Lana Turner. Dot reports that Andy has just bleached her hair to create a closer resemblance.

The store is driving Dot nuts and she is questioning her choice of retailing as a career.  There seems to be a lot that is driving Dot nuts these days. Sounds like a serious case of “senioritis.”

She is shy about meeting, or even calling Dart’s parents, but she will try to gather the courage to call them when she’s in Cleveland this weekend. Dart would love for all his favorite people to meet, even if he can’t be with them.

She wraps up the letter with “That’s all for now, but oh, what I could say if I had time!”

Dart’s letter sounded as though he was not interested in much except letting Dot know how much she means to him. He mentioned receiving a letter, but tabled answering it until a later date.

He hopes she’s having a wonderful Easter in Cleveland. Reading between the lines, I’d say the holiday, combined with endless hospitalization, has made Dart a little homesick. He admitted to getting emotional when he heard Bing Crosby singing “The Easter Parade.”

Before ending the letter to drop his folks a line for the first time in a few days, he wrote “Did I ever tell you that you are the object of all my love, my best wishes and my fondest desires? If not, consider yourself told, as of this date.”

When I ponder what it is that attracts two people and keeps the attraction alive for a lifetime, I suspect that, aside from the physical and spiritual, timing plays a huge role in fanning the flame. As Dart lingers, bored and lonely in a sterile hospital setting, it’s easy to see how the fresh, friendly, funny voice that comes to him through Dot’s letters provides a warm and comforting tonic. Likewise, this somewhat shy school girl, nearing the end of high school and teetering on the brink of an unseeable adulthood must be thrilled to be the object of such devotion from a smart, funny, sensitive guy. If either of them had been at a different stage or place, would the attraction have taken root and bloomed for decades? Hard to tell, but I know several folks who are glad things worked out as they did!

I have no clue what Dot’s brief note means! Did it accompany some kind of treat? I hope she will enlighten me through this blog, if her memory recalls this one tidbit from 70 years ago.

We have long letters from both the correspondents today. Dart finally settled in to answer four of Dot’s recent letters. He began with a full report on the physical exam he had mentioned in yesterday’s letter. The exam didn’t happen. It seems the doctor was too hungover to be able to complete the task, so it may be rescheduled at some future date.

Commenting on Dot’s destroying of the silly letters she’d written, Dart asked “Now what will we have to laugh about in our future years?” I wonder if Dot got a little thrill when she read that bit about future years?

He’s happy to hear that Mr. Schwartz thinks so highly of Dot. Dart agrees – she is his favorite pin-up girl, sales girl, everything! He also indicated he had no intention of “watching his step” and warned that Mr. Schwartz had better watch his!

Mid-way through the letter, he admits it isn’t turning out to be such a great one. The problem is that he stops periodically to dream about her, and the minutes race by. “You may be sure all my thoughts are of you and they’re tender and gentle. I’ll tell ’em to you sometime – if…”

The patients in his new place are allowed to listen to their radios until 10:30. Since the majority of the guys prefer a mystery program to the Fred Waring show, he usually doesn’t get to listen to Waring. Still, he tries to think about Dot at precisely 10:15. He’s not sure how her telepathy experiment is supposed to work, but he’s trying to cooperate nonetheless.

He believes that having her cheerful face smiling at him from the picture frame on his locker is doing him more harm than good. It makes him so homesick that he doesn’t know how he’ll stand it if they don’t have a chance to see each other.

Changing the mood, he tells the story of two sailors from across his ward who went out on liberty the other night. One is Catholic and the other Protestant. They went to the USO in Chicago and were mistaken for “followers of the Hebrew faith.” They accepted an offer for dinner and were ushered into a Passover Seder. They had quite a tale to tell about their experience while the Jewish sailor on the ward stewed that he had been unable to attend. I imagine that the opportunity to bump into religious observances of differing faiths was less common back then than it is today and the Passover traditions must have seemed quite exotic to these young men.

He reiterated his wishes that Dot and his parents could meet before she leaves town. His folks are a little nervous about how to entertain a young lady they’ve never met, but Dart says he firmly believes that all parties would feel at ease once they are together.

He described what the well-dressed hospitalized sailors are wearing this Easter season (dress blues and black shoes) and hopes she had a lovely time at Ardy’s and Janice’s homes over the holiday. Finally, he thanked Dot for the quotation of hope and happiness in her recent letter and assured her of his constant love.

Dot’s long, long letter is bursting with her effusive report of a visit to Dart’s home in Cleveland. She had called his family to wish them a happy Easter and ended up spending three hours having dinner in their apartment. She is totally smitten with his parents and his younger brother Burke. She writes that the high expectations she  had built up for his family over the past months were far exceeded by the reality of them. She deemed them the most nearly perfect family she’d ever met. Having met his family, she feels she knows him 100% better and likes him 100 times more.

She talked about attending Easter services with Janice’s family and wishing she and Dart could have attended them together. She told about her impulsive phone call to Greenwich and the thrill of hearing the voices of some of her own family. Afterward she called Dart’s parents and found the conversation so much easier than past phone calls, now that they all knew each other.

She had met her hometown friend Cynthia for dinner and a movie in Cleveland. The movie was “The Purple Heart” which was too dense for Dot to comprehend, she claims.

The mention of her Easter phone call to his folks launched Dot on another rave review of her evening with them. They told charming stories of Dart as a youngster. They worry about his health. They’re grateful he’s not in the Pacific somewhere.

She wrapped up this first installment of the letter by wishing Dart and millions of others would be home, safe and sound by next Easter.

Just a few hours back at her friend’s house, and Dot feels the urge to write some more. She writes more details of her visit to his home, including her little faux pas of referring to men over 40 as “old.” Mr. Peterson wouldn’t let her live that down all evening.

She admitted that it seemed evident he would not be home before she left for Greenwich, but she likes to imagine that he’ll be stationed at the Naval base not far from her family home. She believes that with her, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder,” but for him, it may be more of a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” (She obviously has not received his latest letter yet.)

She boldly signs off with “All my love, for ever and ever.”

Dart’s mail today brought two highly coveted surprises – a box of fudge from Dot and the news that she and his family finally met. He’s thrilled by the reports he’s had from Dot and his father about how the evening went.

Most of the rest of the letter consisted of comments Dart made to Dot’s most recent one. Toward the end he reports that he finally heard from the doctor. First, there is no chance he’ll get leave before returning to active duty. Second, the “no-sitting” regimen seems to be working. His back is healing nicely, and the doc thinks that by the end of the week, he’ll know just how much longer Dart will be in the hospital.

Dot’s mail also brought smiles to her. Upon her return from Easter break, she found three letters from Dart waiting for her. She was hoping to dash off a letter before she had to go downstairs to set the table for dinner. (Some posh boarding school she attends, eh? Students have to do all sorts of chores!)

There was some discussion about why Dart continues to have bad luck where his health is concerned. She does not accept his theory that he is either being punished for something terrible or paying in advance for the happiness that will follow. All she knows is that she wants the streak to end, and end soon!

She reported that her Easter finery consisted of last year’s dress, coat and hat and a new pair of shoes. She would have had a new dress if she’d had the “ambition” to finish it. (When? Between school work, job, chores, writing copious letters and sleeping, I’d say she’s had rather full days of late.)

She was glad to hear that Dart had such fine musical entertainment in his ward. She asked if he had joined in on any of the musical instruments. She made sure to make mention of his brother’s prowess on the kettle drums after failing to be impressed enough when Dart’s father told her that Burke played them.

In response to his comments about daydreaming, she wrote “If you dream as much as I do, it must take up a good part of your time. I have dreamed so hard and so long about some things that I don’t know what I’ll do if they don’t come true.” Tantalizing!

She admits she doesn’t know much about telepathy, except that once her mother wrote to her and asked Dot to think about her at a certain time. Then she was to write to her mother and tell her what she had thought her mom was doing at that moment. She played along, and was right!

She sternly scolds Dart for saying all those unfounded “purdy” things in his letter. She reminds him that he has had exactly two dates with her and can’t possible know how she acts when not on her best behavior. For all he knows, she could beat her little brother and talk back to her mother! (Well, she admits she doesn’t do either of those things, but she could do worse and he’d never know.)

She reveals that over the weekend she had lots of opportunity to do some deep thinking about Dart. She couldn’t decide if she loved him or if it was really his family she liked. She’s decided it’s both.

Her roommate Andy piped in to say she thought that Dart’s wanting to be an author was wonderful. Dot thinks he’s wonderful, even if he spends the rest of his life being a “guinea pig.”

Dart’s heart is on full display in this letter. His feelings of love and devotion flow freely and nearly uninterrupted for six pages.

Those brief interruptions included a comment about all the RCA Victor radios on his ward, the arrival of a nice new patient with the same diagnosis as Dart, the attempt to rejoin the V-12 unit at some location other than Case (and the rejection that came as a result of his hospitalization), the color of his father’s hair, and Burke’s friend Edith.

He’s so glad Dot met his family and that the meeting went as well as he thought it would. He, too likes to dream about being stationed at the Naval base close to Greenwich. On the subject of lovely dreams, he also dares to dream that Dot can travel to Chicago – perhaps with his folks – before she must leave for home. He vows to keep writing to her “whenever the exigencies of duty permit it, be it daily, weekly, or twice an hour.”

He admitted to mooning over her picture all the time and confided that, while it would not do for a sailor to be seen kissing a photograph good night, there are plenty who can be seen in silent communication with those photos just before lights out.

After some more “mushy stuff,” he closes with “This is getting involved, and before I drop too far over the precipice, I better stop, but quick.”

See the silly postcard from a very busy Dot.

Dart is the only correspondent today, but this letter is almost long enough for two.

He was happy to get a couple of snapshots in Dot’s letter. They show the Chamberlain family home in Greenwich – a lovely Victorian with a wrap-around porch. The pictures of Dot are when she was a toddler of two or three. Dart describes her as “Quite the stylish little ragamuffin.”

He thanked Dot again for the fudge and told her it was almost all gone. One strange thing, though; he guessed that she had packed the fudge in a box that had once contained an Old Spice product which produced an “unusual effect.” No doubt!

He proposes that since they are both now of the opinion that they are not worthy of the other, they continue their acquaintanceship. “At least until we find out whether each of us is willing to put up with the ‘human idiosyncrasies’ of the other in order to have the more pleasant traits of character nearly all the time.”  He goes on to say that he hopes her letters reveal her true personality, but he fears his do not show all of his irregular traits. Then he uses a phrase that most certainly has changed connotations since the time he wrote it. He says he is a queer. I trust he means he is a rather odd fellow.

There was a little more chat about getting a letter from Dot’s mother, and the fantastically warm weather he had today, after a good snow yesterday. He closed with the dream of getting to see her again and getting to know her well enough that he could one day call her “my darling.”

Here’s a short and breezy note from Dart, beginning with his comment on her recent postcard: “Of course, if there’s nothing to say, it’s best left unsaid. You unsaid it most thoroughly.”

He told a nice little story about the night corpsman bringing 25 hamburgers to the ward last night and selling them for 25 cents each. He made a whopping 96 cents on the arrangement. Dart describes them as “the regular date-style things” and says its the first one he’d had since that night in October when he and Dot went to Howard Johnsons for burgers. His burger last night brought back good memories and filled him up to boot.

His post script asks the question “Does your mother have any idea how we feel about each other?” I guess that would be an important thing to know if he’s going to keep corresponding with Mrs. C.

I’m exhausted just reading the long list of things Dot must accomplish before May 1. I don’t think sleep will make the list, and letter-writing will unfortunately fall far down the list of “must-dos.”

She’s happy to learn that Dart’s family approves of her because she can’t imagine what she’d do if they didn’t. She commented that his father doesn’t look or act 51, leading me to wonder what a 17-year old girl thinks a 51-year old man should act like!

She writes that she has proof that dreams certainly come true. In fact, when she got that first letter from Dart, she lay in bed all night, dreaming that he would keep on writing. Since that dream became a reality, she is confident some of their others will, as well. Sadly, one that won’t is Dart’s dream of her coming out to Chicago when she’s done with school. Andrews has a strict policy for seniors when their classes are done: they have one week to get home and settled, acquire the appropriate clothes for work, and begin their job, PRONTO! She must do well on her internship if she wants to attend college in the fall.

Speaking of college, she thinks she’ll major in home economics, but asks Dart if he has any other ideas for her field of study.

After a little more chatter in response to his latest letter, Dot closes. She has a headache from going all week without her glasses and she needs to get to bed.