This thoughtful letter from Dart discusses his recent correspondence with the Marine, Fred Dixon. These two boys generally celebrate their birthdays together with a gang of friends. This year, however, when they both turned 20, they were unable to continue the tradition. All but one of their “gang” is serving in uniform somewhere in the world. The remaining fellow is a “cripple” (our more politically correct generation would say “has a disability”) because of infantile paralysis. (more commonly known these days as “polio.”)
Dart and Fred are somewhat bitter about their entire generation of boys who are losing the chance to transition into adulthood. While being cheated of their carefree days, those under the strict command of others also lose their opportunity to make choices and learn from their mistakes. Without the benefit of those transitional years, they have forever lost an important part of their youth.
Dart points out that, like most philosophers, he and Fred can wax eloquent when describing the bitter state of the world, but when it comes to offering solutions, they are short on ideas. The only one they can come up with is end the war.
He says he wishes he could be with her to help with her retail displays. “With my artistic eye and super talent for salesmanship, I should have you a display to curdle the stomachs of your customers and have them leaving the store in droves.”
He tells Dot not to take too much heed of the lectures and scoldings she and her classmates are receiving from their teachers. He reminds her that seniors have a tendency to dream among the clouds and it is their teachers’ job to pull them back down to reality.
He thanks Dot for the box of cookies and candy she sent. Although he was too sick to eat them when they arrived, he’s making up for lost time now.
Dot’s cheerful post begins by congratulating him on his “successful plan” to get his parents to come to Great Lakes. All he had to do was hover around Death’s Door for a while… She recalls how thrilled she was to see her mother when she visited from Connecticut, so she’s aware of what his parents’ visit meant to Dart.
Commenting on Dart’s father’s hair being silver, she says it would have to be. When she can’t get to sleep at night, she tries to image what people she’s never seen look like. Recently, Mr. Peterson was her brain’s subject, and she pictured him with a full head of silver hair. Turns our, she was right. I remember my grandfather having such thick hair that he was still having his barber thin it out in his 70s when he died.
Dot’s final exams are in late April and the seniors usually leave campus in early May. She has a couple of concerns about what comes next. First, she must decide if she will do her practicum in the Cleveland area or return to Greenwich. Then, despite her emphatic statement that she had no interest in ever going to college, she finds now that she’d really like to go. She’s faced with all those questions about where to go, what to study, etc. In her usual modest fashion, she ends her musings with “After all is said and done, I’ll probably end up selling shoestrings in some little insignificant dime store.”
She reports that the Glee Club’s Founder’s Day concert is over. On one number, they were so flat that the director had to stop them three times to give them their pitch! Next stop – auditions for the Metropolitan Opera Company, says Dot.
Her work group is nearly finished with their cooking duties, to the relief of the girls who’ve had to eat the garbage they’ve created. On the bright side, no one has become seriously ill from their pathetic efforts.
