Creating a Ripple

In order to cheer us up Saturday afternoon we were invited by Mrs. Mackintosh the Captain's wife, to a tea dance given for the Red Cross. We came feeling subdued, stayed to have a very gay afternoon, and left convinced the world wasn't really such an awful place. Even if the men who made up the examinations weren't bubbling over with the milk of human kindness there are others who care! Take our Instructor, for instance. We're sure he cares. We all felt very sad at saying goodbye to him last week, even though he'll be back for the last two days of our course.

We're all a little nervous these days. Our chief diversion is reading maps, figuring transportation problems--our own, not the Navy's--and edging up silently to people who have been seen in conversation with a member of the staff and whispering furtively "What did he say' Are you really going to Corpus?" There are only two weeks to wait now before we know where we'll be going, but gosh! each day seems a week. Everybody seems to favor the South and the West; everybody seems to shun Georgia and Oklahoma--any WAVE would understand, too.

The weather's nice these days and we're all getting to see a little more of it now that Disbursing Afloat is out of the way. Some of us had tea at the Longfellow House the other afternoon and had a lovely time being shown about by a descendant of the original Longfellow. Others of us had a pleasant visit at Camp Miles Standish on Sunday where we enjoyed meeting some Canadian officers who put our boys to shame in the glory of their plaid trousers and ties to match.

We've just welcomed a new staff member, Ensign Corey, from the Northampton training school, and we're very pleased to have her here, even though her arrival occurred simultaneously with the long-expected gym outfits with which we understand Miss Corey will deal. But we won't hold it against her.