To Elinor

Darrow fell in love with Elinor at first sight. But she was already engaged. To two men. He joined the Merchant Marine to train as a radio operator. His letters from Gallups Island and then the war charmed her, but Elinor had changed. Women entered the working world--as boatbuilders and micrometer testers and even riveters and movie stars--and she wanted to become Something Big. Marriage wasnt for her. Darrows letters kept coming. . . . . . the same letters my sister and I discovered in a large photo box after our parents deaths. Their romance was interrupted by the war and by the fledgling dreams of a woman, a Bishops daughter, who wanted to do something more than carry on the traditional roles women had in the forties. The tale of this romance is in both voices--Elinors from the homefront and Darrows from the war.