November 27, 1941

Nov. 27, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Verner (this distinctive address, Verner, lasts automatically for three letters. Then it stops until another letter arrives from the individual in question) and those two free, untamed spirits, untouched by the taint of education,

First of all I want to thank you, mama, for sending the cookies and pies as a special Thanksgiving treat and also for the cake, butter and eggs which came via the laundry bag. I was wondering after I got the laundry bag if you had decided to retain my 25¢ blue sport shirt at home and was all prepared to let out a loud oral gulp of protest when it came along with the cookies & pie. Please forgive me for entertaining such derogatory conceptions of your actions. No doubt you merely forgot to put it in the laundry bag. The box containing the cookies and pies came thru pretty good, considering the beating which the cookies inside took. About 1/3 resembled ground up crumbs for a meat loaf, 1/3 were in a state more or less reminiscent of cookies, while the other 1/3 were in quite presentable shape. The box arrived Wednesday morning before I left for school.

Well, I suppose you are at least somewhat interested in how the pre-initiation meeting came off last Saturday night. Well the meeting really didn’t get under way till 9:00 when the written test began, which covered practically everything ever taken up in school altho the last 1/2 was primarily concerned with engineering subjects. This test finished at 12:00 and had about 30 questions in it. After the test, the tests were all mailed someplace or other to be corrected or examined. Technically I suppose you are required to do a certain grade of work in the test, but I rather think it doesn’t make any difference. At any rate, if your standing in the test is considered I don’t see I could get in to this society, since I do not think I did so well in it. However, if I don’t, I don’t and I save $25; if I do, I do, I guess.

After that an oral examination conducted by the active members took place. Then every initiate was supposed to take the knife and block of wood which he was supposed to bring with him and carve out a bent, which is the emblem of the society. The block of wood was a 2" by 8" by 12" piece of white pine and the bent, shaped something like this

was about 1" x 4-1/2" by 8" or 9". Moreover the dimensions give were all in very odd units — miles, hands, fathoms, leagues, etc. — which necessitated conversion to a standard unit before anything could be done. By three o’clock, the five fellows being initiated were well started on their bents. At five o’clock, one guy cut his hand and was allowed to go home (he lived in Iowa City). At 6:15, I left since I had to read my meters. The rest left around 7:00. After I got back, around 7:15, I tumbled into bed and slept till one o’clock. I missed church, but I was so pooked that I couldn’t have kept my eyes open no matter how good the sermon was. Well that’s that and except for the fact that I haven’t finished the bent, the initiation (except for the formal part) is over. I am waiting to see how I came out in the test before I finish the bent.

Incidentally I have also been invited to join Phi Lambda Upsilon, honorary chemical society. The fee here is $15.50. I may be a food etc etc but I thought since I hoined the one I might as well join the other. Al Hanson, the L. S. A. president is a member (he is working on a ph.D. in physical chemistry) and he said that very little initiating is done there. Perhaps the chemists are more staid than the engineers. So that means I have spent, or will spend, pending developments, on giving myself a reputation some $40. Is it worth it? I have my doubts but then I always do what I have no use for doing which may be some guide to my actions in this affair. By the way, Al Hanson wrote an article in one of the Lutheran Companions I have received, altho it was some time ago. I meant to tell you at the time but I guess I forgot all about it.

Today, and yesterday, too, have been really beautiful fall days. Clear, calm and with just enough nip in the air to make you feel like getting out in Dolliver Park or somewhere and walking thru the woods. The river was like a mirror this afternoon. I should think, that if I were an amateu camera fan I would try to get some reflection pictures on extremely still days like today. This morning Gordon Mau came over and asked me to go to church with him so I got ready and went. I didn’t know about it since I wasn’t in church Sunday morning. When we got there, there wasn’t any services going on after all. However the walk was very nice. I wonder sometimes why people can’t find out what they’re doing before they do it. I would most certainly try to make a little sure of what I was going to do before I did it. Of course, today I merely accepted Gordon Mau’s statement as fact, since I suppose he knew what he was talking about it. Evidently he didn’t.

I don’t know yet what to do about the picture proposition. There are no 3 for 10¢ photo-taking places in the ten cent stores here. I made that round almost immediately. I guess I’ll mull things over in my mind for awhile.

All is quiet on the scholastic front this week. The test didn’t come back in organic. The university has instituted a new system whereby at mid-semester you are given some idea of how you are doing in your classes. You are graded 1-above average 2-average 3-unsatisfactory 4 and 5-some other derogatory rating. I got ones in everything except technical writing where I got a 2. This gripes me since I have had all my papers in on time, with no grade lower than a B+. However, just because I got ones in other subjects is any sign that I am going to get A’s in them. I can’t see how I can get more than B in some of them. However, only the future will determine that. On the whole the whole mess of subjects I am taking grows more boring every time I go to class. Why am I going to school? I don’t care if, if Henry’s Law holds you can use log mean concentration different in solving absorption or extraction problems or if you can get a different percentage of conversion in an exothermic reaction if an adiabatic process is employed, or if age-hardening is good for aluminum alloys since slip plans are keyed by CuAl₂

[The letter ends here. It seems as though the rest of it is missing.]

[Marginal addendum in his mother's handwriting]

We missed this usual outburst in last week's letter but it pops up again!

September 23, 1941

Sept 23, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Vincent, Verner, Marold and others

I haven’t received any communication from you mother but I suppose that it will come today. I hardly expected it to come yesterday but I looked any way. Meanwhile I will write this letter now (it is about 6:15 A.M.) and get it mailed this morning so that you should get it to-morrow.

Registration was a very much easier process this year, that is, it was in the sense that by the time you get this letter it will have been accomplished in toto. However at present, it is still in-complete as far as paying my tuition goes. I read in the Daily Iowan this morning that the Registrar here has devised a new and simplified registration procedure, and from the appearance of things, the statement is not a specimen of emotional gush but really a fact. Under the old system that was in effect last year, there were about 7 or 8 separate steps to the registration procedure plus a tremendous lot of card-filling out etc etc etc. Now, there are only 4 steps and the last one is an addition to the old procedure in that it constitutes the issuance of the activity ticket. Moreover, there are less places in which you have to put this, that and the other thing.

Due to this simplified registration procedure and the fact that I knew precisely what I was going to take, the part of the registration which I went thru yesterday lasted only about 1¼ hours. I went over to the Eng. Building at 12:45 or so and signed up as a senior (not exactly true but it would get you to the point of registering much faster. That is because sheets are handed out labeled Chem, Elect etc Eng’ng with sub-heads of Soph, Jr and Sr. Since by the time the sheet came to me there were quite a few names under Jrs., I put mine under the Sr heading and got in one of the very first ones.)

My adviser was the head of the department, Olin, and as far as the advice he gave me, it was totally negligible since I already knew what was needed. However, as is common with people who put an exaggerated value of every detail of form etc. it took him about 15 min to fill out one card. Thereafter I filled out the other 6 or 7 what have you, got them approved, checked, and fees assessed in the next hour or less. However on my registration blank was a number indicating that the time I should pay my fee (tuition) would be the next day (that is, today) at ten o’clock. Therefore I still have that to do but that should not take me very long. After that, I will have my picture taken and my activity ticket prepared. The picture will appear on the ticket as a means of identification.

As I perhaps told you, next Saturday is the first football game of the season which I suppose I will see since it costs me nothing to get in.

I registered for Chem. Eng. Thermodynamics, Principles of Chem Eng. II, Organic Chemistry, Tech Writing and Phys Metallurgy this semester for a total of 16 hours. I have lab 4 afternoons a week and only 1 Sat class, organic. I rather think it will be an easier schedule than I had last semester. I have prepared my schedule also for the next 3 semesters to take care of any contingency that I can conceive of.

Maybe I should have written about my room-mate first but I got started on registering instead so I will write about him now. His name is Howard Ward. He is a sophomore in electrical mechanical engineering and plans to specialize later in aeronautic work. I knew him vaguely last year; that is, when I saw him I recognized him as a member of the freshman drawing class and that is about all. His home is in a suburb of Chicago. He is about my height but quite a bit heavier, say 175 or 180 lbs. He has dark black hair which looked to me almost as if it had some gray hairs in it. He says he loves to play football but can’t spend the time necessary to play it down here. I caught a glance of his report card on the table and I would say his grade point was about a 2 or C. For all his fierce array of pipes he has done very little smoking so far. He is half-thinking of joining a fraternity but is still quite undecided. He may join now, but not move in till next semester. I suppose it is barely possible that he may move out, but if he does it will be later rather than sooner I think. He likes to sleep till about 8:30 or so in the morning but he doesn’t mind when I get up, I suppose since he can sleep thru anything. He doesn’t snore but he does make wheezy sounds as he sleeps. Several times I have heard him half talking in his sleep.

I have not entirely completed my opinion of him but so far it is this. As most people I have met in this school he is more or less of a dope. He is not too smart, probably doesn’t study a lot. He is the good old extrovert type insofar as he like to be out mixing with people. However, I do not think that he would be a dominant figure in any group. It will be easy enough living with him I think, as it is always easy to get along with people who don’t think to much. If you want to know any other particulars let me know and I will try to answer them.

My leaves are still quite droopy. I can’t figure out why. So far the ivy seems to be doing quite well. I have watered them once, only a little.

I played tennis Sunday afternoon, with James Cross and I almost wore a blister in myself. Could you send my shorts etc? I believe they are permissible attired on the tennis courts. I don’t suppose tho that I will play very much.

Food prices have gone up about 1/3 down here since last spring.

I still do not think that it will be any fun going to school now or at any other time.

With love,

Carl

P.S. What should I do about Uncle Carl’s check? I forgot to give it to dad to put on his acc’t. Should I send it home?

March 13, 1941

March 13, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear mother, father and them thar “three little boys,”

Somehow or other I have forgotten to send you an account of my grades from last semester. I received them several weeks ago, and since I though I had already told you everything which was duly confirmed by the report-card, I just didn’t think of including them in one of my letters. I got B in Industrial Stoich, Ch Industries & Mech of Solids and A in Drawing & German. Besides that, thru some mixup or something (but I’m not grouching about it) I received credit for that nice little course, Engineering Society altho I wasn’t registered for it and didn’t attend any of the meetings. However, such a state of affairs is all right by me. I’m not going to say anything for fear they’ll discover their mistake. I have the official report from the registrar’s office giving me credit and if I ever need to use it I will.

I rather think that my average wasn’t so hot and that it is rather foolish for me to continue to try to be a chemical engineer. Besides, I rather believe that my grades might dip even lower this semester than last due to several reasons. Reason number one is my increasing aversion for German and Drawing which will probably bring me down to a B in them. Reason number two is that I’m wondering just what I will get in Physical Chemistry. I certainly didn’t do very well on that first test. From what I have heard, almost anybody can get C in it, and I probably will, but that the B’s are few and far in between while an A is practically non-existent.

The other subjects — Ch Industries, Principles of Chem Eng I and Mech of Materials are probably B grades for me. In Ch Industries, I am preparing a better notebook this semester so that there is a slight change that I might get an A. The Mechanics of Materials is relatively simple and if the final counts as much as it did in Mech of Solids and if at the time I am in a mood for not mis-juggling my figures, I might have a remote chance of getting an A in it. The Principles seems to be somewhat easier than Industrial Stoichiometry so that if that is any criterion I’ll get a B in it. But I want to make it know right now, that you should not expect any too good grades from me this semester, for if you do you will be disappointed.

As for the German and drawing, I am thoroly disgusted with both, but they are easy enough so that with a minimum of preparation it is still easy enough to get B in them but I do not feel like doing something I don’t feel like doing simply to raise my grade point average. Of course, 90% of the stuff I do down here, I don’t want to do, so if I were consistent I would scarcely study at all.

Since I wrote home only last Sunday there seems to be a slight deficiency of news to-nite. I’ll just list a few salient facts and let it go at that.

1. If you want to send me anything to eat, mama, I have absolutely no objections of any sort whatsoever.

2. You are probably correct in that my letters are valves for letting off steam. The only trouble is that in-between times the pressure always keeps building up.

3. I had a letter from Howard the other day. It is too bad there isn’t any fellows like him down here. I guess anyone with any sense avoids this place. He says he is going to take some Physics next term and is already kicking himself in the pants for having let himself in for something. He also said that Florine Hanson was not going to school anymore. He doesn’t mind this, he said because then Charles Swanson won’t come up and stay with them when he comes down to visit her. He said that they have enough trouble with Dale Hauser.

4. I still don’t know quite what to do about my room. I reckon I’ll end up by moving into a vacant single room. The more I meet people, the less I like to be with them.

5. My leaves, which for about a week have been over in Gordon Mau’s window are definitely on the mend. They are much greener and in middle of the leaf has turned from a sickly yellow to the normal purple color. My cactus tho is not faring so well.

6. The streets and sidewalks down here are a slushy mess again. I almost believe that we had more snow this last time than in any previous snowstorm of the winter. The flakes really came down thick & fast for awhile. Today it has been melting and if we have a few warm days, the snow will not last long.

7. I’m undecided what I should do with my $15 from Uncle Carl. I’m almost hesitating on the brink of spending it for books. There is a store downtown which has some fascinating books in it. However, they are mostly fiction and I believe that I would like to get ahold of a historical geology book or something like that. I guess I’ll look around a little more.

8. So Philip Lind is getting married — the dope.

9. As for John Telleen, I always thought he was sort of foolish to go to baseball school.

10. Why is Carl Telleen selling his station?

11. I said I was thoroly disgusted with German. However, I have run across a little poem in the grammar, inserted no doubt by Fehling, one of the authors of the book. I’ll copy it here and you can see what you can make of it:

1. Auf dem Felde steht’ne Kuh,

Die macht die Augen auf und zu

2. Auf dem Felde steht ein Schwein,

Das sieht der Kuh ins Aug’hinein.

3. Sagt die Kuh: “Du dumme Schwein,

Sieh mir nich ins Aug’hinein!”

4. Sagt das Schwein, “Du dumme Kuh,

Mache doch die Augenzu!”

It’s rather inane in English but the German gives it a rather interesting angle.

With love

C.P.

January 31, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Jan 31, 1941

Dear Mama, Papa, “kernel of the nut,” “triple dimples” & “tall & slim”

I had intended to write sooner but as I had not found out about a lot of things I thought I would wait awhile till I found out some more. Well, I haven’t found out much but if you are to get this letter on Saturday I will have to get this letter written and posted sometime this morning. So I will do this and if anything out of the ordinary occurs I will let you know in a special communication.

I cannot quite understand how my body is working these days. First I feel real punk for awhile and then it passes for awhile. At any rate I felt better during my tests than I thought I would about Thursday or Friday of last week. Of that I was naturally very thankful but I don’t know if it helped a terrible lot. The only doctoring I did was in the shape of some Vicks cough drops, used mainly on the days when I woke up with the swallowy sore throat.

How I got along or think I got along in my tests.

1. Industrial Stoichiometry — The final test in this nemesis of mine was the hardest thing I have have yet run across. As I look back over this course it reminds me of a ton of nitroglycerin attached to a semester long fuse. Last fall I saw the fuse lit but didn’t know then what it led to. Last Saturday morning the last of the fuse burned and the ton of nitroglycerin went off in my face. There were five problems in the test and each of them was pretty much of a stickler. However, I managed to get finished except for the second part of part C of problem five. I was talking to a fellow last night and I found out that I had expressed the answer to one of the problems in the wrong kind of units. So far that is the only mistake I can think of altho there are no doubt more of them. I really wonder what I got in that test. I asked the teacher and he said the papers would not be corrected until sometime next week so I guess I will have to wait until then to find out how I did.

2. Chemical Industries — In this course also there was been no official communique yet. There were 13 questions in the test and that was an unlucky number for me since one of them was about something I had forgotten all about. Last fall sometime we had to read a report in a magazine on sulfuric acid production and use during 1939. I read it and took notes on it, but promptly forgot about it since it was sort of a dry article. Well, it popped up in the test, so that means I missed 1/13 right off the bast. The rest of the test, however, was quite easy except for a part of another question which I was not sure about. I got my revised notebook back and this time I had gotten a B on it so that if I get a B in the test I will get B in the course. I think that perhaps I will but I am making no promises of any sort whatsoever.

3. Mechanics of Solids — The thing that I did in this test gives me terrible griping sensations in the region of my stomach. In one of the six problems I made a mistake in figuring a moment of inertia of a body with the result that my answer was off. This was enough to give me B in the test and therefor B as a grade. That makes me sort of angry at myself. However, it is over so I guess that is that (So that’s “that”)

4. German — the test in this was rather easy as I suspected it would be. I missed 2 things in it, which entitled me to an A, any way that is what I got.

5. Drawing — this too was a very easy test, easier (it seemed to me) than almost any of the rpevious tests so that I got an A in the course. I do not know what I got in the test, since only the final grades were posted. The way the grades in this test were rather queer, about 10 A’s, 10 B’s, a whole slug of C’s and D’s and some Cond and Fd’s. What seemed funny to me I that there should be so few B’s in relation to the rest of the grades. Well, that’s not my worry so I will forget about it.

I do not know exactly what I should do about my schedule. I have not registered yet but I will either this afternoon or sometime to-morrow. My adviser (the one with the round, pig-like, placid, fat face) has figured out a way to get thru in 2 years from now but it has some very undesirable features. Feature no. 1 is that it depends on my petitioning my way out of second semester drawing which is a very dumb thing to do in my opinion. Feature no. 2 is that I would take the second semester of Phys. Chem before the first which is not such a good ideas.

I cannot make up my mind just what I should do. I think I will let it rest like this. If I can get drawing on Tues and Thu which I will have to in order to get it included at all (and which is problematical since I would have to switch sections and the sections already almost filled) I will take what I had originally planned of Mech of Materials, Ch Eng Principles I, Ger, Econ and of course drawing. If I do not, I am in a quandary as to what I should do.

Another undesirable feature of the 2 year plan is that I could not take German this next semester. I am sort of inclined to stretch it out to 2½ years and therefore get some sort of continuity in what I take. Besides there is the possibility of my never coming back to this lousy place in which event taking a lot of hard stuff next semester would be cutting off my nose to spite my face. I made some inquiries about the art course but it didn’t impress me particularly. I think I could do just about as much by fooling around by myself. That is of course, with pencil and ink. They mentioned charcoal and conte crayon (whatever that is) which sounded rather interesting but they also mentioned watercolor work which immediately put me on the defensive. I can still recall what a mess watercolor cork was in the grades. So I do not think I will try to take an art courses.

I was downtown yesterday browsing thru the books stores to see if they had any textbooks that were required for fundamental drawing courses, but there were none, that is officially. I ran across a book on perspective that looked pretty good but I believe that that is taken up in my Eng. Drawing book someplace so that it would be rather useless to get it. I think I will continue my old habit of drawing for recreation and get my training in it that way. After all, I am beginning to think (hear! hear!) that the best training is the training that you get doing the stuff you like to do. In that case training to be a chemical engineer has in my case about a X2562 rating.

My scholarship check for $50 will not be here until sometime next week so that I am going to pay my tuition with a check and using the $50 + another check for $13.50 pay for my room. That way there will be a minimum of red tape I think.

There should be some money up at the Supt of Schools office in Ft. Dodge for one of my Eur. History books now. Only one of them was sold last fall.

I almost think that unless I write and tell you differently I will take the 2½ years to finish. Maybe I am doing an unwise thing but as I said before, it probably will never make any difference what I take no anyway. At any rate, if I can get the drawing I am going to take it.

With love

Carl

[Marginal addenda]

The geranium sort of perished for lack of sunshine or something but the other plant you sent and my two cactuses are doing quite well.

One of my shirts needs some shortening in the sleeve. I will endeavor to make it clear by pins.

I will send some laundry home sometime soon as I see my stock of shirts is falling down.

I was invited to go on a bobsled ride last night but I didn’t go. I thought I would probably freeze.

I think that I will have a couple of books to buy this semester, depending on what I take.

January 22, 1941

Jan 22, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear Mother and Daddy and the three little boys,

Well, I got your package and letter at the same time (at noon today) but I don’t have very much time to unpack stuff at noon. I put the flowers in a glass of water and got most of the perishables put away but the rest had to wait until after school. I skimmed thru your letter then but I gave it a good reading when I came home after school. Thank you very much for the eats, I won’t say anything in particular, but a big thank you in general since I appreciated ever single constituent of the box.

I have glanced thru the magazines but they will have to wait to be read till about Wednesday afternoon next week. Then all of my tests will be over. Saturday I have two, German and Mechanics of Solids, none on Monday, Chemical Industries & Drawing on Tuesday and last of all that harbinger of evil, Industrial Stoichiometry on Wednesday morning. I view the approaching tests with trepidation and will be very glad that they are over when they are over but that is not saying if I will be happy as to how I did in them.

I have been feeling sort of punk since last Saturday. Saturday I had sort of a “swallowy” sore throat and a feeling of general debility. I almost didn’t go to church Sunday but I did anyway. Maybe the walk did me good after being in all Saturday (I didn’t venture out). At any rate I felt better on Mon & Tues but today I have been logy again with a slight headache. I bought some Vicks cough-drops to help combat a slight return of the “swallowy” sore throat. I think my cold started in Industrial Stoichiometry lab (is there any good at all connected with it?) because the experiment we were doing tended to make the air in the room warm and moist.

Then Friday night I wasted some of my precious time to go with two boys to a show and I got a little cold walking home. At any rate I didn’t feel so hot Saturday but I am hoping I will get all right and stay so till the tests are over. It would be sort of a mess if I got sick now. I suppose I shouldn’t complain tho, when I hear how poorly Aunt Ruth has been. I surely hope, both for her sake and grandmother’s that her condition continues to improve as you said it had started to in your letter.

Brief resume of my mental activities

(1) Chem. Industries — I still have about 12 pages or so of notes to write up by Fri when we have to hand in our notebooks. I am more skeptical of my final grade in this course than in any other.

(2) Indus Stoich —So So. We have had 2 trests in both of which I got 8. Not any too good but that is neither here nor there. I haven’t done nay reviewing at all for this test yet.

(3) German. So So — we are parsing sentences as a review for the test. The oral test didn’t go off so badly but I would like to know what I got.

(4) Drawing. I have had another of my drawings up but otherwise thinkgs have been going along as usual.

(5) Mech of Solids: I asked the teacher what my average was and he figured it up for me. It was an A in the daily work and right in between A- and B+ in the tests. So if I do good in the final I will get an A in the course. I surely hope I do.

I am very sorry to abbreviate my letter like this but I must try to finish getting my Chem Indus notes written up tonite. I promise that when I get all the tests out of the way and am duly registered I will write a big long letter trying to clear up any discrepancies I have left open. I am still undecided about my course. The trouble is, in case you don’t understand, schedule conflicts would make it impossible to finish in a shorter time than 2½ years from now, that is of course without any summer school. However, I am disgusted with school in general & Chem Engr in particular so I probably will never finish anyway.

With love

Carl

[The following sentences were written sideways up and down the sides of the two pages of the original letter.]

Vivian says I haven’t written her. She must have an extremely short memory. (Do not send this letter on to her on acc’t of above statement.)

I will mail this as I go down to supper. Please do not feel downhearted over the lapse in my writing activities. They will improve in about one week.

Thank you, Verner for putting in the Bungle strips.

The grapefruit in this town is the sourest stuff I ever run into. It gives my intestine a tendency to make squirmy noises in class. I guess I will have to eat some other kind of fruit.

January 15, 1941

This letter has not been proof-read

Jan 15, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear Mother:

Well, I hope the U.S. postal service treated my last letter better than it did the card I send you the Monday after I came down here. I thought it was kind of funny that you wanted to know why I hadn’t written when I had (although it was very much, I will admit). That is the second card that has gone astray between here and Gowrie out of about 5 or 6 sent. That is not a very good average. I guess hereafter I will use a 3¢ stamp and an envelope even if I don’t have much to say or ask about.

The last letter home was written in more or less of a hurry, as you may have noticed. At any rate, I will try to make this letter a better one. I have written one letter to Vivian and she has already answered. However, it was written while I was in a capricious mood and was more or less a chunk of nonsense. She said they she had written home as soon as she got to Dubuque and I see by the letters you enclosed with your letter that Clarice had to. I guess that should make me ashamed of myself. I haven’t decided yet if it does or not. I will let you know when I do.

We got to Iowa City here about nine o’clock and I unpacked most of my stuff that night, some being left until the morning and some still even later. It took me a couple of days to get into “ye old routine” again but as I had to do quite a bit of studying, it came about easily enough. Now, however I am somewhat caught up again so that I will write a more presentable letter (See! See! What pride makes a man do.) When I walked into my room Sunday night, two weeks ago, the first think I noticed was that my poor flower was dead, completely and irrevocably deceased. I was sort of disgusted since the water was way down and I mistakenly assumed that the maid, whom I had asked to keep it watered, had forgotten all about it. hen she came in Monday morning, however, she informed me that on the day after Christmas something had gone wrong with the heating system, the temperature had gone up to a good deal in excess of 100°F I guess, and it was even so warm they couldn’t stand to be in the building. She said that in some rooms, newspapers lying around had turned up and gotten brown around the edges. How the place kept from getting on fire is more than she can guess, at least that is what she said.

At any rate, my poor flower withered in the fiery heat and is no more. My cactuses are getting along pretty well tho. The one I got from Vivian is sprouting new growth at the top. I always thought that cactuses grew slowly, but given half a chance, this one would be no sluggard. It needs sunshine tho I think, and the poor thing isn’t going to get any too much, I think. Maybe I should try to get the room across the hall. Maybe I’ll look into the matter when I pay my room rent. Incidentally it can be paid in about 3 equal installments, at least that is what some other fellows are doing. Should I do that? You might inform me in the next letter you send. While I am thinking about hot things, like I guess this room was on Dec 26, I should say that there was a little conflagration down the hall aways last Tuesday. Somebody had thrown a cigaret in a waste basket, I guess.

Last Sunday was a bee-utiful day down here. The air was balmy and there was only the lightest of breezes. I noticed that the smoke coming from the chimneys of the U. heating plant drifted away very, very slowly in the air. The air smelled almost like spring. I almost wish that the next semester was past like this one almost is. By the way, I am having schedule trouble again and in great big lumps. That’s the way it looks to me anyway. I worked out two different schedules for myself which extended from now till I finish (if I finish) this chemical engineering course. One of them, which depends on doing one of my drawing periods at some odd moment rather than at the scheduled time, + a little leniency on the part of the faculty in allowing me to apply my European History onsome freshman subjects regularly on the engineering curricula, would turn me out (with summer school included) a year from this coming June. But it would involve taking about 20 hours straight thru, and a lot of that lab courses, which would be like trying to swallow an elephant. The schedule probably wouldn’t be approved anyway.

The other schedule would finish two years from this spring without any summer school and would include practically all the courses that I would have taken had I come down here as a freshman. It is practically impossible to get my schedule to come out in two years from now. Maybe it can be done, but so far I can’t do it. I was talking to a fellow last night who said that since I have had 4 hrs of organic I might be able to let that apply on organic lab work and take only the organic classwork. If this is true it might simplify matters somewhat so that I could get thru in two years from now. If I decide to take 2½ years from now to finish, two advantages present themselves — (1) I would have plenty of time, (I think) to take some art courses (2) Maybe it would be easier to get a job around June, I don’t know. Of course all this assumes that I’m going to finish which might never happen. You might include in your next letter a little advice on what I should do.

How my studies has progressed since I came down here.

(1) Chem Industries: So So — I only got C+ in my notebook, which sort of griped me. However I was talking to a fellow who said that you should be sure to type anything you hand in to him. If its written and good, your work doesn’t get a very good grade. [By the way, what is Vivian’s address? Is it 1491 University Ave or 1491 Delhi St?) If types and lousy, it still rates pretty good with the instructor. I guess that’s what I’ll do next semester. With my 2½ year schedule this course might be postponed awhile. Of course, that is highly conjectural.

(2) Mechanics of Solids — not so hot. I wrote and told you I believe that I got 77 in the test I wrote before Xmas. That wasn’t so bad since the highest grade I saw was 80. We have had another tho in which I got only 55 (highest grade – 75). I would have had 75 too had I not made an error in arithmetic. I had my 3 equations with 3 unknowns in them correctly set up and then I messed them up in solving them. The teacher in this has gone to a convention in N.Y. so we are having a substitute teacher, who is a pretty good fellow, I think. Next week starts the semester review in this course.

(3) Industrial Stoich — So So — We are just winding up the semester’s work. We had a quiz today in which I will probably get an 8, due of course to my ever-present ability to get a decimal point or some other little thing wrong.

(4) German — Friday we are going to have an oral examination. I hope I get thru it all right and I think perhaps I will. At least I think I am considerably better than most of my class mates which is more than I can say in some of my other classes.

(5) Drawing — Rah! Rah! We have had another examination and I got 95 in it, which was the high grade in the test all tho about 2 other guys got it too. The nice thing about it tho was that I got my test posted on the bulletin board. That makes 3 of my 5 examinations that I have had posted as being the best in the class, the lettering examination, the one-hr factual exam and then this one. This makes me quite happy, indeed. Unless something goes extremely awry in the final, I think I should get an A in it.

Predictions on how I will make out in my studies at the end of the semester. Drawing – possibly A, certainly B. German: ditto, depending on oral examination. Mech of Solids B, Indus Stoic, B (?) everything is a question mark in this class. Chem Industs, if I write a good test – B, otherwise C (effect of notebook grade)

[Written down left side of last page of letter]

That is what I think I will get. In about 2 weeks I will know what I did get. It doesn’t sound any too good to me and I sort of doubt that it is worthwhile continuing if I don’t get better grades.

[Written up right side of last page of letter]

This is the complimentary close to this letter, out of place but nevertheless present.

With love, Carl

[The following sentences were written sideways up and down other page margins.]

I have been a little lonesome since I returned, but I suppose it will pass.

Hint [word surrounded by three arrows for emphasis]: Now that daddy has his new glasses, why don’t you, mama, and you, daddy, have your picture taken together. I think that would be a very good ideas.

My cap is very nice. However, I think I got it about 1/8[?] size too small.

Do not forget to tell me how Bungle & his friend are getting along.

P.S. I have started a rough sketch of Verner but haven’t had much time to work on it.

Things forgotten at home and to be returned at the earlier opportunity — one pair of high grayish blue pants, very good for wearing in the room so that the other pants will not lose their press

October 24, 1940

[Today, I begin the transcriptions of my dad’s letters to his family. This first one was written shortly after he left home for the first time, to attend the University of Iowa. In my transcription, I have retained any non-standard spelling and grammar that he used. I hope I have not introduced any new typographical errors.]

Oct 24, 1940

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear mother, father, “little” Vincent (who will flunk his first driver’s license test, I’ll bet), “peanut-grower” Verner and “tall, slim” Marold,

Contrary to all that English teachers have ever taught me, I will start this letter by asking “How are you?” Of course I realize that you are all pretty good but I am asked it anyway to be polite. I am feeling pretty good except that I have a headache every now and then, and I can’t figure out why I do. Also my legs get tired running around this spread out campus but then I suppose, that’s only to be expected.

Well an Industrial Stoichiometry test has come, gone, and come back again. It was hard like expected it to be but the grade I got was a little better than I thought I would get. My grade was 82% and is regarded as a C+. The teacher, my old friend, the adviser, evidently does not grade on a scale or the class average. I talked with several people and I heard other people mentioning their grades etc etc. and the highest grade I could find out was a 86% corresponding to a B–. One fellow who had a 3.92 grade point average (4.0 is straight A) last year got 78% in the test, do I guess that I am getting along all right. However this does not make the class any more interesting which I doubt it will ever be.

The Chemical Industries course, strange to say, is actually developing points of interest and I believe will in the future become quite all right. First we studied water supplies and sewage disposal which didn’t particularly impress me but now we are studying fuels which, from the looks of things, will be quite interesting. In this class, there are never any tests, only “oral” quizzes in which the teacher asks only very obvious questions.

My German teacher’s mother died so we have been combined with another German section for awhile. However, the teacher is not as much fun as my real instructor is. Monday, I went to what was called a phonetics laboratory where you are supposed to learn how to say sounds that are not ordinarily present in English. First we heard records of the sounds, and also of certain selections in our German books and then we practiced making the sounds. It was sort of ineffective, I think. If you can’t say them, you just can’t, I think. I wrote Clarice a letter about this, which I thought was pretty good, and if she doesn’t send it on I’ll have to repeat it sometime for your benefit. We have also had a test in German which wasn’t very hard. However there was one section to it namely, translating of English into German which I thought unjustified as we really have not had enough grammar for that yet. Monday I am going to have a test in Mechanics over all we have had so far. We have had 2 drop tests in this, one I got 9 in and the other 10 where 10 is O.K. Evidently this fellos grades like Shannon used to. As I have mentioned before this class is a lot of fun.

The drawing lecturer said yesterday that after you have had one year of engineering drawing you could probably get a job as a junior draftsman. The rearmament program has presented a great demand for draftsmen, and there just isn’t enough to go around. If I decide I don’t like chemical engineering, I think that is what I will try to do. I seem to take to that course like a fish to water. We have made 8 drawings so far + lettering sheets, demonstration problems etc. You are graded on the drawing but on the rest you either pass of you don’t. Your work must be up to a certain minimum standard and that is all there is to it. My first 4 drawings were not so good — 95–95–85–90 but on the last 4 I have got 100 and my lettering sheets and demonstration problems have so far been O.K. There is a test in this coming up also but it should not be very difficult.

Well it is getting along to about time to go to the industrial stoichiometry laboratory. I dislike that even more than the class work. It is a good thing it comes only once a week and irregularly at that. It surely seems funny, my spirits are always at high ebb about 5 o’clock on Thursdays when there is no more indus stoich lab for another week and invariably at low ebb about now when I’m staring it in the face. So you can see that your letters arrive at a very psychological time. Of course I always feel good Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons when I am drawing, too, but this, alas does not carry over to Thursday afternoon. I will finish this letter after I get back from the skirmish with the enemy.

It is about 6:30. I didn’t get home (that is, back to the Quadrangle) till about 5:30 and then I read magazines for awhile and have just now finished my supper. If I get this letter finished in time and I feel like it, I am going to a lecture on the atom-smasher they have installed here. That starts at 7:30 so I will have to shake a leg in this writing. This talk should contain points of interest I believe. I feel rather tired tonite and have a little headache but I have no class tomorrow till 9:00 and I have only about ½ hour of studying to do so I can sleep till 7:30 or 7:45 tomorrow morning. That is, I will stay in bed till then and loaf. I almost always wake up about 5:00 whether I go to sleep at 8 or 11. I can’t quite figure that out but that’s the way it is.

There is a pep meeting for the dear old football team going on tonite to but there will be no fireworks so I will abstain from it. Privately I hope Iowa gets beat 50–0. I don’t like the exaulted regard in which athletics are held around here.

I have had no letter from Hulda but I suppose I will get one some time if she says she is going to write.

Speaking about Hulda reminds me that I saw a bulletin notice on the Quad bulletin board about a lade who wanted someone to lift her twice a day and tend to her furnace in exchange for a room. Well, I went out and saw her but she gets up usually when I have classes and she doesn’t think I’m big enough to lift her but she took my name anyway and send she’d tell me if she couldn’t get anybody else. I’m not sure that i’d want the job since I would have to go thru some red tape in breaking my Quad contract (altho the lady in the Dean of Men’s office says that it can be done if you have a good enough reason) and also that she lives about 10 blocks from school. If I got it I surely would want to have my bicycle but I have more than a hunch that I won’t get it anyway so that’s settled. Moreover, invalids are inclined to be inconsistent in their actions and I might find out I had no place to stay. Also, how would I get away for Xmas & Thanksgiving. I’d have to find out about that before I took the job.

On the way out there I met a man who I got into conversation with and I asked him where the lady I was looking for lived since I didn’t know exactly. He didn’t know wince he didn’t live around there either but we talked together for awhile. He said that his son has a lot of cactuses around their house and he thinks I could have one maybe if I asked his wife (his son is away now). I think maybe I will do this so I can have a nice little cactus growing on my dresser. I have an old beaker with me that I could put it in.

I would very much appreciate if you would send some more spreads etc to supplement my noonday lunches, since I am continuing with this practice. I have used some of my jelly allready too. I wish I could get some work since I probably could manage to work some altho, even now, I do not have any too much time to fool around in.

I haven’t quite decided yet if I should buy a season ticket for the plays down here or not. It costs $3 and you get to go to 5 plays and you will also get invitations (free I guess) to 5 others. I will have to look up the fellow who is selling the tickets and find out the facts of the matter. There are some good plays I think — “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” and Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.” I will see about this and perhaps will have decided by the next time I write. I also saw a notice about a fellow who had bought a radio 3 weeks ago for $16.95 and wanted to sell it now for $11.00. I was almost tempted for awhile, since I miss the radio a lot, but the sign is gone now so the temptation is past. I wish I could find an old radio for $2–$3 that I could fool around with and maybe take apart, but I have discovered no second-hand radio stores in this town.

Last Sunday nite I went to the L.S.A. meeting but on the whole I didn’t enjoy myself immensely. For one thing I could find no congenial souls. One fellow I talked to looked at me queerly when I happened to mention that I had socialist tendencies. There were very many people there since a convention was going on some place or other and some of those who attended regularly were gone. Well, I will go some more times maybe and see if it gets any better. The talker said two things in his speech (my old topic again) (1) That we should make the fullest use of our talents (2) That we had nothing to say about being here. At the end of his talk he asked if there was any questions but I was too timid to ask him why we are responsible for our talents if we didn’t ask for them. If I could have talked to him privately I believe I would have. He was a teacher in the Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque & he preached the sermon in the morning at the Lutheran church there. By the way, how much do you think I should give in the collection here?

If my letter seems illogically put together it is because during the week I put down the things I think you might be interested in and look at this list occasionally as I need inspiration. Therefore my letter no doubt seems somewhat disjointed. Last Saturday I enjoyed 2 very good chess games with the fellow who had beaten me before. I won one of the games and that made me feel pretty good as he is by far the best player I have yet played with. I am anticipating more games with him. I have got acquainted with so very many people here and I wish I could find Howard Nelson down here but I suppose that is impossible. I have met some good guys tho. One is Roger Hanson who is my German class & also goes to the Zion Luth church. Another is Robert Jones who works with me in the Indus Stoich Lab and is quite nice. He comes from Missouri. However I have learned to know no people very well.

I have worn my jacket only a couple of times. It was been quite warm here for the last week or week & ½ and my sweater has been sufficient. My green tweeds have begun to look dirty around the pockets so I will send them home and see what you can do to them. I can get my stockings & underwear very clean in the wash bowl. I have washed my pajamas also. I am running out of space and don’t want to start another sheet so I will close.

Yours with love

Carl

[The following sentences were written sideways up and down the sides of all four pages of the original letter.]

I have five minutes to mail this and get over to the chem. audit. for the atom smasher talk.

Somebody with a perverted sense of patriotism is blowing a steam whistle over in the Eng. building. They always do that at pep rallies etc. You can’t imagine how it gets on my nerves & headache.

Thanks for the letter Vincent. I hope you decide to write again some time.

Daddy: keep that dangerous driver, Vincent, away from the wheel. He’s a reckless driver, I know. Also don’t do all his chores for him.

Marold: If you are tall & slim, what is Harris Magnuson. How are Banderson, Wheaties & Blackie’s Verner?

Vincent: Work hard, don’t let daddy do all the chores, also get your high school math. My Mechanics teacher says that more students fall down in that respect than in not knowing their Calculus etc.

Mama: What should I do about the blanket you sent me if you send my an Indian blanket?