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.