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.