December 6, 1941

Postmark Dec 6, 1941

Friday evening

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Vincent, Verner (the sands have run out now) and — let me see, I believe there was one more last September but I’m beginning to wonder now. At any rate — and any others who may read this letter,

According to my schedule of events, it is only 13 days now until the day on which I will be coming home. Only 13 days more of getting up, reading the condensate meters, going to classes or some other place, studying, going to work down at the power plant, getting past about 4 or 5 tests, etc etc. It seems so long and yet it doesn’t seem so very long at that. Just think 13 x 24 hours from now I’ll be bumping along on the M. & St. L. leaving all of this balder-dash behind me — two two whole weeks.

I’ll say it’s a grand and glorious feeling just to think of it and I can hardly wait until the time actually comes. I reckon tho that I’ll have plenty to keep me busy those 13 days. I always keep pushing everything off till the last minute and then I find I can hardly find time for everything. This past week I have sort of sliding but I’ll have to buckle down good & proper between now and Christmas. Here is a list of things I plan to do — not all of them necessary of course — before I leave for home on Dec. 18 at around 12:30 P.M.

1. Finish Clarice’s Christmas present. Vivian’s is already finished. It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would, but it was rather time-consuming at that.

2. Get them thar principles expt’s entirely up-to-date. A very salutary object, but I wonder if it will be realized.

3. Go to the first basketball game of the season a week from tomorrow night.

4. Go to the initiation (formal) into Tau Beta Pi next Sunday night (this coming Sunday night) and the banquet afterwards.

5. Get my list of signatures for Phi Lambda Upsilon completed and other & sundry matters taken care of, attend the formal initiation next Wed. night and the banquet afterwards.

6. Go to the Christmas program a week from Sunday night at church, which takes the place of the regular L.S.A. meeting.

7. Study for the organic test tomorrow, the two thermo tests next week (for 2 periods straight now I have been absolutely certain we were going to have a test in thermo — and then no action on the Western front. I am expecting the sun to come up in the west one of these mornings if things don’t come back to normal. When Arnold starts casting out hints about tests and then doesn’t produce them, something must be wrong) the metallurgy test next Thursday, and for any other tests which may come up.

8. Get four more reports on addresses finished for technical writing so that I could have them 2/3 out of the way.

9. Do some Christmas shopping.

10. Go to my classes and labs.

11. Attend to any other things that have to be done, like writing that one, lone single more letter home, washing my stockings & underwear, eating, sleeping etc etc.

I surely wish I was looking back at all this. In 13 days I will, that is. I am assuming that I will be.

The weather has been very cloudy, foggy and warm around here for the past week. Today however it is colder and will get even colder tonite I think. For several nites I don’t think that the temperature fell below freezing. I hope it stays nice and warm until Xmas vacation starts; then it can storm & blow for all I care. By the way, the power plant here is running on a shoestring. They are unable to get any power from the city to cut the peak on their electric load so that corridor lights, street lights and many not necessary uses are being curtailed. I was talking to Smith today (getting the final official consent on my exodus on Dec. 18) and he said that if one of the 2 generators went off now, it would be just too bad, meaning that there would be less studying done I guess.

Did I ever mention to you, mother, that I thought farming would be a rather nice occupation to follow? It seems to me that I have said something or other about that. I have thought a little about the ministry but there seem to be several almost insurmountable obstacles, which may be due to my own stubborness, but seem, even taking that into account, as rather conclusive to any move in that direction. The first is that a minister should for the best interests of his congregation and work be a married man and I absolutely refuse to consider any such institution in my life. Secondly (here is Moses talking) I don’t think I am enough of an extrovert to adopt any calling which involves a great deal of contact with people. Here it might be mentioned, mama, that I have considered your criticism of my writing and have reached this conclusion. Of course if I were to become a minister I would have to correct this perhaps but, I believe that using big words isn’t a sign of bigheadedness or tendency to sound high-faluting or anything like that, that is, necessarily. It may be in some instances. On the whole, tho, as a person gets a formal education (ha! ha!) he learns to express himself with a greater amount of accuracy. That is his opinions etc are stated so that technically they are stated more correctly than before. To do this, the use of a certain amount of unusual words are necessary since they express variations in meaning that are inobtainable in the use of commoner words. This of course means more difficult reading etc but it does, on study, convey a clearer impression of what is going on. Well so much for that.

Finally, you know my attitude on certain scientific, notably biologic, theories. I’ll admit they’re theories. No person in his right mind could do otherwise. While I think they are all right if propery evaluation, nevertheless I don’t think a minister should believe them since it might have an adverse effect on his work due to the opinion which many people hold of them. By the by, my attitude on some of these questions has been some time in forming — indeed since when I was way back in high school somewhere.

Well I am closing here. One more letter home before Christmas vacation. That’s all and am I glad.

With love

C.P.

[Marginal addenda]

The little boy who was running around last fall, sometimes in the morning without his pants — where is he? I hope he didn’t eat too much at Thanksgiving so that he burst. I wonder what happened to him.

Verner: The time has come for another epistle. I trust I will not wait in vain. This is the last time, you remember, that you get your name in the salutation or whatever it is.

Daddy: I think that increasing the kilocycles was a very good thing. There is all the difference in the world between a post-card and a letter. I surely appreciate both, however.

Vincent: Thank you for the letter, my busy brother. You are hereby promoted to address by a distinctive title.