March 5, 1943

March 5, 1943

425 S Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro Calif.

Dear father, mother and the folks at home,

Rain, rain, go away!

Come gain (we hope not!) some other day.

As I write this the rain has gone at least temporarily but the sky is still cloudy and the sun isn’t out so we’ll probably have more despite my little ditty. It hasn’t rained much since midnight but previous to that time it rained hard and steadily for long periods. It did not however begin in earnest until I was home yesterday from work for which I am duly thankful. When I was going to go downtown to dinner or rather the usual someplace in-between-dinner-and-supper it was raining hard, but Mrs. Wills lent me her umbrella so I got downtown without getting very wet.

On the way back the rain let up for awhile. After that it rained more but I went to bed almost immediately since my feet were wet and cold and bed was the best place to warm them up I thought, so I don’t know just how much it rained. Last night and this morning also, the P.E. was under water in some places. By the way, you should here [sic] the frogs around the place into which the harbor dredgings were pumped. The croak was so loud that you can hear them above the noise of the P.E. which is certainly no mean accomplishment. Dwight says he has heard uninitiated riders on the P.E. wonder what the funny noise is when going around that way. Last night also the P.E. got stuck behind a banana train so we were late getting to Watson about 15 minutes.

Tomorrow night is the special congregational meeting being held to find out what should be done about our financial situation. Fortunately, things seem to be taking care of themselves somewhat so the situation is definitely improved from what it was. Some non-member of the church but [sic] a $100 bill in the offering last Sunday so that helped things a lot. If we get the back bills paid up things will be a lot better and easier I think.

Sunday night is the Luther League fellowship program at church which I will be glad when it is over.

I think that I am going to go to the show “Casablanca” over the weekend if there is time which there probably will be. The show as [sic] some of my favorite actors in it so that is why I am going.

This week I have been working with plants I and IX mostly so that I suppose I will be working as an operator pretty soon. It will be more interesting, at least for awhile, altho it will be not as clean as laboratory work altho that is no particular deterrent. It means tho that I will be back on work involving shift changing and I don’t think it will be possible to work one shift steadily as I have been.

I received a letter form Vivian the other day and she asked me to write to her in Chicago but unfortunately the date she wanted the letters to reach her in Chicago by had already passed here when she got the letter [this doesn’t make any sense] so I guess she won’t get any from me because I didn’t send one. She writes that the snow is going in Iowa and that they were having a typical spring day at Iowa City — students river banking, the windows in the Chem building all open, people dawdling around not doing much of anything. So much nicer than to have it rain so much. The rainy season should be over by the 1st part of April however. Sometimes it rains steadily thru March tho I have heard. I think that if we would sell Calif. to the Japanese, that’d fix ’em in short order.

I seem to have some to a dead end as far as news is concerned so I believe I’ll stop. This letter is written later this week so you probably won’t get it till Monday or Tuesday.

With love

CP.

P.S. Didn’t you promise me you were going to send me some cookies, mama? Remember the old four-oclock cry — “I’m hun-gry!” Well I am for some of your cookies.