December 10, 1942

Dec. 10, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear father, mother and the rest at home,

Just think, tomorrow is only two weeks from Christmas. It hardly seems real. No snow, the vegetation still green — more like an Indian summer day altho the smell of fall is not in the air and of course the leaves of the trees are not falling off. This morning when I was eating breakfast, somebody was singing “Jingle Bells” on the radio when there wasn’t a snow within miles. I suppose that up in the mountains there is some tho.

The weather here this past week has, in general, been colder than previously. When the sun is out it usually warms up fair but it isn’t above the horizon more than about 9 or 9½ hours now and it really doesn’t shine until after 10 or 10:30 so it doesn’t get in very many good licks. Altho the cold here is nothing like in Iowa, nevertheless you feel it — more or less by contrast I suppose. Sometimes when I am walking to work I almost wish that I were wearing long underwear.

Incidentally, speaking of walking reminds me that I have purchased some new work shoes. My brown sponge-rubber bottomed ones were disintegrating in from ever since I spilled some catalytic acid on them some time ago. Moreover they were getting run over as my old brown ones did and I was afraid that it might result in another corn. The shoes I got cost $4.49 which was too much I thought but they seemed to be the only thing available that looked o.k. I got them at Penney’s. I was wearing light stockings when I got them last Saturday and when I wore them to work with heavy stockings for the first time they felt almost tight but they are better now. Ii think that when they get broken in they will be all right. On the whole, I probably do as much or more walking here as I did while going to school so it sort of shows up on your shoes.

I have acquired one of my usual pebbles in my shoes this week when I allowed myself to be elected pres. of the Luther League here. Why I ever let myself in for things like this is beyond me. I guess I should never have started going in the first place. I really think that I am too old to be engaged in such work, and besides I guess I’m too lazy or too uninterested to want any responsibility. However I suppose that I can do it for a year. I’ve done it before.

One thing I’ll never forget when I was pres of the Gowrie L.L. was the time the ice cream social was being discussed and when I was stating a motion or something before the house, I called it the strawberry festival and everybody sort of snickered. I couldn’t figure out right away what was going on. Which incident in turn reminds me of the time in high school we were doing pantomimes in class and I was turning around regularly in front of the class with a hole in the back of my pants. As I remember, after class, Dale Coffin took them down to the home economics room and had them sewed up.

There is a very real shortage in eggs, cream and meat here in southern Calif. Butter is practically non-existent — a margarine being used instead. However I cannot tell the difference. Several times recently I have not been able to have eggs for breakfast — simply because there wasn’t any. As for the meat shortage, I cannot really detect it, since there is always meat on the restaurant menu but I guess that sometimes it is rather hard to get at the meat shops.

The new distillation column set up in the laboratory is now all fixed up but only three columns are running because two of the heads have been damaged. One has been patched up with rubber tubing for some time and the other was broken in 4 parts a couple of nights ago by George while trying to get some tubing off one of the outlets. Fortunately, it broke at advantageous points so that it can be mended. On of these heads is worth about $35. In common with the rest of the columns they are made of glass and so are very subject to damage. Since there are five heads available, three columns are running. The new distillation (bubble-plate) column is a two piece affair, jointed in the middle which is a mistake I think as I believe it might get broken that way more easily.

Lately I have been running bromine values mostly. I have gotten so that I can do quite a few of them in a night. Last night I did 14 but one night I did 19 which is the most I have ever done. These bromine values are being obtained in connection with a hydrogenation and desulfurization run on Plant IV. This is another important use for this catalyst because in this way, a cracked gasoline can be saturated and thus made available for use as airplane fuel. Unsaturated fuels are not allowed for airplane use because of gum-forming tendencies.

The runs on Plant IV were tests at different temperatures, pressures, H₂ flow and space velocities, I suppose to determine optimum operating conditions. A new unit, called Plant IX has now been set up which does this same thing on a large scale. The B.V.’s from this unit are really low, less than 1 usually which is really something.

I was at Pastor Wellington’s for dinner last Sunday. They have also asked me for Christmas day which I appreciated very much. I do not think (or have I mentioned this before) that I will have to work on Christmas day. I surely hope that I do not. The church here has early morning services as at home but I am afraid that it will not seem quite the same.

I haven’t been in the book store for almost a week now — an example I think worthy of note in avoiding temptation. Last weekend I went to a show called “A Yank at Eton” with Mickey Rooney in it which I thought was pretty good. I have gotten so that on quite a few weekends I go to a show. Do you think that is too often? After dinner on Sat I usually feel too lazy to do anything, even drawing, so I just let myself wander in to a show. I sort of think it is the reaction after working all week. Altho why it didn’t happen at home when I worked just as much is a question I can’t answer? Perhaps it is that the work here is more exacting — I don’t know.

Last night I was reading in I Corinthians, the seventh chapter and I just could not help thinking of Clarice. I am afraid that she is going to get married to him, I really am. Altho I suppose it isn’t anything to be afraid of if they really love each other, which it sort of sounds like they do. Just think, some day I may be Uncle Carl and you may be grandmother and grandfather. How old we are!

I suppose you read in the newspapers about the bad fire in Boston. One of the victims was a fellow named Goss, an electrical engineer, who graduated at Iowa last June. This was too bad since he was very intelligent I thought.

With love

C.P.

December 3, 1942

Dec. 3, 1942

425 S Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro Calif

Dear father, mother and the folks at home,

According to the newspaper its just 19 shopping days until Christmas (and I have [not] got around to do any Christmas shopping at all). It hardly seems 3½ months since I left home and yet it seems like an awful long time. Iowa weather had undergone a considerable change since I left but here, except for about a 25 or 30°F drop all around the clock from a summer temperature profile, the weather is essentially the same. A little less cloudy on the average in the morning but really foggy when it decides to get foggy.

I don’t hardly think that I will do much Christmas shopping but let you do your own as Uncle Carl does. I had the bright idea once (before gas rationing) of buying 5 gallons of gasoline and sending it home, but I suppose it wouldn’t be allowed. Lately I have found out, via the newspaper, that it violates city ordinance to have more than 2 gallons stored above ground except in a car or approved container. At any rate I didn’t do it.

By the way, how are you coming out in this matter? Will you get extra gasoline? I’m glad that I do not have a car to worry about. I saw in the newspaper this morning that after Christmas, many things are going to be rationed, clothes, milk, eggs, cheese etc etc. All I can say is, its the city dweller that’s getting knocked in most of this stuff. You can have to eat what you want and all you want of it on the farm (except for such things as coffee which probably aren’t necessary).

To me, the farm is the place where you can have the greatest freedom in what you do regardless of what regulations & conventions are extant elsewhere. I’m not exactly unhappy where I am now but I’d rather freeze, sweat, toil, ache in the back, grow blisters on my hands, get all disgusted with cows, wish I’d never seen a potato in my life, grow bunions on my nether portions bouncing over a crossed corn field, chase the pigs when they get out etc etc than be a chemical engineer. Perhaps I’ll change my tune someday because all this doesn’t seem logical, but then many things in life aren’t in the least logical when you think about them. How did [I] get started into this anyway? I’ll guess I’ll leave off and start in on another tack.

I have got some pictures finished, not by me, but by the Thrifty Drug Store. Since we started working six days a week I don’t have very much spare time especially at night when I would have to do the developing. I guess my ventures into photographic chemistry will have to wait awhile. I am enclosing them in this letter. Please send them on to Aunt Laurine. If you don’t mind I’d like to have them back eventually. I hope that you still have the map I once sent you because it will be easier to recognize from where these pictures were taken. The descriptions are written on the back of them.

This month (or, that is, last November) I kept track of all that I spent and it was more than I thought it would be. Altogether it was $90.02 if I forget about the $13.13 which I paid for an electric razor by check. Anyway the $90.02 represents current, ordinary expenditure. This seems like an awful lot but most of it had to be spent, more or less. I spent $29.41 for food or about $1 per day which it would have been if I hadn’t had that Thanksgiving dinner(s) I wrote about. This is about a workable minimum I think.

After work I have breakfast at the Shell Cafe before I get on the P.E. which costs usually 31¢ and consists of two eggs, coffee, toast and potatoes. After I have come home and slept awhile (till two usually or 12:30 like today) I go down to Thrifty’s or Sontag’s and have dinner or supper or whatever you want to call it for 55 to 60¢. This consists usually of soup, salad, potatoes, vegetable, meat (except on Tuesday), milk, rolls, dessert (usually pie). Then I have an apple perhaps when I am walking home. Going to work at 11:15 I usually get something to eat (a bar, etc) at the magazine stand near the P.E. station. And that’s the program 6 days a week now.

On Sunday it is the same except for breakfast which occurs at Sontag’s and includes orange juice in addition to the above breakfast for 40¢. This diet seems to include a reasonable amount of all the essentials, altho perhaps a bit weak on cereals. But you don’t get much bread to eat at restaurant meals anyway so that can’t be helped. In addition to the amount I spent for food, I spent $36.73 for what I call essentials — that is rent, laundry, church dues etc. Then I spent $4.60 to get to and from work on the P.E. which I suppose should be included in the essential column. About $1.64 accumulated in my 1¢, 5¢, and 10¢ coin collections, leaving $17.46 which I spent more or less needlessly on magazines, paper, newspaper, movies etc. I have however a couple of books to show for it. It also includes the $5 Look subscription so perhaps it isn’t too much.

If you have been keeping track so far you find that this amounts to only about $89.44 I don’t know what happened to the difference. I probably lost some and forgot to include some expenditures. On two days I came out ahead of myself — that is, I have more left over than I should. Where it came from is beyond me. My estimated expenditures for Dec are $83.40 because I think that working 6 days a week I will have less time to get wangled into buying things. However, yesterday I wandered into the book-store and bought some books so that I wonder if my budget will contain itself. I had thought originally that I could get along on less than $85 or $90 a month but I sort of think its impossible now — especially if I can’t keep out of the book store. My latest was for two books — the works of Gilbert & Sullivan and the “Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammitt [sic]. This last is a detective story that has almost become a classic so far as detective stories go. Well, what do you think of my spending? Please write and tell me.

I am getting hungry so I guess I will go downtown and have some dinner.

With love

C.P.

P.S. Thank you, mother, father & Vincent your very welcome letters.

P.S. I am enclosing a clipping that was amusing I thought. Also a bond.

November 3, 1942

Nov 3, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear father, mother and the rest at home

It is getting along about time to go to work, 10:00 p.m., but I think I will start this letter anyway. I suppose you wonder why I am working graveyards this week instead of days. Well, I will tell you.

Last week one of the operators got sick so that Dwight has been given that job so that there are only two analysts working, George and I. This week I started working days, of course, but I thought being as there were only two analysts I would ask if I could work one shift steady all the time, that is, I wouldn’t change shift every week. So being as nobody likes to work graveyards and since I don’t mind it in the least, I thought that I would ask if I could work then all the time and it was decided that that would be all right. Therefore I will be working that shift all the time from now on.

Moreover, the operator who is sick, has been ordered off shift work by his doctor so this way he will work days all the time, George having taken the afternoon shift. I didn’t get much sleep Monday night as I went to work again at 12 after having gone off at 4, so that by 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning I was pretty tired. However I slept pretty well today so I feel rested up. I went to L.L. after all since Rev. Wellington asked me to come but I felt a little bit like an Edna Nelson — that is, I’m not as young as I used to be. Most of them are in high school I would guess, more or less like they are in Gowrie.

I have written a letter to Eugene as you suggested and I will mail it tonite. Monday I got four pieces of mail, two letters from mother, dad’s letter and a postcard asking me to go to L.L. Today I got a letter from Howard. The letter containing Eugene’s letter, Clarice’s and Vivian;s had 3 cents due on it altho it didn’t feel to me as if it would have needed the additional postage.

Howard writes that teaching six classes a day keeps him busy. One weekend he had gone up to Cedar Falls to the Homecoming game. Another weekend he had gone out to collect scrap and he says he just about froze himself. He says that when it gets cold, he wishes that he were in California. Well, it gets warm here, at least in the days. Monday the temperature was about 81 or 82 along about 3 or 4 in the afternoon but today it has been cool and cloudy — getting ready for another rain I think. So far the rain here has not been accompanied by thunder and lightning. Perhaps it isn’t the custom around here. Howard also writes that his pupils are some bright but mostly dumb. One of them got 00 (whatever that represents) on a reading comprehension test.

I have started taking a daily paper. I wouldn’t have done it except a boy came around trying to get new subscribers and since he gave a nice sales talk for being such a little squirt I got soft-hearted or balmy-brained and said I would subscribe. I suppose it will be ok but I don’t suppose I’ll get much benefit from it.

I have still not developed any pictures from my set because I am waiting till I get up enough nerve to ask the landlady if I can do it in the bathroom. However, last Sunday afternoon I walked around and took some pictures which, as soon as they are developed, I will send home to you. I guess, being as some of them were taken at home, so that I can’t retake them, I’ll play safe and taken them downtown to have them developed. I wouldn’t trust myself too much on my first attempt at developing pictures.

Monday when I was paid I also got my bond, which I thought would be sent to you as was the otherN one. However, since it was not I will include it with this letter. I will also send some more money home. Incidentally every day when I go to eat at Thrifty’s Drug Store I go past the J.C. Penney Store and there is a brown suit in the window that is steadily lowering my sales resistance. Do you think I would be extravagant if I bought it? I don’t know why in the world I should want to buy another suit unless it can be that the California sun has touched my brain.

Today was election day here of course but I didn’t vote as I had neglected to register. I think that Earl Warren will oust the incumbent Democrat, Olson as governor. Warren has been conducting a very vigorous campaign I think but Olson has done very little that I have been able to see.

One unusual thing out here that does not come up very much in Iowa is the way in which various matters are brought to the vote of the people. I guess that the rights of referendum and initiative are more widely exercised out here than in Iowa. In this voting there are about 20 propositions that are being put to a popular vote. I think that this is a very good idea and that it should be more widely adopted and used.

Next day. I see that my sole election forecast came out as I said, Warren soundly trouncing Olson for governor. The Republicans gained one seat in the House of Representatives I think altho I am not certain. I looked at a newspaper rather hurriedly this morning while eating breakfast at the Shell Cafe. I had to hurry because I didn’t have too much time in which to catch the train.

My work is proceeding about as usual. At present, something new is being tried out in Plant IV. It has been found that under certain conditions, the same process used to making toluene by dehydrogenation of methyl cyclohexane can be used in the desulfurization of petroleum stocks. The sulfur comes out in the gas produced during the reaction as hydrogen sulfide. I think that this is a very significant development inasmuch as the present way of sulfur removal is by caustic treatment, which is both clumsy and expensive as compared with the treatment in the catalytic dehydrogenation unit.

I have run out of news so I will quit.

With love

Carl

P.S. Major development on the western industrial front: The P.E. railroad is now double-tracked all the way from Wilmington to San Pedro thereby eliminating a lot of delay occurring at the single track section.

September 11, 1942

Sept 11, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro, Calif

Dear father, mother, and anyone else who may read this,

In my last letter I told you a little bit about the laboratory. This tim I guess I will try to reconstruct a sort of plan of the Shell Development Co’s buildings here. They are not very large, any of them, and the laboratory is about a representative size.

On the south side of the road is a big ditch and on the other side of the ditch is the manifold thru which all of the pumping here is done. All the pumps are in one place sp that they can be used continuously and therefore more economically. Farther south are the stabilizers where unstabilized gasoline from the other Shell refinery near here (at Dominguez) is stabilized (that is, compounds too volatile for gasoline are driven off; that is compounds of the properties similar to those used in natural gas).

A is a building housing a couple of desks, gas analysis equipment & AB Cox’s office. B is a mechanic’s shack where Shorty Coe has been building another lab sized model of Plant I, similar to plant IV lately. B also houses the centrifuge that is used in sulfanations. E and W are indiscriminate areas of which I know little. The outside gate of the refinery is about ¼ mile north of the Shell development plant. A road runs north from the east side of Plant I, passing some fractionating columns and the solvent extraction plant for lubricating oils, then stops and turns east & west near the furnaces. By following the east branch for awhile you come to a rather large vacant space across which you walk, past the loading racks, the Shell Oil Lab, the office building and finally out thru the main gate, opening on Sepulveda Blvd. (see map I sent you at one time).

I do not know a great deal about the refinery here except incidentally, because we have little to do with it. A toluene production plant is being built at the Dominguez refinery which is a couple miles north of the Wilmington refinery. A similar plant is being built at the Wood Rive Refinery near Chicago.

The Shell Development plant started here about 7 years ago as I have already said and has grown considerably since then. However, its growth has resulted in a considerable degree of disorganization I think. The laboratory records, while complete, are kept somewhat unsystematically and the laboratory, due more or less to the fact that nobody has the time or the inclination is never thoroly cleaned up. Probably the worst phase in this respect, in my opinion, is the sample situation. I think that is an many samples are to be kept as now are, more and better storage space than the inadequate cupboards, should be provided. Moreover many of the samples are kept for a considerable length of time since it is never known when they might become important.

Nevertheless, I think that if I am to continue working for the Shell Dev Co, I’d as lief work here as in Emeryville. The climate here, tho rather foggy as I have already implied, is not as bad as near San Francisco. Moreover I believe that the establishment here will continue to grow altho that is problematical. At any rate, it is a much smaller organization and I think easier to work in than at Emeryville. Also, at Emeryville, there was been considerable labor trouble, I gather which does not sound so good.

All this may be rather looking into the future too far. I can’t see that I am going to enjoy the work here very much, probably for a considerable length of time. I believe that when I have enough saved to start farming I will leave because I just cannot see myself doing work like this all my days. Ig I were really keen about my work, as Raiford was always saying, I suppose I wouldn’t mind keeping on with it, but the more I think about it and come in contact with it, the less I really like it. Perhaps if the war continues I will land up in the army. At any rate, I am managing to stay out of it for awhile which is something.

I scarcely, if ever, read any newspapers and I don’t have a radio so I am sort of out of contact with the war. I picked up a newspaper left on the P.E. the other morning, but the most interesting news I could find was that the Cards were 2½ games out of first place and the Browns seem to have annexed 3^d place rather conclusively. If it weren’t for the newspapers grabbing hold of every happening in the war and playing it up in big headlines, the was would begin to be a dead issue I think.

As usual, I am disgusted with what I am doing, with life, and with the world in general. Maybe that’s why I would like to be a farmer — where there is a minimum of contact with people etc if you want to make it that way. I have no desire to make a lot of money or influence people or do remarkable things or make contributions to science. The extent of my ambition is to have enough to eat, something to wear (preferably covert pants & shirt and Rockford sox), books to read, paper & pencils to fool around with and enough to keep me busy so that the leisure I get will be appreciated, all with as little contact with others as possible.

The farm seems to be almost ideal in this respect, except for the books. However, the books worth reading are relatively scarce and they probably could be obtained without too great hardship. Moreover, living on a farm by yourself would probably involve the least responsibility and the least danger of economic want neither of which I am particularly anxious to encounter. The only disadvantage I can possibly think of is that there probably will be another war 25 or 30 years hence and I might not be old enough to stay out of it. However, that is rather far in the future and it’s easier not to consider it altho it seems to be a relatively real possibility. If there were any uninhabited part of the globe not ruled by some asinine form of gov’t that is run by a bunch of loco-minded nit wits and which did not blithely assume that its citizens exist for its benefit, I would be tempted to hie myself thither provided it wasn’t 100% desert (like Calif).

Well, I guess that’s enough of that. I’ll probably be able to exist another week without thinking too much about it.

You asked me mother about how to get in the coast guard. I really don’t know but I think that inquiry at a large enough post office, at the dean of Men’s office at I.S.C. or at the individual in charge of the ROTC there might be able to supply the information. I do not believe that more than a high school education & reasonable physical health is required altho I am not certain.

If I were you Vincent, I would not immediately buy a slide rule. If you do, don’t be in a hurry but look at the bulletin boards etc & you might be able to pick one up second hand for a reasonable sum. The first year you probably will use a rule for multiplication & division only and after that for about 95% of the time. A Mannheim rule for $2 or $3 serves this purpose. In buying a rule make sure that the sliding part (that is the long part that has the numbered scales on it) works easily. It should not fall out when the rule is held vertical (that is, from the rule proper) but it should move easily.

The 25¢ rule I left at home moves entirely too hard and when I say entirely I mean entirely. The sliding part (reader) should be more difficult to move than the long sliding part having the scales on it. This part (the sliding part) is the glass part with the single line in it that can also be moved along the rule. However, here again reason should be observed. Besides this it is sufficient to see to it that the rule is not warped, as would be apparent by discrepancies between the long sliding part & the rule proper. Most rules nowadays are made of mahogany covered with celluloid or some similar substances. Distrust any that are not unless possibly in the $2 class of Mannheim rules.

If you want to get a better rule for permanent use, it should have, besides the usual multiplying & dividing scales (called a & b usually) the following (1) the c scale (or inverted b scale) on the long sliding part (2) log-log scales (3) trigonometric scales. Beyond these there is nothing to be gained I think and most any rule above $10 has them. You probably can ask an engineering teacher, or you might encounter it in one of your freshman courses, if you want to know anymore about. However, don’t be in a hurry — You probably won’t need it for a good while.

I have deposited my money on a checking acct in a bank here and will send home periodically any excess that occurs. There is one now so I will enclose a check for it in this letter.

Tomorrow I might decide to go up to Los Angeles and look around or maybe out to Pasadena to see some of the things of interest. As for looking up Earl Strand I will leave that to people who are more capable of enduring his peculiar and eccentric character than I am.

As I write this I am sitting in a sort of easy chair with my feet on the bed and I am noticing that I have a lot of hair on the top of them that I really was never conscious of before. Something of an accomplishment no doubt. The toes also have hair on them. I shall have to grow a mustaches to even things up, otherwise I will have too much hair on my feet and not enough on my head.

With love and in boredom

C.P.

August 30, 1942

August 30, 1942

425 S Cabrillo Ave 

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father, Mother, and other relatives,

I will devote this letter to answering the questions which mama included in her last letter. After that I may add some more information if I can think of some to give.

1. I found out about the room I am staying at the first Sunday I was out here. By that time I had already moved to 1018 Avalon Ave, Wilmington. The lady next door has Dwight Johnston as a roomer. I met her son at church, and, when he found out I knew Dwight, invited me to dinner. When I was there in the afternoon I found out about the room for rent next door. I looked at it then but I didn’t take it until Tuesday night, and I moved in Wednesday night, I believe it was. The room in Wilmington was about what I expected but this room was nicer so that is why I moved. The boy who moved in with me was a rather nice guy I thought but he smoked so I decided that I wouldn’t like it too well. Moreover the price was only $2 a month less than where I am now staying which was only a little more considering that I was getting a private room.

My room is located on the northwest corner of the house. It has two windows on the north, one on the south, and a door on the south (a private entrance). The closet is good sized and the bathroom is next door. The Mr. Taylor who moved me is the man I stayed with. I thought that that was very considerate of him. I liked him very much. Mr and Mrs Taylor were, I think, people with more personality than the people I am now staying with. Incidentally, it is remotely possible that I may move again. Yesterday I found the public library here because I wanted to get something to read. However, I had to get somebody to vouch for me, so I walked out to Rev. Wellington’s and he gladly signed for me.

While I was there, he told me that a lady and her husband in the congregation were half-planning on taking a vacation out east for six weeks and that maybe I could stay there because they are looking for someone to stay there while they are gone for nothing and look after the house. After that I could stay there as a roomer. I saw the house and if the inside is like the outside it must be very nice. The man who lives there is a carpenter and built the house himself. The people are members of the church here. Rev. Wellington also said that the rent would probably be less than what I am now paying. If something comes up in this line I will inform you immediately.

All this dashing around to find a place to stay sort of disgusts me, and I suppose you think I am rather inconstant, but I may do it again. I hate to move tho because I hate to tell the people I am leaving because I suppose they have reason to think that I will stay awhile. However, time only will tell how things will turn out. You might write and tell me what you think I should do if the choice comes up.

2. Dwight Johnston is one of the people who graduated as a chemical engineer from Iowa last spring. He has been out here since then. It is because of him that I got invited to dinner the first Sunday I was out here. He is not a Lutheran, but a Presbyterian but I gather than he is a very consistent Presbyterian if you get what I mean. I didn’t know him too well in school but I think I will learn to know him better out here. We talked some that first Sunday and he sort of gave me an idea what to expect in the way of what I would be doing at first. I gave you a resume of this in my last letter.

3. The person who invited me to dinner was Carl E. Johnson, son of the lady next door. However, he does not live there. He is married and has two children. He is moving soon to a place about 50 miles from here, because his place of work is changing. He is a chemist. I think that he is a remarkable fellow and I am sorry that he is moving away.

4. I like Rev. Wellington very much, primarily because he seems to take more interest in everybody who comes to church than other pastors I have seen. Maybe that is because it is such a small congregation (81 communicant members). He is a young man in the ministry about one year now, and this is his first pastorate. The main trouble with this congregation is that the average stay of pastors for 25 years (with one exception) has been about one year. Yesterday when I went out thereto have him sign my library card he invited me to stay for supper. I’ll bet you can never guess what we had for supper. I am so certain that I will tell you right away instead [of] letting you guess awhile. It was chocolate waffles with ice cream on top with coffee to drink. That is California for you, rather dippy at times. He had fixed up a place to play ping pong in his garage and we played ping pong for awhile.

5. I will outline my work schedule to answer the 5th question. Beginning tomorrow, Monday, I will work seven days, thru Sunday from 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. The next week I work three days from 12 at night to 8 in the morning beginning at 12 Monday night. Since I will have worked 7 days the week before I will work only 3 that week since for salaries less than $200 a month you are not supposed to work more than 5 – 8-hour days a week. The next week I work from 4 in the afternoon to 12 at night Monday thru Friday. This schedule prohibits my going to church one Sunday out of three but I guess it can’t be helped. I am not certain that I will like my work so well but I guess that I can stand it as long as the war lasts. I guess I’ll keep on at least until I have enough saved to start farming if I want to.

6. I got the $20 dad telegraphed as I said in my last letter. I will be paid the 15th & 31st of every month. I think the reason I have not gotten my expense check is that Mr. Cole’s (who is the head of the Shell Dev. Co here) sec’y is on a vacation and he has let his correspondence ride. Since he is a very nice guy I didn’t feel like saying anything. However I will this week if nothing shows up. Most of the people working for the Shell Dev Co here at Wilmington are nice to meet and be with. In Emeryville, all of the employees are unionized which doesn’t sound so good, since if you are ever going to make any progress in the company that is where you will go eventually. Maybe I should go back to school after awhile and become a teacher — a relatively free, uninhibited occupation.

7. I am rooming next door to Dwight Johnston. He is not married and I do not think is even considering it. He and I are the only two of those working at Wilmington that I have met who are not married.

8. I got the first letter forwarded from Bob Lloyd yesterday along with mama’s and Verner’s letter. In it he said that he would be writing again soon since the address he gave in his first letter was uncertain. When his next letter comes I will write to him. He is in the army for limited service. After school was out last spring he volunteered I guess but was rejected for physical reasons. I have written to Uncle Lawrence’s. In fact I was writing to them last Tuesday night when Rev. Wellington called on me. Incidentally I think that I should transfer my membership out here since it will be easy enough to send it back if I have to and since I think that I have found the place where I will go to church.

9. I think that in my work here I walk almost as much if not more than I did when I was in school It is 15 minutes of fairly good walking from here to the P.E. depot and 10 more from the Watson station to the place where I work. If I move, as I may, it will be even more.

10. I have handed in my application for refund of train fare but it has been delayed, I think for reasons that I have given before in this letter. In view of the fact of my present resident indecision, it may be best to wait a week or two, or until I notify you definitely before you subscribe to the Readers Digest or Luth Companion.

I sent my drawing instruments home yesterday since I am not using them. They will be needed in Vincent’s first year courses, primarily drawing and projection. Yesterday morning since I had mostly nothing to do I looked around in the stores awhile. Drawing sets can be obtained here for a fairly reasonable price here I think so that if I needed any I probably could get some. Then too, the pawn shops of which I have noticed several probably would not be fruitless in such a search. Dwight says that after he came out here & before he got his expense check he pawned his slide-rule. I guess if you looked carefully at what you were getting you could get some fairly food stuff in them.

This afternoon I am going to the congregational picnic here. It is being held at a park in the city, somewhat like Dolliver’s Park only more civilized.

Yesterday, the sun came up in the morning and shone all day creating a beautiful morning for the first time since I have been out here.

I have bought an alarm clock because I am afraid that sooner or later I will oversleep, especially on odd shift hours.

Thank you very much for the letter, Verner.

I guess that this is all for this time. Please ask questions, if is easier to write letters that way since I guess I do not realized exactly what I should write about.

With love

C.P.

August 18, 1942

Aug 18, 1942

1018 Avalon Ave

Wilmington, California

Dear father, mother, Snooty Poot, brothers and others,

I suppose that you should have gotten my letter and the cards I have sent so I will send you another letter to sort of keep you informed of what has been happening to me. First of all, I will be soon again moving because I have found a nicer place to stay in San Pedro, Calif. However, I will tell about that in its proper place.

Saturday I fooled around mostly. Sunday I went to church in San Pedro. It (the one I went to) is an Augustana Synod church, Bethel, located at 580 or something like that, West 5th St. The preacher is one Maynard C. Wellington. After the service, I met one of the people there, Carl E. Johnson, who is a chemist and metallurgist working for the company originated by the Kaiser of ship building fame.

At any rate he asked me if I knew Dwight Johnston and I replied that I did, that I had gone to school with him. Well, the way it turned out was that Dwight Johnston roomed with Carl E. Johnson’s mother in San Pedro. Carl E. Johnson is married and lives elsewhere in the city. Anyway, I got invited to dinner and afterward we rode around awhile, saw the ocean etc and then I visited with Dwight awhile. He told me a little of what he had been doing so that I got a little advance information. I surely appreciated the way my first Sunday in California turned out. It definitely was just the thing to keep me from becoming homesick. However, every once in a while I get to feeling that I wish I was home again but I suppose that that cannot be for awhile.

Monday morning I went to work, of course, signed some more papers etc etc. and spent most of the day in looking around. This morning I had to go over to Long Beach to get a Social Security number but this afternoon I worked in the laboratory some. It is all rather confusing at first but I suppose that that will take care of itself. I believe that I will not write anymore about my work until I become a trifle more familiar with it. However, it will be largely routine at first I expect.

Wilmington, as I said in my previous letter, is smaller than I thought it was. A large part of it is oil wells, or industrial plants. Many people live in Long Beach, Los Angeles or San Pedro and work in Wilmington. When I live in San Pedro (the place is on Cabrillo Ave., about 3 blocks from the church, but I forget what the number is) I will still use the P.E. railway to get to and from work. Strangely enough, it will not cost me anymore, altho it will be two miles farther. However, the room I will be getting ($20/month) will be considerably nicer so I thin the extra riding will be worth it. The rent will be slightly more than I would pay where I am now but I will be alone in my new room, besides which it is much nicer as far as neighborhood, size etc goes.

I think that I will have to spend about $35/month for food the way it looks now. I only wish that I had someone to fix me a lunch to take to work with me. That is the usual custom of most of the people working in the laboratory at the refinery. However when I get moved perhaps I will be able to make some arrangements in this respect.

It is barely possible that I might have to telegraph you for some money if my expense check does not get to me in time. If it does give out, I will ask you to send it to my new address which of course, I have partly forgotten. I will determine what it is soon for I plan to move over there tomorrow night (maybe) and I will write a note immediately telling you what it is.

The weather here in California is not at all what I thought it would be. It is always foggy in the morning, but the afternoons are sunny. Sometimes it gets quite warm during the day and it is always comfortably cool at night. Everything now is sort of dried up looking because it is in the midst of the dry season. I expect it will be somewhat nicer in the rainy period. I think when I get some money as a surplus I will buy some covert pants to wear to work. That is just as good as anyone wears who is working there.

I will write more later but I thought I should let you know that I am moving and that it is possible I hay have to send for some money before I get my expense check or pay check.

With love and some homesickness

C.P.

P.S. The blue ink is due to the fact that I had to fill my pen in a Shell Co. office when my pen went dry.

P.S. There is an oil well in the back yard of the place where I am now staying.

Not in Iowa Any More: Aug 15, 1942

Aug. 15, 1942

Wilmington, California

Dear mother, father, Snooty Poot, brothers and anyone else who may read this,

Tonight I am very tired but I am also happy because everything has worked out so nicely. However that is getting ahead of my story. I will go back to the time I got in the train in Boone and record my feelings, experiences and observations from then till now, as well as I can recall them.

The porter led me to my berth, which incidentally was on the side of the train facing the station. I looked out but I guess that you had already left because I did not see you (that is — mama, daddy & Vincent). Being as it seemed the obvious thing to do, as the berth was all made up, I undressed and went to bed. I did not sleep very much however. About 7:30 or 8:00 the Pullman conductor came around and I gave him my ticket. However, I still had some to pay, as Mr. Bales had informed me, which I paid later in the morning. It was $11.55 which with the $50.72 given to Mr. Bales made a total of $62.27 for the ticket.

I did not get up until we had got into Omaha and had also got out, more or less because I did not know what to do. However, when I did get up everything went all right.

Before I go any farther I must describe what a lower berth is like. The bed is just long enough so that I could stretch comfortably without either bumping my head or feet into the ends of the berth. The width is about that of an ordinary twin-bed. The top of the berth is a section of the roof of the Pullman which pulls down and forms the bottom of the upper berth. In the lower berth you can lay and look out of the windows which is impossible in an upper berth since there are no windows to look out of. Just inside of the curtains which form the outside of the berth are hangers on which you can hang clothes. These curtains open in the middle and can be buttoned shut on the inside.

Well anyway, while I was washing my face, et cetera, the porter came around and converted the upper and lower berths into two ordinary train seats facing each other. There was no one in the berth above me so I had plenty of space in which to lounge all of the way.

By the time I had gotten up etc on the first day, I did not go down to breakfast, since it was too late. For dinner, since, despite my success in getting thru the process of getting up in the morning in the Pullman all right, I was still afraid, I had a bar and some other stuff to eat when the train stopped at some town in Nebraska, I forget now, just what town. By suppertime I was quite hungry however so I took my life in my hands and proceeded to the diner. When I got there, there was a line waiting (the train was long, but nowadays each train is allowed only one diner, due to transportation regulations) so I had to wait awhile. When I got in to eat, I found out that the regular meal had as its meat — chicken pie. So of course I had to get something else which totaled about $0.85 or something like that. The milk was 15¢ for a rather small glass, and other prices were in proportion. I suppose they had to be higher being as they were served under special conditions. However, I will say this much, that they gave you about twice as much butter as in the usual run of restaurants.

After supper I went back to my seat and sat for awhile until the porter came, reconverted the seats into the berths, after which I went to bed. I wrote a card during the afternoon but at the first two stops after I wrote it — North Platte Nebr and Cheyenne, Wyoming I looked in vain for a mailbox. Moreover the time was somewhat limited, so I thought maybe it would be safer to err on the side of being sure to get on the train before it left again.

As you go thru Nebraska the corn gets smaller and spindlier so that by the time you have reached western Nebraska it is almost non-existent. That is, most of the land is used for pasture or hay. In Wyoming, the land begins to change from the flat of the plains to a sort of rolling country and finally into sort of big dumpish hills, somewhat larger than Coon mound, which are known as foot-hills. Occasionally these will have some rocks sticking out of them. These are not covered with grass but rather with little bunchy growth of some kind of plant, probably a weed, I suppose.

I watched the foothills as I lay in my berth Wednesday night until it was too dark to see after which I went to sleep. I had a headache that night, and a little the next day but today I feel pretty good. When I woke up in the morning nothing much seemed to have happened as far as mountain development was concerned but thereafter it did. The foothills changed into some pretty respectable piles of earth and rock. That morning we went thru a rather long tunnel and when we came out the windows of the train were all frosted over. I guess that in the tunnel, the smoke (rich in water vapor from the combustion of coal) was cooled so that the water in it collected on the train. When the train got out of the tunnel however, the motion of the train soon caused the air to evaporate the water on the windows. Incidentally at North Platte, Nebraska on the previous day, the time changed from Central to Mountain time.

When we got to Salt Lake City, I got out and found a very handy mailbox stuck right where it couldn’t be missed which I thought was a [sic] sensible. However, I thought that it would be all right to send a telegram home that I was getting along all right so that you would know that I had got on the train and that everything was proceeding in a good way.

On the second day I had breakfast and supper in the train but for dinner I had an ice cream cone that I got at some town we stopped at. Altho the train had passed some fairly good sized mountain candidates in the morning nothing much further happened for sometime. After we left Salt Lake City, skirting the great Salt Lake, we proceeded to stay at some distance from the mountains, which remained sort of like [sic] shadows in the distance. That evening, Thursday we went thru Caliente, Nevada where the time changes from Mountain to Pacific time.

Towards evening we gradually got into rougher country where the mountains consisted mostly of great, upheaved masses of rock, which had been cracked etc in the process. The strata were all jumbled up, proceeding at every possible angle, some almost straight up and down. This lasted all night I think since it was still going on this morning. However, the mountains soon began to get smaller and smaller until they were more like the foothills. And then it got foggy and stayed that way right into Los Angeles. I wondered what had become of the vaunted California sun. However it came out warm enough later in the day.

I got to talking with a man who was evidently a Californian since he knew considerable about it. He said that most of California except for a strip 150 miles wide along the coast is a very hot uninviting place. It is practically impossible to drive thru eastern Calif by car except at night because it is so warm. The name California comes from two Spanish words, meaning “hot furnace,” which is the name the early Spaniards gave it. The desert gives off a sort of dry peculiar odor that is very distinguishable when you meet it for the first time. However your nose soon becomes insensitive to it. I’m all pooked out so I think I will go to bed and finish this letter in the morning.

Saturday morning.

The train was about an hour late getting into the Union Depot at Los Angeles. This was due to the fact that ever since Omaha or some place near there the train had been run in two sections because it began to be too long. Even at that, neither section was a short one in my opinion. In the section of the one I was on, the engine was an oil burning steam locomotive. After it came a baggage car and then a car in which some soldiers were riding. Then followed six Pullman cars, a recreation car, the diner and I think that concluded it altho there may have been some more on the end. Since each car is equivalent in length to about 2 freight cars you can see it was quite long for a passenger train.

When the train got into Los Angeles, the first thing I did was to get off the train and then sort of followed everybody else which led eventually to the station. The station was really quite a large place and it was built in sort of a Spanish style I guess because it had a tile roof etc etc. I went to a section of the stations labeled “baggage” where after about 20–30 minutes wait I was able to get my suitcases. Then I took a sort of bus, which the taxi-cab company ran, which took people either to the bus depot or to the Pacific Electric Station, from which places, connections could be made to various towns around Los Angeles.

I went to the P.E. depot where I got on a car or rather two cars (of the interurban type) which went to Wilmington. I took all my baggage along with me since I thought that was simplest. When I got to Wilmington, I got in a taxi-cab and the driver took me to a hotel (since there is no Y.M.C.A. in Wilmington). Here I registered for one night. Here I must mention, if I haven’t already done so in the cards I have sent, that I forgot my shaving cream at home so that I was not able to shave while on the train. Maybe it was a good thing because the train certainly did bounce around considerably, all the more noticeably when you are trying to wash your face or drink some water or write something etc.

So when I got to the hotel and had checked in, the first thing I did was to shave. By that time it was almost 12 o’clock or so, since I had had no breakfast I went to a combination drug store and restaurant near the hotel. Here I got a very good meal for only 40¢ or rather 41¢ because there is a sales tax in California; in Nebraska and Nevada, there is no sales tax, but Utah has one and I forget about Wyoming. Then, after finding out where the Shell Company was located, I went there and talked to some individual in the personnel office where I found out the following stuff: I will still be employed by the Shell Development Company but I will be working at Wilmington instead of at San Francisco. The man who will be in charge of the department where I will be working was busy, so I should come back Monday morning. I also had all of my fingerprints taken, and filled out some other forms for some reason or other. Then I was given a note to a photo shop where I went and had my picture taken. The picture is placed in a sort of badgelike thing which constitutes of means of identification for getting into the plant proper.

Wilmington has a smaller population than I thought it had at first. This is due to the fact that a large part of the city is not city al all but oil wells instead. I would say that is about like Ames without any students altho I may be mistaken. The main streets are Anaheim St and Avalon Avenue which intersect at right angles. The P.E. car lines cross both these streets and go right past the Shell refinery about two miles from Anaheim St. So it is fairly convenient to get from the middle of Wilmington out to the Shell plant. Moreover Anaheim St goes directly into Long Beach and there are buses along Anaheim that will take you there and back for 25¢ or so. (Long Beach is about 5 miles from Wilmington. By continuing on the P.E. lines you can go either to Los Angeles (40¢) or to San Pedro (10¢). San Pedro is south of Wilmington and is the town connected with the harbor I think altho Wilmington also has some harbor facilities.

At any rate I decided that for the present I would try to find a place to stay in Wilmington. I finally found a very nice place I thought, which was kind of lucky since rooms in Wilmington are at a premium now. The place where I will stay is located at 1018 Avalon Avenue, so I suppose that is where you should address any letters to me. It is a white house made out of stucco or cement or something like that. Anyway it looks like the type of picture you see in pictures as showing a Spanish influence or something like that. I thought it was very nice looking at any rate.

The room which I will be in will be shared with another boy who will be coming soon from Texas. The people, who were sort of past middle age, vouched for his good character since they knew his cousin who lived next door, so I thought that would be all right. The bed looked (there were twin beds of course) quite comfortable and you will be able to get in and out of the house at any time you please, which I like. The lady, (I haven’t found out her name yet) is quite deaf so you have to talk rather loud to her. She said quite calmly that the front door didn’t work too well since it had been slightly injured in an earthquake, so that the side door was used mostly instead. She almost thought I would be lonely because I had left my parents way out east. My good midwestern soul sort of swallowed hard when I heard that but I guess it is correct enough from the Calif viewpoint.

I am going to move my stuff from the hotel over there this morning sometime. I am quite certain that I will find it as nice a place to stay as at Mrs. Tobin’s in Iowa City. The boy who is coming is about 19 years old. That is the most specific information I can give about him.

Today, I am going to do the following things: (1) Get hold of a good map of Wilmington, Long Beach, and San Pedro so that I can find out where the churches are located. It looks as if I will be able to attend church in any of these towns if the church isn’t too awkwardly situated, die to the transportation facilities that are available. (2) If I have time after doing that and moving, go out to San Pedro and see the ocean which should be very interesting I think.

I will write more later, but I see that the ink in my pen is gradually giving out so that I will close now.

With love,

C.P.

July 22, 1942

July 22, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear Mother & Father

This is just to let you know that I have been classified II-B for an indefinite period, probably six months since all deferments must be reviewed at such periods A II-B classification means that you are essential (?) to the war effort in a civilian capacity.

With love,

C.P.

June 13, 1942

June 13, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, the instructoress at the Gowrie Lutheran vacation Bible school, and brothers,

This past week has been much cooler than the week which preceded it. This morning it is positively chilly. The wind is from the north. I deduce that it is a cold front moving in. During the week there has been a considerable amount of precipitation here and I suppose elsewhere, because the river has risen considerably. Last night I noticed that it had gone up about 3 feet from the previous night. As a result the water has been getting progressively softer and the water softener has not been giving the correct treatment to the water. By tonight tho I think that it should have just about reached the correct dosage.

At the power plant they have only two boilers on now but I wonder with this cold spell if they won’t put on another. Incidentally the university has bought about 5000 tons of washed Kentucky coal about 2" x 2"x 1" or so in size and is storing it. I guess they are afraid that they might run out if an acute railroad car shortage develops. This coal is really beautiful stuff. As I said it has been washed so that it is a glossy black with no dust along with it. Besides that it is a good quality coal so that there is not very much ash in it so that it is relatively free from seams etc. When you come down to see me graduate I can show it to you. It will be really quite a big pile of coal when the 5000 tons are all put together in one place.

Being as I did not know if either the Physical Chemistry or the Differential Equations class was scheduled to meet on Saturday, I went to find out before continuing my letter. Neither of them were. I notice also that the east smokestack at the power plant was producing smoke so that my surmise was correct. Both of the boilers that were on discharge their smoke into the west stack.

So far we have done two experiments in Physical Chemistry. Both of them were fairly easy. However in the Victor Meyer determination of vapor density I thought that I would never be able to get the apparatus leak-proof. I have one of them partly written up so I should be able to get both of them finished today. In class we have just sort of been going along not taking up very much in particular I think. A great deal of the material we have had so far I have already picked up in one place or another. The differential equations course is easier than I expected, at least so far. I am certain that I know almost as much as if I went to class.

I am very much undecided about what I should do about applying for the meteorological training. last week I was just about all ready to jump in but now I am very uncertain. The cause for the uncertainty is this. In the process of going around asked for letters of recommendation etc. etc. I was mostly advised that what I was doing was perhaps the best under the circumstances. However, when I asked Arnold for a letter of recommendation, he said that he would give me one of course but that he hoped it wouldn’t do any good, that is, that I wouldn’t get the appointment. He thinks that I should take my changes on the job with the petroleum company, even tho there is the danger of not being deferred.

As I respect his opinion more than the opinions of all of the rest of the teachers combined, I do not know what to do. I believe that as matters now stand I will let matters slide at least till I come home around the 4th of July. However, I will get everything together so that I can mail in my application whenever I want to. If I were really certain that I should try to get in the navy I should make the application immediately, but I am mot definitely not certain. Moreover I was talking to Prof. C. Woody Thompson, the university adviser on military affairs and he said that even if I were not deferred I probably would qualify for a number of different posts in the army that would not involve actual combat duty. It is very hard to decide what I should do, but where last week, things seemed to point toward the navy training they are now veering away from it. Maybe the purpose of it was for me to take differential equations this summer which I would not have had this question not come up.

We have a new German teacher now, being as the other one is gone on a vacation or something. His name is Schulz-Braden and he was born in Germany. He is a rather small fellow and looks rather odd, but I believe that he is really a very interesting individual to know. Unfortunately we have only 1 class a week now so we will not have very much contact with him which is really too bad.

I am running out of news so that I believe I will close.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I am enclosing a couple of clippings out of the same paper that give some evidence of the muddy thinking of our leaders in Washington.

P.S. Three more weeks till I come home for the 4th of July and 7 more weeks till I graduate. Can I wait? Yes, but hardly.

P.S. I will close with a very unpleasant thought. If I did decide to try to take my job in Calif., it would probably involve the little matter of leaving for Calif directly when school was over and not having any vacation at home. This is really too bad, but it seems the only safe procedure in case I do not decide on the navy training

P.S. The laundry bag came just now. Thank you for the cookies mama. I suppose the letter will come this afternoon.

P.S. As usual, my sincerest regards to everyone who will condescend to write to me.

June 1, 1942

June 1, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear mother,

Does Vincent, Verner, Marold and daddy or does any one of them really need my underwear as bad as all that? If they really have to have them, of course I wouldn’t deprive them of the inestimable opportunity of using my underwear, but if they don’t, I would surely appreciate having them, since I ams just about running out. Please forgive me for writing this but I couldn’t resist the temptation.

Your soon-to-be underwearless son

Carl

P.S. Help civilian morale by sending underwear to your son at school!

May 28, 1942

May 28, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Snooty-Poot, brothers and anyone else who may read this letter,

I cannot figure out exactly what went wrong with my last letter but I suppose (after long cogitation) that something went wrong with it. I got to thinking after I found out that it had not reached you and began to wonder if I had put a stamp on it. But I am certain that I did for I went downtown to mail it because I didn’t have any stamps in my room. I may have forgotten to buy a stamp to put on it after I got downtown but I think that that is a rather poor explanation. I mailed in in a sort of sub-post office in a drugstore, which always looks as if the mail were regarded purely in a secondary light and it may have got lost there. At any rate, it wasn’t a very good letter anyway since I did not feel like writing a letter then so maybe it is just as good that you did not get it. I’ll try to remember everything of important which I put into it and include it in this letter, so that if the other one does not turn up, you will still know about everything of vital importance which has been going on in Iowa City.

Today is a very gooey, sticky day. I can just imagine days like this all summer and I am not exactly looking forward to it. No doubt it will seem nicer when I am looking back at it. Two of my courses finish this week, strategic minerals & elementary meteorology. I am just about certain that I will get an A in strategic minerals because my average in the daily tests which really determine your grade is definitely above the bottom limit specified for an A. I don’t know about elementary meteorology. I did all right in the first test, A, but I do not know how I came out in the second. However, I cannot think of anything which I did wrong. Saturday morning we are going to have a 2-hour test in this subject for which I must do a little studying.

By the way, I have been looking around for loopholes that I can get thru if the draft board doesn’t think a chemical engineer is necessary to national defense. Of course I suppose there are some requirement to be met which I do not know of yet but I believe I am qualified. The situation is this. If you are a graduate of an engineering college, over 20, plus some additional minor qualifications that I can meet, you can enlist in the navy, receive a commission as an ensign, go to school for 9 months at government expense at any one of about 5 schools in the U.S. to become a meteorologist. During this time you will be on a result salary of about $180 a month. At the end of the time you will act either as a meteorologist in some connection with the navy or otherwise teach naval cadets what meteorology they need to know.

Frankly this sounds very good to me. If the war continues for some length of time, it would indeed be the safest thing to do. Moreover I should be able to save enough so that at the end of the war I could start farming. Or, since the science of meteorology has recently undergone radical changes in practice & unusual advances in theory, well trained individuals in this field are somewhat scarce. The only thin that is wrong about it is that to be worthwhile, the war would have to last a reasonable length of time so that either of the two above-mentioned objectives could be attained. I am sort of up a stump. If I do it, I will be safe from the army but I probably will never be a chemical engineer and moreover if the war stops soon, I will be only worse off for my decision. If I don’t, I might conceivably get in the army which would be sort of messy but if I didn’t, my future should just about be settle.

Meteorology is interesting stuff — just as good as chemistry could ever be. I suppose it is sort of wrong to look at the whole situation in such a selfish way but I just cannot help it. I have written to the proper authorities to find out some more about this. Maybe something will turn up to turn me either to it or against it as has always seemed to do in the past. I hope I get the same guidance this time as previously. By the way, I would of course like to have your opinions on the subject.

Last Tuesday night I went to see “As You Like It” — a play production of the University theater here. According to the regulations, you paid to see it in your tuition so of course I thought that I might as well take advantage of it. It is, as you know, written by William Shakespeare. For the first 3 or 4 minutes it was sort of hard to understand what was going on but after a while you could understand everything that was said very well. I think that when I have time I am going to have to read all of Shakespeare’s plays, especially if they are as interesting when read as when they are presented. For it was very interesting I thought. I never noticed it before when I read Hamlet or Macbeth or anything but Shakespeare always gathers up all his characters in the end and gives them a very definite fate or future either for better or worse. When the play is over there are not any loose ends that didn’t come out right. I rather think that he should have made a very excellent detective-story writer if he had lived in this day and age. I won’t attempt to tell about the story but I will say that it was very funny in parts and I enjoyed seeing it very much.

Because I went to the play I got only 6 hours of sleep Tuesday night (the play wasn’t over till 11:00 and I didn’t get to bed before 11:30) and last night I got only 6½ for some reason or other. I guess I just didn’t get finished with what I needed to do till late, so today I have been sort of droopy all day. After German class is over tonite I think I will go right to bed and see if I can’t catch up a little bit. The German class is held in the evenings because that is the only time when some people could come to class. Next week of course, things should be easy so that maybe I can get my water analyses in Industrial Chem finished and the fuel or gas analyses started. That is sort of a messy course I think. The book isn’t any too good and some of the tests don’t have too good a theoretical basis I don’t think.

In case it was in my last letter and not before, Wilmington Calif. is a suburb of Los Angeles. Of course that is another argument in favor of the Chem Eng’ng since there is a university there and I can continue my studies.

I am going to maybe buy some books which I don;t have to have but which I would like to have — maybe a meteorology book and some others so that I might write some checks soon. I suppose I could use my money that I have or my check which is coming next Sat but it is easier to use that to pay the rent with and eat on.

I have found out that I got an A in economy after all so I got B only in speech & organic chemistry.

With love

C.P.

Thank you, mother, father and Vivian for the letters I received from you in the past two weeks.

[marginalia] I mailed my laundry home on Wednesday so you should get it by Friday at least.

I think mama, that you have been forgetting to put my towels in my laundry. I do not know where all of them have gone otherwise.