December 9, 1944

Dec 9, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father, Mother and the rest of the folks at home,

Your letter announcing the coming of Ann Marie arrived here Thursday, mother. I am glad to hear that everything went all right despite the bad roads etc. I suppose you haven’t seen very much of her yet but when you do, don’t forget to write a complete description of her. If she is anything like the Wellington’s baby was at that age, she is sort of red and wrinkled. Don’t be disappointed tho. They seem to grow out of that stage. However the Wellington’s baby lost some of its hair as it grew older but it is coming along pretty good in that respect also. Also, be sure when you take pictures of her to send them around so the rest of the relation can see what the newest addition to it looks like.

Mrs. Johnson suggests that I get for Ann Marie for Christmas sort of a baglike thing in which to carry the baby around in outside. From her description it sounded like a papoose cover or something like that. She said she got one for Paul Eric when he was born and that it has been very handy according to her daughter. Do you have one of these already? If not, and if you think it sounds like a good idea I shall endeavor to locate one to send to her. I suppose tho that she will stay inside most of the time for quite awhile yet.

Calif looked like it was going to rain yesterday, but it sort of fizzled out. Today it was foggy in the morning but cleared up more or less later on. I wore my rubbers and raincoat to work but I did not need to. I do not think it will rain for awhile now, the way it looked tonite but last night it surely looked like it. It was been warmer lately also which seems to indicate that a rain should have come when it looked so much like it.

I was interested in reading about the earthquake that took place inJapan. Dwight says that the Calif Int of Technology has published a report on the investigative study they have made of them since the earthquake in Calif in 1934 or thereabouts. I shall have to try to get ahold of it, since it should be very interesting to read. They have numerous instruments in addition to the seismograph for measuring the type of motion etc in earthquakes.

My work continues about as usual. Mrs. Johnson aleays tells me to be happy in my work when I leave in the morning but it isn’t always easy to follow her advice. However, it hasn’t been too bad lately.

I received a card the other [day] from the Christian Herald announcing that I would be receiving it during the coming year from Mr. & Mrs. C.S. Strand. Thank you, Mother and father for this first of my 1944 Christmas presents.

I think I shall take a bath, wash my head and lay in bed and read for awhile before I go to sleep. I have done nothing but write on a report all day but I am sort of tired anyway.

With love

C.P.

October 26, 1944

October 26, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Mother, Father, and the rest of the folks at home,

It is after midweek service as I am writing this. Tonite I am sort of tired and dispirited. My mysic lesson didn’t go so hot and I thought I had it in fairly good shape beforehand. Well, maybe it will go better next week.

Today it was been a fairly nice. [sic] It is almost clear this evening but I sort of think that the relative humidity is rather high. This morning it was clear here in San Pedro but it was very foggy out at the refinery. Yesterday was a warm, cloudy, sultry day and it certainly looked and felt like rain but the spell passed off with nothing happening. If it keeps on toying with the idea of raining the way it has, it will slip up some time and start in.

My work continues about as usual. I received an extension of my draft classification as II-B until March 26, 1945. What I can’t figure out is why it isn’t March 19, or April 2, or February 27 instead. March 26 has no particular significance that I can surmise.

Shell Development is having a Halloween Party at the Shell Oil Clubhouse this coming Saturday night but I don’t think I shall go. There is also a L.L. banquet someplace in L.A. the same nite, but I don’t think I shall go to that either. My Sunday School lesson inevitably gets pushed off till Saturday nite, and I need the time then to get it ready.

Monday night I went to the library and got some detective stories to read and afterward I went to a show. The main feature was sort of corny but the “also ran” feature was a show about Boston Blackie and it was so hammy that it was a scream. I certainly thought it was funny. I think that the only good movies are the funny ones; as soon as they attempt seriousness (with a couple of exceptions) they become asinine & boring. This show was just like the radio program I heard when I was home on my vacation. I will have to look around and see if it is on the radio here.

I think I shall read some and then go to bed.

With love

C.P.

October 5, 1944

Oct 5, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Father,Mother and the rest of the folks at home,

I didn’t get around to writing home yesterday so I will write before I leave for work this morning so that the letter will not be too late getting off. Yesterday after dinner I sat and talked with Mrs. Johnson for awhile, then I drew and loafed around for awhile. Then I was intending to practice my music lesson some, but right after I started, some company came and I didn’t do it. The company were some people that knew Lester Peterson’s in Odebolt and I guess Mrs. Johnson knew them too. He used to be a barber in Odebolt but came to California to work in the shipyards. He got a doctor’s release because of his health tho and is back at his original trade. After that it was time to go to church and after church I went to bed, so I didn’t seem to have an opportunity to get this written yesterday afternoon when I had originally intended to.

I got a letter from Vincent a couple of days ago. He says that is is thinking of going to school and taking up electrical engineering when he does. I knew from the letters you had sent on that he had been investigating the possibility but this is the first time I had heard of a specific aim in his projected schooling. I wrote to him in reply — the first letter in quite sometime I am afraid.

Calif. weather has been sort of cool and dampish lately, very definitely fall weather and a prelude to the rainy season. If it continues as it has this year, the winter here should be fairly chilly at times.

My work progresses about as usual which indicated my attitude towards it.

Mrs. Johnson was down to the doctor the other day and found out that her blood pressure was up to 180, so she has to take things a little easier and not do all the things she has in the past. Mr. Johnson, however, is organically sound if it were not for his nervousness and poor muscular control.

Tonite is Luther League cabinet meeting at Pastor Wellington’s. Mrs. Wellington and Kathryn Anne were at church Sunday evening but not in the morning. The baby sleeps at night now since they made a change from Karo syrup to some stuff they get at the drug store. Its eyes are very bright but I don’t know how much it actually notices.

Well, I must be on my way.

With love

C.P.

October 1, 1944

October 1, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Father, Mother and the Rest of the Folks at Home,

Today is really Calif. almost at its best. It has been clear all day but the day is not hot, in fact it is barely warm. There is a cool ocean breeze which makes wearing a coat or jacket outside not exactly out of place. When you stand in the sun tho you feel warm enough. Ever [sic] once in awhile you can here [sic] a rooster crow. It almost sounds like Iowa and feels like it, which I suppose is why it seems such a nice day. This morning the foghorns blew some but they are quiet now.

Last night I didn’t get home until rather late. Mel Oldfather’s had the ex-Iowa members of Shell Development out for supper and the evening. Sig Lawrence and his wife were down from San Francisco on their vacation. He was at school when I was but was doing graduate work. The Fewsons and George, Jr. were there (they called George, Jr. “Jeepie”), and Dwight, Hugh Guthrie and Ed Fisch, who came here about 2 months or so ago were also there. It was a rather enjoyable evening I thought. I left at about 11:30 and got a P.E. car at Compton in about 15 minutes and so I was in bed asleep by 1:00 am. Of course I got home slightly before that, but I had to take time out to read the letter from home. I could never be too sleepy to read that.

I am teaching the Bible Class in S.S. now. The reason for this is that during the S.S. hour, Pastor Wellington is going to have the Confirmation Class if and when it gets organized, so he asked me to take the Bible Class which was ordinarily his. It is somewhat more interesting than the previous class I had. I think that the quarterlies we have now are very good for a novice like myself. The[y] certainly seem to contain a lot of information.

My work gets along about as usual. I have not heard from Al since the time we had supper together. This morning there were about ½ dozen sailers [sic] in church. You hardly ever see any soldiers any more.

Since I missed out on some sleep last night I think I shall sleep some this afternoon. I feel lazy enough to.

With love

C.P.

May 30, 1944

May 30, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Father and Mother and the rest of the folks at home,

Today is vacation day so I am going to sort of finish up some loose ends of things that I have to do. The day is starting out as a typical Calif. summer day, cloudy, so that it will not be too warm in the afternoon.

I am sort of disgusted with my car. Sunday morning after Sunday School I was driving back to get Mrs. Johnson and I was going up a hill and halfway up it stopped and would not start. I let it roll down the hill to a garage, fortunately an Oldsmobile garage and left it there. I was seething within with disgust but I quieted down after awhile. I thought somebody had taken the gas out of it, but instead the fuel pump had gone blooey. Last night I went down to get it but I didn’t have enough money to pay for it — about $15, of which about 2/3 was labor. I guess I’ll go dow and get it this morning. I hope that nothing like this happens again.

Sunday was Confirmation Sunday. There were four in the Confirmation Class here. On Sunday evening was Communion. I was glad that my feelings over my car had worn off by evening so I was in a peaceful state of mind for the service then.

I have heard nothing from the draft board. I asked Mr. Cole about it and he said that he didn’t think there was too much to worry about since in the absence of adequate clerical help they would put off all work for deferred classifications & concentrate on the others. About ½ have received their classifications here, that is those who have received II-B’s and are eligible for them, so I don’t think there is anything to worry about — but . . .

George Fewson returned from his vacation yesterday and he said that he surely wished he could go back to the middle-west and stay there. He said that everything looked so green. He comes from southern Iowa so I guess he was in a section where they did not have so much rain or storms lately. Even so, he said, the corn is not planted yet there. He made me homesick with his account of things there.

I got a letter from Vivian yesterday as well as one from home. Mrs. Johnson said she was jealous because she did not get even one. Howard, the rascal, owes me one now for several weeks, if not more.

With love

C.P.

May 9, 1944

May 9, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Mother, Father and the rest of the folks at home,

I have had my pre-induction physical examination today and I feel sort of dispirited tonite. However I have taken a good warm bath and feel a little better. I could have told them beforehand what my physical condition was — namely o.k. in every respect. The only thing marked in red on my sheet was that I had an appendectomy scar. The navy quota was filled so I was assigned to the army. Personally it does not make a lot of difference because one would be as distasteful as the other.

If I listen to my reason I cannot see how I can avoid being deferred again, but military service seems to be a very real possibility after you have gone thru a physical examination of this type in which all those in charge tacitly assumed you were already in it for all practical purposes. I will have to pinch myself if I am again deferred to make sure I am not dreaming as I did when I received the first one in Iowa City. Well, I should know in a couple of weeks what will happen.

If I am permitted to stay on here, I will be taking my vacation in August instead of June-July as I had previously planned. The reason for this change is that otherwise I would be having my vacation including a day which would be a holiday anyway and which would mean that I would be using up 1/12 of my vacation on a day which was vacation anyway — a very foolish procedure.

I hope that after Vivian comes home that she will feel better and be able to throw off the cold that has been plaguing her this spring. I have bought a book recently which I am now reading which I think she should enjoy. It is about a California ranch, on which all the animals have names like they do at home and where the cows are breaking out now and then and other troublesome and sundry discomforts. When I am finished I will try to remember to send it along. It has made me think more of home than anything else I have come across recently.

If I am taken in the army and survive the war, altho it would solve a lot of problems not to come out of it, I don’t think I shall return to Calif or to commercial employment. If I do not stay on the farm I shall go back to school and try to get a teaching job when I finish. Calif is o.k. and the people here are nice and all that but I feel like a prodigal son eating husks in a far off land. I seem to be leading a purposeless existence. This is, I suppose, mostly a reaction to today. I am certain tho that I shall be an inefficient worker till I find out what is to happen.

Good night

C.P.

May 9, 1944

May 9, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro Calif.

Dear Father and Mother and the rest of the folks at home,

It is about nine o’clock now as I am writing this letter. I have just had a bath after playing some basketball at the Methodist gym with Pastor Wellington and his boys’ group. Tonite we did not play as hard or as long as we did the other time I played so I should not feel so worn out for so long. It is sort of fun to play basketball but I am not as young as I used to be and I feel it.

Sunday afternoon I went to the installation service for a pastor at a mission congregation in Los Angeles. The Clausons from Banning Homes were along and so was Chaplain Zimmerman from Fot MacArthur out here. It was a fairly interesting service. I met a guy, a Tau Beta Pi man, who was working for the Goodrich company. I don’t think he knew too much. I asked him if they were engaged in compounding rubber and he didn’t seem to know much of anything. Perhaps he was just beginning.

My stomach has been a little bit on the upset side lately. I must have eaten something that caused a slight intestinal flu. Anyway it is somewhat better now. Mrs. Johnson was all for giving me a Swedish remedy she had but I thought I would rather have the stomach ache than the remedy.

Last night the Banning Homes committee met. However, the two members of the committee from the Norwegian Lutheran Church were not there so the meeting was cut short. Furthermore we wanted to go to the circus which was in San Pedro that day. We got there late tho, (that is, the Clausons, the Wellingtons and I) so all we did was walk around, go into one side show, eat some things and then go to the Clausons’ apartment in Banning Homes for some coffee. The circus was a small one and they made only a one night stand which was a mistake. They could have stayed two or three nights and still have had capacity crowds.

The weather has been cooler in San Pedro for a couple of days now. The sun has not been coming out until after dinner sometimes.

I must write to Vivian & Howard tonite. I have been owing them both letters for some time.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I have heard nothing from the Wilmington transfer board yet.

May 3, 1944

May 3, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father, Mother and the rest of the folks at home,

Last night was the regular meeting of the Luther League so I didn’t get around to writing my usual first-half-of-the-week letter home. I was the refreshment committee so it took a little longer than usual to get home after the meeting, so I didn’t feel like writing then.

The meeting of the southern district L.L. here on Sunday afternoon went off very nicely. I especially enjoyed the talk given by Lauren Lundblad. When he had asked what his topic was to be he had been told, “It’s up to you,” so that is what he talked about. He is just the same as of old, except perhaps that, as he grow older he has even more illustrations, quotations etc. on the tip of his tongue.

I talked to him after the meeting. He remembered Vivian as his prize Bible School pupil, but asked if she was finishing high school when I said she was graduating this spring. he tells me that Harold is now a father. His other brother is in Scotland.

The evening session wasn’t as interesting, being a Bible quiz section in which the audience were the quizees. One part of the quiz was a contest between one member from each league. Believe it or not, yours truly was the champion in that one. Between the afternoon and evening sessions, lunch was served by the L.L. We took in enough to pay for the eats, that is, the part that had to be purchased.

Today has been a fairly nice day, and a sleepy one. Tonite the air smells strongly of fish, and Mrs. Johnson says that that signifies a change in the weather. Since till today it has been sort of cold and damp, maybe we will get some nicer weather for a change.

One of the fellows working here, Hugh Guthrie, who hails from Iowa has a brother who is missing in action in the European theater of the war. He was (or is) a fighter pilot. Hugh’s mother has been sick and now is very ill after the news and he has gone to San Francisco to see her.

There is still nothing doing on the draft front yet as far as I am concerned, altho I shall be receiving my notice to appear for a physical examination any day now.

With love,

C.P.

February 19, 1944

Feb. 19, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear father, mother and the folks at home,

Come to sunny California, folks, and freeze along with the rest of the transplanted middle-westerners! The mornings this week have been very chilly. Most of the time the ties in the railroad track are white with frost and this morning the Shell loading racks for railroad cars were more or less white. The frost warnings have been for temperatures of 26 and 27 degrees right along. This of course seems like warm weather to you no doubt, but come out here and you’ll say that you’ve never been so cold in your life before. Paul Datt, who came out here about a month or so ago from Ohio says that he is freezing more here now, wearing the same clothes, than he did back there when the temperature reading actually was less. I will be glad when it warms up a bit.

My stomach is somewhat better now, altho I still do not have very much of an appetite and sort of have to force myself to eat. I am still trouble with diarrhea tho, which has been with me most of this week. I have a cold now, but it skipped the sore throat stage and is I believe almost past the runny nose stage so I think I will be about ok again in a couple of days.

My work is progressing about as usual and some fairly desirable results are being obtained. A couple of big shots were down today from Emeryville but they didn’t stay around very long. This afternoon it has been rainy and blowy and I guess they thought it would be more comfortable elsewhere than inspecting the pilot plant.

As I told you before, tomorrow Pastor Wellington will be at Bakersfield. I am going to read a sermon tomorrow morning to take his place. I hope my voice holds out, and I guess it will, altho it is a little husky.

At the congregational meeting Wednesday night the congregation decided to raise Pastor Wellington’s salary to $175 a month. I hope that he decides to stay here.

Mrs. Johnson says that she thinks I ought to be taking vitamin pills. Do you think so? and if so, what ones should I take?

Thank you for the letters I have received this week.

With love

C.P.

February 5, 1944

February 5, 1944

949 W. 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

Dear father and mother and the folks at home,

Today has been a very nice day in Calif — positively balmy. It reminded me very much of a Saturday afternoon in spring at school, when nobody wanted to do anything but loaf. That is the part that impressed me most today — I did not feel like doing anything. It rained some in the middle of this week so the air is sort of fresh-smelling like it is in spring in Iowa and that lent color to the illusion that this was just a nice spring day.

My work is getting along so-so. It is more interesting and congenial than what I was doing previously but I can’t become enthusiastic over it. The trouble is probably not with the work but more in the fact that I was never meant to be a chemist. The new man who will be in charge of the laboratory arrived today. He is an older man, about forty, I believe. He is nice to talk to, but even from the first impression I guess that he doesn’t have too much on the ball. Usually new people impress me at first as perhaps having a reasonable store of knowledge but he does not.

Tuesday night of this week there was Luther League which I attended. It was held at the home of the president. It was sort of a messy meeting I thought.

Wednesday night I went to see a show, a double feature. One-half of it was a Sherlock Holmes picture which I enjoyed very much. This one did not have anything about the war in it, and for that reason was better than the ordinary run. I think that Basil Rathbone makes a very convincing Sherlock Holmes. By the way, you don’t suppose it would be possible to send me my Sherlock Holmes book sometime, do you?

I was very happy to hear that Vivian got such a good job. I surely hope that she will enjoy her work there. I knew that she was almost finished with her school work, but I didn’t realize that its end was approaching as fast as it was. Is she going to have her graduation in June or is it just taken for granted that when she is thru now, that her college days are over? I would like to know because I have been making a graduation present for her, but unless her graduation is delayed until June, I will be unable to finish it. The work on it proceeds much more slowly than I had hoped it would.

Sunday morning:

I got sleepy after writing that much so I went to bed. Today is going to be another very nice day. This afternoon I think I shall go for a walk along the waterfront.

This is the last fay that Rev. Youngdahl from Minneapolis is at Banning Homes. I hope that the man that is chosen to follow him can continue the work he has done there. He has certainly done things with what was considered a rather unprofitable field before.

I have not received my draft classification from the draft board yet. It should be arriving any day now though. One of the fellows who came here about a month ago has just received his 1-A classification and the notice to appear for his physical examination. It seems strange to me that he was allowed to finish school and then taken into the army, altho of course he isn’t there yet.

Thank you very much for the letters I have received this week, three in all, which is above the usual quota. I surely appreciate getting and reading them.

With love

C.P.

November 19, 1943

Nov. 19, 1943

949 W. 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Father and Mother and the rest at home

This week has been a rather cloudy week with rain threatening several times, but with very little actually coming. Tuesday morning, or rather I guess it was Wednesday, it had rained some during the night but I went to work without my raincoat and was justified in so doing since it did not rain on the way to work. During the day it rained some however, enough to wet the ground about. Today started off clear, but clouded up in the late forenoon and after dinner the sky looked like it could produce a good thunder-storm had it been in Iowa, but the clouds slid off without doing anything. I guess that the rain would be desirable around here for the crop etc.

The four new men have arrived. That is they got as far as meeting Mr. Cole, but since they have to find a place to stay and more or less establish themselves, they have not been down to the lab yet, so I haven’t met them. They might show up tomorrow tho. If they do, I shall surely have my hands full inasmuch as I will be taking care of plant IV as Dwight is having his day off tomorrow. I suppose that after things get running smoothly I won’t have to do much more than tell people what to do.

Since our man-of-all-work, Pike was unable to do everything in his line that cropped up around the place, a nondescript female is now around, washing windows, sweeping floors etc. I think that when her work become routinized she will have time to wash all of the dirty dishes that are produced in the lab. We will also be doing a certain amount of work for Shell Oil, inasmuch as it has been decided not to let their workers use of Pulfrich refractometer, since they have been a trifle careless in the use of it. Therefore we will have to do the work for them. Zene was saying the other day that we may also be getting a spectro-photometer, which means that we would not have to use the Pulfrich for aromatic analysis as we have in the past.

I am now working only every third Sunday. Mel, Dwight and I have turns in working on Sunday and being responsible for Plant IV. When the new men become sufficiently well versed in what is going on, say in a month or so, it is probable that I will not have to work Sundays at all, since they will be able to take care of Plant IV. However it has been my experience in the past, that as soon as you think you have everything lines up the way you want it, something comes along to upset it. Even when I do work on Sundays tho, I have no difficulty in getting back to San Pedro in time for evening services, so it real[ly] is not too great an inconvenience.

I received a[n] Iowa Conference 75th anniversary booklet from the church in Gowrie. Do you know who was responsible for mailing these out?

Well, next week is Thanksgiving and it really does not seem so long since I was home last and saw you all. I guess that we shall have a holiday that day since the government has ruled that work on holidays shall be paid for at time and one-half. I like days when I do not have to work, since I can lay in bed till I feel like getting up. The worst of it is that when I have this opportunity, I feel like getting up instead. This invariably happens on Sundays when I am not working. I guess I was never meant to live according to a schedule, unless I made the schedule myself.

Mrs. Johnson has been having rheumatism in her right shoulder this week, but it is somewhat better today. It is brought on by the wet, cool weather we have been having she says.

I got a letter from Vivian last week. She tells all about her birthday etc. She also sent me some white hairs that she has pulled out of her head.

I seem to be running down so I shall stop.

With love

C.P.

August 14, 1943

Postmark Aug 14, 1943

626 W. 5th St

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father and Mother and the folks at home,

I am beginning to walk around in sort of a coma, pausing about once per day to mentally tick it off the list of the days still to go till my vacation starts. I am afraid that I do my work, eating and sleeping almost mechanically. I used to like to see a day of work close because then I could relax and fool around for awhile. Now as soon as one day’s work is finished, I wish it were time to start another because that would only mean that the time when I can get home again will be nearer. Boy, I can hardly wait. It surely is not very long at that. Only nine days till I start back east and twelve till I’ll be there. Only seven more days of going to work. Yippee!

My favorite occupation now is day-dreaming. I wonder if I walk around with a slightly bemused look on my face. At least that is the way I feel. Just to be more concrete I guess I’ll say again, in case anything happened to my last letter that I will be getting into Boone about 12:30 am on Wednesday morning, August 25. That’s my red letter day and am I looking forward to it! Oh, mama, I’ll be seeing you again! Oh, papa, I’ll be seeing you again! Oh, Snooty Poot, and all the rest, I’ll be seeing you again!

That’s all I can think about. And it’s all I care to think about.

My work has been going along more or less as usual as far as I can make out. The three new men still aren’t too well acquainted with things so I still do quite a bit of work in the lab. One of them, Art Stearns, is a pretty good guy I think. Shell Development didn’t get gypped when they hired him. Another, Bill Hauser is a fairish sort of worker. The third, Joe Winter is a dud as far as I am concerned. he seems to be a very slow, pokey worker. The last two have both been working for the company longer than I have but Art has been working only 3 or 4 months. He is the cream, the others are sort of skim-milky.

I can’t understand this Joe Winter. Today I was running a vacuum distillation on some high boiling stuff that contains some possibly slightly explosive stuff at the very tail end of the distillation curve (maybe 1% or so). I was getting a big kick out of it because I had never done anything before. However there were some sulfurs to run and I thought I’d better get them done so I asked him if he wanted to take care of the distillation. Oh no, he wouldn’t dream of doing that. It might explode. Bah! The chance is about one in a million under the conditions used. And besides you could wear a face shield to protect your face (which of course I was doing since there is no point in running needless risks). That stuff had been up to 350°F on an oil bath in several steam distillations we had run and everything was ok. And under the vacuum on the system I’ll bet the distillation flask was a good deal cooler than that, certainly not more than 250°F or so.

Boy! You should have seen that stuff boiling with a still head temperature of 180–190°F when under atmospheric conditions it wouldn’t boil much below 500°F. And he didn’t want to fool with it. He’s rather run Westphal densities all day. Well, he could for all I cared. They had to be done and if he wanted to do that rather than some very interesting stuff, which I really wanted to do myself but out of the goodness of my heart was going to let him do, he could. But he sure gave himself a big black mark as far as I am concerned.

As far as I can see, the main trouble with which all of them suffer somewhat is that they cannot see where it is o.k. to take a few shortcuts and simplifications (that is, take liberties and disregard some rather cardinal principles in analysis etc) and where deviations from theoretically correct procedure would actually introduce errors of greater than allowable magnitude. I suppose they’ll catch on quick enough tho. I wonder if I was as green as they are in many respects. Sometimes their questions amaze me. It is a funny thing. Usually when I first meet a new individual I am impressed by their knowledge etc but in about one or two weeks my opinion changes and I honestly believe that I know more than they do. I suppose that sounds priggish but I certainly feel that way.

By the way, I got paid $5 for preaching that Sunday I told you about. I was not expecting and I certainly shall not keep it for myself but I got a thrill out of getting it nonetheless. I guess, since Pastor Wellington was an official at the camp he went to, the camp gave him $5 to help pay for his substitute, and so he gave it to me.

The weather has been so-so lately. Sometimes it has been rather warm in the afternoons but usually it has been reasonably cool.

I think this will be my last real letter before I come home myself. I may send a little note next week sometime but it won’t be much.

With love,

C.P.

May 6, 1943

May 6, 1943

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear father, mother and the folks at home,

It is rather early as I am writing this letter. The sunrise was nice and bright this morning and I guess that that may have had something to do with it — that is with my getting up early on my day off. Usually I like to loaf in bed if I feel that I do not really have to get up. Since it is sunshiny and bright so early in the day it probably will be quite warm this afternoon unless it clouds up around noon. This is a new phase of Calif weather that has occurred a number of times recently.

Your box of cookies arrived, safe and very sound, mama. I don’t think that a single cookie was damaged in the least. And are the scrumptious! Thank you so much for them. One night recently I dreamt that you were making grün (you know what I mean). I guess it was in anticipation of about 3 or 4 months from now. [This recipe for something called “gruetze” is very similar to the recipe for “gryn” that my mom used to make for my dad, from a recipe given her by my dad’s sister-in-law.  —LRS]

My work continues about as usual. However, some new stuff has been going on. 1000 lbs of catalytic-cracking catalyst are being made here. This is sort of interest[ing] since it involves things heretofore not done around here and also a number of new analyses that are fun to do. The work is being done mostly by the operator but the lab does the more involved analyses. As a result, Plant IX is down since it would be difficult to keep both Plants I and IX running and be making the catalyst at the same time.

Today is my day off and I go back to work tomorrow afternoon as operator. The catalyst has been about ½ made now so that by the time after this when I am again operator it should be completed. It really is more fun I think to work in the laboratory that as an operator. Lately some new things have some up in the laboratory and the work there is much less routine than in Plants I and IX. I think that eventually I would rather work in the lab. Zene said that it probably could be arranged sometime in the future.

Last Sunday I went with Pastor & Mrs. Wellington to Los Angeles to a meeting of the Southern District Luther League. We stayed for both the afternoon and evening services. The speaker was Wilton Bergstrand, executive director of the Augustana Synod Luther League and he certainly was a dynamic fellow. I guess he is a very suitable individual for such a position.

I also met some interesting people while I was there. Usually, as you probably realize, I don’t get around to talking to people I don’t know too readily but after lunch after the afternoon session I saw that if I didn’t find somebody to talk to, time would hang rather dull on my hands for awhile. So I started talking to a couple of fellows after some rather diffident hellos. After we got to talking it went fairly easily tho. One of them turned out to be a chemical engineer, who has been working for Shell Chemical Co since last May. The other was a civil engineer working for the U.S. engineer’s office in Los Angeles. It was quite interesting speaking to them.

Afterwards, thru them, I was introduced to several other people, including a geology graduate student at Cal. Tech., a senior in chemistry at the University of Southern Calif and to a number of other people who do I know not exactly what. One of them however was a Liljegren of some sort tho who hails from Arkansas and was a relative of Eleanor Renquist’s. There seemed, all in all, to be quite a number of coincidences coming up during the afternoon. I had a very enjoyable time thru out.

However by the time we got home (10 o’clock) I was pooked out. I had worked graveyards Sunday morning so that by then (at 10 o’clock Sunday night) I had had no sleep for 24 hours and as a result was getting rather sleepy. I slept like the proverbial log that night, altho even when I am not tired I usually do not have too much trouble sleeping.

I am sorry to hear that father has not been getting along so well according to Dr. Borgen. It is a good idea to start taking it easy. Working only in the afternoons should be a good idea I think. Twenty pound of liver seems all right (but an awful lot) and I should think it would perk up the red blood corpuscles considerably.

I received a letter from Vincent which I mean to answer today, but after I have had some breakfast, since when I finish this letter I am going down town and feed my mouth. I guess I will go to the bank too. I haven’t got around to cashing my last paycheck yet. When you are working days it is sometimes rather difficult to do.

I am thinking of trying to buy some sort of a car. I get tired of walking to the P.E. station and I also think I could get a better place to stay farther from the waterfront, and a car would remedy both of these situations. If I feel like it I’ll take a walk down Pacific to the car lots today. If the Ruml tax plan or some pay-as-you-go proposal is enacted I can take the money now being set aside for income tax next year for this purpose. Of course I still must make certain I have plenty to come home on but $100 should be enough for that.

Yesterday morning the P.E. car rain into a car while crossing Anaheim Boulevard. It ripped his back fender off and smashed the glass in his back windows. The jolt was not noticeable at all in the car but I’ll bet he felt it. it was a very silly thing for him to do. There were two trains at the crossing (it is double tracked) one north bound & one south bound. If the south bound had started up as it normally would have in a couple of seconds he would have been hit on both sides and something serious could have occurred.

I guess I will stop now. I shall include Vincent’s letter altho it may contain news you have already heard about.

With love

C.P.

April 22, 1943

April 22, 1943

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro Calif

Dear Father, Mother and the folks at home,

I got both of mother’s letters this week on the same day — Monday. The news that Vincent was in the army came as sort of a shock to me because I had anticipated his being out of it definitely for several months at least. I suppose that anything I would write about it would seem banal, so I won’t, except to say that I hope that this is the right course for him to take. No doubt the relief from uncertainty is to be desired altho it seems hard to think of his being in the army. Especially inasmuch as I am not. I received a card from him on Wednesday which I will enclose. It really doesn’t say an awful lot but I will enclose it anyway.

As a result of the foregoing events I have felt somewhat mentally dispirited this week. I have been feeling physically all right tho. My work is coming along about as usual. When I was working as operator Saturday afternoon on the swing shift a Shell Oil pipeline thru the plan sprung a leak. I didn’t notice it when it happened as it was over by the feed pumps behind the preheater furnace. When I went around to take the regular 9:00 readings I discovered it. The oil was shooting up in a spray all over the pumps, motors, the isomerization unit and the acid treating apparatus.

At first (it was dark) I couldn’t find it and when I did it was because I stepped right into the spray as it came out of the ruptured pipe. My pants got sort of oil soaked. The material was, I think, either a crude or else a very heave cut from some cracking operation. At any rate it was a gooey, non-volatile material and it isn’t going to be removed from the things it got on without a little work. I could hardly get my legs clean after they had come into contact with it. I understand that the office is trying to get Shell Oil to clean up our equipment.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you what I did when I found out what was going on. There wasn’t any valves that I could close to shut off the flow — which probably wouldn’t have been very wise anyway if a positive displacement pump was being used. The best thing I could think of to do was to put the waste paper basket over the jet from the pipe. Strangely enough it worked fairly well, until I called the dispatcher and told him what was happening when he stopped the flow thru the pipe. I guess it has been fixed by now as I noticed the place was covered up again the other day.

Mel Oldfather says that several more Iowa students have been hired by Shell Development and that some of them may come here. Lawrence, who took Mel’s place as head of the coal lab at the U. is coming out here as is also Hugh Guthrie, who in my opinion is the smartest engineer to graduate from Iowa in a good long time. I guess that here are several others also who have accepted employment by Shell Development. It begins to seem as if they have taken about 50% of the chemical engineers graduated at Iowa in the past two years.

I will not have Easter off as there is to be no vacation then. I will be working days which is unfortunate but which I guess cannot be helped. Tonite I am of course going to the Holy Communion Services.

I bought a pair of brown shoes costing $4.50 but they will feel somewhat uncomfortable. I guess tho that time will improve their fit. I have them on now as it is almost time to go to church.

I will not enclose my bonds in this letter because I couldn’t get this letter registered until tomorrow in the afternoon after work and I want to get it off before then.

I have some pictures of the personnel here taken at the Shell Development party but I can’t locate them so I’ll show them to you some other time.

Incidentally the vacation choice list is out now and I am pretty certain I can get my vacation when I want it since everybody seems to be taking their vacations early so that by September I should have a clear field. Boy! I can hardly wait to be able to come home once again.

I must leave now. I may add some after I get back after church.

Love

C.P.

P.S. I won’t.

March 10, 1943

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro Calif.

March 10, 1943

Dear father, mother and the folks at home,

Why is it that lately I have been starting my letters home by commenting in one way or another on the weather that this wonderful state of California produces? Maybe it’s just an easy way to begin a letter. At any rate I guess that I’ll start this one in the same way.

It hasn’t rained lately but it certainly has looked like it on several occasions. One night it half sprinkled a little but nothing like it does when it really rains here. Today started out nice and clear at the beginning but this afternoon it started to blow from the west and when I was walking home from dinner a big cloud was rolling in over the big hill back of San Pedro.

I have often wondered how tall this hill is because the top of it is often hidden during cloudy weather. Perhaps it is just raining there that is all, because it surely does not seem very tall. Maybe it it rained again good and proper it would get raining off its mind till next winter which just now I wouldn’t mind in the least. I am not opposed to rain when it rains and then stops and the sun comes out etc but these week-long rains get me down. Of course it doesn’t rain continuously that long but it seems like it.

As I wrote last week I spent most of my time last week in learning to be an operator. This week I have been doing that work myself with nobody else around. It isn’t hard work at all if everything goes all right which it does most of the time. This week plant IX has not been running because a series of high space velocity studies were being made on Plant I and the only pump available for such large liquid output capacity was being used for plant IX so it was shut down and connected in the plant I system instead.

These plants have to be run in conjunction more or less because plant IX consumes hydrogen and plant I produces it. Therefore plant IX cannot be run if plant I is not being run since the H₂ storage capacity here is only sufficient to run Plants IV and X and those only for a limited time.

After this week I will be working half of the time as operator and half of the time as analyst. I think this will be a nice arrangement since I will have an opportunity to observe both what is occurring in the plant and in the laboratory. Unfortunately I will have to go back to work involving a shift change every week and for awhile I will have to work every Sunday for awhile altho only one Sunday in three on days. After six weeks more or less there will be a shift break and I think I can have Sundays off then if I want to.

I am thinking very much of moving. Perhaps you remember that I once wrote that I thought of moving into a house owned by some people called Johnson’s when they were visiting in Iowa. Well I didn’t then but now they are back and they have a room to rent and since I think it would be a nicer place to stay than where I am now staying I may decide to move there. If I do it probably will be on the 19^th of this month when my rent runs out here. I will know on Friday if I am going to do this or not and I will write and tell you of my decision as soon as it is made so that you will have my address.

If I do I think I will transfer my Look subscription so that it comes to Gowrie since I never get around to reading it and it just accumulates. You probably would get more enjoyment & use out of it than I do.

I hope that my birthday greetings or whatever you may call it got to Gowrie all right. I couldn’t get a mailing tube so I just wrapped it in a tight roll and hoped it would get there without getting bent. It really seemed pretty stiff to me so I think that it should come thru all right.

I am going to include some bonds in this letter. [written small in the margin] I will wait till after I have moved or decided against it.

The Luther League Fellowship program came off last Sunday pretty good. It seems to me that anything like this is worse in the anticipation than in the doing.

On the surface it seems that Vincent’s having failed to get in on the meteorology training was too bad but who knows but that it may be better in the long run? We are passing thru some very difficult times and oftentimes we may rebel inwardly at what is happening but then most of it is only incidental so perhaps we should accept things as they come with more equanimity (?) It seems very unfair that Vincent should have such a more difficult path to how than I. Why is it that those who in general deserve it least seem to get along so easily? I don’t know.

I will stop now.

A mushy kiss for you, mama

With love

CP

January 23, 1943

Jan 23, 1943

949 W 12th St.

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father and Mother and the rest of the folks at home,

This has been a more or less uneventful week so I wonder if I shall have enough to write about to make very much of a letter.

This morning it is cloudy outside and looks as though it might rain. All this week it has been sort of threatening but nothing has come of it. I have had to laugh at Dwight since he has been predicting rain almost every night this week but so far it has not materialized. During the first part of the winter his predictions were very accurate but this last week he has surely missed the boat. It has been rather warm also. I am enclosing a clipping to show you how warm it was.

Wednesday night the Board of deacons met and got organized for the year. There are only three this year since the term of one ran out and he said that he did not wish to be reelected. Pastor Wellington informed us that he has received a call to Bakersfield here in California. It is a home mission field also. I gather it is sort of a warm place in the summer and cold in the winter. He has not decided what to do about it yet, but I suppose that we shall know in a month or so. If he does leave I guess that it will be rather difficult to get anyone to take his place here inasmuch as there is such a shortage of ministers available now.

On Friday night, the Centennial committee met to sort of gather up the loose ends of the thankoffering. I guess that the only one who will have much work to do from now on is the treasurer. We met our Centennial goal easily but didn’t make too much of progress toward our goal here. It was I think tho fairly successful.

I had supper with the Johnson’s on Friday night. Ever once in awhile they will ask me to have supper with them which is of course very nice. I tried to tell Mrs. Johnson that I wasn’t paying them enough for what they do for me but she said she wouldn’t accept any more. Yesterday she went to Ontario to visit the home of her son Eric. Pastor Wellington was going to the funeral of a Hemborg who was supposed to have been the oldest pastor in the Synod, in Riverside and so he took Mrs. Johnson along and left her at Ontario while he went on to the funeral. She likes to see her grandchildren, I guess.

I received a notification from the draft board that my case is up for reclassification and that my new classification will be made on January 29. It will probably be the same as before, but personally I do not care an awful lot just what it is.

That, except for the usual daily schedule of getting up, eating breakfast, going to work, working, coming to San Pedro, eating supper, coming home, reading or what not, & going to bed is all that has happened this week as far as I am concerned.

Thank you for the very nice letter about your trip to Dubuque and about Clarice’s marriage, mama. I am enclosing a check that you can give to Clarice.

With love

C.P.

January 14, 1943

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif

Jan. 14, 1943

Dear father, mother and folks at home,

Today is two days more than five months since I left home. Just think in six or seven months I may have the opportunity of coming home again. I’d just love to be home again for a coupleof days. Ever since Christmas I have been thinking more about home and sort of day-dreaming of the time when I’ll get home again. I wonder if I’ll ever be satisfied in California. I hae me doots. Oh, it’s a nice place I suppose but it is so lacking in interest.

Whenever I get to thinking of home, I begin thinking that my old idea of the forty acre farm isn’t so bad. I must be inherently lazy because the main appeal or one of the main appeals of this plan is that I’d have so much time to loaf. And you can’t kid me on the basis that I’d have to work my head off to make ends meet either. If I didn’t have any rent to pay, had the farm to eat off and weren’t exposed to so many opportunities of spending any money I could get along on 1/3 of what I spent now and that wouldn’t be more than $350/year. And I am certain I could produce that much income on 40 acres. No income tax to pay — and what’s the use of working to make something to pay taxes on when you don’t need it. I think the farm is the neatest place to get around the income tax I ever saw. Your rent, if you rent your farm, is a legitimate deduction if you run your farm on a business basis. (I suppose, anyway.)

Ditto for taxed if you own it. What you eat off the farm is really income but you don’t count it as such. It seems to me that the city-dweller pays taxes on his whole income — no matter what it is spent for; the farm on the part of his income which comes as cash which often as not would be 75% hay if he had taken the necessary precautions against loading himself up with responsibilities and dependencies. He pays tax on his luxury income, and not on $500 of that. As a racket I don’t see how it can be beat. I’m all for it and someday (pause to knock on wood) I’ll by gypping the U.S. gov’t in this legitimate method of skullduggery. Ho! Hum! I hope this day of bliss isn’t too far off.

Which reminds me that you might as well pile my metals & alloys in my dresser drawer. I don’t have time to read them now anyway and they would clutter up my room which has enough stuff in it already. As usual I accumulate things. When I retire to the farm they should still be not too out-of-date as reading matter. I am buying books now because then I won’t and even if I don’t read them now, they day will come when I’ll have the time to read them and if they’re laying around they’d be handy to get at.

Last Sat. I went down town and spent the $5 for books which Uncle Carl gave me — that is $4.58. I haven’t decided what to do with the other $0.42. I got a little book called “People of Note.” It was a collection of cartoons on musicians that appeared in the Colliers. I also got a book called “Past Imperfect” by Ilka Chase which promised to be a honey from the occasional glimpses I took in the book store.

Finally, there was a special on detective stories at 29¢ each so I got five of the best looking ones — including some Edgar Wallace ones. I’ll sit with my feet on the stove on winter evenings and delight my mind with mysterious doings of so and so, and why was this robbery done etc etc. I hope there is a blizzard outside too and the snow is drifting over the road 4 or 5 feet deep. What in idyllic scene! I’d better stop thinking of it tho, because it isn’t possible yet for awhile. But it will be, you can bank on that.

Last Sunday afternoon I was at the Wellingtons’ and we planned more or less what the L.L. program for this year is going to be. I guess there will be an executive committee meeting soon to get things all lined up. Sometimes I wished I was back in Gowrie L.L. where if you didn’t want to do something, you appointed a committee. Here there isn’t more than enough for one or two committees so guess who does all the work. And I’m lazy too. Don’t forget that.

The weather has been nice in the daytimes lately but it has been foggy at night altho it usually has cleared up by morning. There has been no rain since Christmas and I see in the paper that the crops around here need rain. Bah! It’s foolish to think of raising anything in the desert.

Food prices are going up somewhat. I am getting so that I don’t eat meat so often. If there is something decent, like macaroni or spaghetti, to eat I have that. I should think that restaurants would concentrate on dishes like that during a meat shortage but they don’t seem to.

If I don’t forget to I will enclose some bonds in this letter. I guess since I began working overtime I will be buying more for awhile. By the way, do farmers pay the victory tax? 

I received the certificate from the honorary society, also the Gowrie News’ etc. Thank you for them and also for the letters.

My congratulations to Vincent on his report card. Anybody who gets an A in drawing that involved inking has my highest admiration. As for English, it belongs in grammar school anyway and what do the dolts mean by dumping it in a self-respecting college curriculum?

With love

C.P. (the agricultural economist)

P.S. Since nothing happened to alter my daily routine this week I had to think of something to write about which may in part explain this letter.