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 When I retire to the farm they should still be not too out-of-date as reading matter.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.