December 12, 1944

December 12, 1944

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

I feel sort of dispirited tonite for some reason or other. The P.E. was half an hour later at Watson tonite and the waitresses at Thrifty’s were terribly slow (supper was 1½ hours long tonite) so I didn’t get home till seven thirty — all of which doesn’t help to improve the situation. Also I have a little headache etc etc. As a consequence my piano practicing didn’t go so hot which added its untoward bit to the situation. This kind of a day happens ever [sic] once in awhile and you wonder then if anything is ever done halfway efficiently in Calif. Other times it isn’t so bad, but you can’t say it’s good either.

However there are a couple of things that are on the other side of the ledger. For example the weather has been very nice and warm since Sunday, and on Sunday too. Today it was up around 80°F. The nights have not been so cold either and the air has been very clear (you could see the mountains even from San Pedro & out at Watson you could distinguish the snow on them). Dwight says he thinks it is going to rain but it looks fair to me for awhile anyway. Another thing that is a positive influence just at present is my work, which hasn’t been half bad for awhile. I have some interesting things that I plan to be doing in the near future.

Sunday afternoon was the every member canvass here. I had fourteen people to see. Of that number, 6 I knew beforehand would not be home. Of the remaining eight, I took care of six, 2 being not at home. So I have 8 contacts left to make. Fortunately 2 contacts will really take care of six so in reality it is only 4 calls I have to make. However, since I have to walk around to do it it is a little tiresome.

Also on Sunday afternoon & evening was the District L.L. meeting at Pasadena to which I did not go. Pastor Wellington had asked me if I wanted to go, but being as the officers for the following year were being installed I would have felt very foolish attending — as I had declined the election to its presidency. Also on Sunday afternoon was a dedication of a Service Center in Long Beach. I guess it was sort of a poor time to have a canvass when there were so many meetings on.

Dwight tells me that thru devious means he had found out that Mr. Cole has been made the head of the engineering department. That should be a nice feather in his cap, but I think he deserves it since he has a good grasp of his specialty and in addition has been successful in his guidance of research. There are at least four major commercial plants in the Shell organization that are based primarily on work done here (largely since the time I began work here), not to mention licensing of the same to other companies, and the fact that the Cactus plant was based on research done here. In addition several other processes have been and are being investigated.

Thank you for the letters I have received this week. Greet Ann Marie from me. Also, since you have such a nice lot of snow back there now, make a lot of snowballs and throw them for me.

With love

C.P.