March 10, 1945

March 10, 1945

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

From the sounds of things, Iowa is certainly showing March in like a lion. I hope that things warm up a bit so mama can start thinking about all those garden catalogs etc. Calif has been somewhat warmer the last couple of days. This morning it was foggy and the sun didn’t come out till noon — a typical sign of spring in these parts. I was out and mowed the lawn again tonite. The grass really doesn’t grow an awful lot but it does grow unevenly, so that the lawn has to be mowed occasionally. It is sort of fun to do it. Aside from walking it is virtually the only physical exercise I get.

After mowing the lawn I went downtown, got my hair cut and had supper. The barber shop closes about 7 o’clock on Saturday nights which is later that it used to. One of the barbers there comes from Odebolt where he knew Lester Peterson (or have I said that before?). I got my bulletins made last night so I didn’t have to do tonite. Last night after getting the bulletins made and bringing a book back to the library, I went to a show. It was a double feature of course, as all shows are around here. One of them was very humorous — “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.” It is based on a book written by Cornelia Otis Skinner and some other woman. It tells of their adventures on a trip to Europe. If I get around to it I shall have to look up the book.

Thursday at work I got very dirty since I was fooling around with some activated carbon and it got in my hair etc., so I took a shower before I went home. This was a mistake since I wasn’t used to it — that is, going outside right after a bath. I felt cold & miserable that evening and during the night, but since then I have felt no ill effects fortunately. I also missed the train that night which didn’t help matters much, since a rather cool breeze was blowing during the 20 minutes or so I was waiting for the next one.

I will finish this letter in the morning.

7:15 am Sunday morning.

If you observe closely in Calif., you will see some slight change from season to season. usually you don’t hear birds too often but this morning as I lay awake and loafing in bed they were chirruping merrily outside. It is foggy again this morning but it will probably clear up later in the day.

Today I had intended to get a lot of things done, such as some cartoon-drawing, music lesson practicing etc but if I am as lazy as I am right now I shall take a nap all afternoon and go to bed early. Maybe it won’t be that bad, but nothing will be accomplished anyway.

Happy birthday to you, dad. I hope that you have a very nice birthday with everything you want to eat, etc.

With love

C.P.