December 1940

Iowa City
Thursday morning

Dear mother:

 I thought I would begin my letter now as I have 15 minutes before I will leave for my classes and I don’t believe it would be worthwhile to start studying something in such a short time. Besides I have about ½ of them already prepared for Friday.

The laundry came Friday evening (or was it Friday noon?), somewhat sooner than I expected it to come. Please accept my usual thanks for washing up my clothes and for sending me some things to eat. I have already begun to plan my eating so that everything will be finished up Thursday morning. If I leave with Fridell’s, as I will if Mr. Fridell comes down, I won’t be leaving until after dinner. However, if he does not come down, my plans might be slightly different. This morning, I am going to look up the bus depot and if possible, open up a line of escape in that direction. According to the telephone book, there are bus lines to Des Moines which would maybe put be aboard the M & St L. I wonder what time it leaves Des Moines? I will write more about this later in the letter after I have discovered the particulars. You can’t imagine how I am anticipating coming home. I received a letter from Vivian just the other day and I guess, from the sound of her letter, that she will also be happy to come home once more.

Last Friday [interruption: there goes “Jingle Bells” on the Music Shop. So Xmas-y sounding. It rouses that old anticipatory feeling in me] night, I went with two other boys to Cedar Rapids and saw a show. The boys were some that I knew at F.D.J.C and one of them had an old Chevrolet down here. They asked me to go along and I thought I might as well as I was pretty well caught up on my studying. I had a fairly good time but it could have been better. The show, “The Mark ofZorro” was pretty good because it had my movie hero, Basil Rathbone in it.

Well, here I am again and this time I guess I’ll finish the letter. I went to the bus depot and found out that there is a bus leaving at noon Thursday which would bring me to Des Moines at 3:30. Then there is a bus going to Ft. Dodge but it goes around by Ft. Dodge so if I went that way you would have to come & get me. I don’t know when the M & St L leaves Des Moines and the agent at the bus depot didn’t know, so I don’t think I’d risk running around down there where I don’t know my way around and wind up by losing both train and bus. If you could find out please drop a line or card and let me know. Of course, I’ll follow this plan only if Mr. Fridell does not come. if I do have to go home by bus, I’ll have to write another check, and if I don’t, I still might write one for $2 or so. I have bought several Xmas presents but still have about ½ or 2/3 left to buy. I’ll try to get that done next Saturday.

It has snowed some here this morning. When I left for school it was just starting. When I returned it was snowing quite hard but it has entirely stopped now. I, too, hope the weather remains nice so I can get home with Fridell’s. Weekly analysis of how I am getting along in becoming an engineer. (1) Drawing head the list this week. In the last test wqe had I got 87% which was the best grade in the class by 1%. I felt pretty good after that test.

(2) German — we have started a systematic review of all that we have covered so far. Yesterday we had a vocabulary test which was quite easy. I think for about 2 weeks I will have practically no studying to do in German since the review will be easy. I think if I study a little bit on oral German I can pull an A in this course.

(3) Mechanics of Solids — things are fairly tame. We have started the last section of the book, i.e., kinetics. As a sort of Xmas present the instructor is giving a test the very last class on Thurs. morning. If it wasn’t for that class I could get started for Des Moines at 8:14. I hope I do as well in this test as I did in the last one.

(4) Chem Industries — SoSo as usual — this weekend I am going to bring my notebook up to date since it is due the last class before Xmas vacation.

(5) Indus Stoichiometry — We have had 2 more quizzes. In both I made a small mistake. I should get 9 in both or 9 in one and 10 in the other since my error in the last was not more than about 2% or so. Today I have an experiment to do in this green-eyed-dragon-course. I already have one to write up and that will make two which I will try to finish during Xmas vacation some time (Oh happy thought! and that does go for the writing up either!)

I seem to be writing at an angle on this page so I will use this line to straighten things out.

I believe I’ll abbreviate this letter and call it enough. In just one week I’ll be home and then I can tell you about everything better than writing about it.

With love,

Carl

This is the last letter 

home before Xmas

Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!

(1) Week from today I

should be home at some 

time or other. 

P.S. Who did Audrey A get married to? A foolish question to ask since I’ll find out soon enough anyway I guess.

P.S. I have had a little (very little) cold lately but with that exception none all winter.

P.S. The last roll was a little tough but that was all.

P.S. I just heard the Iowa weather forecast — a cold wave. That should stop this snow and make weather conditions more settled.

P.S. auf Wiederschreiben: meaning, I’ll be writing again to you but not till after Xmas.

Tuesday, July 13, 1954

Tuesday evening July 13

PGS 132 The Hague

Dear Father & Mother —

When next I write to you I shall be at least in New York and perhaps in California again. Everything appears to be all set for my departure and its more just a matter of waiting for the time to pass than anything else. Today I got my ticket back from the Hague where it had been sent to have the reservations made. I will be leaving here Thursday evening — the plane leave Schiphol airfield at 9:45 pm and I will be in NY the next morning at 10:45 — the elapsed will be 17 hours tho because of the time changes. I have about a 12 hour layover in NY so I will get to Calif Saturday morning (almost in time for a late breakfast). I do certainly look forward to getting back, but don’t particularly relish the traveling connected with it.

Today started out as a cloudy, misty and really chilly day, much like yesterday; however late in the afternoon it cleared off and this evening it is quite clear & still so it may be that my last couple of days in Holland will be nice ones. Yesterday and today I have spent summarizing the work accomplished the past two months, partly to leave after me here when I leave and to show at Emeryville when I get back so that I will appear to have accomplished something here.

Yesterday evening I had dinner with Broeze, Hinge and Yap. Broeze is the head of the Delft lab whom I had met but had spent little time talking to. Hinge & Yap of course I know quite well by this time. Before dinner we had a discussion of the work done here which was a little trying since I still had fears that something would come up at the last moment to delay my departure. However nothing did and I see only clear sailing ahead now. I even received a book on Holland from the Delft lab, signed by B, H & Y thanking me for my valuable assistance. This actually was a kindly gesture I thought & it leaves me with a more charitable attitude toward Holland than I have had for sometime.

Today was a poor day for mail (nothing came) but that could be expected since yesterday was a banner day with 4 letters. About a week or so ago Jean sent me the enclosed clipping which Verner had forgotten when they visited in El Cerrito. I’ll send it back to you since I guess it belongs either to Verner or to you.

This evening so far I had had supper — not too good tonite and after I’ve finished this I’ll start in on the packing & not leave all of it for tomorrow nite. However I think I shall go to bed fairly early tonite. Last nite it was late & I didn’t sleep too well after the big, late meal ending with black Dutch coffee; today I really worked hard so I’m rather tired tonite.

This will be all for now. USA here I come,

With love

C.P.

Sunday, July 18, 1954

Sunday, July 18

Dear Father & Mother—

It’s Sunday afternoon here in sunny California and it certainly feels good to be spending the day back in here in El Cerrito. As of now I’ve been back more than a day and a half since I arrived back in San Francisco late Friday evening having caught an earlier plane than I had intended. But to go back & relate things more in the order they occurred —

Thursday was a fairly busy day in Holland. In the morning I had a “goodbye” talk with Mr. Broeze of the Delft lab and I also went to the Hague and said some goodbyes there. I got back to the Delft lab before noon tho in time for lunch and a last round of bridge with some of the Delft workers. In the afternoon I stayed around till I had a chance to see Mr. Hinge and had a brief talk with him before leaving. A car from the lab took me to PGS132 where my bags were all waiting — I’d finished the last bit of the packing in the morning, having completed most of it the preceding evening or on Tuesday evening. I said goodbye to Mrs. Swieringa (a mixed Dutch-English conversation) and we were off to the Schiphol airport. Mr. Karelia I had said farewell to in the morning before I left for the lab.

Since the plane I was to leave on didn’t depart till 9:45 I had time on my hands at the airport. I had supper there (courtesy of KLM, the Dutch airline company) and spent the time watching the planes come in and leave. My flight left more or less on time, perhaps a little late. We stopped at Prestwick, Scotland before the cross-water hop which took about 9 hours. At Gander, Newfoundland I stepped off onto the North American continent, and as I told Jean, the ground felt different. The plane got into New York about 2½ hours late, about one o’clock.

Getting thru customs was quite easy compared with what I had been prepared for. After finishing this I thought I would go from Idlewild, the airport where I had come in, to La Guardia where I was supposed to leave from and make sure of the remainder of the trip & also stow away my bags will the time. However when I got there I found that I should have stayed at Idlewild because that was where the plane for the next part of the trip was to leave from, & the instructions to go to La Guardia were a mistake. So disgustedly I retraced my tracks, getting back to Idlewild about 3:55. My flight was to leave at 11:30 in the evening, but I thought I’d just ask if anything earlier was available. The man said there was a flight at 4:00 but was all full, except that one passenger had not showed up and ig he didn’t come I could have his place. He didn’t come so I got to leave NY much earlier than I’d intended. Probably if it hadn’t been for the wild goose chase to La Guardia I’d never have stayed around to see if someone would fail to make the 4:00 flight.

The plane I left on was a new DC-7, which is a fast one, so the time to reach San Francisco was only some 9½ hours including a 20 minute stop in Denver (that being the only stop). With the time change this put me in at S.F. at 10:30. I tried to call Jean from Denver but she was having dinner with the Ackermans (Shell employee acquaintances) so I couldn’t reach her. When I called her from S.F. airport she was expecting a telegram which I had said I might send from N.Y., since I hadn’t known till rather late in the week just what the travel arrangements were, and could only inform her in time that way. So she was quite surprised & delighted to hear where I was. She drove over to S.F. to meet me at the downtown terminal to which I took a bus from the airport.

It was indeed a happy meeting and needless to say not much sleeping got done that night. We didn’t get up till about 10 Sat morning but even so we were ready for bed early last night. During the day we drove down to her folks for a brief visit; I also got a haircut to remedy the last two Dutch ones. Today we were up earlier and went to church at a little church in El Cerrito near here. You may recognize by the description that it was on Stockton, a street we went down many times while you were her, at the intersection with the street going in front of the high school. It’s a small mission congregation; I wasn’t particularly impressed with the preacher but the church itself was quite nice inside.

After lunch (with a real salad instead of Mrs. Swieringa’s good, but uninspired ones) we’re spent the day rather idly — I watered the lawn a bit and saw there is quite a bit to do to get in back in the shape it was before I left. This evening we plan to go out to dinner.

It’s really a relief to be back and I guess neither of us realized how much we were missing the other. I certainly hope nothing like this ever happens to us again. Things are fine here, except for the garden & yard being the worse for neglect. The neighbor boy didn’t do much more than just mow as instructed.

All for now — hope you’ve been feeling well and enjoying the warm weather I heard, in Holland before I left, that the U.S. was enjoying. It wasn’t too warm in N.Y. when I was there & it was raining some in Denver so I guess that most of it had passed by the time I got back.

With love

C.P.

Yes, It’s just wonderful being together again. Now to go get dressed for that dinner date I have tonight with a real boyfriend of mine — my one and only.

Jean

Sunday, June 20, 1954

Sunday morning June 20

Paul Gabriel Straat 132

The Hague, Holland

Dear Father & Mother

Last night I found out that it can really thunder in Holland. Yesterday had been a warm, quite sultry day, & along in the afternoon it sprinkled a little, but the rain didn’t really start till in the night when it thundered more than I have heard for a long time. I woke up several times & heard it so it must have kept on for some time. This morning it is mostly cloudy but the sun keeps looking out occasionally so I have hopes it will clear up. I should like to go down to Rotterdam later in the day to look around a bit, perhaps take some pictures & be able to say I had been there.

Today so far I have breakfasted etc, written a letter to Jean, told Mrs. Swieringa with the aid of the dictionary & some sign language that I might not be here for lunch and am now writing to you. Yesterday was a good day for mail — two from Jean & one from you. I was glad to hear how good the crops & the farm looks, but was sorry to hear of Viv’s and Tiny’s disappointment.

Today of course is Verner’s important day and in a few days he will be in El Cerrito. Jean is now spending her nights at 411 Bonnie Dr; for 4 or 5 days after she got back she spent them at her folks. One of the floor furnaces was out of order and so required fixing and I guess for this & other reasons decided to stay awhile with her parents. She visited the doctor last seem and everything seems to [be] coming along well.

Yesterday morning I spent doing some errands and some shopping and in the afternoon going to the beach. I had been out there twice before but once it was cloudy & another time in the evening (& while it was rainy) so hadn’t seen it in its best light. Yesterday while I was there it was sunshiny for the most part but late in the afternoon it clouded up. By that time tho I was ready to leave so didn’t mind. I got some pictures of the beach, the resort hotels, of the fishing harbor and of the partially demolished fortifications the Germans built. Most of these have been removed I understand but some still remain. At the present time most of the fishing fleet is out but there were a few boats in, enough to get a few pictures. The number of people at the beach increased as the afternoon wore on, but the weather clouded up so I went home about 4:30; it started to sprinkle a little by then but held off mostly till in the evening. I spent the rest of the day reading Time, having supper & taking a leisurely hot shower & washing my hair.

Work comes along about as usual. I think we will be running again this coming week, making check runs now that the difficulties have (I hope) been ironed out. Most of the past week was spent in reviewing the air flow measurement & calibration and installing some new equipment on the column. When these runs are completed & satisfactory I can bring up the suggestion that I’ve really accomplished my mission & see what reaction I get.

This will be all for now.

With love

Carl

 

Wednesday, June 17, 1954

[The 1954 calendar shows that Wednesday was actually June 17.]

Wednesday evening, June 17

Paul Gabriel Straat 132, The Hague

[The corner of this airmail letter which held the stamp was torn off.]

[Dear Father & Mo]ther—

— — — day’s warm and sunshiny day came today’s — — — one, with a fair amount of rain this afternoon. Yesterday at noon since it was nice I went for a walk after lunch and took a couple of pictures; the day had looked sunshiny even in the morning when I left for work so I had taken the camera along since I wanted to get a picture of the outside of the lab. Today since it was no day for a walk I played bridge, Mr. Yap being my partner. We had some fairly interesting hands so the noon hour was pleasantly spent.

Your letter arrived Monday, mother, and it was indeed nice hearing from you. I don’t know of any English churches here in the Hague, but haven’t really investigated, feeling that it would be no use looking. I suppose I could go sit even if I didn’t understand what’s going on. Mr. Boogard, the BOM roomer, (I finally found out his name) tells me that Holland is almost 50% Catholic which surprised me. Indeed the Catholics outnumber the Protestants as a whole here.

I’m glad to hear that you’ve been having the needed rain but didn’t get the hail etc. Also, don’t work too hard outside, mother, it isn’t worth it. As for the McCarthy hearings, I read about them in Time but never hear them mentioned in conversation with anyone.

This week I got back from Paris the colored slides I had sent there for development a couple of weeks ago. For my first roll of film I think they turned out pretty good. A few of them were over-exposed but at least half were just right and most of the rest close to it. I have the second roll almost finished and may get it completed this weekend. I don’t know whether I’ll have it finished on this side, now that I’ve a little confidence in my technique so don’t need to look at the results as a guide for the future.

Work continues to come along quite well. The difficulty of the past week or ten days has been straightened out (my predictions came out practically on the nose as to the mistakes that were being made so I feel a little proud of myself). To confirm the earlier date we will make a new series of runs and that will finish up the first series of tests. Whether this will mean that I will be able to leave late in June or early July I don’t know. Mr. Yap thinks I’ve achieved my object here just about & I think Mr. Hinge will too after our next runs are finished, but I guess before I can leave, the Hague office will have to approve. I surely hope that it does turn out that I can soon be leaving.

It’s getting on towards nine p.m. this evening and so far I’ve had supper of course and have written to Jean. After supper we sat around the table and had a rambling conversation for half an hour or so. Mr. Karelia, the second BPM roomer, seems to stimulate conversation. Mr. Boogard is off this evening to hear Arthur Rubenstein the pianist but Mr. Karelia dislikes his showy technique so is staying home.

This will be all for now. I hope you are continuing to feel well, and the weather stays nice.

With love

Carl

P.S. How much did the new furnace installation cost?

Miscellaneous letters from childhood

Undated letter, circa 1927

Dear Aunt Laurine

I am in second grade this year. I get 100 in numbers almost every day. I have to learn long poems by heart. My arm is alright now but it took a long time. I had to go to the doctor. I haven’t forgotten you yet.

Much love from

Carl

-------

Gowrie, Iowa

August 13 1929

Dear Mamma:

I wish you would come home soon. Tuesday I was going over to Roberts [sic]. But when I came over there, they were away. I waited a little bit and then I went home. Then I went over to Harris’s and he had [sic] out to the Golf Links so I couldn’t play with Harris. So I went home. When I got home I went upstairs to draw. But as soon as I got upstairs I was told I could get an ice rem cone.

With all my love

Carl

[Note in his mother’s handwriting: When I was at Mercy Hospice for Marold’s birth. This is a precious letter from “little Carl.”]

-------

Sept. 6, 1929

Gowrie Ia.

Dear Laurine:

I wish you a happy birthday. I am only writing a few lines. Friday I help baby Marold for the first time. Boy it was fun!

Today I made an airplane our of boxs [sic], boards, quilts, bricks and etc. Vivian cooked food and Vincent and me drove the airplane.

A happy brithday [sic] and many whichs [sic]

from Carl

-------

Gowrie, Iowa

Feb. 21, 1932

Dear Laurine,

Thank you very much for the Valentine. I think it is very cute.

I am in a Flag Drill in school. We to act [sic] it out before the P.T. A. on Tues. night. Miss Moffett is drilling us and some of the boys weren’t good and they got it.

Guess what happened Saturday night. Our house nearly caught on fire. We had just put in some new coal and daddy had shoved some baskets to [sic] close to the furnace. They caught on fire. Mamma smelt smoke and thought something was wrong with the draft. When she was pulling on the chain she saw something red thru a crack. She whizzed downstairs and grabbed a pail of water which daddy was going to give to the cow. She threw the water on it and nearly extinguished it. Daddy was in by this time and we got it out. The [sic] were near a door and is was so hot it nearly was on fire.

I am getting along O.K. in school. We are having history now instead of hygiene. It is ancient history. For a while I wasn’t getting along so good in arith. but I got a hundred which brough my grades up.

A 1,000 kisses &

” ” hugs to you from

Carl

Saturday, November 22, 1958

November 22, 1958

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Since I wrote last in the round robin we have driven to Iowa, using the three weeks of vacation I still had left, and we have been back now over two months. This was our first experience in driving such a long distance and I can’t say I would want to do it again soon, but might at some later time. On the way to Iowa we stopped for several days to Rocky Mountain Park and returning we came via Joplin and stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison & the Colorado National Monument. We have just recently got our last batch of slides from the trip finished and they turned out quite good. One we lost tho since it was the first one on the roll and I hadn’t rolled the film far enough before taking the picture. On the way back we stopped one hot afternoon at a cafe in western Kansas and by chance happened to try their apple dumplings. They were so good that Jean has copied them & this is now one of our favorite desserts.

This fall has been a warm one in Calif, except for a short cold snap a week ago and severa flowers have started growing as tho it were spring. Among these are the roses and we have had as pretty roses as we have had at any time just recently. Because of the nice weather I have the yard in pretty good shape in anticipating of the winter. There will be the usual pruning jobs to do in the winter but except for those there will only be such tasks as mowing the lawn every other week, some minor trimming etc. My next major project is the replacement of the backyard fence but I’m not sure when this will get started.

Muriel and Palma continue to grow and change rapidly as is usual for children of this age. Muriel is in the kindergarten class at Sunday School now and every once in awhile pops up with something she has learned there; she’ll be eager to start school next fall I’m sure. Lately her coloring skill has improved a lot and she does fairly well by the hula-hoop (she’s only had it 3 or 4 days now) but nothing like Billy I’m sure. Palma seems to be passing thru a less desirable stage right now, being somewhat fussy much of the time, not wanting to eat as she should and being prone to falls etc. I guess she’ll grow out of it though.

My work at Shell continues much as usual and last August I passed by 16th anniversary with them. Not too many years and I’ll have lived longer in Calif than in Iowa. My luck at avoiding business trips held up for more than a year but it looks like I’ll need to make one in Dec (maybe the airline will be on strike though and this would cancel it).

For the next year or so I plan to try to develop my cartooning into a salable product. I haven’t had any puck so far but haven’t kept at it too conscientiously tho so that may be the reason.

All for now.

With love,

Carl, Jean, Muriel & Palma

Sunday, June 29, 1958

June 29, 1958

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters

Since I wrote for the round robin the last time we have been down to San Diego to see Marold, Jeanne & Gregg in their new home and also to see various places and people along the way. We drove down in our new automobile — a yellow Plymouth — which we acquired early in May. As we were starting out on a Friday evening (we planned on driving to Merced the first evening so as to have less to drive the next day) I heard a funny noise when the car was in low but was not disposed to turning back at that point since all our plans for the trip had been made. The noise persister all the trip but didn’t give anu trouble — when I had the car in for a checkup when we got back, they found one gear with a tooth broken off and eventually they had to replace several gears before the transmission sounded all right, so I guess we were fortunate.

We stopped along the way to visit some of Jean’s friends & spent a couple of days in L.A. with Jean’s sister. Then we stayed in motels in various places while seeing Disneyland and Marineland, & visiting various people. We were at Howard Nelson’s for dinner one evening and Howard looked quite different than when I saw him last. He had lost a good part of his hair & looked rather different I thought. We also spent a few hours at Knott’s Berry Farm which I think the children enjoyed more than either Disneyland or Marineland. Muriel was frightened of several things Disneyland and of the whole, & other fishes too, at Marineland, so we feel that she was too young to really appreciate them.

We visited at Marold’s several days & visited the zoo & beach while we were there. The San Diego Zoo has a new part called the “Children’s Zoo” where they can pet animals etc & both M & P liked this — they didn’t want to leave as they were quite ready to do at the other places we say. We took two days to drive back so we arrived in time to unpack and relax a but before starting the work-a-day routine again.

As usual we keep busy in our every-day life. This summer I plan to paint the stucco on the house, maybe getting the first or conditioner coat on over the long 4th-of-July weekend. I started last weekend scraping off the old paint & still have some to do before I can start the painting. Jean has made herself a new outfit — which she plans to wear today when we go to the 50th wedding anniversary open house for the Gust Knocks.

Palma appears to be fairly well trained and has been increasing her vocabulary of late, but still is far behind Julie. Muriel measures her existence relative to the day, still more than a year off, when she can start kindergarten. This next week we will be at Roy & Beverly Milton’s for supper on Tuesday — we also saw David & his family on our trip.

All for now, till next the RR comes around

With love,

Carl

Monday, April 14, 1958

April 14, 1958

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters

In between bites of Jean’s cinnamon-raisin bread I will start my contribution to the round robin. The loaf from which my slice came was freshly baked today so it is very tasty. It is almost nine o’clock and I’ve finished the weekly letter to Gowrie and a note to Aunt Hulda so I’ll be about ready to turn in when I get this letter finished.

Today I felt sort of sleepy and lazy perhaps because of my unusual session in the yard over the weekend, so I don’t think I’ll last awake much past 9:30 or so. A week ago today the weather turned sunny after a long rainy spell & since then it has been nice. So on Saturday I really did a lot in the yard and I guess my out-of-shape muscles still feel it.

Altho there were quite a few cases of houses sliding or “subsiding” as the newspapers put it during the rainy weather, we fortunately escaped all of this. The little drainage sump I put in, in the basement, when I was putting in the concrete floor last fall, collected water faster than usual but still required attention only a couple of times a day. From our living room windows we can see a coupe of the slides that occurred on Albany hill a mile or so away. One of these slid into the back yard of a Shell Development employee, altho I didn’t happen to know him. Down at work during a particularly rainy spell the Temescal creek plugged up at a brush guard and sent the creek flowing out into the street so that Shell Dev was about ½ surrounded with water. old-timers said it was the worst they had ever seen it. The creek overflowed about noon and by five the waters had receded slightly but it must have been late at night by the time the Emeryville street dept got the creek unplugged. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Vivian’s little blue house by the river and the times when it has been flooded, or nearly so.

As usual our daily, weekly, & monthly schedule is largely det’d by what stage Muriel & Palma are in. Palma has a pretty good start on being trained and we hope that she will be nearly so when we make our planned trips this year to San Diego & Iowa. Tho still a blonde, she is a little darker-haired now than when she was born. She is a great imitator and picks up the things Muriel does even when she doesn’t know the reason. Muriel is in the “why?” stage now and Palma also has learned to say why (altho she doesn’t know why she is saying it). I’ll be reading to her and come to the end of a Mother Goose rhyme and she’ll say “why” like amen — not really asking about anything but just making the proper (to her) response.

This will be all for now. Hope you are all feeling well & fit.

With love

Carl

Saturday, January 4, 1958

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif

Jan 4, 1958

Dear Brothers & Sisters

As you see I have held up the round robin almost a month this time but I felt that since we hear from one another at Christmas, I might as well wait till the new year before sending it on its way. The new year finds us recovering from a series of colds and some stomach flu, which affected Muriel primarily, but we are now about back to normal — as normal as things ever are with two youngsters whose only norm is change as far as I can discern. Christmas this year was a big event for Muriel and for Palma also, who I think was quite affected by the unwrapping of gifts etc. — more so that Muriel was at her age. Muriel received amongst other things a tricycle; after several falls on the sidewalk in front of the house (which slopes slightly) & in the garage she now practice in the patio until her proficiency is increased. Palma rises the “wonder horse” with considerable vigor and it’s always a wonder to me how she manages to get on it — I keep feeling she’ll slip and fall on her face but she hasn’t so far.

We have had a rather wet fall for California, and I think a little cooler than average. Early in the fall we had some rather warm weather along with early rains and this led to a considerable number of late roses but these have now mostly faded. The leaves on our Modesto ash trees are now all gone — blown off a week or so ago on a windy night. It’ll be a couple of months before the new buds start to come out. However even now there are a few signs of spring — the lengthening days, a few daffodil leaves coming up here & there, the robins etc — so it won’t be too long before the feel of winter will pass. This afternoon I spent working on a grape arbor I am constructing; I didn’t get finished but another half-day will suffice and then I can tie up the grape vines properly (and hope to garner a better yield of grapes next fall, as well as enjoy a shady nook in the garden on warm summer afternoons).

As usual most of our activities center around home, & for me, work at Shell, but we have managed to do a few other things (we even went to a movie a couple of weeks ago — the first one in at least 6 months I’d guess if not longer). As I wrote in the last Round Robin, Jean & I attended a series of lecture on art & architecture in California; these proved to be quite interesting & educational. We’ve seen Roy & Beverly Milton several times and on New Year’s Day met Donald Milton — the last time I saw him was at John’s wedding I think. They stopped by in the morning on the way to Muir Woods — a drippy excursion I’ll wager since it rained in the afternoon & Muir Woods seems sort of damp even in dry weather.

This will be all for now. Don’t let my delay in sending on the R.R. serve as an example to anyone else.

With love,

Carl & Jean

Saturday, April 14, 1956

April 14, 1956

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear brothers & sisters,

April in Calif is usually not too rainy since by then the rainy season is definitely tapering off, but this week has not been typical and we have been having some real April showers. Today has been quite sultry-like but the rain held off till evening so I was able to spend part of the day out in the yard. My big current project in the yard is the terracing of the back yard into two levels, thus removing the slope from it and making it more useful; I spent several hours this afternoon & one this morning moving dirt round to this end, being assisted by Muriel who spent some of the time moving dirt from one can to one pile to another can to another pile etc. Probably there was as much sense to her activity as to mine.

The rain has made the yard look much fresher since we had had no rain for a month or so and things were quite dry (I watered thoroly last weekend, perhaps that is why it rained this week). We have had several roses and soon shall have many more judging from the buds on the bushes; the daffodils are gone, but we have a few tulips, a lot of coral bells and calla lilies, and quite a few flowers of a species I forget the name of (Jean also forgets). The berry bushes and strawberries are full of blossoms so we should have a good berry crop this year — last year we had quite a fer berries on the vines but very few strawberries.

Last weekend I started to paint in the rumpus room downstairs and got the primer coat on the walls. The walls had been dark brown so the room was quite dark most of the time and since we want to have the walls a light yellow I had to put on a coat to cover up the brown first. Perhaps this coming week in the evenings I can get started with the second coat. My other painting project for the summer is the stucco part of the house (I did the woodwork last year); however I probably shan’t get started on that till after our visit to Gowrie in May (we plant to come the week of Decoration Day so as to have an extra day for traveling).

One day at work I noticed in a trade journal a request for cartoons so I decided to draw some up & submit them. I thought the ones I sent in were pretty good but they didn’t accept any of them — at least they were better than some of those they chose & have been printing. However, since I’ve finally bestirred myself on this dream of mine, perhaps I shall continue drawing some and trying to sell them. Being a cartoonist would I think be an easier life than being an engineer I think, and perhaps more useful in the long run.

This spring I am taking part in the Great Books discussion course. The particular session I am going to is at the Albany high school (a city adjacent to E.C.) but the general idea is sponsored bu the Great Books foundation. The first year is concerned principally with political works. My roommate at work introduced me to the idea and I thought I’d give it a try. The first session was quite interesting and the one next time (on Monday evening) should be even more so. I hope it keeps that way & that my interest stays up.

All for now — I’m all writ out, having also penned the weekly letter home.

With love,

Carl, Jean & Muriel

Sunday, March 4, 1956

March 4, 1956

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters:

Last night we went to see the play “There Shall Be No Night”  at Wheeler auditorium up on the Univ of Calif campus. This play was written by Robert Sherwood in the late thirties or early forties (he died in the last six months or so — the Saturday Review used the occasion to write rather extensively about him) and was concerned with the conflict between Finland and Russian occurring about that time. It was quite an interesting play but not exactly light entertainment since it treated the subject with no touch of humor. In fact the play seemed a little contrived in places since it was used primarily as a vehicle to propose ideas etc and only secondarily was it concerned with the fates of the particular individuals involved.

The play lasted from 8 to 11, with a couple of intermissions, and I was glad it didn’t last any longer since I was tired after a rather full day of working in the yard. Wheeler auditorium has no stage curtain so all the changing of scenes was done by people scurrying on stage, carting things on or off; this added I thought a touch of novelty to the presentation.

Jean combined the seeing of the play with some gossiping with the people we went with — the lady worked in the same room with Jean at Shell until she quit a few weeks ago. She decided she’d rather go back to school, learn to be a primary teacher, & teach in this area, rather than continue in her work as computer. 

As a consequence of being out last night we are a rather logy family today, except for Muriel. Muriel woke about 4 and slept only fitfully thereafter till five, being troubled with a cold & cough she has had recently. About five her objections became quite marked so I got up & brought her to bed with us; we slept only a little after this since Muriel is not one to lie still very consistently. She did spend half an hour or so tho sleeping, lying across my chest, & we all three dozed off for awhile.

Because of her cold, or perhaps it is that she is teething again, Muriel has not had much appetite this past week. Today we had fried bread this morning — ordinarily one of her favorites — and she declined any until Jean put a little raspberry jam on a few pieces. Perhaps her taste has suddenly become jaded and she wants what her father & mother get. Yesterday we had an eventful occurrence with Muriel; Jean had been shopping & purchased some buttons. Right after she returned she put Muriel in the playpen & went downstairs to take in some wash. Muriel managed to to reach the buttons on the table & chewed four off the card, swallowing one. This morning it completed its journey, none the worse for wear, but we were happy to note its reappearance.

This past month has been a fairly busy one. We’ve got the floors refinished in the “front” part of the house (Jean’s brother in law & I did it — it was quite a job), I made some cupboards (still partly incomplete — no doors) for the garage & a bookcase for the rumpus room (not sanded & painted). Our new sofa & ottoman came so the old green sofa I bought to furnish 931 Seaview is in the garage — it’ll go in the rumpus eventually. Outside things are really starting to grow & it looks like spring is just around the corner.

With love,

Carl, Jean & Muriel