August 19,
1945
949 W 12th St
San
Pedro, Calif
Dear
Father, Mother and the rest of the folks at home,
Welll,
today is the Sunday proclaimed by President Truman to be a day of
thanksgiving and prayer that the war with Japan is over. The first
Sunday it is that the U.S. has been officially at peace since that
day in 1941. I guess I’ll never forget that Sunday and this one
probably too shall stand out in my memory. We truly ought to be
thankful that, undserving as we are, we have won the war and have had
the peace bestowed on us.
It
is cloudy and still in Calif this morning. Yesterday was also cloudy
and still — really a very sultry feeling day. It even rained a
little in the morning, in the middle of summer. Up in the mountains
and farther inland it has been raining rather heavily. Eric Johnson
called up last night and inland where they live it has been raining
for two days. I overheard last night a conversation between a couple
of old “salts,” evidently fishermen, talking about the weather
and they thought a big storm was brewing. Probably it would be mostly
at sea tho.
A.J.
Johnson has been down here the last couple of days talking over with
each guy here his future with the company. I don’t know what
precipitated this visit or its purpose but anyway it occurred. I
talked to him for about three-fourths of an hour and secured a lot of
information. The transfer to Wood River as far as I am concerned has
not yet been definitely arranged, but negotiations will be started
immediately. If I am not sent there, which probably will occur, I
will be sent to Emeryville or transferred to an operating company
(Shell Oil or Shell Chemical). At any rate, my days here are
numbered. I think that the transfer will come in a month or so but I
really don’t know how long it will take to arrange it. Dwight is
going to San Francisco as is also Hugh Guthrie. Some others are also
being changed. It is really joy-provoking to feel that I will be able
to leave Calif. in the not too distant future.
I
haven’t heard a peep from the draft board either he or back east
since I went down to the local transfer board to have my physical
transferred out here. I haven’t had the physical yet but I expect
it will come in a week or so. The company has (almost 3 or 4 days
after I got the original I-A classification) written to the draft
board protesting the classification and has initiated an appeal
action. I don’t know what the outcome will be, and A.J. Johnson
said he didn’t know either what to expect now that peace has come.
Even if I were taken it couldn’t be for more than a year, or
probably even less since the selective service act reads that service
will be for duration and six months. The end of hostilities hasn’t
been declared yet, but probably will come in 2 to 3 months. Anything
can happen of course, but I feel that I still have a pretty good
change of staying out. however, I feel that if I am taken that I will
never go back to Shell. Either I will go back to school or get a
position with some other company. The end of the war has brought
unemployment prospects for many war-workers but there will be a
shortage of technically trained men for 3 to 4 years and probably
longer because of the extremely short-sighted view taken by the
government as far as students were concerned so that it will be
relatively easy to get any kind of a job you wish if you are a
chemist, engineer etc. This isn’t just my opinion either; you can
see the very obvious efforts of the various companies to maintain &
increase their personnel. The help wanted section in the chemical
news edition of the American Chemical Society is really something to
look at. In some respects, a fling at army life would do my
personality some good.
My
car is on the blink again. It runs o.k., but somewhat jerkily as if
something were wrong [with] the fuel supply. It is irregular enough
so that it wouldn’t seem logical to be the ignition altho that
possibility cannot be ruled out. I took off the carburetor and
cleaned it but it didn’t so much good. I also relaced [replaced?]
some dubious looking wires in the ignition but that too didn’t do
much good, so I plan to take it down to the garage again and see what
they can do. The battery is also run down again so the generator
probably isn’t working again either.
With
love
C.P.
P.S.
Yes I noticed Ann Marie’s pictures and agree with you that she is
very cute. However, I feel that I would ha e to see her to go into
the raptures you do over her. Vincent, when questioned about her, is
very enthusiastic but such secondhand information even when delivered
personally is still inadequate I feel.
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