February 17, 1946

Feb 17, 1946

1046 W 24th

San Pedro, Calif.

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

Well, it’s Sunday morning again. Somehow or other, Sunday always seems to be the low-spot of the week for me. When I am working I can usually keep from thinking much and therefore remain in a state of emotional stupor. Saturday usually passes reasonably easy as a reaction from the week’s work, from errands to do etc, but by Sunday the usual reaction against life in California has set in. And of course, the prospect of going down to listen to that addle-brained pastor doesn’t help matters. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but whatever else rest it brings, it certainly breeds discontentment as far as I am concerned.

Yesterday I went downtown in the morning — to the bank to cash my paycheck, to the cleaners to get my pants, to the barber to get a haircut and also down to the book-store to see if the book I had ordered two weeks ago was there but it wasn’t. I browsed around for awhile and bought a book — “The Ring of the Nibelung” by Richard Wagner. I had never thought I would be much good, but one day a fellow out at work got to talking about the story of Siegfried and Brünnhilde and it intrigued me so when I ran across it in the book store I bought it. It seems that a guy was courting Brünnhilde but according to the rules she had set up you had to excel her in various physical feats if you were to win her hand. This individual couldn’t, but Siegfried impersonated him and beat her so that she consented to marry this other guy. Later she found out and hung her husband up on the wall by his collar on a hook or something because she was so disgusted. I haven’t got to that part yet but what I have read so far is quite interesting.

The guy who told me about it is sort of a funny duck. His name is Bernard Dale (“Bernie”) and he is an Englishman. Maybe I have written about him before. Everybody teases the daylights out of him. He is so literally minded that everything you say to him he takes seriously which is a valuable aid to teasing him. He gets a little sore sometime. As I recall his telling about Siegfried & Brunnhilde was a comment on some other guy out at work (the one I stayed with over in L.B.) comparing Brünnhilde’s husband’s physical prowess with his.

Sunday evening

It’s about 6 now — Fred Allen has just signed off. He wasn’t quite as good tonite I thought as he usually is.

Today has been a sunshiny day but it has not been very warm. I went for a walk after dinner and it was really quite chilly (Calif chilly, that is). The forecast is for warmer tomorrow but cloudy so it may be getting ready for another rainy spell.

My work is coming along pretty good. Shell Development is getting next Friday off since it is Washington’s birthday. I guess that now that it is peacetime, we get virtually all of the holidays the banks get which is a pretty fair number. I wish I were close enough home so I could make a quick trip home over the three-day weekend. It would certainly be nice.

By the way, thank you, mama, for the box of cookies and for the valentine from father and you. I certainly appreciated getting both.

This is all for now

With love

C.P.

P.S. Another thing you might try to get for me when you are in Ft. Dodge sometime is some Keen Kutter razor blades. 

I can’t get them here in Calif., but the Thiede Mueller hardware company carries them. Their store is located on Central Avenue not far from the city square. 

Thank you for trying to get some pants for me.