June 13, 1945

June 13, 1945

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

Well, the last two days have been really summer days in Calif — foggy in the morning but quite warm in the afternoon it must have been up to 80 or 85°F this afternoon. I suppose you could really use some weather like we have been having in the afternoons to dry things up a little but in Iowa. Rainy or not, tho, I’d still trade Calif weather for Iowa weather any day.

I feel sort of sleepy tonite. Monday night my alarm clock wasn’t working and I couldn’t sleep very good on account of I thought I might oversleep. I woke up about 4 o’clock in the morning and didn’t sleep much afterward. Last night I didn’t get to bed till eleven-thirty after Luther League. I got talking to the student pastor and didn’t get home till about that time. I can’t figure out exactly what is wrong with my alarm clock. I think that the little wheel which goes back and forth and controls the escapement may be binding or something. When the clock lays on its face it ticks for 4 or 5 times vigorously and then gives sort of halfhearted one. it is then that it has a tendency to stop. However, I have found out that it will still run pretty good if I prop it upright (one leg is broke so it won’t stand up otherwise). Maybe there will be new alarm clocks on the market pretty soon.

My work continues about as usual. A.J. Johnson was supposed to have come down this week, but I guess it was called off from the latest rumor. He is a vice president of Shell Development. Everybody has been running around cleaning up things.

Thursday morning

I woke up about five-thirty and loafed in bed till now, about a quarter after six and I thought I’d finish this before I go to shave etc. The birds are clammering [sic] outside my window as usual at this time of the day. The avocado tree isn’t quite the hangout for them it used to be tho since Eric Johnson trimmed some of the branches off it when he was down here awhile ago.

Last night I was down to the book store and picked up a couple of new books I had ordered, one each on invertebrate & vertebrate zöology. Zene had showed them to me and I thought they would be a nice addition to my library (even if I did quite a biology class once).

With love

C.P.