March 19, 1946

March 19, 1946

1046 W 24th

San Pedro, Calif

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

Today has been sort of a rainy day in Calif. Last night I woke up about 4:00 in the morning and it was raining then — not hard but quite steadily. I got up and closed the windows even if it wasn’t blowing. It had stopped by 6 tho so I got to work entirely dry. Something went wrong with the P.E. this morning so I was half an hour late to work; I think the power failed again (anyway, about 21 cars pulled into San Pedro all in one bunch — sounds more like a wreck someplace — but I overheard a couple of guys talking about it and they said it was the power). It was lucky I wasn’t later, because it started to rain shortly thereafter and kept on, off & on, all day. It is partly clear to-nite, and the forecast is for clear so I guess we should have some nice days ahead, they usually are after a rain. The rain was much needed around here, so I guess it was a blessing it came now as the rainy season will not last too much longer.

I got your letter today written last Thursday, mother. Thank you very much for it. Yes, I am saving all of Verner’s & Vincent’s letters. You told me not to send them home so I am keeping them and will cart them along when I come home next. By the way, did I tell you that I ask for my vacation in August this year, so I should be home to celebrate the August birthdays? Perhaps if Vivian comes out, I will postpone it, and come home later. If Vincent comes home via Los Angeles, maybe I will have a chance to see him en route, altho maybe it couldn’t be arranged. I am sorry to hear that his homecoming has been delayed again. I am also sorry that dad’s anemia is cropping up again and I hope that he will feel better when he gets his teeth again.

What kind of a stone did you order for Vivian? Synthetic rubies and sapphires are quite cheap (they shouldn’t cost more than $10/carat at the most and a carat stone is pretty good sized (look in the M.W. or S.R. catalog, they usually have a picture of various sized stones). I found a reference saying that they cost $3 to $5/carat but that was back in 1931. Yesterday I was talking to Zene Jasaitis, who is sort of an amateur jeweler and he said that you should be able to get a 5 carat synthetic ruby or sapphire mounted in a ring for $50 or so. The synthetic stones are artificial, and in fact, the synthetic gems are superior in quality to most natural stones. In fact, one way (one of the most important ways, incidentally) of detecting natural stones is by cracks, flaws, foreign matter in them that do not occur in the synthetic stones. If you are looking for pretty stones, a garnet is much prettier than a ruby or a sapphire. The latter two depend on color alone for appeal while the garnet has the power of dispersion of light so that it “glitters” more. In fact, in this respect, it is only slightly inferior to a diamond. Since garnets are relatively common, they are not highly regarded, but actually, for intrinsic beauty, they are one of the nicest of gems.

Davidson called up today & said that he had got another I-A classification advice regarding me and that he had notified the San Francisco office again as usual. When I got home, the notice to me personally was also awaiting me, which makes it about the umpteenth time I have got one. Well, we’ll see how it comes out this time. Personally, I don’t much care how it comes out, but I have an idea the company will yell loud enough to get me deferred again. In the case of one fellow here they have even appealed to the president for his deferment when the appeal board turned him down and secured his deferment that way, and I am (not bragging either) his mental superior, both as far as experience and quality of work is concerned. The truth of the matter is that whether you are very good or only mediocre they still want you, because the available supply is so limited.

Contrary to your very excellent advice, mother and yours too, Uncle Carl, I have no intention of getting myself emotionally involved now and probably not in the future. I must confess that Ann Marie caused a momentary wavering, but since then my reason has reasserted itself and I am back where I started. After all, life at best is only to be tolerated; to be complicated with responsibilities etc would make it unendurable. Somehow or other I feel that the only really sincere wish I’ve ever had was that I’d somehow managed never to be born. To embark on an adventure entailing the propagation of life feeling as I do about the undesirability of it would most certainly be wrong.

With love

C.P.