Wednesday, April 29, 1953

April 29, 1953

931 Seaview Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters —

It’s about 10 minutes to seven this Calif morning and inasmuch as I’ve had the round robin some 5 days now I guess I should get my contribution written & the letter sent on its way. Today is starting out partly clear but the forecast is for showers so perhaps we shall have some more rain to add to the downpour we had on Sunday. Sunday’s rain was just about the heaviest on record for this time of the year but I guess it was quite welcome to the farmers because of the dry weather in January & February (or was it Feb & March?). As a consequence of the rain things look quite green outside right now.

With the coming of daylight saving time I shall be spending a larger part of each evening outside working on the lawn & outside of the house. Last night it was close to eight before I came in and, even then, it was still light enough so that I could have stayed out a while longer. The evening was rather cool tho, so coming inside felt rather comfortable. I had spent the time digging some weeds out of the yard (dandelion fashion) and getting strip of ground along the edge of the lawn ready to put in a hedge. This latter project I had anticipated finishing this week, but if it showers today & tomorrow I won’t be able to get done. However, there’s always work to do upstairs so the time won’t be lost.

Work at Shell follows its more or less even tenor. The work I am doing is sort of winding up the project I’ve been working on for several years but other projects of a temporary nature keep intruding all the time so the pace of work accomplished isn’t too great.

Earlier in the month I went to hear the Augustana choir on their western tour. One of their concerts was given at the Berkeley high school auditorium which is conveniently accessible. I rather enjoyed it altho occasionally I thought it seems a little long. Probably my musically-uneducated ear didn’t realize all that was transpiring. The concert was fairly well attended but I noticed a fair number of vacant seats around so it wasn’t a full house by any means.

I have also seen recently a U of Calif production of Henrik Ibsen’s play “Peer Gynt.” If any of you ever have a chance to see this I would certainly recommend it, since is so certainly unusual to say the least. The play lasts kind of long tho (from 7:30 to 11:30 for the presentation at the Univ) and the seats are kind of hard so I had wished for a pillow-a-la-Tiny fashion. Since seeing it I have meant to get the play & read it, & also a commentary since much of it I couldn’t fathom but haven’t done so yet. However, there is so much else on my reading list that perhaps I’ll never get to it.

All for now

With love

C.P.