Saturday, October 31, 2015

Monday and Tuesday, July 19-20, 1971


[written by Jean]

Monday July 19, 1971
Reedsport, Ore.

Dear Muriel, Palma & Sylvia

This was the day of our trip up the Rogue River on the “Official Mail Boat.” There’s also the “Original Mail Boat.” We had our second breakfast of Virginia Bakery sweet rolls. This time with orange just as there were no quarts of milk in the store last night. Daddy’s coffee dealy is working out very well. Then packed up & off to the mail boat.

They left pretty much on time. We were the 2nd of at least 3 leaving at 8:30. It’s a beautiful river with a very wide flood plain. As you get up a few bends the trees don’t have so many snags among them and it’s better forest. There are several places where the channel must be deepened or they couldn’t run the boats all summer. There are 2 places to eat and they ask you where you’re going before you leave and evidently phone the orders up. We made the last stop at Singing Springs. It’s efficiently run and you’re assigned a table as you arrive and tell them your order — chicken or roast beef. We arrived shortly after 10:30; lunch at 11;30 — leave at 1. We chose to walk to “town.” There is a Forest station and one store in Agness. 2 room school house and high school is an hour away. It was quite warm and we just sat under the trees after lunch until time to leave. As we were leaving Carl noticed a busboy we were talking to was from Iowa. I noticed it was Des Moines and asked if he’d gone to East High. Sure enough he knew Clarice.

I found the trip back less enjoyable as going downstream we had a stronger wind but it was only 1½ hours (about 30 miles) back so that helped. The day dawned clear and it was still clear at 2:30 when we returned. Since then we have driven to Reedsport where we got out first motel with a pool. Laurel is swimming now behind me — I was in earlier about ½ hour. We don’t plan [on] going out to dinner tonight after a good lunch and expensive dinners the last 2 nights.

We’ll call you at 9.

July 20, 1971 Tue

The fog came in so it was foggy when we looked out at Reedsport. So we are seeing the Oregon Coast in sun and fog. As we came north we found there were so many interesting things to see we decided we didn’t care whether we got to Astoria or not.

1st was a little place where an insectivorous [plant] grows profusely. 

The sea lions were hiding in the fog.

2nd Cape Perpetua; first the short Indian shell mounds and then an interesting Forest Service Visitors Center, and and fog.

At Newport there was a bakery, county museum, old lighthouse and right up the highway an agate beach. At Cape Foulweather there is a beautiful view — the one on the Sunset Oregon book — with sea otters out on the rocks. Finally we headed to Tillamook and I couldn’t get Carl to either stop or take a byway again.

Love,
JRS

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Sunday, July 18, 1971


[written by Jean]

Sunday, July 18

Dear Muriel and Palma

When we arrived at the motel tonight Daddy mentioned phoning but I reminded him we said tomorrow. It’s 9:15 and I wonder if you’re home yet. Hope you had a good time and no rain. We had a little mist a few times but early this afternoon there was a brief precipitation which could be called nothing but rain. There has been some sun but mostly overcast and some fog along the coast of course.

Our first stop this morning was Prairie Creek State Park. First we took a short loop trail walk which took us to the tallest tree in that park and it is a big grizzly one then we went on for 15 min along another trail up hill & down dale through the minor [?] rain forest — mostly coarse ferns over our heads. It was luxuriant growth to be sure. Back to the car we took a graveled road with wide spots for passing over to Gold Bluff Beach. We stopped to look over the driftwood, turn over the pebbles on the beach, and walk on the sand. Laurel went wading of course. There are two main sections of bluffs cut by Fern Canyon. Here was a gorgeous V canyon with very steep sides all overgrown with ½ dozen varieties of fern and a live creek running down the bottom. There were several places where water was constantly trickling down over the mossy bank. Lunch out of the car and another stop on the beach just as the road starts inland. There were many red alders in this area.

Back on to Highway 101 to drive through Redwood National Park and Jedediah Smith State Park. The No. Calif. Sunset book recommended a back road called Howland Hill Road. http://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/drives.htm We missed it so ended up going west on it rather than east which was fine. It too was unpaved an narrow but slow and delightful. We made one stop to see the Stout Grove which was the initial part of the park given to the state in the 20s. In this we saw the Stout tree which is the largest and a real beauty — straight, tall and not grizzly appearing. It overlooks the Smith river which is quite wide at least the rocky flood plain is.

We also stopped at a Demonstration Forest. There are several in the No. Calif. coast area each run by a lumber company demonstrating how tree farming can be conducted.

As we drove into Oregon the road goes along the ocean quite a bit and we stopped at a few vistas to see the waves and rocky shores.

Gold Beach tonight. Do write us about your weekend — Sylvia can tell you where to send it.

Love from your family


Monday, October 26, 2015

Saturday, July 17, 1971


In 1971, my parents and I took a car trip through the Pacific Northwest. My older sisters stayed at home. Following are some letters my mom and dad wrote to them.

[written by Jean]

9:30 pm Saturday July 17, 1971

Dear Muriel and Palma

It’s been a full day and very enjoyable. We left home about 9:15 arriving in Petaluma about an hour later. Conversation came first and we caught up on what’s been happening. Tillie is new AAUW president. Ervand has a quarter to go before getting his BA in Geography at UC-SB. Elva will return to Santa Rosa J.C. Laurel thinks you’d find Ervand interesting — we liked him.

Then on up north until Ukiah, where we stopped in the city park we’ve been to several times. Laurel remembered the rocket cage with the ladder and pole. Our sandwiches tasted good. It was quite warm for us.

On north until Phillipsville where we left the freeway and drove the length of “The Avenue of the Giants.” We made one stop where we took a 15 minute walk on a loop trail through the “forest” above the Eel River. When we went through Weott we saw poles showing where the ’64 flood level was — it was really fantastic. About Scotia we ran into fog and just south of Eureka we made a tourist stop — Fort Humboldt. We were surprised at what we found. It was a display of pictures in the early days of logging in the area about 1850. The Fort is only a name but it is the one U.S. Grant commanded at one time.

There were 2 examples of “donkey engines” used to move the logs when steam replaced mules & oxen. When we reached the second one which is huge we overheard a couple and their daughter talking. This huge “donkey engine” had been operated bu the man during the war (W.W.II) at an operation just south at Elk Creek. It was then moved north to Orrick before being given to the state and brought to Fort Humboldt. He said it had been dismantled to move — it’s bolted to a huge log or sledge.

It was after 6 and we were headed for a motel north of Eureka. We ended up 4 miles north of Trinidad. We’re right above the ocean although when we arrived we couldn’t see it. After supper we walked down a trail with fern growing high overhead to a lookout. It was too dark to continue. We will try to walk down tomorrow morning.

A restaurant was recommended down the road. When we read the prices on the menu we almost dropped our teeth. The highest item was $8 [$47 in 2015 dollars]. But with Laurel on a children’s dinner and Carl and I ordered a la carte and the bill was $10. It was delicious in season salmon.

Our love,
All 3

Sunday, October 25, 2015

December 1940


Iowa City
Thursday morning

Dear mother:

 I thought I would begin my letter now as I have 15 minutes before I will leave for my classes and I don’t believe it would be worthwhile to start studying something in such a short time. Besides I have about ½ of them already prepared for Friday.

The laundry came Friday evening (or was it Friday noon?), somewhat sooner than I expected it to come. Please accept my usual thanks for washing up my clothes and for sending me some things to eat. I have already begun to plan my eating so that everything will be finished up Thursday morning. If I leave with Fridell’s, as I will if Mr. Fridell comes down, I won’t be leaving until after dinner. However, if he does not come down, my plans might be slightly different. This morning, I am going to look up the bus depot and if possible, open up a line of escape in that direction. According to the telephone book, there are bus lines to Des Moines which would maybe put be aboard the M & St L. I wonder what time it leaves Des Moines? I will write more about this later in the letter after I have discovered the particulars. You can’t imagine how I am anticipating coming home. I received a letter from Vivian just the other day and I guess, from the sound of her letter, that she will also be happy to come home once more.

Last Friday [interruption: there goes “Jingle Bells” on the Music Shop. So Xmas-y sounding. It rouses that old anticipatory feeling in me] night, I went with two other boys to Cedar Rapids and saw a show. The boys were some that I knew at F.D.J.C and one of them had an old Chevrolet down here. They asked me to go along and I thought I might as well as I was pretty well caught up on my studying. I had a fairly good time but it could have been better. The show, “The Mark ofZorro” was pretty good because it had my movie hero, Basil Rathbone in it.



Well, here I am again and this time I guess I’ll finish the letter. I went to the bus depot and found out that there is a bus leaving at noon Thursday which would bring me to Des Moines at 3:30. Then there is a bus going to Ft. Dodge but it goes around by Ft. Dodge so if I went that way you would have to come & get me. I don’t know when the M & St L leaves Des Moines and the agent at the bus depot didn’t know, so I don’t think I’d risk running around down there where I don’t know my way around and wind up by losing both train and bus. If you could find out please drop a line or card and let me know. Of course, I’ll follow this plan only if Mr. Fridell does not come. if I do have to go home by bus, I’ll have to write another check, and if I don’t, I still might write one for $2 or so. I have bought several Xmas presents but still have about ½ or 2/3 left to buy. I’ll try to get that done next Saturday.
It has snowed some here this morning. When I left for school it was just starting. When I returned it was snowing quite hard but it has entirely stopped now. I, too, hope the weather remains nice so I can get home with Fridell’s. Weekly analysis of how I am getting along in becoming an engineer. (1) Drawing head the list this week. In the last test wqe had I got 87% which was the best grade in the class by 1%. I felt pretty good after that test.

(2) German — we have started a systematic review of all that we have covered so far. Yesterday we had a vocabulary test which was quite easy. I think for about 2 weeks I will have practically no studying to do in German since the review will be easy. I think if I study a little bit on oral German I can pull an A in this course.


(3) Mechanics of Solids — things are fairly tame. We have started the last section of the book, i.e., kinetics. As a sort of Xmas present the instructor is giving a test the very last class on Thurs. morning. If it wasn’t for that class I could get started for Des Moines at 8:14. I hope I do as well in this test as I did in the last one.

(4) Chem Industries — SoSo as usual — this weekend I am going to bring my notebook up to date since it is due the last class before Xmas vacation.

(5) Indus Stoichiometry — We have had 2 more quizzes. In both I made a small mistake. I should get 9 in both or 9 in one and 10 in the other since my error in the last was not more than about 2% or so. Today I have an experiment to do in this green-eyed-dragon-course. I already have one to write up and that will make two which I will try to finish during Xmas vacation some time (Oh happy thought! and that does go for the writing up either!)

I seem to be writing at an angle on this page so I will use this line to straighten things out.

I believe I’ll abbreviate this letter and call it enough. In just one week I’ll be home and then I can tell you about everything better than writing about it.

With love,
Carl

This is the last letter 
home before Xmas
Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!

(1) Week from today I
should be home at some 
time or other. 

P.S. Who did Audrey A get married to? A foolish question to ask since I’ll find out soon enough anyway I guess.

P.S. I have had a little (very little) cold lately but with that exception none all winter.

P.S. The last roll was a little tough but that was all.

P.S. I just heard the Iowa weather forecast — a cold wave. That should stop this snow and make weather conditions more settled.

P.S. auf Wiederschreiben: meaning, I’ll be writing again to you but not till after Xmas.




Saturday, October 24, 2015

Tuesday, July 13, 1954


Tuesday evening July 13
PGS 132 The Hague

Dear Father & Mother —

When next I write to you I shall be at least in New York and perhaps in California again. Everything appears to be all set for my departure and its more just a matter of waiting for the time to pass than anything else. Today I got my ticket back from the Hague where it had been sent to have the reservations made. I will be leaving here Thursday evening — the plane leave Schiphol airfield at 9:45 pm and I will be in NY the next morning at 10:45 — the elapsed will be 17 hours tho because of the time changes. I have about a 12 hour layover in NY so I will get to Calif Saturday morning (almost in time for a late breakfast). I do certainly look forward to getting back, but don’t particularly relish the traveling connected with it.

Today started out as a cloudy, misty and really chilly day, much like yesterday; however late in the afternoon it cleared off and this evening it is quite clear & still so it may be that my last couple of days in Holland will be nice ones. Yesterday and today I have spent summarizing the work accomplished the past two months, partly to leave after me here when I leave and to show at Emeryville when I get back so that I will appear to have accomplished something here.

Yesterday evening I had dinner with Broeze, Hinge and Yap. Broeze is the head of the Delft lab whom I had met but had spent little time talking to. Hinge & Yap of course I know quite well by this time. Before dinner we had a discussion of the work done here which was a little trying since I still had fears that something would come up at the last moment to delay my departure. However nothing did and I see only clear sailing ahead now. I even received a book on Holland from the Delft lab, signed by B, H & Y thanking me for my valuable assistance. This actually was a kindly gesture I thought & it leaves me with a more charitable attitude toward Holland than I have had for sometime.

Today was a poor day for mail (nothing came) but that could be expected since yesterday was a banner day with 4 letters. About a week or so ago Jean sent me the enclosed clipping which Verner had forgotten when they visited in El Cerrito. I’ll send it back to you since I guess it belongs either to Verner or to you.

This evening so far I had had supper — not too good tonite and after I’ve finished this I’ll start in on the packing & not leave all of it for tomorrow nite. However I think I shall go to bed fairly early tonite. Last nite it was late & I didn’t sleep too well after the big, late meal ending with black Dutch coffee; today I really worked hard so I’m rather tired tonite.

This will be all for now. USA here I come,

With love
C.P.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Sunday, July 18, 1954


Sunday, July 18

Dear Father & Mother—

It’s Sunday afternoon here in sunny California and it certainly feels good to be spending the day back in here in El Cerrito. As of now I’ve been back more than a day and a half since I arrived back in San Francisco late Friday evening having caught an earlier plane than I had intended. But to go back & relate things more in the order they occurred —

Thursday was a fairly busy day in Holland. In the morning I had a “goodbye” talk with Mr. Broeze of the Delft lab and I also went to the Hague and said some goodbyes there. I got back to the Delft lab before noon tho in time for lunch and a last round of bridge with some of the Delft workers. In the afternoon I stayed around till I had a chance to see Mr. Hinge and had a brief talk with him before leaving. A car from the lab took me to PGS132 where my bags were all waiting — I’d finished the last bit of the packing in the morning, having completed most of it the preceding evening or on Tuesday evening. I said goodbye to Mrs. Swieringa (a mixed Dutch-English conversation) and we were off to the Schiphol airport. Mr. Karelia I had said farewell to in the morning before I left for the lab.

Since the plane I was to leave on didn’t depart till 9:45 I had time on my hands at the airport. I had supper there (courtesy of KLM, the Dutch airline company) and spent the time watching the planes come in and leave. My flight left more or less on time, perhaps a little late. We stopped at Prestwick, Scotland before the cross-water hop which took about 9 hours. At Gander, Newfoundland I stepped off onto the North American continent, and as I told Jean, the ground felt different. The plane got into New York about 2½ hours late, about one o’clock.

Getting thru customs was quite easy compared with what I had been prepared for. After finishing this I thought I would go from Idlewild, the airport where I had come in, to La Guardia where I was supposed to leave from and make sure of the remainder of the trip & also stow away my bags will the time. However when I got there I found that I should have stayed at Idlewild because that was where the plane for the next part of the trip was to leave from, & the instructions to go to La Guardia were a mistake. So disgustedly I retraced my tracks, getting back to Idlewild about 3:55. My flight was to leave at 11:30 in the evening, but I thought I’d just ask if anything earlier was available. The man said there was a flight at 4:00 but was all full, except that one passenger had not showed up and ig he didn’t come I could have his place. He didn’t come so I got to leave NY much earlier than I’d intended. Probably if it hadn’t been for the wild goose chase to La Guardia I’d never have stayed around to see if someone would fail to make the 4:00 flight.

The plane I left on was a new DC-7, which is a fast one, so the time to reach San Francisco was only some 9½ hours including a 20 minute stop in Denver (that being the only stop). With the time change this put me in at S.F. at 10:30. I tried to call Jean from Denver but she was having dinner with the Ackermans (Shell employee acquaintances) so I couldn’t reach her. When I called her from S.F. airport she was expecting a telegram which I had said I might send from N.Y., since I hadn’t known till rather late in the week just what the travel arrangements were, and could only inform her in time that way. So she was quite surprised & delighted to hear where I was. She drove over to S.F. to meet me at the downtown terminal to which I took a bus from the airport.

It was indeed a happy meeting and needless to say not much sleeping got done that night. We didn’t get up till about 10 Sat morning but even so we were ready for bed early last night. During the day we drove down to her folks for a brief visit; I also got a haircut to remedy the last two Dutch ones. Today we were up earlier and went to church at a little church in El Cerrito near here. You may recognize by the description that it was on Stockton, a street we went down many times while you were her, at the intersection with the street going in front of the high school. It’s a small mission congregation; I wasn’t particularly impressed with the preacher but the church itself was quite nice inside.

After lunch (with a real salad instead of Mrs. Swieringa’s good, but uninspired ones) we’re spent the day rather idly — I watered the lawn a bit and saw there is quite a bit to do to get in back in the shape it was before I left. This evening we plan to go out to dinner.

It’s really a relief to be back and I guess neither of us realized how much we were missing the other. I certainly hope nothing like this ever happens to us again. Things are fine here, except for the garden & yard being the worse for neglect. The neighbor boy didn’t do much more than just mow as instructed.

All for now — hope you’ve been feeling well and enjoying the warm weather I heard, in Holland before I left, that the U.S. was enjoying. It wasn’t too warm in N.Y. when I was there & it was raining some in Denver so I guess that most of it had passed by the time I got back.

With love
C.P.

Yes, It’s just wonderful being together again. Now to go get dressed for that dinner date I have tonight with a real boyfriend of mine — my one and only.
Jean

Monday, October 19, 2015

Sunday, June 20, 1954


Sunday morning June 20
Paul Gabriel Straat 132
The Hague, Holland

Dear Father & Mother

Last night I found out that it can really thunder in Holland. Yesterday had been a warm, quite sultry day, & along in the afternoon it sprinkled a little, but the rain didn’t really start till in the night when it thundered more than I have heard for a long time. I woke up several times & heard it so it must have kept on for some time. This morning it is mostly cloudy but the sun keeps looking out occasionally so I have hopes it will clear up. I should like to go down to Rotterdam later in the day to look around a bit, perhaps take some pictures & be able to say I had been there.

Today so far I have breakfasted etc, written a letter to Jean, told Mrs. Swieringa with the aid of the dictionary & some sign language that I might not be here for lunch and am now writing to you. Yesterday was a good day for mail — two from Jean & one from you. I was glad to hear how good the crops & the farm looks, but was sorry to hear of Viv’s and Tiny’s disappointment.

Today of course is Verner’s important day and in a few days he will be in El Cerrito. Jean is now spending her nights at 411 Bonnie Dr; for 4 or 5 days after she got back she spent them at her folks. One of the floor furnaces was out of order and so required fixing and I guess for this & other reasons decided to stay awhile with her parents. She visited the doctor last seem and everything seems to [be] coming along well.

Yesterday morning I spent doing some errands and some shopping and in the afternoon going to the beach. I had been out there twice before but once it was cloudy & another time in the evening (& while it was rainy) so hadn’t seen it in its best light. Yesterday while I was there it was sunshiny for the most part but late in the afternoon it clouded up. By that time tho I was ready to leave so didn’t mind. I got some pictures of the beach, the resort hotels, of the fishing harbor and of the partially demolished fortifications the Germans built. Most of these have been removed I understand but some still remain. At the present time most of the fishing fleet is out but there were a few boats in, enough to get a few pictures. The number of people at the beach increased as the afternoon wore on, but the weather clouded up so I went home about 4:30; it started to sprinkle a little by then but held off mostly till in the evening. I spent the rest of the day reading Time, having supper & taking a leisurely hot shower & washing my hair.

Work comes along about as usual. I think we will be running again this coming week, making check runs now that the difficulties have (I hope) been ironed out. Most of the past week was spent in reviewing the air flow measurement & calibration and installing some new equipment on the column. When these runs are completed & satisfactory I can bring up the suggestion that I’ve really accomplished my mission & see what reaction I get.

This will be all for now.

With love
Carl



 

Friday, October 16, 2015

Wednesday, June 17, 1954


[The 1954 calendar shows that Wednesday was actually June 17.]

Wednesday evening, June 17
Paul Gabriel Straat 132, The Hague

[The corner of this airmail letter which held the stamp was torn off.]

[Dear Father & Mo]ther—

— — — day’s warm and sunshiny day came today’s — — — one, with a fair amount of rain this afternoon. Yesterday at noon since it was nice I went for a walk after lunch and took a couple of pictures; the day had looked sunshiny even in the morning when I left for work so I had taken the camera along since I wanted to get a picture of the outside of the lab. Today since it was no day for a walk I played bridge, Mr. Yap being my partner. We had some fairly interesting hands so the noon hour was pleasantly spent.

Your letter arrived Monday, mother, and it was indeed nice hearing from you. I don’t know of any English churches here in the Hague, but haven’t really investigated, feeling that it would be no use looking. I suppose I could go sit even if I didn’t understand what’s going on. Mr. Boogard, the BOM roomer, (I finally found out his name) tells me that Holland is almost 50% Catholic which surprised me. Indeed the Catholics outnumber the Protestants as a whole here.

I’m glad to hear that you’ve been having the needed rain but didn’t get the hail etc. Also, don’t work too hard outside, mother, it isn’t worth it. As for the McCarthy hearings, I read about them in Time but never hear them mentioned in conversation with anyone.

This week I got back from Paris the colored slides I had sent there for development a couple of weeks ago. For my first roll of film I think they turned out pretty good. A few of them were over-exposed but at least half were just right and most of the rest close to it. I have the second roll almost finished and may get it completed this weekend. I don’t know whether I’ll have it finished on this side, now that I’ve a little confidence in my technique so don’t need to look at the results as a guide for the future.

Work continues to come along quite well. The difficulty of the past week or ten days has been straightened out (my predictions came out practically on the nose as to the mistakes that were being made so I feel a little proud of myself). To confirm the earlier date we will make a new series of runs and that will finish up the first series of tests. Whether this will mean that I will be able to leave late in June or early July I don’t know. Mr. Yap thinks I’ve achieved my object here just about & I think Mr. Hinge will too after our next runs are finished, but I guess before I can leave, the Hague office will have to approve. I surely hope that it does turn out that I can soon be leaving.

It’s getting on towards nine p.m. this evening and so far I’ve had supper of course and have written to Jean. After supper we sat around the table and had a rambling conversation for half an hour or so. Mr. Karelia, the second BPM roomer, seems to stimulate conversation. Mr. Boogard is off this evening to hear Arthur Rubenstein the pianist but Mr. Karelia dislikes his showy technique so is staying home.

This will be all for now. I hope you are continuing to feel well, and the weather stays nice.

With love
Carl

P.S. How much did the new furnace installation cost?

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Miscellaneous letters from childhood


Undated letter, circa 1927



Dear Aunt Laurine



I am in second grade this year. I get 100 in numbers almost every day. I have to learn long poems by heart. My arm is alright now but it took a long time. I had to go to the doctor. I haven’t forgotten you yet.



Much love from

Carl



-------



Gowrie, Iowa

August 13 1929



Dear Mamma:



I wish you would come home soon. Tuesday I was going over to Roberts [sic]. But when I came over there, they were away. I waited a little bit and then I went home. Then I went over to Harris’s and he had [sic] out to the Golf Links so I couldn’t play with Harris. So I went home. When I got home I went upstairs to draw. But as soon as I got upstairs I was told I could get an ice rem cone.



With all my love

Carl



[Note in his mother’s handwriting: When I was at Mercy Hospice for Marold’s birth. This is a precious letter from “little Carl.”]



-------




Sept. 6, 1929

Gowrie Ia.



Dear Laurine:



I wish you a happy birthday. I am only writing a few lines. Friday I help baby Marold for the first time. Boy it was fun!



Today I made an airplane our of boxs [sic], boards, quilts, bricks and etc. Vivian cooked food and Vincent and me drove the airplane.



A happy brithday [sic] and many whichs [sic]

from Carl


-------


Gowrie, Iowa

Feb. 21, 1932



Dear Laurine,



Thank you very much for the Valentine. I think it is very cute.



I am in a Flag Drill in school. We to act [sic] it out before the P.T. A. on Tues. night. Miss Moffett is drilling us and some of the boys weren’t good and they got it.



Guess what happened Saturday night. Our house nearly caught on fire. We had just put in some new coal and daddy had shoved some baskets to [sic] close to the furnace. They caught on fire. Mamma smelt smoke and thought something was wrong with the draft. When she was pulling on the chain she saw something red thru a crack. She whizzed downstairs and grabbed a pail of water which daddy was going to give to the cow. She threw the water on it and nearly extinguished it. Daddy was in by this time and we got it out. The [sic] were near a door and is was so hot it nearly was on fire.



I am getting along O.K. in school. We are having history now instead of hygiene. It is ancient history. For a while I wasn’t getting along so good in arith. but I got a hundred which brough my grades up.



A 1,000 kisses &

” ” hugs to you from

Carl