Friday, October 4, 1946

Oct 4, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

Brrrr! It’s cold tonight — certainly a change from some of the warm weather we had last week. Even the newspaper says it is going to be unseasonably cool tonite and I can believe it. In addition to it’s being cool, it is quite blustery out; it almost reminds one of a wintery day back in Iowa when you want to come in and sit and toast your toes on the oven door & thumb thru a Sears Roebuck catalog or something like that. After the little shower we had last Sunday afternoon it cleared off on Monday but on Tuesday it started raining early in the morning & kept on intermittently till noon. Los Angeles & vicinity have now had about 1/2” of rain which is about 150% more than usual.

I’m tired tonite and I’ve got a little headache so I guess I’ll go to bed early and if I wake up early in the morning just lie & look at the ceiling. I had intended to write home last night as usual but I didn’t get around to it. This weekend, Zene has invited me to come up to his home in L.A. and spend it with him, so I won’t be in San Pedro Saturday afternoon & Sunday. Zene, you will recall used to be in charge of the lab here when I first came to work for Shell Development. I would just as soon have spent the usual weekend in San Pedro but I could [not] think of any good reason to decline so I accepted. I won’t be leaving till after my music lesson tomorrow.

Wednesday the draft board broke their silence and informed me for the n^th time that I was I-A. Davidson says that the case will be appealed as usual, etc etc and there is no reason to suppose it will turn out any differently than it has on previous occasions.

It is certainly too bad that the furnace at home is in such poor shape; I certainly ope that you can get it fixed so that it will serve until it can be replaced. I suppose that harvest will soon be starting back there; I heard on a farm program following the news this morning (which I listened to before setting out to work) that all but about 2% of the corn crop in Iowa was safely matured and beyond frost damage.

If I come back Sunday night I’ll write a note then; I’m not sure about Zene’s invitation — it was rather indefinite & may extend over Sunday night. If I don’t come back I think I’ll wait till later in the week to write.

With love

C.P.

Sunday, September 29, 1946

Sept 29, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

Today has really been a scorcher and no kidding. It started out warm and I decided not to wear a coat to church for which decision I was later very thankful as it was very warm in there. This afternoon my ex-room-mate from the Y in Long Beach came over and we went out to Pt. Fermin and clambered around on the rocks awhile, & also sat and talked. He is leaving Shell, & going to work for Chemical & Metallurgical magazine in San Francisco, and he wanted to come over before he left. It was quite warm out at the beach also; not only warm, but sultry also. A little sprinkle rolled up about 4 or thereabouts with a considerable accompaniment of cloud and even some thunder. I thought it was really going to rain but it sort of went by and tonite it is clear. I guess tomorrow will be another warm day.

This morning was Confirmation down at church. The examination was included in the service since there were only four confirmands. In many ways it rather depressed me. I can’t help thinking that the confirmation instruction as given in the Augustana Synod is entirely inadequate; certainly my own confirmation instruction was a sadly mis-managed course of instruction. The main trouble is that it is all so superficial — no cognizance is taken of the real problems confronting a person accepting Christianity. Reams of memorization of Luther’s Catechism; but not a word about Augustine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo ’s philosophy of life (mind you, not his confessions, but his philosophy). All about the Arian heresy, but nary a mention of its counterpart, the Sabellian heresy. You learn by heart the books in the Bible, but you don’t learn why the ones in it were included, why other were excluded, who wrote them, when they were written, why they were written. In my opinion, an individual at confirmation does not know at all what is going on, he has no conception of the decision he is making, he is utterly unprepared to take his place in the church. Does a statement on his part under these circumstances constitute a decision, a confirmation on his part, or is he doing just what was expected of him? Sometimes I just wish I could grab the Lutheran church and shake it out of its smug complacency.

I have often wondered what Christ thinks of the church of today; does he see reflected in it the qualities which he exemplified, or does he see them smothered beneath the accretions of centuries of traditions and prejudices? Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” That is indeed a far cry from the concept of Sunday that the church sets forth. It really distresses me to see the one temporal organizations instituted to carry on the work started by Christ, bungling the task as it is doing. I don’t know what to do; no one else appears to either, or if they do they aren’t doing anything about it.

The weekend passed as usual uneventfully, Saturday being occupied by the usual errands and Sunday as indicated above. This is all for now.

With love

C.P.

September 26, 1946

Sept 26, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

It has been warm today and it was warm yesterday; probably it will be warm tomorrow. I guess it is very unlike the cool, rainy weather you have been having at home; it certainly doesn’t feel like freezing here. This morning it was quite foggy & I thought it would stay cool but the fog cleared off rapidly and it warmed up quickly.

This week I have been report writing except for a short time Monday morning and awhile this afternoon. I will be doing that type of work for the next couple of weeks I guess. Things proceed more or less smoothly and not much of event has occurred.

Monday night I went down to church & practice awhile since Kenneth Nyquist who usually practices there in the evenings was taking a lesson. I called up my teacher and she said it would be o.k. to practice at the Norwegian Church, but that I would have to get a key made. I thought I’d put it off till Saturday, since I can squeeze in a couple of practices down at our church the latter part of this week so would not have to go up there to get any practicing done. I hope that I will be able to get into a regulr routine of practice now that I have located a piano.

Tuesday night I went to a show — “The Kid from Brooklyn” — with Danny Kaye in it. It was fairly funny but not as good as some of his previous pictures. 

Last night I went to a Sunday School Teacher’s meeting. After the meeting, coffee was served and, as usual, I drank some. It certainly made me wakeful all night tho. I have noticed this tendency before and I guess I will have to stop f=drinking coffee in the evening. The meeting was fairly good but a trifle draggy.

I guess that aside from the foregoing I have only ate, slept and transported myself between palces so far this week. Oh yes, I did draw a greeting card for a fellow out at work who had gotten married and for whom a collection had been received. I thought I did a pretty good job on it, but I have have only been prejudiced in the matter.

I suppose Verner has plenty of time to wonder how the Cardinals are going to come out in the pennant race. It certainly is a see-saw battle. I got to talking to the fellow with whom I rise to work & he says that out at Ft. MacArthur field here in San Pedro they have baseball games on Sunday afternoons most of the winter which are pretty good because some Coast League Players keep in practice during the winter by playing in such games. Maybe I will have to go out to see one sometime.

This is al

September 22, 1946

Sept 22, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

Well, here it is Sunday afternoon again and another week has rolled around. Today it is a bright and sunshiny day, but it is not too warm; it is much like yesterday. Friday night I was tired so I came home and went to bed early. As I mentioned in my last letter, I had to ride on the P.E. on Friday because the fellow I am now riding with was having some work done on his car. The train was very late at the Watson station and it didn’t get into San Pedro till 5:30. Saturday I got up about six and went down to church and practiced from 7 till 9. After breakfast I went to the bank and cashed my paycheck, then proceeded to take care of the usual Saturday errands. The last of the three books I had ordered at the book store had arrived and I went down & got it. In the afternoon I had a music lesson, altho I certainly haven’t done much practicing this week. Afterward I had supper (in the middle of the afternoon) and went to a show after that. Time magazine had panned it as a rather anemic comedy and ther were right; it was certainly rather inspid.

Today I slept late (7:00) and after shaving etc. read until time for church. At church Mrs. West, the wife of the board member I mentioned previously, came up and induced me to agree to teach Sunday School for awhile. I should never have allowed myself to get sucked into that job again but I sort of pitied her; she has such a hard time to get teachers. However, if I decide to go back to school next fall, as I now feel like doing, it will only be for the next 11 months.

You might as well keep the ration book at home, mother since I certainly have no use for it out here. Out here the meat markets are rather bare, much no doubt like they are at home; the restaurants usually have meat however. I don’t mind a lot if they do or not, they usually have some non-meat items on the menu and as a general rule they are just as gastronomically inspiring as their meats.

The rain didn’t materialize as I thought it would, altho some people said they observed or heard a few drops of rain. It probably was just too early in the season. The weather did clear up afterward tho; the sky was really blue on Friday.

This is about all for now

With love

C.P.

September 19, 1946

Sept 19, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Father and Mother & the rest of the folks from home,

If it is ever going to rain in San Pedro during September tonite is the night when it should. Yesterday was the hottest day if the year & quite sultry. Today the wind has been blowing steadliy from the southeast all afternoon; and by evening has rolled up a thick overcast which ordinarily wouldn’t come in till after midnight. San Francisco & points north have been having rain & it seems to be moving down the coast. If it were any place else it would surely rain; perhaps even it will here.

Effective as of last Monday the P.E. revised its schedule to provide fewer trains & fewer cars on each train. The car I was on Monday morning was sadly overcrowded and I was “peeved” when I got to work. In fact I was peeved enough to dig up the individual I had noticed who commutes by car from San Pedro and so I am now riding to work with him. Tomorrow however he is having some work done on his car so I will again patronize the P.E.

I had a letter from Vivian today; she sounds as if she were getting acquainted with some people and that in general she likes it in Humboldt. I think a large part of her lonesome feeling was the contrast between her work there & in Lakota.

I called up my music teacher last nite and she thinks that she can arrange it so I can practice at the Norwegian Lutheran Church here in San Pedro, where she is organist. I sincerely hope so and I will know next Saturday. It would be a disappointment to have my interest stifled at the present time.

My work continues about as usual. Lately I have been doing some very interesting work in connection with the catalyst now being investigated here. There are so many interesting angles to work out that you can’t keep pace with your ideas. Every time you turn your head some new and fascinating fact (well, almost every time) springs into view. Sometimes I can’t help but compare my attitude towards experiments now and when I first went to work for Shell. It used to bother me when things didn’t work out the way I expected; now an unexpected end to an experiment is not a discouragement — it is rather an indication to new & different experiments each of which stimulates your imagination. I used to dislike it when a new variable entered the picture; now another variable is an intriguing new avenue of thought & action. What I can’t figure out sometimes is whether I am getting older or younger as my attitudes along this line develop.

My new book on psychology contains a section on psychoanalysis which I haven’t reached yet. Perhaps I shall try to analyze my thinking etc after I have read it.

With love

C.P.

September 15, 1946

Sept 15, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

Well, it cooled off some today. Even yesterday I believe that it was somewhat cooler than Friday, but certainly not a great deal. Today tho the sun didn’t come out until almost nine-thirty and there has been a nice breeze so it has been quite livable. It was slightly warm in church this morning but not enough to be uncomfortable.

I’ve just come back from dinner (at about four o’clock in the afternoon) when I’m writing this so I have that sort of comfortable sleepy feeling you get when you’ve just finished eating & don’t have to start right in to work. Since the Thrifty Drug Store closed, I have been eating dinners (on Saturdays & Sundays) at a place called the Palace Cafe. They have pretty good meals but they cost $1.00 apiece and it sort of pains me to pay that much. If I spend only 50¢ for breakfast tho, I feel justified in spending it, since with it has the other meal it still brings the day’s total expenditure for food to $1.50, which is what I try to allow myself. Of course on weekdays I wouldn’t allow myself such latitude.

On the way back from dinner I stopped in at the grocery store and got my provisions for tomorrow & Tuesday. I suppose I should get them on Saturday but they’re open anyway on Sunday so I thought I might as well get them then, and get a day fresher bread. So much for the culinary side of life.

Saturday passed in the usual routine. Friday night I got my new book down at the book-store. It was a book on the psychology of abnormal behavior by a man at the Univ of Kansas. The first part was a sort of history of the development of psychology & psychiatry from ancient times up to the present & it was very readable. The second part was mainly concerned with description etc & wasn’t too interesting but I think it will be worth chiseling thru. The last or latter parts look more interesting, being concerned with psychoanalysis etc. I spent part of Saturday reading in it; I also did some pasting in my scrapbooks altho I didn’t get up to date. In the afternoon I went to a show.

Do you know if a leather notebook of mine which I used when I went to college is lying around at home someplace? It has a zipper around the edge so it is sort of a carrying case. If it is around someplace & nobody is using it I would appreciate if you would send it out here.

That’s about all for now.

With love

C.P.

September 2, 1946

Sept 2, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif.

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

Well, this is the end of a three-day weekend. It is very quiet and peaceful tonite. This afternoon I almost thought it was going to rain. It was cloudy and a wind sprang up and I was almost sure we were in for an unseasonal rain, but it blew over. After that it cleared up and this evening there were only a few clouds in the western sky when the sun went down.

I haven’t done too much, even if I had plenty of time to do something. I drew some cartoons, practice on the piano and read quite a bit. Saturday I took care of the usual errands; I went down to the bookstore and one of the books I had ordered had come in — “Adventures in Ideas” by A.N. Whitehead. I’ve read the first chapter and it bids fair to be interesting reading. I also went to the library and took our a couple of books — one a popularized book on light and a sort of travelog about a naturalist specimen-hunting trip. this last had been recommended to me by a guy out at work. It is about a Dr. Ditmars, curator of mammals & reptiles at the N.Y. Zoo, who is an authority on reptiles. It was easy reading and I finished it. I noticed in the paper the other day that contract bids are being asked for the demolition of the old library building here & that funds had been allocated for a new one, but it couldn’t be built for awhile yet.

Sunday I went to church as usual, but it was a very poor crowd. I suppose a lot of people were taking a last vacation trip before fall sets in. In the afternoon I did as I mentioned before, practiced and read.

This afternoon I went to a show, probably because I was getting tired of trying to amuse myself than for any other reason. It was fairly good — it was a comedy, altho not hilariously funny. For supper I went to a restaurant I don’t usually go to, but this evening most of the usual places were closed; and I sort of got a poor meal I thought. I wish the Thrifty Drug Store would open up its fountain again. There really aren’t any good places to eat in San Pedro any more.

Well tomorrow, the work week starts again. It has been nice to have this little vacation of three days but I’m sort of glad that tomorrow there will be something different again. Y’know, it’s funny. Sometime you feel like working and other times you just want to sit still and think instead. Sometimes you’re all excited about amounting to something and then in a more lucid moment you would rather work at enjoying yourself. I guess I’ll go read my new book. I sort of feel in the mood for it now.

With love

C.P.