January 7, 1943

Jan. 7, 1943

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father, Mother and the folks at home,

Thank you so much for all the letters I have received lately. I am glad to see Marold that you really can write letters. I believe that this is about the first letter I ever received from you, Marold and you should keep it up. But what has happened to Snooty-Poot? Before Christmas I get about 1 page in one of mama’s letters and then nothing. After this I will have to send my Dubuque letters to Aunt Laurine. She write to me more often than Snooty. I am putting my nose in the air and not looking at her. Then when she is trying to look uppity too I will poke her in the ribs.

The California weather machine after the mess it produced last week has been doing a pretty good job of it this week. The weather has been clear and the days somewhat warmer. Last night you could see all of the stars in the sky, not just a bright one here and there. Yesterday, however, it was sort of blowey so I expected that it would cloud up today but nothing of the sort has occurred. I hope it continues nice for awhile now. I am thankful also that it is warmer this week. When it gets down below 45°F at night I feel so cold walking along, almost as if I would freeze.

That hole in the roof is where Verner left, folks. However, when it really does not get cold, I guess one picks out the coldest spot of the day and feels cold then. That is the only way I can explain it. My cold is not much improved which means that I am better but that the cold is absorbing a lot of punishment. I have bought myself a hat to wear to work so that if it rains again my hear won’t get wet like it did the last time. That I think may have helped the cold along. It is a cloth affair, tan and constructed like what my old blue corduroy hat theoretically should have looked like. It cost about $1.00 and I think is going to prove a good investment.

My talk at L.L. came off better than I thought it would but I am glad that it is over. The meeting was held Sunday afternoon after a lunch after Sunday morning services. The attendance was somewhat better than at previous meetings.

One day last week when I was coming back after my dinner or supper, whichever you choose to call it, I walked past a little cafe somewhere or other, I guess it was the corner of Grand and Eighth or Ninth and back of it some guys were playing a sort of funny game. The game consisted of trying to get close to a little ball with bigger balls, rolled from a distance of 75–100 feet. The fellows playing I think much have been very familiar with the place because they would roll their balls (about 4 or 5 inches in diameter) to take advantage of the slopes of the land that were not too much in evidence. Like many people around here they spoke a language I could understand but they did not look like they were Spanish or Mexican. They looked more to me like some Basque nationality. At any rate I got sort of a kick out of watching them.

I got two eggs for breakfast this morning — something which usually does not occur except on Sunday morning since the Shell Cafe usually does not get too many eggs. They were fried better than usual, so that the yolks were not runny like water but reasonably solid. How I wish I could have some of your fried eggs mama, over and with the yolks broken up. I think that if I tried to explain the way I like them out here they would think I was crazy. Their understanding is limited.

Oops! I almost forgot to write about a new experience I had one morning this week. When I was coming home from work, walking past McNerney’s Mortuary a guy comes up to me and asks, “Do you want to serve on a coroner’s jury?” I say yes because I believe that this should be interesting. A coroner’s jury, I think, decides mostly that somebody is dead. Its verdict means nothing all that happens is that the dead person can be buried which the Law will not allow otherwise.

Well anyway a guy had driven into two women while they were crossing the street. Pedestrians have the right of way in Calif at street intersections but these dames were drunk from the testimony given and the traffic expert investigating the accident said that the driver’s conduct (he looked scared, too) was what it should have been so [. . .] the verdict should be that the women [sic] was dead because the guy had unavoidably hit her. The rest of the jury agreed she was dead (amazing deduction) but thought mostly that the driver was to blame, especially one guy a most persistent fellow. In the end the verdict was that she was dead with negligence on the part of both but more on the driver’s part. Since the verdict didn’t mean anything and since I was getting sleepy I didn’t argue any more after that was agreed. I am enclosing a clipping I found in the paper about it. (Couldn’t find the paper)

Well I am getting hungry. I guess I will head down town and get something to eat.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I am enclosing some pictures. There are only 5 because the other three which I took of the interior of the church didn’t turn out so hot.

December 25, 1942

Dec. 25, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father, Mother and the folks at home,

What a lot of nice presents I got from home! I am certain that I did not deserve them all. At any rate I surely appreciated them all. I want to take this opportunity of thanking all those at home and at grandmother’s who gave me so many things. I will have to tell you all that I got and make some comments about them.

First I got a pair of very snazzy maroon pajamas from mama. The top is striped with white but the pants are plain. I wore them to bed on Christmas Eve and did I sleep! Like a log I guess. Also from mama I got a devotional book and calendar — to say nothing of all those beautiful cookies. Thank you mama for these things. When I come home sometime I will give you a bear hug and a mushy kiss for them.

Then I got a box from Clarice and Vivian & another package but I was supposed to open the box first (it was the box from some candy Al had given her). In the box were 5 little packages with little notes on them, and all around, under and over them were sort of candy strings like beads. These beads had melted enough to want to stick to everything so I got my fingers all sticky undoing the packages, but I didn’t mind. The first package was a Santa Claus candle and the writing on the package was “Because we want to be sure that Santa Claus doesn’t miss you.” The second was a chimney candle and the note was “Because we don’t know if California houses have them and they are essential to Santa Claus.”

Package three was labeled “To tack on your curtains with pins so that it looks Christmasy” and was 4 little bells. The fourth was a porcelain turtle and the note was “This is Vivian the Second to keep you from being lonesome. (So called because both wear enormous protective layers.)” The fifth was a pair of stockings and the note was “To wear immediately. (Be thankful you live in Calif. or you would have got part woolen ones.)”

The sixth package which was separate was an omnibus of American humor and the inscription was “To make you crack many a smile and it’s no fault of ours if you don’t.” There was also a picture of Clarice and Al. I thought this all very cute and I want to say, “ Thank you, Clarice and Vivian.” Oh Snooty, Christmas doesn’t seem real without you!

From Aunt Laurine I got a book-mark, a necktie holder with a dial like thing [at] the back which you can turn to see what kind of a necktie and shirt you should wear with a suit, a picture of her, Vivian & Marybeth and the new piano, also a Christmas card with a paper wallet in which was a dollar to buy something with, altho this wasn’t supposed to be a Christmas present even tho it came at Christmas. Thank you, Aunt Laurine.

From grandmother I got a beautiful red tie that’ll give you the pink-eye if you look at it too long and a beautiful card. Thank you, grandmother.

From Aunt Esther I got a book, “The Master’s questions to his disciples.” Thank you, Aunt Esther.

From Verner and Marold I got a book called “The Damon Runyon Omnibus.” (I see where I am going to waste some time.) Thank you Verner and Marold.

Besides these I got lots of cards, etc which helped to make everything more like Christmas. Once again, thank you all, for your part in making my Christmas nice.

I was at Pastor Wellington’s Christmas Eve instead of today because they were invited away today so they asked me to come then instead. Mrs. Wellington’s mother from Minnesota was there. Also Miss Wendell, who is doing home mission work in the new housing projects around here and who hails from the middle west. So we all felt the same way about Christmas out here — it just didn’t seem right that was all.

Today when I was coming home form breakfast downtown, Mrs Johnson asked me over for dinner so m as usual, I am being royally treated.

This morning, I, of course, went to Julotta. There wasn’t too many people there but I thought the service very nice. By the way, at Wellington’s on Christmas Eve, they sang (not me, of course) some Swedish songs, including the one Vivian learned for mama one year but which I won’t attempt to spell. I felt like bawling almost because [it] sounded just like it always had at grandmother’s.

Till today this week has been a sort of dampish, wet week. It rained earlier in the week and beginning Wednesday evening about 5 oclock it rained more or less steadily till sometime last night. Coming home from work, I was sort of afraid of the consequences, but all I seems to have done is promote my cold from the sore throat to the runny-nose and plugged-up-feeling stage. By Sunday I should be okay I think. Last night it cleared up however, so that it is clear & sunshiny today. However, it is quite windy out, which is rather new in Calif, at least to me.

I guess I have forgotten to tell you that everybody working for the Shell Development Company here got a three day vacation, Sunday, Saturday & Friday (altho of course not in that order.) I thought this was very nice. I feel very sorry for Zene, the lab head. His father died Wednesday morning. That sure is some Christmas present to get. Zene, incidentally became a father about a month ago.

I am enclosing a copy of the announcement for the choir service at the church here. What do you think of it? The cover design is mine, and I also made the stencil. The announcement for the Children’s program hasn’t come out yet but I made that too. However, I think that this one is nicer.

Last Friday evening, the L.L. decorated the church, that is, put up the Christmas trees etc. Afterwards there was a taffy pull (bring your own sugar). When I heard of a taffy pull I had visions of people standing way across the room from each other and pulling yards and yards of candy back and forth. Actually, if you do that, you’ve been making taffy for years and years and are no longer an amateur. If you’re doing it for the first time, you have all you can manage if you are able to manipulate the mess in your two hands. You smear your hands with butter and then work the half-cooked sticky stuff back and forth till it gets white and hard. After mine got so it didn’t stick to everything (that is, I could with a little delicate manipulation pick it up, and be able to let go if it afterward) I got disgusted and ate it. It tasted pretty good I thought. I didn’t get any sleep before going to work that night because the decorating wasn’t over till about 10:30 and I got pretty sleepy before morning. However, it may have been that my cold was starting in.

I am getting very spendthrifty lately. I have bought some more books (two technical ones) that cost $12. This wasn’t so bad but I walked into a clothing store this week and bought a brown suit. I feel sort of ashamed of myself for doing it because I know very well I didn’t need it. I guess this is what California does to you.

My work is going about as usual. The think now being studied in detail, as I have mentioned before is the desulfurization & hydrogenation of ordinary gasolines to produce airplane gas. The hydrogenation is a somewhat ticklish problem as yet because you want to hydrogenate the gum-forming olefins, but not the aromatics present since the latter have higher octane numbers than the naphthenes they would be hydrogenated to if it were permitted. So far, the success has been very good.

I was talking to Mr. Cole other other day and he said that the airplane gas now being produced both in quality and quantity is beyond even the dreams of 1940 and 1941 and 1943 will being similar expansion because of the great demand for it. The airplane fuel used in American planes is consistently 100 or 100+ in octane number (in fighting planes, that is). Axis airplane fuel is never more than 90. This doesn’t seem much like a spread but its just the same as the greater pickup of a Ford in first-class mechanical condition over a run of the mill Chevrolet or Plymouth. When you’re fooling around up in the air those 10 points difference mean a lot in the performance of an airplane engine. Furthermore, with higher octane gasoline, higher compression ratios are feasible, the thermal efficiency is therefore increased so that less fuel needs to be carried.

It is almost time to go over to Johnson’s for dinner so I guess I will close. Dwight has gone to visit relatives in Los Angeles so I guess he will not be there.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas

With love

C.P.

P.S. Some dope is singing “Home, Sweet, Home” on the radio.

P.S. I’m lonesome, or rather homesick.

December 17, 1942

Dec 17, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro, Calif

Dear father, mother, and the rest of the folks at home

In the words of the popular ditty — I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. I suppose I shouldn’t let myself think about it because it makes me more than somewhat lonesome but somehow or other I can’t help it. I can’t believe its Christmas, unless I try to conjure up in my mind some of its features that have been characteristics in the past as far as I am concerned. You don’t know how much I wish that I were home for Christmas — even one hour, on Christmas Eve, or at Julotta or on Christmas day, or just walking around in the snow. To see each one of you would be about the best Christmas present I could have but unfortunately I suppose it can’t be.

I’ll be thinking of you all though and even if I’m not there in person, something of me will be since I’m sure it won’t be here. When you’re milking the cow, Verner, it’ll be you, of course, but it’ll be me too. When you’ve just jumped into a cold bed, Snooty, and you’re all scrunched up in a ball trying to get warm, it’ll be me. When you’re wiping the dishes, daddy; when you’re backing the car out of the garage, Vincent; when you’re feeding the chickens, Marold; when you’re gazing vacantly out of the window and thinking of your dream-bait, Clarice; when you’re frying the (how do you spell it? anyway you know what I mean), mama; it won’t be entirely you, it’ll be a little but me too.

Some day, I promise myself, I’ll be home for Christmas again, and I hope its just the same then as it always has been. Every day that passes is another day closer to the time when I’ll be home again, either for a visit or permanently. Somehow or other I can’t get away from the feeling that I’m just marking time until I can start to live again. When I’m riding home on the P.E. I’ll doze off sometimes and then wake up again and wonder, what am I doing here, as it it were all sort of a mixed-up dream.

It shouldn’t be too long till I am home again, either for a visit or for the rest of my life. Size or seven months for the first and certainly not more than three years for the latter. I suppose that it may be true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but if I really like home one-tenth as much as I think I do now, I’ll never be satisfied elsewhere.

I must stop not for awhile. I will finish this letter tomorrow.

This is a mournful letter isn’t it? I guess I will start in by writing about something else. Your package, mother, arrived safe and sound this week, I forget just what day. I opened it, because I sort of thought there would be cookies in it and sure enough there was and boy! are they scrumptious! They are 99% intact also from what I have seen so far which is much better than they usually were when they arrived in Iowa City. My natural instinct was to eat them all at once of course but I realized that such would be a poor policy both from the standpoint of the enjoyment I would get which in such a case would be short-lived and from the immediate consequences of such an action.

Thank you very much for the cookies, mama. Every time I eat one I will think of you and I can just see you now rolling them out etc, etc. I suppose I’ll open the present that have come on Christmas Eve as in the past, altho I must confess that it is harder to keep from opening them right away out here where a little sly peeking would go unnoticed. I have also got a package from Aunt Esther & one from Aunt Laurine and a card from Eugene.

It has been raining in California. Yesterday when I went down town to supper it was just starting to rain and during supper it rained but let up while I was walking home — just like that. Later it started again and I think from the look of things it must have rained considerably. At the refinery it didn’t start to rain until later but I think that there was more rain there than here in San Pedro. Today the sky is overcast and I sort of think that it might rain some more.

Since I wrote home last, life has been uneventful around here. I get up as usual every night go to work, get done, have breakfast, go to sleep, get up, fool around, have supper, go to sleep, get up and start it over again. This goes on till Sat when I sleep till morning, get up, go to church, fool around, eat supper, go to church, gone home & to bed, get up and start another week.

As I perhaps did not make myself clear in my last letter, I do usually sleep in two installments but I don’t think the average is much more than seven hours usually. However, I don’t think this matters, since if I were really tired I could sleep longer after I come home from work in the morning, since on the occasions when I really was tired I slept until quite late in the afternoon.

For breakfast I have had to alter my menu because the eggs at the Shell Cafe are all eaten by the time I get there. The waitress says that they have a big rush from 5:30 to 7:00 and I guess I don’t get there till breakfast as far as they concerned is almost over. So I have been having a stack of hot cakes, bacon and coffee lately.

I am going to close this letter now because I can’t think of anything more to write about.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas

With love,

C.P.

P.S. Thank you for the letter, Verner, and don’t kid yourself, you have a better time all around on the farm than elsewhere even if you think now its a thorn in many respects!

P.S. I agree with you. Poor cadets!

P.S. When you don’t have anything to do during vacation, as I shouldn’t think you wouldn’t (or would it be would) you can all write me thousands of nice long letters.

December 10, 1942

Dec. 10, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear father, mother and the rest at home,

Just think, tomorrow is only two weeks from Christmas. It hardly seems real. No snow, the vegetation still green — more like an Indian summer day altho the smell of fall is not in the air and of course the leaves of the trees are not falling off. This morning when I was eating breakfast, somebody was singing “Jingle Bells” on the radio when there wasn’t a snow within miles. I suppose that up in the mountains there is some tho.

The weather here this past week has, in general, been colder than previously. When the sun is out it usually warms up fair but it isn’t above the horizon more than about 9 or 9½ hours now and it really doesn’t shine until after 10 or 10:30 so it doesn’t get in very many good licks. Altho the cold here is nothing like in Iowa, nevertheless you feel it — more or less by contrast I suppose. Sometimes when I am walking to work I almost wish that I were wearing long underwear.

Incidentally, speaking of walking reminds me that I have purchased some new work shoes. My brown sponge-rubber bottomed ones were disintegrating in from ever since I spilled some catalytic acid on them some time ago. Moreover they were getting run over as my old brown ones did and I was afraid that it might result in another corn. The shoes I got cost $4.49 which was too much I thought but they seemed to be the only thing available that looked o.k. I got them at Penney’s. I was wearing light stockings when I got them last Saturday and when I wore them to work with heavy stockings for the first time they felt almost tight but they are better now. Ii think that when they get broken in they will be all right. On the whole, I probably do as much or more walking here as I did while going to school so it sort of shows up on your shoes.

I have acquired one of my usual pebbles in my shoes this week when I allowed myself to be elected pres. of the Luther League here. Why I ever let myself in for things like this is beyond me. I guess I should never have started going in the first place. I really think that I am too old to be engaged in such work, and besides I guess I’m too lazy or too uninterested to want any responsibility. However I suppose that I can do it for a year. I’ve done it before.

One thing I’ll never forget when I was pres of the Gowrie L.L. was the time the ice cream social was being discussed and when I was stating a motion or something before the house, I called it the strawberry festival and everybody sort of snickered. I couldn’t figure out right away what was going on. Which incident in turn reminds me of the time in high school we were doing pantomimes in class and I was turning around regularly in front of the class with a hole in the back of my pants. As I remember, after class, Dale Coffin took them down to the home economics room and had them sewed up.

There is a very real shortage in eggs, cream and meat here in southern Calif. Butter is practically non-existent — a margarine being used instead. However I cannot tell the difference. Several times recently I have not been able to have eggs for breakfast — simply because there wasn’t any. As for the meat shortage, I cannot really detect it, since there is always meat on the restaurant menu but I guess that sometimes it is rather hard to get at the meat shops.

The new distillation column set up in the laboratory is now all fixed up but only three columns are running because two of the heads have been damaged. One has been patched up with rubber tubing for some time and the other was broken in 4 parts a couple of nights ago by George while trying to get some tubing off one of the outlets. Fortunately, it broke at advantageous points so that it can be mended. On of these heads is worth about $35. In common with the rest of the columns they are made of glass and so are very subject to damage. Since there are five heads available, three columns are running. The new distillation (bubble-plate) column is a two piece affair, jointed in the middle which is a mistake I think as I believe it might get broken that way more easily.

Lately I have been running bromine values mostly. I have gotten so that I can do quite a few of them in a night. Last night I did 14 but one night I did 19 which is the most I have ever done. These bromine values are being obtained in connection with a hydrogenation and desulfurization run on Plant IV. This is another important use for this catalyst because in this way, a cracked gasoline can be saturated and thus made available for use as airplane fuel. Unsaturated fuels are not allowed for airplane use because of gum-forming tendencies.

The runs on Plant IV were tests at different temperatures, pressures, H₂ flow and space velocities, I suppose to determine optimum operating conditions. A new unit, called Plant IX has now been set up which does this same thing on a large scale. The B.V.’s from this unit are really low, less than 1 usually which is really something.

I was at Pastor Wellington’s for dinner last Sunday. They have also asked me for Christmas day which I appreciated very much. I do not think (or have I mentioned this before) that I will have to work on Christmas day. I surely hope that I do not. The church here has early morning services as at home but I am afraid that it will not seem quite the same.

I haven’t been in the book store for almost a week now — an example I think worthy of note in avoiding temptation. Last weekend I went to a show called “A Yank at Eton” with Mickey Rooney in it which I thought was pretty good. I have gotten so that on quite a few weekends I go to a show. Do you think that is too often? After dinner on Sat I usually feel too lazy to do anything, even drawing, so I just let myself wander in to a show. I sort of think it is the reaction after working all week. Altho why it didn’t happen at home when I worked just as much is a question I can’t answer? Perhaps it is that the work here is more exacting — I don’t know.

Last night I was reading in I Corinthians, the seventh chapter and I just could not help thinking of Clarice. I am afraid that she is going to get married to him, I really am. Altho I suppose it isn’t anything to be afraid of if they really love each other, which it sort of sounds like they do. Just think, some day I may be Uncle Carl and you may be grandmother and grandfather. How old we are!

I suppose you read in the newspapers about the bad fire in Boston. One of the victims was a fellow named Goss, an electrical engineer, who graduated at Iowa last June. This was too bad since he was very intelligent I thought.

With love

C.P.

December 3, 1942

Dec. 3, 1942

425 S Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro Calif

Dear father, mother and the folks at home,

According to the newspaper its just 19 shopping days until Christmas (and I have [not] got around to do any Christmas shopping at all). It hardly seems 3½ months since I left home and yet it seems like an awful long time. Iowa weather had undergone a considerable change since I left but here, except for about a 25 or 30°F drop all around the clock from a summer temperature profile, the weather is essentially the same. A little less cloudy on the average in the morning but really foggy when it decides to get foggy.

I don’t hardly think that I will do much Christmas shopping but let you do your own as Uncle Carl does. I had the bright idea once (before gas rationing) of buying 5 gallons of gasoline and sending it home, but I suppose it wouldn’t be allowed. Lately I have found out, via the newspaper, that it violates city ordinance to have more than 2 gallons stored above ground except in a car or approved container. At any rate I didn’t do it.

By the way, how are you coming out in this matter? Will you get extra gasoline? I’m glad that I do not have a car to worry about. I saw in the newspaper this morning that after Christmas, many things are going to be rationed, clothes, milk, eggs, cheese etc etc. All I can say is, its the city dweller that’s getting knocked in most of this stuff. You can have to eat what you want and all you want of it on the farm (except for such things as coffee which probably aren’t necessary).

To me, the farm is the place where you can have the greatest freedom in what you do regardless of what regulations & conventions are extant elsewhere. I’m not exactly unhappy where I am now but I’d rather freeze, sweat, toil, ache in the back, grow blisters on my hands, get all disgusted with cows, wish I’d never seen a potato in my life, grow bunions on my nether portions bouncing over a crossed corn field, chase the pigs when they get out etc etc than be a chemical engineer. Perhaps I’ll change my tune someday because all this doesn’t seem logical, but then many things in life aren’t in the least logical when you think about them. How did [I] get started into this anyway? I’ll guess I’ll leave off and start in on another tack.

I have got some pictures finished, not by me, but by the Thrifty Drug Store. Since we started working six days a week I don’t have very much spare time especially at night when I would have to do the developing. I guess my ventures into photographic chemistry will have to wait awhile. I am enclosing them in this letter. Please send them on to Aunt Laurine. If you don’t mind I’d like to have them back eventually. I hope that you still have the map I once sent you because it will be easier to recognize from where these pictures were taken. The descriptions are written on the back of them.

This month (or, that is, last November) I kept track of all that I spent and it was more than I thought it would be. Altogether it was $90.02 if I forget about the $13.13 which I paid for an electric razor by check. Anyway the $90.02 represents current, ordinary expenditure. This seems like an awful lot but most of it had to be spent, more or less. I spent $29.41 for food or about $1 per day which it would have been if I hadn’t had that Thanksgiving dinner(s) I wrote about. This is about a workable minimum I think.

After work I have breakfast at the Shell Cafe before I get on the P.E. which costs usually 31¢ and consists of two eggs, coffee, toast and potatoes. After I have come home and slept awhile (till two usually or 12:30 like today) I go down to Thrifty’s or Sontag’s and have dinner or supper or whatever you want to call it for 55 to 60¢. This consists usually of soup, salad, potatoes, vegetable, meat (except on Tuesday), milk, rolls, dessert (usually pie). Then I have an apple perhaps when I am walking home. Going to work at 11:15 I usually get something to eat (a bar, etc) at the magazine stand near the P.E. station. And that’s the program 6 days a week now.

On Sunday it is the same except for breakfast which occurs at Sontag’s and includes orange juice in addition to the above breakfast for 40¢. This diet seems to include a reasonable amount of all the essentials, altho perhaps a bit weak on cereals. But you don’t get much bread to eat at restaurant meals anyway so that can’t be helped. In addition to the amount I spent for food, I spent $36.73 for what I call essentials — that is rent, laundry, church dues etc. Then I spent $4.60 to get to and from work on the P.E. which I suppose should be included in the essential column. About $1.64 accumulated in my 1¢, 5¢, and 10¢ coin collections, leaving $17.46 which I spent more or less needlessly on magazines, paper, newspaper, movies etc. I have however a couple of books to show for it. It also includes the $5 Look subscription so perhaps it isn’t too much.

If you have been keeping track so far you find that this amounts to only about $89.44 I don’t know what happened to the difference. I probably lost some and forgot to include some expenditures. On two days I came out ahead of myself — that is, I have more left over than I should. Where it came from is beyond me. My estimated expenditures for Dec are $83.40 because I think that working 6 days a week I will have less time to get wangled into buying things. However, yesterday I wandered into the book-store and bought some books so that I wonder if my budget will contain itself. I had thought originally that I could get along on less than $85 or $90 a month but I sort of think its impossible now — especially if I can’t keep out of the book store. My latest was for two books — the works of Gilbert & Sullivan and the “Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammitt [sic]. This last is a detective story that has almost become a classic so far as detective stories go. Well, what do you think of my spending? Please write and tell me.

I am getting hungry so I guess I will go downtown and have some dinner.

With love

C.P.

P.S. Thank you, mother, father & Vincent your very welcome letters.

P.S. I am enclosing a clipping that was amusing I thought. Also a bond.

November 3, 1942

Nov 3, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear father, mother and the rest at home

It is getting along about time to go to work, 10:00 p.m., but I think I will start this letter anyway. I suppose you wonder why I am working graveyards this week instead of days. Well, I will tell you.

Last week one of the operators got sick so that Dwight has been given that job so that there are only two analysts working, George and I. This week I started working days, of course, but I thought being as there were only two analysts I would ask if I could work one shift steady all the time, that is, I wouldn’t change shift every week. So being as nobody likes to work graveyards and since I don’t mind it in the least, I thought that I would ask if I could work then all the time and it was decided that that would be all right. Therefore I will be working that shift all the time from now on.

Moreover, the operator who is sick, has been ordered off shift work by his doctor so this way he will work days all the time, George having taken the afternoon shift. I didn’t get much sleep Monday night as I went to work again at 12 after having gone off at 4, so that by 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning I was pretty tired. However I slept pretty well today so I feel rested up. I went to L.L. after all since Rev. Wellington asked me to come but I felt a little bit like an Edna Nelson — that is, I’m not as young as I used to be. Most of them are in high school I would guess, more or less like they are in Gowrie.

I have written a letter to Eugene as you suggested and I will mail it tonite. Monday I got four pieces of mail, two letters from mother, dad’s letter and a postcard asking me to go to L.L. Today I got a letter from Howard. The letter containing Eugene’s letter, Clarice’s and Vivian;s had 3 cents due on it altho it didn’t feel to me as if it would have needed the additional postage.

Howard writes that teaching six classes a day keeps him busy. One weekend he had gone up to Cedar Falls to the Homecoming game. Another weekend he had gone out to collect scrap and he says he just about froze himself. He says that when it gets cold, he wishes that he were in California. Well, it gets warm here, at least in the days. Monday the temperature was about 81 or 82 along about 3 or 4 in the afternoon but today it has been cool and cloudy — getting ready for another rain I think. So far the rain here has not been accompanied by thunder and lightning. Perhaps it isn’t the custom around here. Howard also writes that his pupils are some bright but mostly dumb. One of them got 00 (whatever that represents) on a reading comprehension test.

I have started taking a daily paper. I wouldn’t have done it except a boy came around trying to get new subscribers and since he gave a nice sales talk for being such a little squirt I got soft-hearted or balmy-brained and said I would subscribe. I suppose it will be ok but I don’t suppose I’ll get much benefit from it.

I have still not developed any pictures from my set because I am waiting till I get up enough nerve to ask the landlady if I can do it in the bathroom. However, last Sunday afternoon I walked around and took some pictures which, as soon as they are developed, I will send home to you. I guess, being as some of them were taken at home, so that I can’t retake them, I’ll play safe and taken them downtown to have them developed. I wouldn’t trust myself too much on my first attempt at developing pictures.

Monday when I was paid I also got my bond, which I thought would be sent to you as was the otherN one. However, since it was not I will include it with this letter. I will also send some more money home. Incidentally every day when I go to eat at Thrifty’s Drug Store I go past the J.C. Penney Store and there is a brown suit in the window that is steadily lowering my sales resistance. Do you think I would be extravagant if I bought it? I don’t know why in the world I should want to buy another suit unless it can be that the California sun has touched my brain.

Today was election day here of course but I didn’t vote as I had neglected to register. I think that Earl Warren will oust the incumbent Democrat, Olson as governor. Warren has been conducting a very vigorous campaign I think but Olson has done very little that I have been able to see.

One unusual thing out here that does not come up very much in Iowa is the way in which various matters are brought to the vote of the people. I guess that the rights of referendum and initiative are more widely exercised out here than in Iowa. In this voting there are about 20 propositions that are being put to a popular vote. I think that this is a very good idea and that it should be more widely adopted and used.

Next day. I see that my sole election forecast came out as I said, Warren soundly trouncing Olson for governor. The Republicans gained one seat in the House of Representatives I think altho I am not certain. I looked at a newspaper rather hurriedly this morning while eating breakfast at the Shell Cafe. I had to hurry because I didn’t have too much time in which to catch the train.

My work is proceeding about as usual. At present, something new is being tried out in Plant IV. It has been found that under certain conditions, the same process used to making toluene by dehydrogenation of methyl cyclohexane can be used in the desulfurization of petroleum stocks. The sulfur comes out in the gas produced during the reaction as hydrogen sulfide. I think that this is a very significant development inasmuch as the present way of sulfur removal is by caustic treatment, which is both clumsy and expensive as compared with the treatment in the catalytic dehydrogenation unit.

I have run out of news so I will quit.

With love

Carl

P.S. Major development on the western industrial front: The P.E. railroad is now double-tracked all the way from Wilmington to San Pedro thereby eliminating a lot of delay occurring at the single track section.

September 11, 1942

Sept 11, 1942

425 S. Cabrillo Ave

San Pedro, Calif

Dear father, mother, and anyone else who may read this,

In my last letter I told you a little bit about the laboratory. This tim I guess I will try to reconstruct a sort of plan of the Shell Development Co’s buildings here. They are not very large, any of them, and the laboratory is about a representative size.

On the south side of the road is a big ditch and on the other side of the ditch is the manifold thru which all of the pumping here is done. All the pumps are in one place sp that they can be used continuously and therefore more economically. Farther south are the stabilizers where unstabilized gasoline from the other Shell refinery near here (at Dominguez) is stabilized (that is, compounds too volatile for gasoline are driven off; that is compounds of the properties similar to those used in natural gas).

A is a building housing a couple of desks, gas analysis equipment & AB Cox’s office. B is a mechanic’s shack where Shorty Coe has been building another lab sized model of Plant I, similar to plant IV lately. B also houses the centrifuge that is used in sulfanations. E and W are indiscriminate areas of which I know little. The outside gate of the refinery is about ¼ mile north of the Shell development plant. A road runs north from the east side of Plant I, passing some fractionating columns and the solvent extraction plant for lubricating oils, then stops and turns east & west near the furnaces. By following the east branch for awhile you come to a rather large vacant space across which you walk, past the loading racks, the Shell Oil Lab, the office building and finally out thru the main gate, opening on Sepulveda Blvd. (see map I sent you at one time).

I do not know a great deal about the refinery here except incidentally, because we have little to do with it. A toluene production plant is being built at the Dominguez refinery which is a couple miles north of the Wilmington refinery. A similar plant is being built at the Wood Rive Refinery near Chicago.

The Shell Development plant started here about 7 years ago as I have already said and has grown considerably since then. However, its growth has resulted in a considerable degree of disorganization I think. The laboratory records, while complete, are kept somewhat unsystematically and the laboratory, due more or less to the fact that nobody has the time or the inclination is never thoroly cleaned up. Probably the worst phase in this respect, in my opinion, is the sample situation. I think that is an many samples are to be kept as now are, more and better storage space than the inadequate cupboards, should be provided. Moreover many of the samples are kept for a considerable length of time since it is never known when they might become important.

Nevertheless, I think that if I am to continue working for the Shell Dev Co, I’d as lief work here as in Emeryville. The climate here, tho rather foggy as I have already implied, is not as bad as near San Francisco. Moreover I believe that the establishment here will continue to grow altho that is problematical. At any rate, it is a much smaller organization and I think easier to work in than at Emeryville. Also, at Emeryville, there was been considerable labor trouble, I gather which does not sound so good.

All this may be rather looking into the future too far. I can’t see that I am going to enjoy the work here very much, probably for a considerable length of time. I believe that when I have enough saved to start farming I will leave because I just cannot see myself doing work like this all my days. Ig I were really keen about my work, as Raiford was always saying, I suppose I wouldn’t mind keeping on with it, but the more I think about it and come in contact with it, the less I really like it. Perhaps if the war continues I will land up in the army. At any rate, I am managing to stay out of it for awhile which is something.

I scarcely, if ever, read any newspapers and I don’t have a radio so I am sort of out of contact with the war. I picked up a newspaper left on the P.E. the other morning, but the most interesting news I could find was that the Cards were 2½ games out of first place and the Browns seem to have annexed 3^d place rather conclusively. If it weren’t for the newspapers grabbing hold of every happening in the war and playing it up in big headlines, the was would begin to be a dead issue I think.

As usual, I am disgusted with what I am doing, with life, and with the world in general. Maybe that’s why I would like to be a farmer — where there is a minimum of contact with people etc if you want to make it that way. I have no desire to make a lot of money or influence people or do remarkable things or make contributions to science. The extent of my ambition is to have enough to eat, something to wear (preferably covert pants & shirt and Rockford sox), books to read, paper & pencils to fool around with and enough to keep me busy so that the leisure I get will be appreciated, all with as little contact with others as possible.

The farm seems to be almost ideal in this respect, except for the books. However, the books worth reading are relatively scarce and they probably could be obtained without too great hardship. Moreover, living on a farm by yourself would probably involve the least responsibility and the least danger of economic want neither of which I am particularly anxious to encounter. The only disadvantage I can possibly think of is that there probably will be another war 25 or 30 years hence and I might not be old enough to stay out of it. However, that is rather far in the future and it’s easier not to consider it altho it seems to be a relatively real possibility. If there were any uninhabited part of the globe not ruled by some asinine form of gov’t that is run by a bunch of loco-minded nit wits and which did not blithely assume that its citizens exist for its benefit, I would be tempted to hie myself thither provided it wasn’t 100% desert (like Calif).

Well, I guess that’s enough of that. I’ll probably be able to exist another week without thinking too much about it.

You asked me mother about how to get in the coast guard. I really don’t know but I think that inquiry at a large enough post office, at the dean of Men’s office at I.S.C. or at the individual in charge of the ROTC there might be able to supply the information. I do not believe that more than a high school education & reasonable physical health is required altho I am not certain.

If I were you Vincent, I would not immediately buy a slide rule. If you do, don’t be in a hurry but look at the bulletin boards etc & you might be able to pick one up second hand for a reasonable sum. The first year you probably will use a rule for multiplication & division only and after that for about 95% of the time. A Mannheim rule for $2 or $3 serves this purpose. In buying a rule make sure that the sliding part (that is the long part that has the numbered scales on it) works easily. It should not fall out when the rule is held vertical (that is, from the rule proper) but it should move easily.

The 25¢ rule I left at home moves entirely too hard and when I say entirely I mean entirely. The sliding part (reader) should be more difficult to move than the long sliding part having the scales on it. This part (the sliding part) is the glass part with the single line in it that can also be moved along the rule. However, here again reason should be observed. Besides this it is sufficient to see to it that the rule is not warped, as would be apparent by discrepancies between the long sliding part & the rule proper. Most rules nowadays are made of mahogany covered with celluloid or some similar substances. Distrust any that are not unless possibly in the $2 class of Mannheim rules.

If you want to get a better rule for permanent use, it should have, besides the usual multiplying & dividing scales (called a & b usually) the following (1) the c scale (or inverted b scale) on the long sliding part (2) log-log scales (3) trigonometric scales. Beyond these there is nothing to be gained I think and most any rule above $10 has them. You probably can ask an engineering teacher, or you might encounter it in one of your freshman courses, if you want to know anymore about. However, don’t be in a hurry — You probably won’t need it for a good while.

I have deposited my money on a checking acct in a bank here and will send home periodically any excess that occurs. There is one now so I will enclose a check for it in this letter.

Tomorrow I might decide to go up to Los Angeles and look around or maybe out to Pasadena to see some of the things of interest. As for looking up Earl Strand I will leave that to people who are more capable of enduring his peculiar and eccentric character than I am.

As I write this I am sitting in a sort of easy chair with my feet on the bed and I am noticing that I have a lot of hair on the top of them that I really was never conscious of before. Something of an accomplishment no doubt. The toes also have hair on them. I shall have to grow a mustaches to even things up, otherwise I will have too much hair on my feet and not enough on my head.

With love and in boredom

C.P.