Saturday, April 14, 1956

April 14, 1956

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear brothers & sisters,

April in Calif is usually not too rainy since by then the rainy season is definitely tapering off, but this week has not been typical and we have been having some real April showers. Today has been quite sultry-like but the rain held off till evening so I was able to spend part of the day out in the yard. My big current project in the yard is the terracing of the back yard into two levels, thus removing the slope from it and making it more useful; I spent several hours this afternoon & one this morning moving dirt round to this end, being assisted by Muriel who spent some of the time moving dirt from one can to one pile to another can to another pile etc. Probably there was as much sense to her activity as to mine.

The rain has made the yard look much fresher since we had had no rain for a month or so and things were quite dry (I watered thoroly last weekend, perhaps that is why it rained this week). We have had several roses and soon shall have many more judging from the buds on the bushes; the daffodils are gone, but we have a few tulips, a lot of coral bells and calla lilies, and quite a few flowers of a species I forget the name of (Jean also forgets). The berry bushes and strawberries are full of blossoms so we should have a good berry crop this year — last year we had quite a fer berries on the vines but very few strawberries.

Last weekend I started to paint in the rumpus room downstairs and got the primer coat on the walls. The walls had been dark brown so the room was quite dark most of the time and since we want to have the walls a light yellow I had to put on a coat to cover up the brown first. Perhaps this coming week in the evenings I can get started with the second coat. My other painting project for the summer is the stucco part of the house (I did the woodwork last year); however I probably shan’t get started on that till after our visit to Gowrie in May (we plant to come the week of Decoration Day so as to have an extra day for traveling).

One day at work I noticed in a trade journal a request for cartoons so I decided to draw some up & submit them. I thought the ones I sent in were pretty good but they didn’t accept any of them — at least they were better than some of those they chose & have been printing. However, since I’ve finally bestirred myself on this dream of mine, perhaps I shall continue drawing some and trying to sell them. Being a cartoonist would I think be an easier life than being an engineer I think, and perhaps more useful in the long run.

This spring I am taking part in the Great Books discussion course. The particular session I am going to is at the Albany high school (a city adjacent to E.C.) but the general idea is sponsored bu the Great Books foundation. The first year is concerned principally with political works. My roommate at work introduced me to the idea and I thought I’d give it a try. The first session was quite interesting and the one next time (on Monday evening) should be even more so. I hope it keeps that way & that my interest stays up.

All for now — I’m all writ out, having also penned the weekly letter home.

With love,

Carl, Jean & Muriel

Monday, November 4, 1946

Nov 4, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

Last night the clouds rolled in from the sea and along in the evening it began to rain. I had gone to a show & when I got out about ten o’clock it had let up but it started in soon after I got back to my room. This morning it isn’t raining but it sounds quite blustery outside; quite as tho it would be nice to stay inside all day. It was warmer last night when it began to rain but it is chilly again this morning.

Life has continued as usual since I wrote Monday morning. Each evening I have been practicing except last night when I decided to take a vacation & go to a show. My work is also coming along pretty good — I am sort of winding things up preparing to leave. I will probably be leaving the Saturday night before Thanksgiving; to date I haven’t investigated any means of shipping my stuff up there. I believe I will have to purchase another trunk or get ahold of a large wooden box in which to put my books.

I also went to the library last night and read awhile, mostly in periodicals. I had finished the book on philosophy by Durant that I had been reading & brought it back. This book had been, with a few minor exceptions, read entirely on the way to & from work and while eating breakfast & supper. At home there are usually other books to read so I utilized the aforementioned time to get it read. It probably helped my digestion.

Yesterday two letters arrived, one from Vivian & one from mother. I don’t know what to say about your proposal to come home over Christmas, mother. It would certainly be nice to be home, eat gryn, Swedish cookies etc etc, go to Julotta, and take part in the other Christmas festivities — to say nothing of seeing all the folks and the children. However, I don’t know if it will be possible. if I had been staying in this vicinity I certainly think that I would have make tentative plans to go, but since I am moving the situation is slightly different. I haven’t decided tho and will mull the matter over in my mind for awhile.

Well that’s about all for now,

With love

C.P.

P.S. I guess you’re really happy that the furnace is getting installed. It is indeed fortunate that the weather has been clement so far.

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 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.

April 14. 1946

April 14, 1946

1046 W 24th

San Pedro, Calif

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

It’s quiet and still this evening — so still that if you just sit and listen you can hear sounds from all over the neighborhood — dogs barking, people talking, cars going by far away etc etc. It’s been sort of cloudy most of the day and not very warm, like it was yesterday and in marked contrast to Friday and Thursday which were quite warm. They almost reminded me of summer.

As usual I didn’t get very much done over the weekend. Friday night I went over to Mr. Neiburg’s and helped him fill out the financial report (he’s the church treasurer) for the first 3 months of the year to be sent in to the Home Mission Board. we got that finished about 8:30 or so and then sat and talked till about ten o’clock. As I may have told you before he is a longshoreman and he was talking about the strike they think they will be going on. Right now an average longshoreman makes 50% more than a high school teacher here in Calif and Calif in general pays its teachers better than other states (at least before the war they did). But of course that is a very unjust situation for the longshoremen who must heave heavy boxes all day — much more important work than educating the future citizens of the U.S. Maybe that’s what the U.S. needs, more strong backs and weak minds — I really couldn’t say.

Yesterday I took Mrs. Johnson the pound of butter which I had not yet taken over there, having put it off on a couple of occasions. I also took over some Christian Heralds which she wanted to read.Mr. Johnson is about the same, but seemed to be in fairly good spirits while I was there. Mrs. Johnson told me that her daughter is going to have a baby in May sometime. She told me to greet you from here. I think she much have somebody that comes and stays with Mr. Johnson because she comesto church almost every Sunday.

Afterward I went downtown to get some money and buy some stuff — some manila folders at the stationery store and some lunch for next week. In the afternoon I went to the library for awhile and browsed around and took out a book on the “Continent of Mu.” This book advances the theory that the Pacific Ocean once consisted largely of a continent, called Mu; much as Atlantis is supposed to have existed in the Atlantic. It is a very interesting book and the theory accounts for a lot of anomalous facts and discoveries, but the writer doesn’t present his case too convincingly. He probably could have done a better job if he had written more coherently, altho who am I to criticize? Probably as more and more archaeological discoveries are made the theory will be either disproved or substantiated. Later I went to a show. The main feature was no good but the companion feature — a Dick Tracyadventure was funny, possible because it was so corny.

Today I haven’t done much. I went to church as usual this morning, had dinner down at Thrifty’s, came home loafed and read, listened to Fred Allen, and played on the piano awhile and took a nap.

Could you send me (now hold on the the table or chair or something) about 20 lbs of butter? The word has leaked out that I got some butter from home for Mrs. Eldridge and several other people have asked for some. If you think it’s too warm now to end it, say so and I’ll have an excue for saying it can’t be done. If you do decide to send it, you’d better make several packages out of it. If it’s too much bother just say so too and I’ll not ask you to put yourself out to send it.

With love

C.P.

April 7, 1946

April 7, 1946

1046 W 24th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

I don’t have much to write about but I guess I’ll write a few lines — enough to make a pretense of a letter anyway. Today has been a fairly nice day, altho rather cool and cloudy this morning. At this it was considerably better than yesterday which was cold and threatening. It didn’t rain but came very near to it about six in the evening. I started to go downtown for some supper about that time but decided I’d rather go without supper than risk getting wet so I went to the corner grocery store and got some cookies and stuff and made my supper on those. I was sort of tired so took a bath and went to bed early.

Friday night, I went to a show called “Saratoga Trunk.” Sort of a messy picture, I thought altho it was supposed to be good, both according to reviews and comments of those who had seen it.

I didn’t feel sleepy when I got home so I laid in bed and read till about eleven. I had got a book called “Novels of Science” last Saturday, but had not got around to reading it, so I read most of it them. It was really quite interesting. I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t feel sleepy Friday night since I usually do as soon as it is nine o’clock or so. In addition I was tired when I left work, both physically and mentally; perhaps the nap I took on the P.E. served to revive me. Truly it is marvelous what the human body can become accustomed to — sleeping on the P.E. is surely one of them.

I have located another place to move to — at least I think so — when I have to move from here. I answered an ad in the paper, but the rooms were all taken. However the lady said she expected a vacancy or two by June or before which I could have. It looked like a nice place to stay and it certainly was kept clean so it should be o.k. It is also nearer downtown so I don’t (or won’t) have to depend on the buses so much. It is on 13th street but about 3 or 4 blocks closer to the waterfront than Mrs. Johnson’s. The lady took my name and address & said she’d let me know as soon as the vacancies developed.

Mrs. Eldridge & daughter went to a show this afternoon so I took advantage of the opportunity and played the piano for awhile. It is always more fun to play when no one is around. The latest piece I have tried which is very nice is from the opera “Le Cid” or something like than by Jules Massenet. Easy to play too, which is an indispensable characteristic of anything I like to play. It won’t be so nice when I move and don’t have a place to play occasionally. Perhaps I should try advertising for a place where I could before I plan to move to this other place.

I suppose Vincent is home now. Ask him what “C.Q.” stands for. I could never figure it out. Also ask him if he got the books I sent him for Christmas.

This is all for now.

With love

C.P.

February 24, 1946

Feb 24, 1946

1046 W 24th

San Pedro, Calif

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

My cold is completely gone now, but I am afraid I gave it to Mrs. Eldridge, who has one now. Yesterday she stayed in bed most of the day after getting up for a short while around breakfast time. The weather lately has been rather cool and damp and it is quite easy to pick up a cold, particularly on a crowded bus (which is the usual condition of them in San Pedro). Friday was a nice day but yesterday was a relapse into the cool weather we have been having. Three days this week the forecast was for rain but it did not materialize.

Yesterday, or rather Friday, was a holiday for Shell Development, as I believe I mentioned in a previous letter. I worked on a report till noon, then went downtown or some lunch and went to a show in the afternoon. It was only fair tho. I also went down to the bookstore and got the book I had ordered, “Beginnings of Christianity.” I have, by now, read half of it. It is written by a professor of theology at Harvard University. In the evening I had dinner with the Eldridges which more or less concluded a typically uneventful day.

Yesterday was spent in much the same way except that I read in the afternoon and played the piano awhile in the evening and had supper downtown. Today I suppose will also be a colorless day, at least it is starting out that way — gray and cloudy, somewhat warm, so it may be working itself into a rainy mood.

Thank you for stowing the bonds I sent home away in your safe deposit box, father. Out here, as with so many other things, it is impossible to gain access to one, since they are all rented out. Also thak you for the letter. Besides the usual letters form mother, I also got a letter from Verner (via Vivian) this week.

Yesterday when I was downtown I noticed that the new Plymouth and Chrysler were in. The Ford and Chevrolet have been here for some time, also the Nash but this is the first appearance of those two. It reminded my of Jr. College days when However, Harlan, John Woodard & I went down in the spring & inspected all of the new models. The new cars do not appear very different from the last ones made in my opinion.

I have been looking around somewhat for another place to stay in San Pedro, but with no success so far, since I’ll have to move sooner or later and it appears I am stuck in Calif for awhile at least. Some Saturday I’ll have to go up to Compton and look around. It would be just as convenient to get to work from there but it would be a job getting all my stuff moved up there. Compton is on the PE, 3 or 4 miles on the other side of the Watson station.

Time to shave, get dressed etc etc so I will stop.

With love

C.P.

P.S. If you think I’m bored this morning you’re absolutely & entirely correct.

February 17, 1946

Feb 17, 1946

1046 W 24th

San Pedro, Calif.

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

Well, it’s Sunday morning again. Somehow or other, Sunday always seems to be the low-spot of the week for me. When I am working I can usually keep from thinking much and therefore remain in a state of emotional stupor. Saturday usually passes reasonably easy as a reaction from the week’s work, from errands to do etc, but by Sunday the usual reaction against life in California has set in. And of course, the prospect of going down to listen to that addle-brained pastor doesn’t help matters. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but whatever else rest it brings, it certainly breeds discontentment as far as I am concerned.

Yesterday I went downtown in the morning — to the bank to cash my paycheck, to the cleaners to get my pants, to the barber to get a haircut and also down to the book-store to see if the book I had ordered two weeks ago was there but it wasn’t. I browsed around for awhile and bought a book — “The Ring of the Nibelung” by Richard Wagner. I had never thought I would be much good, but one day a fellow out at work got to talking about the story of Siegfried and Brünnhilde and it intrigued me so when I ran across it in the book store I bought it. It seems that a guy was courting Brünnhilde but according to the rules she had set up you had to excel her in various physical feats if you were to win her hand. This individual couldn’t, but Siegfried impersonated him and beat her so that she consented to marry this other guy. Later she found out and hung her husband up on the wall by his collar on a hook or something because she was so disgusted. I haven’t got to that part yet but what I have read so far is quite interesting.

The guy who told me about it is sort of a funny duck. His name is Bernard Dale (“Bernie”) and he is an Englishman. Maybe I have written about him before. Everybody teases the daylights out of him. He is so literally minded that everything you say to him he takes seriously which is a valuable aid to teasing him. He gets a little sore sometime. As I recall his telling about Siegfried & Brunnhilde was a comment on some other guy out at work (the one I stayed with over in L.B.) comparing Brünnhilde’s husband’s physical prowess with his.

Sunday evening

It’s about 6 now — Fred Allen has just signed off. He wasn’t quite as good tonite I thought as he usually is.

Today has been a sunshiny day but it has not been very warm. I went for a walk after dinner and it was really quite chilly (Calif chilly, that is). The forecast is for warmer tomorrow but cloudy so it may be getting ready for another rainy spell.

My work is coming along pretty good. Shell Development is getting next Friday off since it is Washington’s birthday. I guess that now that it is peacetime, we get virtually all of the holidays the banks get which is a pretty fair number. I wish I were close enough home so I could make a quick trip home over the three-day weekend. It would certainly be nice.

By the way, thank you, mama, for the box of cookies and for the valentine from father and you. I certainly appreciated getting both.

This is all for now

With love

C.P.

P.S. Another thing you might try to get for me when you are in Ft. Dodge sometime is some Keen Kutter razor blades. 

I can’t get them here in Calif., but the Thiede Mueller hardware company carries them. Their store is located on Central Avenue not far from the city square. 

Thank you for trying to get some pants for me.

June 13, 1945

June 13, 1945

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

Well, the last two days have been really summer days in Calif — foggy in the morning but quite warm in the afternoon it must have been up to 80 or 85°F this afternoon. I suppose you could really use some weather like we have been having in the afternoons to dry things up a little but in Iowa. Rainy or not, tho, I’d still trade Calif weather for Iowa weather any day.

I feel sort of sleepy tonite. Monday night my alarm clock wasn’t working and I couldn’t sleep very good on account of I thought I might oversleep. I woke up about 4 o’clock in the morning and didn’t sleep much afterward. Last night I didn’t get to bed till eleven-thirty after Luther League. I got talking to the student pastor and didn’t get home till about that time. I can’t figure out exactly what is wrong with my alarm clock. I think that the little wheel which goes back and forth and controls the escapement may be binding or something. When the clock lays on its face it ticks for 4 or 5 times vigorously and then gives sort of halfhearted one. it is then that it has a tendency to stop. However, I have found out that it will still run pretty good if I prop it upright (one leg is broke so it won’t stand up otherwise). Maybe there will be new alarm clocks on the market pretty soon.

My work continues about as usual. A.J. Johnson was supposed to have come down this week, but I guess it was called off from the latest rumor. He is a vice president of Shell Development. Everybody has been running around cleaning up things.

Thursday morning

I woke up about five-thirty and loafed in bed till now, about a quarter after six and I thought I’d finish this before I go to shave etc. The birds are clammering [sic] outside my window as usual at this time of the day. The avocado tree isn’t quite the hangout for them it used to be tho since Eric Johnson trimmed some of the branches off it when he was down here awhile ago.

Last night I was down to the book store and picked up a couple of new books I had ordered, one each on invertebrate & vertebrate zöology. Zene had showed them to me and I thought they would be a nice addition to my library (even if I did quite a biology class once).

With love

C.P.

March 10, 1945

March 10, 1945

949 W 12th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

From the sounds of things, Iowa is certainly showing March in like a lion. I hope that things warm up a bit so mama can start thinking about all those garden catalogs etc. Calif has been somewhat warmer the last couple of days. This morning it was foggy and the sun didn’t come out till noon — a typical sign of spring in these parts. I was out and mowed the lawn again tonite. The grass really doesn’t grow an awful lot but it does grow unevenly, so that the lawn has to be mowed occasionally. It is sort of fun to do it. Aside from walking it is virtually the only physical exercise I get.

After mowing the lawn I went downtown, got my hair cut and had supper. The barber shop closes about 7 o’clock on Saturday nights which is later that it used to. One of the barbers there comes from Odebolt where he knew Lester Peterson (or have I said that before?). I got my bulletins made last night so I didn’t have to do tonite. Last night after getting the bulletins made and bringing a book back to the library, I went to a show. It was a double feature of course, as all shows are around here. One of them was very humorous — “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.” It is based on a book written by Cornelia Otis Skinner and some other woman. It tells of their adventures on a trip to Europe. If I get around to it I shall have to look up the book.

Thursday at work I got very dirty since I was fooling around with some activated carbon and it got in my hair etc., so I took a shower before I went home. This was a mistake since I wasn’t used to it — that is, going outside right after a bath. I felt cold & miserable that evening and during the night, but since then I have felt no ill effects fortunately. I also missed the train that night which didn’t help matters much, since a rather cool breeze was blowing during the 20 minutes or so I was waiting for the next one.

I will finish this letter in the morning.

7:15 am Sunday morning.

If you observe closely in Calif., you will see some slight change from season to season. usually you don’t hear birds too often but this morning as I lay awake and loafing in bed they were chirruping merrily outside. It is foggy again this morning but it will probably clear up later in the day.

Today I had intended to get a lot of things done, such as some cartoon-drawing, music lesson practicing etc but if I am as lazy as I am right now I shall take a nap all afternoon and go to bed early. Maybe it won’t be that bad, but nothing will be accomplished anyway.

Happy birthday to you, dad. I hope that you have a very nice birthday with everything you want to eat, etc.

With love

C.P.

January 14, 1943

425 S. Cabrillo

San Pedro, Calif

Jan. 14, 1943

Dear father, mother and folks at home,

Today is two days more than five months since I left home. Just think in six or seven months I may have the opportunity of coming home again. I’d just love to be home again for a coupleof days. Ever since Christmas I have been thinking more about home and sort of day-dreaming of the time when I’ll get home again. I wonder if I’ll ever be satisfied in California. I hae me doots. Oh, it’s a nice place I suppose but it is so lacking in interest.

Whenever I get to thinking of home, I begin thinking that my old idea of the forty acre farm isn’t so bad. I must be inherently lazy because the main appeal or one of the main appeals of this plan is that I’d have so much time to loaf. And you can’t kid me on the basis that I’d have to work my head off to make ends meet either. If I didn’t have any rent to pay, had the farm to eat off and weren’t exposed to so many opportunities of spending any money I could get along on 1/3 of what I spent now and that wouldn’t be more than $350/year. And I am certain I could produce that much income on 40 acres. No income tax to pay — and what’s the use of working to make something to pay taxes on when you don’t need it. I think the farm is the neatest place to get around the income tax I ever saw. Your rent, if you rent your farm, is a legitimate deduction if you run your farm on a business basis. (I suppose, anyway.)

Ditto for taxed if you own it. What you eat off the farm is really income but you don’t count it as such. It seems to me that the city-dweller pays taxes on his whole income — no matter what it is spent for; the farm on the part of his income which comes as cash which often as not would be 75% hay if he had taken the necessary precautions against loading himself up with responsibilities and dependencies. He pays tax on his luxury income, and not on $500 of that. As a racket I don’t see how it can be beat. I’m all for it and someday (pause to knock on wood) I’ll by gypping the U.S. gov’t in this legitimate method of skullduggery. Ho! Hum! I hope this day of bliss isn’t too far off.

Which reminds me that you might as well pile my metals & alloys in my dresser drawer. I don’t have time to read them now anyway and they would clutter up my room which has enough stuff in it already. As usual I accumulate things. When I retire to the farm they should still be not too out-of-date as reading matter. I am buying books now because then I won’t and even if I don’t read them now, they day will come when I’ll have the time to read them and if they’re laying around they’d be handy to get at.

Last Sat. I went down town and spent the $5 for books which Uncle Carl gave me — that is $4.58. I haven’t decided what to do with the other $0.42. I got a little book called “People of Note.” It was a collection of cartoons on musicians that appeared in the Colliers. I also got a book called “Past Imperfect” by Ilka Chase which promised to be a honey from the occasional glimpses I took in the book store.

Finally, there was a special on detective stories at 29¢ each so I got five of the best looking ones — including some Edgar Wallace ones. I’ll sit with my feet on the stove on winter evenings and delight my mind with mysterious doings of so and so, and why was this robbery done etc etc. I hope there is a blizzard outside too and the snow is drifting over the road 4 or 5 feet deep. What in idyllic scene! I’d better stop thinking of it tho, because it isn’t possible yet for awhile. But it will be, you can bank on that.

Last Sunday afternoon I was at the Wellingtons’ and we planned more or less what the L.L. program for this year is going to be. I guess there will be an executive committee meeting soon to get things all lined up. Sometimes I wished I was back in Gowrie L.L. where if you didn’t want to do something, you appointed a committee. Here there isn’t more than enough for one or two committees so guess who does all the work. And I’m lazy too. Don’t forget that.

The weather has been nice in the daytimes lately but it has been foggy at night altho it usually has cleared up by morning. There has been no rain since Christmas and I see in the paper that the crops around here need rain. Bah! It’s foolish to think of raising anything in the desert.

Food prices are going up somewhat. I am getting so that I don’t eat meat so often. If there is something decent, like macaroni or spaghetti, to eat I have that. I should think that restaurants would concentrate on dishes like that during a meat shortage but they don’t seem to.

If I don’t forget to I will enclose some bonds in this letter. I guess since I began working overtime I will be buying more for awhile. By the way, do farmers pay the victory tax? 

I received the certificate from the honorary society, also the Gowrie News’ etc. Thank you for them and also for the letters.

My congratulations to Vincent on his report card. Anybody who gets an A in drawing that involved inking has my highest admiration. As for English, it belongs in grammar school anyway and what do the dolts mean by dumping it in a self-respecting college curriculum?

With love

C.P. (the agricultural economist)

P.S. Since nothing happened to alter my daily routine this week I had to think of something to write about which may in part explain this letter.

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.

The Library and Reading Books

I guess it was next to the site where the blacksmith shop had been that Brunson’s had their combination jewelry/variety/library store. This was their second location — at the first in a substantially better structure it had been primarily just a jewelry store though even then there was a public library section in the rear. During the Depression the store had to retrench and move to a less auspicious building. The family also expanded their operation to include various stationery items, etc. The library section continued. Just inside the door old Mr. Brunson had his counter at which he plied his trade as watch repairman.

The library played a significant role in my growing-up days and I have memories of going to the store selecting books and taking them home. The library hours were on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons but I don’t remember the specific hours it was open. The Brunsons (the elder Brunsons that is) had one son who resided with them along with their daughter-in-law. The latter was the librarian. The library contained a nucleus of books that were permanently included — I have no idea of the source of these, whether the town had bought them or they had been donated.

The library also had a changing assortment of books from the state library system. These were periodically returned to the state library and a new batch obtained, perhaps every three months or so. The quality of the books was not very high and much of my reading was of westerns, Tarzan books and the like. There were however some classics such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

I must have started using the library at quite an early age. I can recall reading Tom Sawyer and being petrified with apprehension when Tom was lost during the cave episode. I can still see myself sitting on the steps leading to the upstairs in the little brown house, on a Saturday evening after supper was over reading the gripping (to me, at the time) account. Perhaps I had taken out the book just that afternoon. I must have been 8 or 10 at the time.

My mother did not approve of the Tarzan books — they smacked in some way of the evolution of man and although she did not have quite the attitude toward the theory that others in her family did she was definitely ill at ease with the books.

There were also books to read at home which had been garnered in various ways. These were contained in two bookcases (with panel glass doors) in the divider separating the dining room and the parlor in the little brown house. There was one shelf of books which my parents had bought for us as children, probably before the family fortunes declined in the Depression. The only book in this group that I definitely remember was R. L. Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. There may have been a book about Pinocchio.

My father in his bachelor days had acquired a set of encyclopedias and a multi-volume set of Ridpath’s History of the World. In retrospect these appear to have been rather low-quality books but they did play a useful and informative role in our development. The history contained a considerable number of illustrations, some pretty gory in subject matter. We used the encyclopedias I’m sure in conjunction with our schoolwork.

There were doubtless a considerable number of religious books in the store of books at home but I can’t remember anything about them. There was sort of an illustrated history of the Bible at my grandmother’s house which as children we were allowed to look at on occasion. This book also contained lurid illustrations as of drowning sinners as the floodwaters rose at the time of Noah and other dire happenings. I wonder what happened to some of these books.

One of my fonder recollections of reading books was as I was growing up at the Peterson farm. On occasion, perhaps on Sunday afternoons but at other times I’m sure when work or school did not interfere, I would go to the room that Vincent and I occupied, lie down crosswise on the bed on my stomach so that my feet extended past one side of the bed and my head and arms over the other side. With a book on the floor beneath my head I would read until such time as I was called away for some duty. There was also an old rocker in our room, and I would sit in it with me feet on the windowsill of the window to the east and read as an alternative to lying on the bed and reading.

The whole experience would be particularly enjoyable in the summer time (provided the weather was not too warm) with the two windows in the room open, with perhaps a slight breeze blowing through the room and the inimitable sounds of an Iowa summer in the background. Of these latter I recall with delight and nostalgia such sounds as the cooing of the mourning doves, the song of the meadowlark, the whirring of grasshoppers and the chirping of crickets.

My Life in the Little Brown House, part 12: Gowrie Library

The Gowrie library did exist and function at least in the years just preceding the move to the farm. I recall one Saturday evening before the weekly bath sitting on the steps leading to the upstairs bedroom, right in the place where the steps turn at the base for the straight section of the steps, and reading from Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer. I was reading the part of the book where Tom and Becky Thatcher get lost in the cave and I was quite afraid that something dire was going to happen. I was too young and inexperienced in the ways of authors to realize that most fiction ends relatively happily with all the heroes and heroines safe and sound. The library was situated at the back of Brunson’s jewelry store (later combination jewelry and variety store) and it was open for returning and checking out books on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Both days the hours were in the afternoon, perhaps somewhat longer on Saturdays.

The elder Brunsons (old Mr. Brunson was the watch repair man) had one child, Leonard, and it was his wife who acted as the librarian. She was a dark, plump, rather short lady with rather a brusque way of meeting people, perhaps particularly the younger patrons of the library. I don’t know if the library received some financial support from town or county taxes, such as a stipend for the librarian’s time. It was not a very large library but it was a focal point of interest for me (and I think Clarice and Vivian) and I visited it regularly, even after the move to the farm. I don’t know how the books were acquired — perhaps most of the original core had been donated — but in later years there was a section of books supplied by the state library that were periodically changed. My reading was not very edifying I’m afraid. I tended to favor Westerns (the principal authors I recall were Zane Grey and William MacLeod Raine) but I also read all the Tarzan books that the library stocked. My mother didn’t really approve of the books I read, particularly the Tarzan books but she didn’t actively oppose any of them. Perhaps she had too many problems which she felt were more important to deal with.

Before I left Gowrie to go to SUI for school, the town had constructed a town hall, which housed the fire truck, provided an expanded area for the library and I think a meeting room for such meetings as the town council. I recall visiting this new location for the town library and checking out books, but I don’t remember the hours nor who served as librarian. I’m sure it wasn’t the younger Mrs. Brunson.

One of the less pleasant memories I have of the little brown house was an incident that occurred one Sunday in the interval between arriving back from Sunday morning service and the midday meal. I was lying on the parlor rug reading and not far away Vincent was squabbling with the younger brothers. My father was irked by the squabbling and misinterpreted me as being the source of it and administered a spanking to me. I felt affronted by the injustice, particularly at the time. In the long run though its main effect was to engender in me the recognition that any person in a position of authority will on occasion make a mistake, with the further upshot that no opinion from authority is unequivocally correct. I think this recognition played its part in the questioning process that went on later in my life as to the validity of the statements I heard from the clergy and relatives regarding religion in general and the Christian teachings in particular. Nothing is taken for granted as being true, even though voiced by individuals generally respected, even loved; all too often human frailty is all too evident.