June 13, 1942

June 13, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, the instructoress at the Gowrie Lutheran vacation Bible school, and brothers,

This past week has been much cooler than the week which preceded it. This morning it is positively chilly. The wind is from the north. I deduce that it is a cold front moving in. During the week there has been a considerable amount of precipitation here and I suppose elsewhere, because the river has risen considerably. Last night I noticed that it had gone up about 3 feet from the previous night. As a result the water has been getting progressively softer and the water softener has not been giving the correct treatment to the water. By tonight tho I think that it should have just about reached the correct dosage.

At the power plant they have only two boilers on now but I wonder with this cold spell if they won’t put on another. Incidentally the university has bought about 5000 tons of washed Kentucky coal about 2" x 2"x 1" or so in size and is storing it. I guess they are afraid that they might run out if an acute railroad car shortage develops. This coal is really beautiful stuff. As I said it has been washed so that it is a glossy black with no dust along with it. Besides that it is a good quality coal so that there is not very much ash in it so that it is relatively free from seams etc. When you come down to see me graduate I can show it to you. It will be really quite a big pile of coal when the 5000 tons are all put together in one place.

Being as I did not know if either the Physical Chemistry or the Differential Equations class was scheduled to meet on Saturday, I went to find out before continuing my letter. Neither of them were. I notice also that the east smokestack at the power plant was producing smoke so that my surmise was correct. Both of the boilers that were on discharge their smoke into the west stack.

So far we have done two experiments in Physical Chemistry. Both of them were fairly easy. However in the Victor Meyer determination of vapor density I thought that I would never be able to get the apparatus leak-proof. I have one of them partly written up so I should be able to get both of them finished today. In class we have just sort of been going along not taking up very much in particular I think. A great deal of the material we have had so far I have already picked up in one place or another. The differential equations course is easier than I expected, at least so far. I am certain that I know almost as much as if I went to class.

I am very much undecided about what I should do about applying for the meteorological training. last week I was just about all ready to jump in but now I am very uncertain. The cause for the uncertainty is this. In the process of going around asked for letters of recommendation etc. etc. I was mostly advised that what I was doing was perhaps the best under the circumstances. However, when I asked Arnold for a letter of recommendation, he said that he would give me one of course but that he hoped it wouldn’t do any good, that is, that I wouldn’t get the appointment. He thinks that I should take my changes on the job with the petroleum company, even tho there is the danger of not being deferred.

As I respect his opinion more than the opinions of all of the rest of the teachers combined, I do not know what to do. I believe that as matters now stand I will let matters slide at least till I come home around the 4th of July. However, I will get everything together so that I can mail in my application whenever I want to. If I were really certain that I should try to get in the navy I should make the application immediately, but I am mot definitely not certain. Moreover I was talking to Prof. C. Woody Thompson, the university adviser on military affairs and he said that even if I were not deferred I probably would qualify for a number of different posts in the army that would not involve actual combat duty. It is very hard to decide what I should do, but where last week, things seemed to point toward the navy training they are now veering away from it. Maybe the purpose of it was for me to take differential equations this summer which I would not have had this question not come up.

We have a new German teacher now, being as the other one is gone on a vacation or something. His name is Schulz-Braden and he was born in Germany. He is a rather small fellow and looks rather odd, but I believe that he is really a very interesting individual to know. Unfortunately we have only 1 class a week now so we will not have very much contact with him which is really too bad.

I am running out of news so that I believe I will close.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I am enclosing a couple of clippings out of the same paper that give some evidence of the muddy thinking of our leaders in Washington.

P.S. Three more weeks till I come home for the 4th of July and 7 more weeks till I graduate. Can I wait? Yes, but hardly.

P.S. I will close with a very unpleasant thought. If I did decide to try to take my job in Calif., it would probably involve the little matter of leaving for Calif directly when school was over and not having any vacation at home. This is really too bad, but it seems the only safe procedure in case I do not decide on the navy training

P.S. The laundry bag came just now. Thank you for the cookies mama. I suppose the letter will come this afternoon.

P.S. As usual, my sincerest regards to everyone who will condescend to write to me.

June 1, 1942

June 1, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear mother,

Does Vincent, Verner, Marold and daddy or does any one of them really need my underwear as bad as all that? If they really have to have them, of course I wouldn’t deprive them of the inestimable opportunity of using my underwear, but if they don’t, I would surely appreciate having them, since I ams just about running out. Please forgive me for writing this but I couldn’t resist the temptation.

Your soon-to-be underwearless son

Carl

P.S. Help civilian morale by sending underwear to your son at school!

May 28, 1942

May 28, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Snooty-Poot, brothers and anyone else who may read this letter,

I cannot figure out exactly what went wrong with my last letter but I suppose (after long cogitation) that something went wrong with it. I got to thinking after I found out that it had not reached you and began to wonder if I had put a stamp on it. But I am certain that I did for I went downtown to mail it because I didn’t have any stamps in my room. I may have forgotten to buy a stamp to put on it after I got downtown but I think that that is a rather poor explanation. I mailed in in a sort of sub-post office in a drugstore, which always looks as if the mail were regarded purely in a secondary light and it may have got lost there. At any rate, it wasn’t a very good letter anyway since I did not feel like writing a letter then so maybe it is just as good that you did not get it. I’ll try to remember everything of important which I put into it and include it in this letter, so that if the other one does not turn up, you will still know about everything of vital importance which has been going on in Iowa City.

Today is a very gooey, sticky day. I can just imagine days like this all summer and I am not exactly looking forward to it. No doubt it will seem nicer when I am looking back at it. Two of my courses finish this week, strategic minerals & elementary meteorology. I am just about certain that I will get an A in strategic minerals because my average in the daily tests which really determine your grade is definitely above the bottom limit specified for an A. I don’t know about elementary meteorology. I did all right in the first test, A, but I do not know how I came out in the second. However, I cannot think of anything which I did wrong. Saturday morning we are going to have a 2-hour test in this subject for which I must do a little studying.

By the way, I have been looking around for loopholes that I can get thru if the draft board doesn’t think a chemical engineer is necessary to national defense. Of course I suppose there are some requirement to be met which I do not know of yet but I believe I am qualified. The situation is this. If you are a graduate of an engineering college, over 20, plus some additional minor qualifications that I can meet, you can enlist in the navy, receive a commission as an ensign, go to school for 9 months at government expense at any one of about 5 schools in the U.S. to become a meteorologist. During this time you will be on a result salary of about $180 a month. At the end of the time you will act either as a meteorologist in some connection with the navy or otherwise teach naval cadets what meteorology they need to know.

Frankly this sounds very good to me. If the war continues for some length of time, it would indeed be the safest thing to do. Moreover I should be able to save enough so that at the end of the war I could start farming. Or, since the science of meteorology has recently undergone radical changes in practice & unusual advances in theory, well trained individuals in this field are somewhat scarce. The only thin that is wrong about it is that to be worthwhile, the war would have to last a reasonable length of time so that either of the two above-mentioned objectives could be attained. I am sort of up a stump. If I do it, I will be safe from the army but I probably will never be a chemical engineer and moreover if the war stops soon, I will be only worse off for my decision. If I don’t, I might conceivably get in the army which would be sort of messy but if I didn’t, my future should just about be settle.

Meteorology is interesting stuff — just as good as chemistry could ever be. I suppose it is sort of wrong to look at the whole situation in such a selfish way but I just cannot help it. I have written to the proper authorities to find out some more about this. Maybe something will turn up to turn me either to it or against it as has always seemed to do in the past. I hope I get the same guidance this time as previously. By the way, I would of course like to have your opinions on the subject.

Last Tuesday night I went to see “As You Like It” — a play production of the University theater here. According to the regulations, you paid to see it in your tuition so of course I thought that I might as well take advantage of it. It is, as you know, written by William Shakespeare. For the first 3 or 4 minutes it was sort of hard to understand what was going on but after a while you could understand everything that was said very well. I think that when I have time I am going to have to read all of Shakespeare’s plays, especially if they are as interesting when read as when they are presented. For it was very interesting I thought. I never noticed it before when I read Hamlet or Macbeth or anything but Shakespeare always gathers up all his characters in the end and gives them a very definite fate or future either for better or worse. When the play is over there are not any loose ends that didn’t come out right. I rather think that he should have made a very excellent detective-story writer if he had lived in this day and age. I won’t attempt to tell about the story but I will say that it was very funny in parts and I enjoyed seeing it very much.

Because I went to the play I got only 6 hours of sleep Tuesday night (the play wasn’t over till 11:00 and I didn’t get to bed before 11:30) and last night I got only 6½ for some reason or other. I guess I just didn’t get finished with what I needed to do till late, so today I have been sort of droopy all day. After German class is over tonite I think I will go right to bed and see if I can’t catch up a little bit. The German class is held in the evenings because that is the only time when some people could come to class. Next week of course, things should be easy so that maybe I can get my water analyses in Industrial Chem finished and the fuel or gas analyses started. That is sort of a messy course I think. The book isn’t any too good and some of the tests don’t have too good a theoretical basis I don’t think.

In case it was in my last letter and not before, Wilmington Calif. is a suburb of Los Angeles. Of course that is another argument in favor of the Chem Eng’ng since there is a university there and I can continue my studies.

I am going to maybe buy some books which I don;t have to have but which I would like to have — maybe a meteorology book and some others so that I might write some checks soon. I suppose I could use my money that I have or my check which is coming next Sat but it is easier to use that to pay the rent with and eat on.

I have found out that I got an A in economy after all so I got B only in speech & organic chemistry.

With love

C.P.

Thank you, mother, father and Vivian for the letters I received from you in the past two weeks.

[marginalia] I mailed my laundry home on Wednesday so you should get it by Friday at least.

I think mama, that you have been forgetting to put my towels in my laundry. I do not know where all of them have gone otherwise.

May 2, 1942

May 2, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father & mother,

I have just found out something that depresses my spirits considerably. Somebody has got the bright idea that we should go on a plant inspection tour in Cedar Rapids next Friday. This is not official as yet and it may not come off but it seems very likely that it will. What should I do? If I don’t get back to Iowa City by 3 o’clock I won’t be able to take the bus to Des Moines. I don’t think the Rocket makes connections with the M & St L in Des Moines any more. At least it didn’t when I came home for Christmas. I won’t be able to leave from Cedar Rapids on a bus and get to Des Moines in time to get on the M and St L. I was thinking that maybe I could take a but later from Iowa City & get into Des Moines at some queer hour and either proceed to Fort Dodge or if the interurban is leaving sometime around the time I get to Des Moine take that.

Could you find out at what times the interurban leaves Des Moines? Also, would it be all right if I came to Ft. Dodge and you met me there? I haven’t investigated this last possibility yet but I am going to. As soo as I find out I will inform you what I intend to do. I will not be able to put off coming home till some other weekend because I am going to have some Saturday classes I think, so if I am going to come home anytime for the next four weeks or so it will have to be this coming weekend. I surely hope that everything works out all right and that the inspection trip will either fall thru or that I will be back in Iowa City in time to make some decent kind of connections. I will write again on this subject soon so that you will know what I amy going to do.

This next week is going to be fairly busy. I have one report left to calculate and write up — the one on air conditioning in Principles. I hope that it is easy for I will not have too much time to spent on it. On Tuesday I will have a test in Principles & one in organic. Also I will have to give my last talk in Technical Writing. However that is all prepared so it is nothing to worry about. On Wednesday morning I am going to have three tests — in economy, elements of elect. eng and steam & gas engines. On Thursday, I will have another test in principles and perhaps one in technical writing, altho I hope not. By Thursday noon all of my worries will be over as far as tests go except if the inspection trip is not held, in which event the economy test might be on Friday. Thursday afternoon I will check in in organic laboratory. I am afraid that I have broken quite a bit of stuff so that I may have exceeded my $3 per semester allowance. I have broken 2 thermometers, one distilling flask, one big liter flask and other incidentals.

It has been sort of threatening to rain down here lately but it hasn’t done much about it which is very queer for Iowa City. I can’t see how it can keep from raining tonite but maybe it can. The tulips by the Physics Bldg & Shaeffer Hall are beginning to come out. I suppose that those in front of the Old Capitol are out too but I never get around to the front of it anymore so I haven’t noticed them. I have also seen some violets along the walk by which I come back from work.

There are quite a few sailors in Iowa City now and some of the naval officers have moved here. The official dedication ceremony was held some time ago. I thought that it would have been very appropriate if all of the ex-residents of the Quadrangle were there to boo the proceedings but nothing of the kind was done. A new building is to be erected near the fieldhouse to house some offices and classrooms. It is going to cost $70,000. They plan to complete it in 2 months which in my opinion is so much bosh. I think it would take at least 6 months and probably more to put it up. They are still working on the Quadrangle (for 2 months now) and it still isn’t quite ready. It sort of bothers me to see how everybody who is supposed to be a leader in this national emergency has a tendency to run around, shooting off his mouth and not getting much done.

I think that perhaps I am going to take a few more hours of school work this summer than I had originally planned on. I was looking thru the official schedule and saw some 2 hr courses which look kind of easy & interesting so I thought I might as well get my money’s worth by taking them. I will tell you about them later, either when I come home or in some other letter.

I was just thinking that perhaps I could skip some classes the week-end after next and come home then. I think perhaps I could get away with it. Then I could be home for Verner’s confirmation (it is on that Sunday, isn’t it?) and I would also be able to see Vivian, for she should be home by that time. Please inform me what you think of this idea too when you write to tell me about the interurban. You don’t know how I felt when it looked as if I might not be able to get home for awhile when I had so counted on it. However, I think that in one way or another I will be able to make.

With love

C.P.

Please write soon and tell me what your ideas are.

[marginalia] Thank you, father and mother, for your weekly letters and you mama for the laundry and cake. The place where I register for my sugar book is about one block from where I live.

I will buy the sugar and send it home to you when I send my laundry home. I have no qualms about doing this for it is against my principles for any agency, gov’t or otherwise, take a food and convert it into industrial alcohol even tho it is more or less essential to the production of munitions.

April 10, 1942

April 10, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, those three conservers of paper, lead and ink, and anyone else who may read this,

Today is Friday, April the 10th; one week later comes April the 17th; still one week later comes April the 24th; yet another week and comes May the first. On each day I will probably sit down at some time or other and write my weekly letters home. Then comes May 8th and unless something screwy occurs I should be coming home then. Of course, not for very long since school starts on Monday May the 10th, but nevertheless I will be coming home again. Oh happy day only four weeks hence! What are four weeks? They are only 28 days of 24 hours each but they still seem like an awful long time. Eight more incredibly dry periods of technical writing and of principles, twelve more times to come to hear the slightly mildewed Raiford expound the wonders of organic chemistry, three more weekends devoted to last minute report writing etc. etc. and then — whoops! — I can come home again. I’m acountin’ them thar days and they’re going slowly but they are going.

I really don’t have an awful lot to write about this week. My trip back from Dubuque was more or less uneventful and sort of dry-like. When I got back, it didn’t take very long to get back into the old daily routine again, grinding out problems etc. etc. I am planning to get some report-writing-up done over the weekend but I wonder if my resolutions will hold or not. My room-mate is trying to lure me to the baseball game tomorrow afternoon and I do not yet know if I am going to succumb or not. If it is a nice day perhaps I will go. Today the Iowa baseball team soundly trounced those mangy Minnesota baseball players 19–2. I listened to part of the game over the radio. If I go I probably will not get more than one report finished.

The summer schedule is partly officially settled now and I have been looking it over and I think that everything is going to work out fairly smoothly so that I shouldn’t have too hard of a time of it this summer. I have sort of been thinking about my draft number I believe that it fits in fairly well. At first I was sort of disappointed at not getting a higher number but on second thought there is an advantage in my case of having a somewhat lower number. I would like to get my questionnaire and be classified while I am still in school. That way I am fairly certain of getting a 6 months deferment since I am a prospective graduate of an engineering school. Then I would be working before I come up for reclassification. I only hope that my case does not come up in the one month interim between the time when school stops and my work begins. However I suppose, what happens will happen so that nothing can be done about it. However, much as I dislike the thought of eng’n’g, the army looks worse. Sometimes I am really scared when I think that I am supposed to be able to do when I start to work. Or that is, what I think I am supposed to be able to do. Most of the time I am appalled at my lack of knowledge. I don’t see how I am able to get along and do my work satisfactorily. But I suppose that will just have to take care of itself too.

The weather has been sort of queer in Iowa City lately. First it is nice and then it is raw & cloudy. I am hoping that it will soo turn nice and stay nice. If that happens tho, I suppose I will develop a tendency not to ming to my studying which wouldn’t be too good a thing.

Sunday night is the formal initiation banquet of some new members to Tau Beta Pi, to which I think I am going. Last Saturday was the all night session which I misses since I was in Dubuque. I sort of regret that it was not held at some other time so that I could have watched the initiates squirm thru everything I had to so. Altho it took a lot of time and cost $25, I do not regret in the least having joined Tau Beta Pi. Of course, we never get around to doing anything but it is fun anyway. Incidentally I don’t have any excuse to wear my key chain any more since we never use a key to our room any more. Therefore I cannot exhibit my honorary (?) decorations.

I seem to have run our of information so I will stop.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I have bought myself a lamp for my table for $1.98. It is a very nice lamp I think. I have no place to put my radio so it is sitting under the bed. At the end of the semester when my room-mate graduates, and if I don’t get another, I will have plenty of room to put it some place.

February 14, 1942

Postmark Feb 14, 1942

Saturday afternoon

Iowa City, Iowa

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

Well, a lot has happened since I wrote to you last. The main thing that has happened is of course that the navy has decided that Iowa City has some very good facilities for a naval cadet training center, so they are giving the U. of Iowa the inestimable privilege of turning over the Quadrangle, Hillcrest and the fieldhouse to the navy for that purpose. This of course means that the residents of the Quadrangle will have to be moved to other living quarters so that the naval cadets can move in. The evacuation of the Quadrangle will have to be complete by March 31. The residents will be moved out in sections at university expense and at least some kind of quarters provided for them either in private homes, the Law Commons, new dormitory units or cooperative dormitories. I will not have to move till the very last, that is on or by March 31.

My studies are coming along as usual — the same old rather uninteresting stuff. Their degree of intolerability is only slightly below that of conditions in general in the U.S. today.

The laundry bag arrived this morning. Thank you very much mama for the geranium, the butter & cheese, the cupcakes, the gredda-kaka (?) and of course, the clean clothes. Somehow or other, the laundry bag is more a means of getting good things to eat rather than a means of securing some clean clothes.

It has been snowing off and on here for several days. The snow has been coming down very nicely most of the time, sort of slowly and in big flakes. I love to watch it snow that way, even if it does mean a lot of slush thereafter. The temperature however has been hanging around freezing all of the time.

The school program down here has been accelerated. Spring vacation and exam week have gone overboard. This does not mean there will be no finals, rather it means that each final will be given in the last class period or periods and will be shorter than usual. This means that the semester closes May 10, and that the next day May 11, the summer semester opens. There is however about 3 days along in there when I plan to come home. The summer school will be over July 31, so that I suppose I will go to Calif about one month earlier than I had previously planned. Every time I think of it I sort of get griping sensations in my stomach. I can’t see why I seem fated to fool around doing what I don’t want to. I suppose you can’t expect anything else, however in this very democratic country.

I went to the swimming meet between Minn & Iowa last night. I should have studied but I was fed up for awhile. It was rather dry however except for the diving. The divers, three from Iowa, and two from Minnesota, were beautiful physical specimens. That goes especially for the two Iowa divers, Vargon and B----i (I can’t spell it as its Polish or something). [Biedrzycki — thank you Google!] Both of them are not too tall but they are certainly well-muscled. Vargon has a chest that looks like something like barrel. Sometimes I think it would be a lot of fun to try to draw an athlete like that. It must take a great deal of ability to make his muscular development seem real. Someday if I get around to it, maybe I’ll try it. Just now however, I don’t seem to have much time for such things.

Thank you, daddy and Vincent for the letters. Incidentally, Vincent when you said “I am writing you because of mama’s prevalence etc etc” you caused all the dead English teachers to turn over in their graves. “Prevalence” is just not used that way.

If any of the family have any bright ideas on how I am going to get all my stuff moved on the $1.00 which the university is going to allow each evacuated Quad. resident, please let me know.

By the way, when did the additions to the Strand cow family occur which Vincent mentions in his letter?

What happens when you don’t get more than seven hours of sleep per night? Answer: you get sleepy.

With love

C.P.

January 30, 1942

Jan 30, 1942

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, the three little boys, and whoever else may read this letter,

Well, I’m finished with my tests but I haven’t yet found out what I did in any of them. I got along pretty good answering everything but that is a long way from saying that I got everything correct. I suppose I’ll end up with a bunch of “B’s” but I suppose it cannot be helped. The English test was certainly peculiar test like I expected it to be. Just a bunch of rather general questions about vague ideas. It was one of those tests where you could start a national shortage in pencils if you wanted to. He handed out five sheets to every person. Some guys asked for more than five when they got those filled up but when I had finished five, I thought that was good enough and left. Of course, it was distributed between all the questions in about proportion.

By the way, speaking of national shortages really riles me up. In my opinion, the people in Washington are absolutely the blindest, dumbest, most illogical-minded and generally “candidates-for Cherokee” kind of people I have every heard of. This sugar rationing plan is the last piece of monumental stupidity and short-sight that has come out of Washington. Instead of looking at the situation candidly, somebody starts yelling “sugar-shortage” and everybody starts yelling with him “sugar-shortage” and presently they begin to think there is something to what they are saying because they haven’t stop[ped] to think, if such a thing is possible. First of all, for years now, production and refining of sugar beets in the U.S. has been definitely curtailed because of the competition it would cause with Cuban sugar. Sugar can be produced much more simply from beets than it can from sugar cane. The sugar cane juice as it is crushed from the cane is mixed with all kinds of nitrogenous waste that inhibits the crystallization of the sugar.

This is not true in the beet sugar industry where the beets are not squeezed to get the juice out but rather extracted. If the gov’t wanted to it could sponsor a sugar growing & refining campaign in the Middle-West which would dive Cuban sugar off the market in no time. Even as it is, production from sugar beets could be stepped up. But of course, nobody realizes that, so they have to start rationing the supply, which is limited in the first place by the gov’t simply for the same of Cuban interests.

What is going to happen in my opinion is that the sugar shortage will either go the way of Ickes oil-shortage or that Henderson will find himself wallowing in a sugar pile of monumental dimensions presently. But then, people don’t think and its a cinch, the leaders they elect don’t even think of thinking.

That lets my blood pressure down to about atmospheric pressure again. Every once in a while I get fed up with the gov’t in Washington and if it happened when I am writing a letter home, you get the benefit of it.

I have been sort of loafing along since yesterday morning when I had my last test. Last night I went to the basketball game between Iowa and Kansas U. I cannot figure out what is wrong with Iowa. They have lost about 3 games by 2 points. In my opinion they only game they deserved to lose was with Illinois. When they are “hot” they make the other team look like a bunch of flat-feeted policemen. Then they cool off till they look like Gowrie this year.

This coming semester I am going to be taking 19½ hours. It will consist of 5 hrs of organic, 5 hrs of electrical engineering, 3 hours of principle of chem. eng. 3 hours of chem. eng. economy, 2 hours of technical writing, ½ hour of plant inspection (a field trip) and 0 hrs of eng. society. I have a petition in at the dean’s office which if granted will enable me to graduate at the end of August or thereabouts. It is concerned with substituting some subjects for other subjects. If it is not granted I will have to squeeze in some extra hours someplace or take a longer time to graduate. I rather think however that it will be o.k.’d. Then this summer I will take 12½ hours which will fulfill my graduation requirements.

It is sort of a queer feeling to be able to look forward to the definite end of your school days. I don’t know whether to be happy or not the more I think about the job. I don’t like chem engineering very well and even the salary doesn’t seem to be worth doing something you don’t like to do. What use would I have for $160 a month? I probably wouldn’t spend more than ½ or even less of it. And most of that would probably be due to the higher cost of living in a city. I only hope that it will keep me out of the army, which would be even worse than chem eng.

However, following my usual policy of doing that which I wouldn’t do if I didn’t feel I had to, I wrote and told them I would be in Calif on Oct. 1. I am sure enough of my petition going thru to make such a statement. School should be over along about the 1^st or 2^d week in Sept so I can come home for awhile. Also there will be some time after this next semester when I will be home. The more I think about it, the worse I feel. I guess I shouldn’t have any time to think. Whenever I do I only become discontented with my future. Sort of like looking a gift-horse in this teeth I guess.

Two other fellows I know from here have accepted jobs with the same company. Both of them are graduate students in chem. eng. One of them is from “down south in Alabama” who probably thinks this Iowa winter is too much to stand and also understand. First it is very cold for awhile, then it gets nice warm, and then turns foggy and sort of raw. That is the kind of weather we have been having for about ½ week now.

Even in all of this mental blackness there are some light spots however. The music shop this morning was very good I thought. He even had, “Voices of Spring” on. Whispering voices, I guess. And then of course there is the two very welcome interludes every week when daddy’s and mother’s letters come. And then there is always the matter of walking to church Sunday morning, especially when it is nice. I am beginning to think that everybody who is physically able should be required to walk a half mile or a mile, or mile and a half or two miles to church on Sunday morning. On a nice day I think it is more of a service than the actual liturgy, sermon etc. On a day that isn’t so nice, it makes you appreciate more that which you are walking for.

This may sound queer, but I actually believe it. Church services are very good and the Bible and other religious writings are necessary to understand what we believe and how we should act etc. but for a really thoro understanding of the wonder of God and his creation (as far as a human is capable of understanding it) there is nothing like getting out where the creation can really get at you. Fundamental or not, that is the way I think. Incidentally at L.S.A. we have started the study of the Augsburg confession. This I think will be rather interesting. Also, when I got down here after Christmas I was unable to locate my devotional booklet. Its somewhere but where I don’t know. So I have been simply reading as I felt from the Bible. Not so good but all right I guess.

Well my room-mate wants to go downtown & eat now so I guess I will close and go along.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I’ll try to remember to send my old cap home next laundry bag.

P.S. Thank you, mother and father, for writing to me. I will address my letters to you all, but whoever doesn’t write to me doesn’t get any thanks either.

December 6, 1941

Postmark Dec 6, 1941

Friday evening

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Vincent, Verner (the sands have run out now) and — let me see, I believe there was one more last September but I’m beginning to wonder now. At any rate — and any others who may read this letter,

According to my schedule of events, it is only 13 days now until the day on which I will be coming home. Only 13 days more of getting up, reading the condensate meters, going to classes or some other place, studying, going to work down at the power plant, getting past about 4 or 5 tests, etc etc. It seems so long and yet it doesn’t seem so very long at that. Just think 13 x 24 hours from now I’ll be bumping along on the M. & St. L. leaving all of this balder-dash behind me — two two whole weeks.

I’ll say it’s a grand and glorious feeling just to think of it and I can hardly wait until the time actually comes. I reckon tho that I’ll have plenty to keep me busy those 13 days. I always keep pushing everything off till the last minute and then I find I can hardly find time for everything. This past week I have sort of sliding but I’ll have to buckle down good & proper between now and Christmas. Here is a list of things I plan to do — not all of them necessary of course — before I leave for home on Dec. 18 at around 12:30 P.M.

1. Finish Clarice’s Christmas present. Vivian’s is already finished. It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would, but it was rather time-consuming at that.

2. Get them thar principles expt’s entirely up-to-date. A very salutary object, but I wonder if it will be realized.

3. Go to the first basketball game of the season a week from tomorrow night.

4. Go to the initiation (formal) into Tau Beta Pi next Sunday night (this coming Sunday night) and the banquet afterwards.

5. Get my list of signatures for Phi Lambda Upsilon completed and other & sundry matters taken care of, attend the formal initiation next Wed. night and the banquet afterwards.

6. Go to the Christmas program a week from Sunday night at church, which takes the place of the regular L.S.A. meeting.

7. Study for the organic test tomorrow, the two thermo tests next week (for 2 periods straight now I have been absolutely certain we were going to have a test in thermo — and then no action on the Western front. I am expecting the sun to come up in the west one of these mornings if things don’t come back to normal. When Arnold starts casting out hints about tests and then doesn’t produce them, something must be wrong) the metallurgy test next Thursday, and for any other tests which may come up.

8. Get four more reports on addresses finished for technical writing so that I could have them 2/3 out of the way.

9. Do some Christmas shopping.

10. Go to my classes and labs.

11. Attend to any other things that have to be done, like writing that one, lone single more letter home, washing my stockings & underwear, eating, sleeping etc etc.

I surely wish I was looking back at all this. In 13 days I will, that is. I am assuming that I will be.

The weather has been very cloudy, foggy and warm around here for the past week. Today however it is colder and will get even colder tonite I think. For several nites I don’t think that the temperature fell below freezing. I hope it stays nice and warm until Xmas vacation starts; then it can storm & blow for all I care. By the way, the power plant here is running on a shoestring. They are unable to get any power from the city to cut the peak on their electric load so that corridor lights, street lights and many not necessary uses are being curtailed. I was talking to Smith today (getting the final official consent on my exodus on Dec. 18) and he said that if one of the 2 generators went off now, it would be just too bad, meaning that there would be less studying done I guess.

Did I ever mention to you, mother, that I thought farming would be a rather nice occupation to follow? It seems to me that I have said something or other about that. I have thought a little about the ministry but there seem to be several almost insurmountable obstacles, which may be due to my own stubborness, but seem, even taking that into account, as rather conclusive to any move in that direction. The first is that a minister should for the best interests of his congregation and work be a married man and I absolutely refuse to consider any such institution in my life. Secondly (here is Moses talking) I don’t think I am enough of an extrovert to adopt any calling which involves a great deal of contact with people. Here it might be mentioned, mama, that I have considered your criticism of my writing and have reached this conclusion. Of course if I were to become a minister I would have to correct this perhaps but, I believe that using big words isn’t a sign of bigheadedness or tendency to sound high-faluting or anything like that, that is, necessarily. It may be in some instances. On the whole, tho, as a person gets a formal education (ha! ha!) he learns to express himself with a greater amount of accuracy. That is his opinions etc are stated so that technically they are stated more correctly than before. To do this, the use of a certain amount of unusual words are necessary since they express variations in meaning that are inobtainable in the use of commoner words. This of course means more difficult reading etc but it does, on study, convey a clearer impression of what is going on. Well so much for that.

Finally, you know my attitude on certain scientific, notably biologic, theories. I’ll admit they’re theories. No person in his right mind could do otherwise. While I think they are all right if propery evaluation, nevertheless I don’t think a minister should believe them since it might have an adverse effect on his work due to the opinion which many people hold of them. By the by, my attitude on some of these questions has been some time in forming — indeed since when I was way back in high school somewhere.

Well I am closing here. One more letter home before Christmas vacation. That’s all and am I glad.

With love

C.P.

[Marginal addenda]

The little boy who was running around last fall, sometimes in the morning without his pants — where is he? I hope he didn’t eat too much at Thanksgiving so that he burst. I wonder what happened to him.

Verner: The time has come for another epistle. I trust I will not wait in vain. This is the last time, you remember, that you get your name in the salutation or whatever it is.

Daddy: I think that increasing the kilocycles was a very good thing. There is all the difference in the world between a post-card and a letter. I surely appreciate both, however.

Vincent: Thank you for the letter, my busy brother. You are hereby promoted to address by a distinctive title.

November 27, 1941

Nov. 27, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Verner (this distinctive address, Verner, lasts automatically for three letters. Then it stops until another letter arrives from the individual in question) and those two free, untamed spirits, untouched by the taint of education,

First of all I want to thank you, mama, for sending the cookies and pies as a special Thanksgiving treat and also for the cake, butter and eggs which came via the laundry bag. I was wondering after I got the laundry bag if you had decided to retain my 25¢ blue sport shirt at home and was all prepared to let out a loud oral gulp of protest when it came along with the cookies & pie. Please forgive me for entertaining such derogatory conceptions of your actions. No doubt you merely forgot to put it in the laundry bag. The box containing the cookies and pies came thru pretty good, considering the beating which the cookies inside took. About 1/3 resembled ground up crumbs for a meat loaf, 1/3 were in a state more or less reminiscent of cookies, while the other 1/3 were in quite presentable shape. The box arrived Wednesday morning before I left for school.

Well, I suppose you are at least somewhat interested in how the pre-initiation meeting came off last Saturday night. Well the meeting really didn’t get under way till 9:00 when the written test began, which covered practically everything ever taken up in school altho the last 1/2 was primarily concerned with engineering subjects. This test finished at 12:00 and had about 30 questions in it. After the test, the tests were all mailed someplace or other to be corrected or examined. Technically I suppose you are required to do a certain grade of work in the test, but I rather think it doesn’t make any difference. At any rate, if your standing in the test is considered I don’t see I could get in to this society, since I do not think I did so well in it. However, if I don’t, I don’t and I save $25; if I do, I do, I guess.

After that an oral examination conducted by the active members took place. Then every initiate was supposed to take the knife and block of wood which he was supposed to bring with him and carve out a bent, which is the emblem of the society. The block of wood was a 2" by 8" by 12" piece of white pine and the bent, shaped something like this

was about 1" x 4-1/2" by 8" or 9". Moreover the dimensions give were all in very odd units — miles, hands, fathoms, leagues, etc. — which necessitated conversion to a standard unit before anything could be done. By three o’clock, the five fellows being initiated were well started on their bents. At five o’clock, one guy cut his hand and was allowed to go home (he lived in Iowa City). At 6:15, I left since I had to read my meters. The rest left around 7:00. After I got back, around 7:15, I tumbled into bed and slept till one o’clock. I missed church, but I was so pooked that I couldn’t have kept my eyes open no matter how good the sermon was. Well that’s that and except for the fact that I haven’t finished the bent, the initiation (except for the formal part) is over. I am waiting to see how I came out in the test before I finish the bent.

Incidentally I have also been invited to join Phi Lambda Upsilon, honorary chemical society. The fee here is $15.50. I may be a food etc etc but I thought since I hoined the one I might as well join the other. Al Hanson, the L. S. A. president is a member (he is working on a ph.D. in physical chemistry) and he said that very little initiating is done there. Perhaps the chemists are more staid than the engineers. So that means I have spent, or will spend, pending developments, on giving myself a reputation some $40. Is it worth it? I have my doubts but then I always do what I have no use for doing which may be some guide to my actions in this affair. By the way, Al Hanson wrote an article in one of the Lutheran Companions I have received, altho it was some time ago. I meant to tell you at the time but I guess I forgot all about it.

Today, and yesterday, too, have been really beautiful fall days. Clear, calm and with just enough nip in the air to make you feel like getting out in Dolliver Park or somewhere and walking thru the woods. The river was like a mirror this afternoon. I should think, that if I were an amateu camera fan I would try to get some reflection pictures on extremely still days like today. This morning Gordon Mau came over and asked me to go to church with him so I got ready and went. I didn’t know about it since I wasn’t in church Sunday morning. When we got there, there wasn’t any services going on after all. However the walk was very nice. I wonder sometimes why people can’t find out what they’re doing before they do it. I would most certainly try to make a little sure of what I was going to do before I did it. Of course, today I merely accepted Gordon Mau’s statement as fact, since I suppose he knew what he was talking about it. Evidently he didn’t.

I don’t know yet what to do about the picture proposition. There are no 3 for 10¢ photo-taking places in the ten cent stores here. I made that round almost immediately. I guess I’ll mull things over in my mind for awhile.

All is quiet on the scholastic front this week. The test didn’t come back in organic. The university has instituted a new system whereby at mid-semester you are given some idea of how you are doing in your classes. You are graded 1-above average 2-average 3-unsatisfactory 4 and 5-some other derogatory rating. I got ones in everything except technical writing where I got a 2. This gripes me since I have had all my papers in on time, with no grade lower than a B+. However, just because I got ones in other subjects is any sign that I am going to get A’s in them. I can’t see how I can get more than B in some of them. However, only the future will determine that. On the whole the whole mess of subjects I am taking grows more boring every time I go to class. Why am I going to school? I don’t care if, if Henry’s Law holds you can use log mean concentration different in solving absorption or extraction problems or if you can get a different percentage of conversion in an exothermic reaction if an adiabatic process is employed, or if age-hardening is good for aluminum alloys since slip plans are keyed by CuAl₂

[The letter ends here. It seems as though the rest of it is missing.]

[Marginal addendum in his mother's handwriting]

We missed this usual outburst in last week's letter but it pops up again!

September 23, 1941

Sept 23, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear father, mother, Vincent, Verner, Marold and others

I haven’t received any communication from you mother but I suppose that it will come today. I hardly expected it to come yesterday but I looked any way. Meanwhile I will write this letter now (it is about 6:15 A.M.) and get it mailed this morning so that you should get it to-morrow.

Registration was a very much easier process this year, that is, it was in the sense that by the time you get this letter it will have been accomplished in toto. However at present, it is still in-complete as far as paying my tuition goes. I read in the Daily Iowan this morning that the Registrar here has devised a new and simplified registration procedure, and from the appearance of things, the statement is not a specimen of emotional gush but really a fact. Under the old system that was in effect last year, there were about 7 or 8 separate steps to the registration procedure plus a tremendous lot of card-filling out etc etc etc. Now, there are only 4 steps and the last one is an addition to the old procedure in that it constitutes the issuance of the activity ticket. Moreover, there are less places in which you have to put this, that and the other thing.

Due to this simplified registration procedure and the fact that I knew precisely what I was going to take, the part of the registration which I went thru yesterday lasted only about 1¼ hours. I went over to the Eng. Building at 12:45 or so and signed up as a senior (not exactly true but it would get you to the point of registering much faster. That is because sheets are handed out labeled Chem, Elect etc Eng’ng with sub-heads of Soph, Jr and Sr. Since by the time the sheet came to me there were quite a few names under Jrs., I put mine under the Sr heading and got in one of the very first ones.)

My adviser was the head of the department, Olin, and as far as the advice he gave me, it was totally negligible since I already knew what was needed. However, as is common with people who put an exaggerated value of every detail of form etc. it took him about 15 min to fill out one card. Thereafter I filled out the other 6 or 7 what have you, got them approved, checked, and fees assessed in the next hour or less. However on my registration blank was a number indicating that the time I should pay my fee (tuition) would be the next day (that is, today) at ten o’clock. Therefore I still have that to do but that should not take me very long. After that, I will have my picture taken and my activity ticket prepared. The picture will appear on the ticket as a means of identification.

As I perhaps told you, next Saturday is the first football game of the season which I suppose I will see since it costs me nothing to get in.

I registered for Chem. Eng. Thermodynamics, Principles of Chem Eng. II, Organic Chemistry, Tech Writing and Phys Metallurgy this semester for a total of 16 hours. I have lab 4 afternoons a week and only 1 Sat class, organic. I rather think it will be an easier schedule than I had last semester. I have prepared my schedule also for the next 3 semesters to take care of any contingency that I can conceive of.

Maybe I should have written about my room-mate first but I got started on registering instead so I will write about him now. His name is Howard Ward. He is a sophomore in electrical mechanical engineering and plans to specialize later in aeronautic work. I knew him vaguely last year; that is, when I saw him I recognized him as a member of the freshman drawing class and that is about all. His home is in a suburb of Chicago. He is about my height but quite a bit heavier, say 175 or 180 lbs. He has dark black hair which looked to me almost as if it had some gray hairs in it. He says he loves to play football but can’t spend the time necessary to play it down here. I caught a glance of his report card on the table and I would say his grade point was about a 2 or C. For all his fierce array of pipes he has done very little smoking so far. He is half-thinking of joining a fraternity but is still quite undecided. He may join now, but not move in till next semester. I suppose it is barely possible that he may move out, but if he does it will be later rather than sooner I think. He likes to sleep till about 8:30 or so in the morning but he doesn’t mind when I get up, I suppose since he can sleep thru anything. He doesn’t snore but he does make wheezy sounds as he sleeps. Several times I have heard him half talking in his sleep.

I have not entirely completed my opinion of him but so far it is this. As most people I have met in this school he is more or less of a dope. He is not too smart, probably doesn’t study a lot. He is the good old extrovert type insofar as he like to be out mixing with people. However, I do not think that he would be a dominant figure in any group. It will be easy enough living with him I think, as it is always easy to get along with people who don’t think to much. If you want to know any other particulars let me know and I will try to answer them.

My leaves are still quite droopy. I can’t figure out why. So far the ivy seems to be doing quite well. I have watered them once, only a little.

I played tennis Sunday afternoon, with James Cross and I almost wore a blister in myself. Could you send my shorts etc? I believe they are permissible attired on the tennis courts. I don’t suppose tho that I will play very much.

Food prices have gone up about 1/3 down here since last spring.

I still do not think that it will be any fun going to school now or at any other time.

With love,

Carl

P.S. What should I do about Uncle Carl’s check? I forgot to give it to dad to put on his acc’t. Should I send it home?

March 13, 1941

March 13, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear mother, father and them thar “three little boys,”

Somehow or other I have forgotten to send you an account of my grades from last semester. I received them several weeks ago, and since I though I had already told you everything which was duly confirmed by the report-card, I just didn’t think of including them in one of my letters. I got B in Industrial Stoich, Ch Industries & Mech of Solids and A in Drawing & German. Besides that, thru some mixup or something (but I’m not grouching about it) I received credit for that nice little course, Engineering Society altho I wasn’t registered for it and didn’t attend any of the meetings. However, such a state of affairs is all right by me. I’m not going to say anything for fear they’ll discover their mistake. I have the official report from the registrar’s office giving me credit and if I ever need to use it I will.

I rather think that my average wasn’t so hot and that it is rather foolish for me to continue to try to be a chemical engineer. Besides, I rather believe that my grades might dip even lower this semester than last due to several reasons. Reason number one is my increasing aversion for German and Drawing which will probably bring me down to a B in them. Reason number two is that I’m wondering just what I will get in Physical Chemistry. I certainly didn’t do very well on that first test. From what I have heard, almost anybody can get C in it, and I probably will, but that the B’s are few and far in between while an A is practically non-existent.

The other subjects — Ch Industries, Principles of Chem Eng I and Mech of Materials are probably B grades for me. In Ch Industries, I am preparing a better notebook this semester so that there is a slight change that I might get an A. The Mechanics of Materials is relatively simple and if the final counts as much as it did in Mech of Solids and if at the time I am in a mood for not mis-juggling my figures, I might have a remote chance of getting an A in it. The Principles seems to be somewhat easier than Industrial Stoichiometry so that if that is any criterion I’ll get a B in it. But I want to make it know right now, that you should not expect any too good grades from me this semester, for if you do you will be disappointed.

As for the German and drawing, I am thoroly disgusted with both, but they are easy enough so that with a minimum of preparation it is still easy enough to get B in them but I do not feel like doing something I don’t feel like doing simply to raise my grade point average. Of course, 90% of the stuff I do down here, I don’t want to do, so if I were consistent I would scarcely study at all.

Since I wrote home only last Sunday there seems to be a slight deficiency of news to-nite. I’ll just list a few salient facts and let it go at that.

1. If you want to send me anything to eat, mama, I have absolutely no objections of any sort whatsoever.

2. You are probably correct in that my letters are valves for letting off steam. The only trouble is that in-between times the pressure always keeps building up.

3. I had a letter from Howard the other day. It is too bad there isn’t any fellows like him down here. I guess anyone with any sense avoids this place. He says he is going to take some Physics next term and is already kicking himself in the pants for having let himself in for something. He also said that Florine Hanson was not going to school anymore. He doesn’t mind this, he said because then Charles Swanson won’t come up and stay with them when he comes down to visit her. He said that they have enough trouble with Dale Hauser.

4. I still don’t know quite what to do about my room. I reckon I’ll end up by moving into a vacant single room. The more I meet people, the less I like to be with them.

5. My leaves, which for about a week have been over in Gordon Mau’s window are definitely on the mend. They are much greener and in middle of the leaf has turned from a sickly yellow to the normal purple color. My cactus tho is not faring so well.

6. The streets and sidewalks down here are a slushy mess again. I almost believe that we had more snow this last time than in any previous snowstorm of the winter. The flakes really came down thick & fast for awhile. Today it has been melting and if we have a few warm days, the snow will not last long.

7. I’m undecided what I should do with my $15 from Uncle Carl. I’m almost hesitating on the brink of spending it for books. There is a store downtown which has some fascinating books in it. However, they are mostly fiction and I believe that I would like to get ahold of a historical geology book or something like that. I guess I’ll look around a little more.

8. So Philip Lind is getting married — the dope.

9. As for John Telleen, I always thought he was sort of foolish to go to baseball school.

10. Why is Carl Telleen selling his station?

11. I said I was thoroly disgusted with German. However, I have run across a little poem in the grammar, inserted no doubt by Fehling, one of the authors of the book. I’ll copy it here and you can see what you can make of it:

1. Auf dem Felde steht’ne Kuh,

Die macht die Augen auf und zu

2. Auf dem Felde steht ein Schwein,

Das sieht der Kuh ins Aug’hinein.

3. Sagt die Kuh: “Du dumme Schwein,

Sieh mir nich ins Aug’hinein!”

4. Sagt das Schwein, “Du dumme Kuh,

Mache doch die Augenzu!”

It’s rather inane in English but the German gives it a rather interesting angle.

With love

C.P.

January 31, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Jan 31, 1941

Dear Mama, Papa, “kernel of the nut,” “triple dimples” & “tall & slim”

I had intended to write sooner but as I had not found out about a lot of things I thought I would wait awhile till I found out some more. Well, I haven’t found out much but if you are to get this letter on Saturday I will have to get this letter written and posted sometime this morning. So I will do this and if anything out of the ordinary occurs I will let you know in a special communication.

I cannot quite understand how my body is working these days. First I feel real punk for awhile and then it passes for awhile. At any rate I felt better during my tests than I thought I would about Thursday or Friday of last week. Of that I was naturally very thankful but I don’t know if it helped a terrible lot. The only doctoring I did was in the shape of some Vicks cough drops, used mainly on the days when I woke up with the swallowy sore throat.

How I got along or think I got along in my tests.

1. Industrial Stoichiometry — The final test in this nemesis of mine was the hardest thing I have have yet run across. As I look back over this course it reminds me of a ton of nitroglycerin attached to a semester long fuse. Last fall I saw the fuse lit but didn’t know then what it led to. Last Saturday morning the last of the fuse burned and the ton of nitroglycerin went off in my face. There were five problems in the test and each of them was pretty much of a stickler. However, I managed to get finished except for the second part of part C of problem five. I was talking to a fellow last night and I found out that I had expressed the answer to one of the problems in the wrong kind of units. So far that is the only mistake I can think of altho there are no doubt more of them. I really wonder what I got in that test. I asked the teacher and he said the papers would not be corrected until sometime next week so I guess I will have to wait until then to find out how I did.

2. Chemical Industries — In this course also there was been no official communique yet. There were 13 questions in the test and that was an unlucky number for me since one of them was about something I had forgotten all about. Last fall sometime we had to read a report in a magazine on sulfuric acid production and use during 1939. I read it and took notes on it, but promptly forgot about it since it was sort of a dry article. Well, it popped up in the test, so that means I missed 1/13 right off the bast. The rest of the test, however, was quite easy except for a part of another question which I was not sure about. I got my revised notebook back and this time I had gotten a B on it so that if I get a B in the test I will get B in the course. I think that perhaps I will but I am making no promises of any sort whatsoever.

3. Mechanics of Solids — The thing that I did in this test gives me terrible griping sensations in the region of my stomach. In one of the six problems I made a mistake in figuring a moment of inertia of a body with the result that my answer was off. This was enough to give me B in the test and therefor B as a grade. That makes me sort of angry at myself. However, it is over so I guess that is that (So that’s “that”)

4. German — the test in this was rather easy as I suspected it would be. I missed 2 things in it, which entitled me to an A, any way that is what I got.

5. Drawing — this too was a very easy test, easier (it seemed to me) than almost any of the rpevious tests so that I got an A in the course. I do not know what I got in the test, since only the final grades were posted. The way the grades in this test were rather queer, about 10 A’s, 10 B’s, a whole slug of C’s and D’s and some Cond and Fd’s. What seemed funny to me I that there should be so few B’s in relation to the rest of the grades. Well, that’s not my worry so I will forget about it.

I do not know exactly what I should do about my schedule. I have not registered yet but I will either this afternoon or sometime to-morrow. My adviser (the one with the round, pig-like, placid, fat face) has figured out a way to get thru in 2 years from now but it has some very undesirable features. Feature no. 1 is that it depends on my petitioning my way out of second semester drawing which is a very dumb thing to do in my opinion. Feature no. 2 is that I would take the second semester of Phys. Chem before the first which is not such a good ideas.

I cannot make up my mind just what I should do. I think I will let it rest like this. If I can get drawing on Tues and Thu which I will have to in order to get it included at all (and which is problematical since I would have to switch sections and the sections already almost filled) I will take what I had originally planned of Mech of Materials, Ch Eng Principles I, Ger, Econ and of course drawing. If I do not, I am in a quandary as to what I should do.

Another undesirable feature of the 2 year plan is that I could not take German this next semester. I am sort of inclined to stretch it out to 2½ years and therefore get some sort of continuity in what I take. Besides there is the possibility of my never coming back to this lousy place in which event taking a lot of hard stuff next semester would be cutting off my nose to spite my face. I made some inquiries about the art course but it didn’t impress me particularly. I think I could do just about as much by fooling around by myself. That is of course, with pencil and ink. They mentioned charcoal and conte crayon (whatever that is) which sounded rather interesting but they also mentioned watercolor work which immediately put me on the defensive. I can still recall what a mess watercolor cork was in the grades. So I do not think I will try to take an art courses.

I was downtown yesterday browsing thru the books stores to see if they had any textbooks that were required for fundamental drawing courses, but there were none, that is officially. I ran across a book on perspective that looked pretty good but I believe that that is taken up in my Eng. Drawing book someplace so that it would be rather useless to get it. I think I will continue my old habit of drawing for recreation and get my training in it that way. After all, I am beginning to think (hear! hear!) that the best training is the training that you get doing the stuff you like to do. In that case training to be a chemical engineer has in my case about a X2562 rating.

My scholarship check for $50 will not be here until sometime next week so that I am going to pay my tuition with a check and using the $50 + another check for $13.50 pay for my room. That way there will be a minimum of red tape I think.

There should be some money up at the Supt of Schools office in Ft. Dodge for one of my Eur. History books now. Only one of them was sold last fall.

I almost think that unless I write and tell you differently I will take the 2½ years to finish. Maybe I am doing an unwise thing but as I said before, it probably will never make any difference what I take no anyway. At any rate, if I can get the drawing I am going to take it.

With love

Carl

[Marginal addenda]

The geranium sort of perished for lack of sunshine or something but the other plant you sent and my two cactuses are doing quite well.

One of my shirts needs some shortening in the sleeve. I will endeavor to make it clear by pins.

I will send some laundry home sometime soon as I see my stock of shirts is falling down.

I was invited to go on a bobsled ride last night but I didn’t go. I thought I would probably freeze.

I think that I will have a couple of books to buy this semester, depending on what I take.

January 22, 1941

Jan 22, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear Mother and Daddy and the three little boys,

Well, I got your package and letter at the same time (at noon today) but I don’t have very much time to unpack stuff at noon. I put the flowers in a glass of water and got most of the perishables put away but the rest had to wait until after school. I skimmed thru your letter then but I gave it a good reading when I came home after school. Thank you very much for the eats, I won’t say anything in particular, but a big thank you in general since I appreciated ever single constituent of the box.

I have glanced thru the magazines but they will have to wait to be read till about Wednesday afternoon next week. Then all of my tests will be over. Saturday I have two, German and Mechanics of Solids, none on Monday, Chemical Industries & Drawing on Tuesday and last of all that harbinger of evil, Industrial Stoichiometry on Wednesday morning. I view the approaching tests with trepidation and will be very glad that they are over when they are over but that is not saying if I will be happy as to how I did in them.

I have been feeling sort of punk since last Saturday. Saturday I had sort of a “swallowy” sore throat and a feeling of general debility. I almost didn’t go to church Sunday but I did anyway. Maybe the walk did me good after being in all Saturday (I didn’t venture out). At any rate I felt better on Mon & Tues but today I have been logy again with a slight headache. I bought some Vicks cough-drops to help combat a slight return of the “swallowy” sore throat. I think my cold started in Industrial Stoichiometry lab (is there any good at all connected with it?) because the experiment we were doing tended to make the air in the room warm and moist.

Then Friday night I wasted some of my precious time to go with two boys to a show and I got a little cold walking home. At any rate I didn’t feel so hot Saturday but I am hoping I will get all right and stay so till the tests are over. It would be sort of a mess if I got sick now. I suppose I shouldn’t complain tho, when I hear how poorly Aunt Ruth has been. I surely hope, both for her sake and grandmother’s that her condition continues to improve as you said it had started to in your letter.

Brief resume of my mental activities

(1) Chem. Industries — I still have about 12 pages or so of notes to write up by Fri when we have to hand in our notebooks. I am more skeptical of my final grade in this course than in any other.

(2) Indus Stoich —So So. We have had 2 trests in both of which I got 8. Not any too good but that is neither here nor there. I haven’t done nay reviewing at all for this test yet.

(3) German. So So — we are parsing sentences as a review for the test. The oral test didn’t go off so badly but I would like to know what I got.

(4) Drawing. I have had another of my drawings up but otherwise thinkgs have been going along as usual.

(5) Mech of Solids: I asked the teacher what my average was and he figured it up for me. It was an A in the daily work and right in between A- and B+ in the tests. So if I do good in the final I will get an A in the course. I surely hope I do.

I am very sorry to abbreviate my letter like this but I must try to finish getting my Chem Indus notes written up tonite. I promise that when I get all the tests out of the way and am duly registered I will write a big long letter trying to clear up any discrepancies I have left open. I am still undecided about my course. The trouble is, in case you don’t understand, schedule conflicts would make it impossible to finish in a shorter time than 2½ years from now, that is of course without any summer school. However, I am disgusted with school in general & Chem Engr in particular so I probably will never finish anyway.

With love

Carl

[The following sentences were written sideways up and down the sides of the two pages of the original letter.]

Vivian says I haven’t written her. She must have an extremely short memory. (Do not send this letter on to her on acc’t of above statement.)

I will mail this as I go down to supper. Please do not feel downhearted over the lapse in my writing activities. They will improve in about one week.

Thank you, Verner for putting in the Bungle strips.

The grapefruit in this town is the sourest stuff I ever run into. It gives my intestine a tendency to make squirmy noises in class. I guess I will have to eat some other kind of fruit.

January 15, 1941

This letter has not been proof-read

Jan 15, 1941

Iowa City, Iowa

Dear Mother:

Well, I hope the U.S. postal service treated my last letter better than it did the card I send you the Monday after I came down here. I thought it was kind of funny that you wanted to know why I hadn’t written when I had (although it was very much, I will admit). That is the second card that has gone astray between here and Gowrie out of about 5 or 6 sent. That is not a very good average. I guess hereafter I will use a 3¢ stamp and an envelope even if I don’t have much to say or ask about.

The last letter home was written in more or less of a hurry, as you may have noticed. At any rate, I will try to make this letter a better one. I have written one letter to Vivian and she has already answered. However, it was written while I was in a capricious mood and was more or less a chunk of nonsense. She said they she had written home as soon as she got to Dubuque and I see by the letters you enclosed with your letter that Clarice had to. I guess that should make me ashamed of myself. I haven’t decided yet if it does or not. I will let you know when I do.

We got to Iowa City here about nine o’clock and I unpacked most of my stuff that night, some being left until the morning and some still even later. It took me a couple of days to get into “ye old routine” again but as I had to do quite a bit of studying, it came about easily enough. Now, however I am somewhat caught up again so that I will write a more presentable letter (See! See! What pride makes a man do.) When I walked into my room Sunday night, two weeks ago, the first think I noticed was that my poor flower was dead, completely and irrevocably deceased. I was sort of disgusted since the water was way down and I mistakenly assumed that the maid, whom I had asked to keep it watered, had forgotten all about it. hen she came in Monday morning, however, she informed me that on the day after Christmas something had gone wrong with the heating system, the temperature had gone up to a good deal in excess of 100°F I guess, and it was even so warm they couldn’t stand to be in the building. She said that in some rooms, newspapers lying around had turned up and gotten brown around the edges. How the place kept from getting on fire is more than she can guess, at least that is what she said.

At any rate, my poor flower withered in the fiery heat and is no more. My cactuses are getting along pretty well tho. The one I got from Vivian is sprouting new growth at the top. I always thought that cactuses grew slowly, but given half a chance, this one would be no sluggard. It needs sunshine tho I think, and the poor thing isn’t going to get any too much, I think. Maybe I should try to get the room across the hall. Maybe I’ll look into the matter when I pay my room rent. Incidentally it can be paid in about 3 equal installments, at least that is what some other fellows are doing. Should I do that? You might inform me in the next letter you send. While I am thinking about hot things, like I guess this room was on Dec 26, I should say that there was a little conflagration down the hall aways last Tuesday. Somebody had thrown a cigaret in a waste basket, I guess.

Last Sunday was a bee-utiful day down here. The air was balmy and there was only the lightest of breezes. I noticed that the smoke coming from the chimneys of the U. heating plant drifted away very, very slowly in the air. The air smelled almost like spring. I almost wish that the next semester was past like this one almost is. By the way, I am having schedule trouble again and in great big lumps. That’s the way it looks to me anyway. I worked out two different schedules for myself which extended from now till I finish (if I finish) this chemical engineering course. One of them, which depends on doing one of my drawing periods at some odd moment rather than at the scheduled time, + a little leniency on the part of the faculty in allowing me to apply my European History onsome freshman subjects regularly on the engineering curricula, would turn me out (with summer school included) a year from this coming June. But it would involve taking about 20 hours straight thru, and a lot of that lab courses, which would be like trying to swallow an elephant. The schedule probably wouldn’t be approved anyway.

The other schedule would finish two years from this spring without any summer school and would include practically all the courses that I would have taken had I come down here as a freshman. It is practically impossible to get my schedule to come out in two years from now. Maybe it can be done, but so far I can’t do it. I was talking to a fellow last night who said that since I have had 4 hrs of organic I might be able to let that apply on organic lab work and take only the organic classwork. If this is true it might simplify matters somewhat so that I could get thru in two years from now. If I decide to take 2½ years from now to finish, two advantages present themselves — (1) I would have plenty of time, (I think) to take some art courses (2) Maybe it would be easier to get a job around June, I don’t know. Of course all this assumes that I’m going to finish which might never happen. You might include in your next letter a little advice on what I should do.

How my studies has progressed since I came down here.

(1) Chem Industries: So So — I only got C+ in my notebook, which sort of griped me. However I was talking to a fellow who said that you should be sure to type anything you hand in to him. If its written and good, your work doesn’t get a very good grade. [By the way, what is Vivian’s address? Is it 1491 University Ave or 1491 Delhi St?) If types and lousy, it still rates pretty good with the instructor. I guess that’s what I’ll do next semester. With my 2½ year schedule this course might be postponed awhile. Of course, that is highly conjectural.

(2) Mechanics of Solids — not so hot. I wrote and told you I believe that I got 77 in the test I wrote before Xmas. That wasn’t so bad since the highest grade I saw was 80. We have had another tho in which I got only 55 (highest grade – 75). I would have had 75 too had I not made an error in arithmetic. I had my 3 equations with 3 unknowns in them correctly set up and then I messed them up in solving them. The teacher in this has gone to a convention in N.Y. so we are having a substitute teacher, who is a pretty good fellow, I think. Next week starts the semester review in this course.

(3) Industrial Stoich — So So — We are just winding up the semester’s work. We had a quiz today in which I will probably get an 8, due of course to my ever-present ability to get a decimal point or some other little thing wrong.

(4) German — Friday we are going to have an oral examination. I hope I get thru it all right and I think perhaps I will. At least I think I am considerably better than most of my class mates which is more than I can say in some of my other classes.

(5) Drawing — Rah! Rah! We have had another examination and I got 95 in it, which was the high grade in the test all tho about 2 other guys got it too. The nice thing about it tho was that I got my test posted on the bulletin board. That makes 3 of my 5 examinations that I have had posted as being the best in the class, the lettering examination, the one-hr factual exam and then this one. This makes me quite happy, indeed. Unless something goes extremely awry in the final, I think I should get an A in it.

Predictions on how I will make out in my studies at the end of the semester. Drawing – possibly A, certainly B. German: ditto, depending on oral examination. Mech of Solids B, Indus Stoic, B (?) everything is a question mark in this class. Chem Industs, if I write a good test – B, otherwise C (effect of notebook grade)

[Written down left side of last page of letter]

That is what I think I will get. In about 2 weeks I will know what I did get. It doesn’t sound any too good to me and I sort of doubt that it is worthwhile continuing if I don’t get better grades.

[Written up right side of last page of letter]

This is the complimentary close to this letter, out of place but nevertheless present.

With love, Carl

[The following sentences were written sideways up and down other page margins.]

I have been a little lonesome since I returned, but I suppose it will pass.

Hint [word surrounded by three arrows for emphasis]: Now that daddy has his new glasses, why don’t you, mama, and you, daddy, have your picture taken together. I think that would be a very good ideas.

My cap is very nice. However, I think I got it about 1/8[?] size too small.

Do not forget to tell me how Bungle & his friend are getting along.

P.S. I have started a rough sketch of Verner but haven’t had much time to work on it.

Things forgotten at home and to be returned at the earlier opportunity — one pair of high grayish blue pants, very good for wearing in the room so that the other pants will not lose their press