Sunday, November 15, 1953

November 15, 1953

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Father & Mother

It’s about 8:30 this Sunday evening and I’ll pen a few lines before it’s time to go to bed. Jean says she is going to write a letter telling about the wedding, reception & trip south so I’ll omit saying anything about them except to note that everything seemed to come off in a very satisfactory way and the honeymoon trip was quite enjoyable. The weather was a little on the cloudy side but that’s to be expected this time of the year.

This evening so far we have been out and returned some dishes that were used in the reception and visited the Knocks briefly. We left rather early though since tomorrow is a back-to-work day and the end of the week after the return from Santa Barbara was again somewhat strenuous getting things somewhat in order in the house. Rev Knock said that he had written a letter to you regarding events so you doubtless had heard some of what transpired from him. They were at the reception so had the chance to meet Jean’s folks.

In the mail which had accumulated while we were gone was a notice from the railway express agency of a package which I would guess was the one from U. Carl. The office is closed on weekends so we will have to get it sometime during the week; however it has arrived safely. We also had a letter from Clarice and a gift waiting for us on our return.

As you gather we are now established at 411 Bonnie Dr albeit disorganizedly yet. The only thing to complete this purchase is for us to receive back the deed from the county recorded which should occur shortly. This afternoon I signed the papers selling the house in Seaview so that should be complete this next week; it will be a relief to have these all finally complete. Friday night was the first real story of the season here (we were driving home in part of it) and I wondered if it could have been enuf to blow sone shingles off at 931 Seaview. I looked around tho and everything seemed o.k. so maybe it didn’t do any damage. Shortly before I bought it quite a few got blown off in a storm so I wondered if it would have happened again.

Jean has just reminded me (again) that I didn’t get around to getting addresses for 3 wedding invitations so in case Uncle Milton’s, Uncle Serenus’s or Under Verner’s wonder why they didn’t receive any that was the reason. They probably wouldn’t have been to interested anyway I’d guess.

This is all for now.

With love

C.P.

December 3, 1045

Dec 3 1945

1046 W 24th St

San Pedro, Calif

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

As I wrote in the card I sent Sunday I didn’t get around to writing till now, and I am duly settled in my new quarters and have also worked another day for good old Shell Development.

After I said goodbye to you at Boone and boarded the train I went to bed for awhile but I didn’t undress because it was only a couple of hours till daylight. I just lay and attempted to nap for awhile but not too successfully. The train was late leaving Boone of course — about an hour and a half — and remained behind schedule till it got out of Salt Lake City. Then, since there is a considerable stretch where the roadbed is straight and level they made up time till the train was exactly on schedule at Milford, Utah. During the last night on the train, it made up some more time so that it got in an hour early, an unprecedented occurrence in my experience. I didn’t mind at all since train riding is not exactly a source of unbounded joy and happiness to me.

The trip back was much like it was coming home but in Wyoming and Utah the scenery was much nice now than then, primarily because it had snowed some more so that the mountains and trees were all snow covered. It was certainly a “Christmasy” sight to look at the mountains etc when the sun was out and they were all glittery and white. You could hardly look at them steadily, it made them water so. It wasn’t too cold tho since a little stream which follows the tracks for some time before the train gets to Ogden was not frozen over. There was hardly any snow at all in Nebraska and after we left Salt Lake City and went south, it soon disappeared there too.

In the berth below me were a marine captain and his new bride, at least I guess it was because they acted as if marriage was something quite new and different. Anyway, he was all attention etc etc and she was sort of flighty etc and all in all they didn’t realize there was anybody else around but themselves. I had to laugh because on Friday morning I said hello of course and we all introduced ourselves and we made a few polite remarks about ourselves. Then Sunday morning I was talking to the captain again and he certainly didn’t remember what was said then. I guess he had his bride on his brain. Oh yes, he was telling her what he didn’t like to eat and she was mentally cataloguing it all, I suppose resolving never to give him this or that. It was really funny.

There were a couple of other interesting people on the train but most of them were rather dull. There was an ex-jockey (race-horse rider) going to Calif with his wife and son. The parents weren’t much but they certainly had a cute little boy. There was also an Italian, a chief petty officer in the navy who was quite interesting. He certainly had no use for the navy and was going to get out at the first opportunity.

Most of the time on the train I didn’t feel so hot. I think I had picked up a touch of the flu at home so my stomach didn’t feel so good. As a consequence I didn’t eat much & had some of your lunch left, mama, when I got here. I went to the diner for supper one night but, except for the coffee which I really wanted, it was a disappointing meal.

Sunday afternoon I took a bath and cleaned up after the trip, since you always feel dirty after you get off the train. Then I unpacked my stuff etc. Later I went downtown and mailed the card and walking all the way back up to the house here since I had had no exercise to speak of on the train. I think I am going to like it very well here since the lady is very congenial and since the bus runs about ever[y] 15 minutes or so, so it isn’t very hard to get to & from downtown.

Today at work was like any other day there except that I didn’t feel much like working, but did manage to get some things done. Davidson said that Johnson was coming down in a week or so, so I could find out what, if anything, was holding up the transfer. I was talking to Ed Fisch (one of the guys from Iowa U) today and he was saying something about a new selective service directive that had gone out recently sying that you would be permitted to go back to school now & work towards an advanced degree if you had been working for two or more years. I would like to know if this was so, but I certainly don’t want to correspond with the draft board anymore than I have to. As long as they forget about me the better I like it. Incidentally, I didn’t receive any communication from them during the time I was gone.

This is all for now. I should write a letter to Vincent.

With love

C.P.

P.S. I haven’t got Verner’s new address. Could you send it along sometime.

August 30, 1942

August 30, 1942

425 S Cabrillo Ave 

San Pedro, Calif.

Dear Father, Mother, and other relatives,

I will devote this letter to answering the questions which mama included in her last letter. After that I may add some more information if I can think of some to give.

1. I found out about the room I am staying at the first Sunday I was out here. By that time I had already moved to 1018 Avalon Ave, Wilmington. The lady next door has Dwight Johnston as a roomer. I met her son at church, and, when he found out I knew Dwight, invited me to dinner. When I was there in the afternoon I found out about the room for rent next door. I looked at it then but I didn’t take it until Tuesday night, and I moved in Wednesday night, I believe it was. The room in Wilmington was about what I expected but this room was nicer so that is why I moved. The boy who moved in with me was a rather nice guy I thought but he smoked so I decided that I wouldn’t like it too well. Moreover the price was only $2 a month less than where I am now staying which was only a little more considering that I was getting a private room.

My room is located on the northwest corner of the house. It has two windows on the north, one on the south, and a door on the south (a private entrance). The closet is good sized and the bathroom is next door. The Mr. Taylor who moved me is the man I stayed with. I thought that that was very considerate of him. I liked him very much. Mr and Mrs Taylor were, I think, people with more personality than the people I am now staying with. Incidentally, it is remotely possible that I may move again. Yesterday I found the public library here because I wanted to get something to read. However, I had to get somebody to vouch for me, so I walked out to Rev. Wellington’s and he gladly signed for me.

While I was there, he told me that a lady and her husband in the congregation were half-planning on taking a vacation out east for six weeks and that maybe I could stay there because they are looking for someone to stay there while they are gone for nothing and look after the house. After that I could stay there as a roomer. I saw the house and if the inside is like the outside it must be very nice. The man who lives there is a carpenter and built the house himself. The people are members of the church here. Rev. Wellington also said that the rent would probably be less than what I am now paying. If something comes up in this line I will inform you immediately.

All this dashing around to find a place to stay sort of disgusts me, and I suppose you think I am rather inconstant, but I may do it again. I hate to move tho because I hate to tell the people I am leaving because I suppose they have reason to think that I will stay awhile. However, time only will tell how things will turn out. You might write and tell me what you think I should do if the choice comes up.

2. Dwight Johnston is one of the people who graduated as a chemical engineer from Iowa last spring. He has been out here since then. It is because of him that I got invited to dinner the first Sunday I was out here. He is not a Lutheran, but a Presbyterian but I gather than he is a very consistent Presbyterian if you get what I mean. I didn’t know him too well in school but I think I will learn to know him better out here. We talked some that first Sunday and he sort of gave me an idea what to expect in the way of what I would be doing at first. I gave you a resume of this in my last letter.

3. The person who invited me to dinner was Carl E. Johnson, son of the lady next door. However, he does not live there. He is married and has two children. He is moving soon to a place about 50 miles from here, because his place of work is changing. He is a chemist. I think that he is a remarkable fellow and I am sorry that he is moving away.

4. I like Rev. Wellington very much, primarily because he seems to take more interest in everybody who comes to church than other pastors I have seen. Maybe that is because it is such a small congregation (81 communicant members). He is a young man in the ministry about one year now, and this is his first pastorate. The main trouble with this congregation is that the average stay of pastors for 25 years (with one exception) has been about one year. Yesterday when I went out thereto have him sign my library card he invited me to stay for supper. I’ll bet you can never guess what we had for supper. I am so certain that I will tell you right away instead [of] letting you guess awhile. It was chocolate waffles with ice cream on top with coffee to drink. That is California for you, rather dippy at times. He had fixed up a place to play ping pong in his garage and we played ping pong for awhile.

5. I will outline my work schedule to answer the 5th question. Beginning tomorrow, Monday, I will work seven days, thru Sunday from 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. The next week I work three days from 12 at night to 8 in the morning beginning at 12 Monday night. Since I will have worked 7 days the week before I will work only 3 that week since for salaries less than $200 a month you are not supposed to work more than 5 – 8-hour days a week. The next week I work from 4 in the afternoon to 12 at night Monday thru Friday. This schedule prohibits my going to church one Sunday out of three but I guess it can’t be helped. I am not certain that I will like my work so well but I guess that I can stand it as long as the war lasts. I guess I’ll keep on at least until I have enough saved to start farming if I want to.

6. I got the $20 dad telegraphed as I said in my last letter. I will be paid the 15th & 31st of every month. I think the reason I have not gotten my expense check is that Mr. Cole’s (who is the head of the Shell Dev. Co here) sec’y is on a vacation and he has let his correspondence ride. Since he is a very nice guy I didn’t feel like saying anything. However I will this week if nothing shows up. Most of the people working for the Shell Dev Co here at Wilmington are nice to meet and be with. In Emeryville, all of the employees are unionized which doesn’t sound so good, since if you are ever going to make any progress in the company that is where you will go eventually. Maybe I should go back to school after awhile and become a teacher — a relatively free, uninhibited occupation.

7. I am rooming next door to Dwight Johnston. He is not married and I do not think is even considering it. He and I are the only two of those working at Wilmington that I have met who are not married.

8. I got the first letter forwarded from Bob Lloyd yesterday along with mama’s and Verner’s letter. In it he said that he would be writing again soon since the address he gave in his first letter was uncertain. When his next letter comes I will write to him. He is in the army for limited service. After school was out last spring he volunteered I guess but was rejected for physical reasons. I have written to Uncle Lawrence’s. In fact I was writing to them last Tuesday night when Rev. Wellington called on me. Incidentally I think that I should transfer my membership out here since it will be easy enough to send it back if I have to and since I think that I have found the place where I will go to church.

9. I think that in my work here I walk almost as much if not more than I did when I was in school It is 15 minutes of fairly good walking from here to the P.E. depot and 10 more from the Watson station to the place where I work. If I move, as I may, it will be even more.

10. I have handed in my application for refund of train fare but it has been delayed, I think for reasons that I have given before in this letter. In view of the fact of my present resident indecision, it may be best to wait a week or two, or until I notify you definitely before you subscribe to the Readers Digest or Luth Companion.

I sent my drawing instruments home yesterday since I am not using them. They will be needed in Vincent’s first year courses, primarily drawing and projection. Yesterday morning since I had mostly nothing to do I looked around in the stores awhile. Drawing sets can be obtained here for a fairly reasonable price here I think so that if I needed any I probably could get some. Then too, the pawn shops of which I have noticed several probably would not be fruitless in such a search. Dwight says that after he came out here & before he got his expense check he pawned his slide-rule. I guess if you looked carefully at what you were getting you could get some fairly food stuff in them.

This afternoon I am going to the congregational picnic here. It is being held at a park in the city, somewhat like Dolliver’s Park only more civilized.

Yesterday, the sun came up in the morning and shone all day creating a beautiful morning for the first time since I have been out here.

I have bought an alarm clock because I am afraid that sooner or later I will oversleep, especially on odd shift hours.

Thank you very much for the letter, Verner.

I guess that this is all for this time. Please ask questions, if is easier to write letters that way since I guess I do not realized exactly what I should write about.

With love

C.P.

Settling in at 411 Bonnie Drive

I had furnished 931 Seaview with various pieces of secondhand furniture and appliances and enough kitchenware and dishes so that I could accommodate my parents when they visited me in early 1953. I had my desk and chair, plus I think I’d acquired a bookcase somewhere along the line. I bought an old sofa and chair, the sofa being convertible into a bed. I also bought a spring and mattress which I used until my parents’ visit. I made a support for the spring to keep it up off the floor. As my parents used it during the visit I also had a small cot that I used. I had also bought a used refrigerator, a table and some chairs.

When Jean and I were married we moved all our separate furniture belongings into 411 Bonnie Drive and the combined sets of furniture, dishes, etc. were sufficient to set us up in housekeeping. Gradually the items I had were replaced over the first few years with better quality furnishings. I think the first household items we bought were a vacuum cleaners and a washing machine. Actually I think the vacuum cleaner came first, for a few months at least Jean took our wash down to her parents’ and used her mother’s Maytag.

There was a stove at 411 Bonnie Drive which the Wilsons left for us but we replaced that with one more to our needs. The refrigerator we used for a uear or so until we got a new one — I remember selling it for $50 to the father of the lady next door. He was the head of the Addiego clan in El Cerrito and had several apartment houses, where I think the refrigerator ended up.

We still had the sofa and chair at the time Muriel was born. I can remember Jean spending time in the chair one night when her labor pains were starting. The chair we kept I think after the sofa was discarded and I seem to remember thatMuriel had it downstairs in the bedroom she occupied (after the extension was finished). She didn’t like it when we finally disposed of it — I at least wasn’t aware of her attachment to it, another example of a parent not knowing what’s going on in the mind and feelings of an offspring.

Owning 411 Bonnie Drive

My mother had voiced the opinion that my house at 931 Seaview was no place to bring a new bride. So Jean and I spent several months I guess in looking for a house in which to set up our life together. In conjunction with this search I sold 931 Seaview and during the process the house was advertised to sale, I guess in the Berkeley Gazette and the advertisement was noticed by my erstwhile landlady at 411 Bonnie Drive.

The Wilsons were wanting to sell 411 Bonnie Drive I think because their son-in-law who was in the navy was being transferred and his family, who had been living with the Wilsons, would be leaving. The house had been bought by the Wilsons at least partly on the financial standing of the son-in-law so they needed to sell. In the end we bought the house, although it would not have been my choice — there were a couple of other houses that I would have preferred at the time, one of which was nearby on Colusa Avenue, hardly a stone’s throw away. In the end though the house at 411 Bonnie Drive served us well and perhaps it was the best alternative.

It had been constructed early in WWII by John Weston who lived a couple of houses away on Bonnie Drive. Weston was a competent and able builder but rather unimaginative in his house plans. The Wilsons had added a downstairs bathroom, which I had used during the time I roomed there. During the time we lived at 411 Bonnie Drive we did several things to make the house more suitable for our needs and wants. I finished off an unfinished area under the house that Mr. Wilson had excavated and this was my workshop area. Ray and I refinished the floors in the dining and living rooms — I can well remember the evening and night that we devoted to this undertaking.

After Laurel was born I constructed the extension to the house, providing two additional bedrooms, one downstairs off the rumpus room and one upstairs. Ray and Deryl helped me pour the foundation, I contracted the stucco work and roofing and I hired the electrical foreman at Emeryville to do the wiring. In conjunction with the work we replaced one floor furnace with a circulating air furnace and there were minor changes such as the sliging glass doors off the rumpus room, some window replacements and making a hallway alongside an existing bedroom upstairs. This latter change resulted in a rather small bedroom, but adequate for one person.

The whole project took about a year of my spare time and as Jean said later I did little else than work at Shell, work on the changes and eat and sleep. This left Jean with the major part of the housework at a time when Laurel was still an infant. We had off and on looked around for another residence but couldn’t find one that suited us, which is the reason we went ahead with the extension.

For me it was an interesting project and a challenge, but I wonder in retrospect if we wouldn’t have been wiser to have hired a builder to do the work. We had also contemplated a second extension of the house to increase the size of the dining room with a room below it back of the garage but this never materialized.

Outside the house, I replaced the backyard fence and terrace the backyard to make it more usable. I also constructed a patio with a fence around it, making sort of a large outdoor play area where the girls could be confined. Here it was that we had the sand table (which Ray gave us after Deryl and Ralph outgrew it) and where the girls would play endlessly. We also had a couple of swing and glider sets on which the girls played — I can’t really remember there they came from originally.

It proved to be a livable house, close to schools and public transportation and shopping while still giving the impression of being in a strictly residential area. Muriel I think was the one of us most closely attached emotionally to the house — I don’t think Jean or I ever regarded it that way and I don’t recall the other girls commenting on their feelings about it.

As I look back and think about the years from 1953 to 1972 that we lived at 411 Bonnie Drive I have the feeling that it was a very satisfying part of our lives. We enjoyed our three daughters as they were born and grew up, with Muriel finishing high school before the move to Houston. During the earlier part of the period, Jean’s folks were still quite active and able, and there were frequent visits between the home on Stuart Street and 411 Bonnie Drive. During part of the time I had a garden in the backyard at Stuart Street, as there was rather limited area for such activity at our home. We were also frequent visitors out at Jean’s sister’s home in Walnut Creek. And while Jean’s parents were still living, the Ritchies would often be up at Christmastime and we saw them on other occasions when we visited them in their home in Ontario.

A Visit from the Folks

During the time I was rooming at the Wilsons’, in addition to a contunuing exploration of rural acreage, I also looked at residences in the Bay Area. I recall looking at a home in Walnut Creek, in the area just east of the heart of downtown Walnut Creek, beyond the creek and up the hill a way. As I recall I thought the price was too high, but it would doubtless have been a better purchase than the one I finally made of 931 Seaview.

931 Seaview

The house at 931 Seaview was definitely a substandard house — it had been built sort of piecemeal during the Depression days by an individual who was probably hard put to furnish housing for his family. The house was built on sort of a promontory, which I think was sort of a rock outcrop underneath but close to the surface. To the north of the house the terrain fell off rather sharply into an area extremely subject to slides and to this day I think there are no structures on it.

The house actually belonged to the son of a couple that Jean knew and after the purchase was under consideration and they were aware who the potential purchaser was, talked to Jean about my reliability. I bought the house for $7000, I don’t recall what the down payment was. There was an existing loan to the Bank of America and I also took out a second mortgage (to the parents of the wife of the couple who actually owned the house). Owning and doing the fixing up of this old house was an instructive and interesting experience and I left it in a more presentable appearance and condition than when I acquired it, but it was quilt still substandard in character.

I sold it shortly before Jean and I were married — or the final details may have still be in progress at the time. The pirchaser this time was an individual who sold candy, ice cream etc. from a littl;e panel truck (sort of like the Good Humor man) whom we would see near one of the entrances to Tilden Park. Muriel I think knew a boy from the family at school. He must have been really short of funds as I took a third mortgage for my share of the proceeds — it was paid off less than a year later while I was working in Holland and the bank I was using at the time handled the repayment. The new occupant moved in, expanded the existing structure and probably lives there still. He bought the vacant lot next door (on the non-sliding side of the lot) and carved out two lots. Whether he sold them or built the two houses now there I don’t know.

I had purchased the house early in 1952 and my parents decided to make a trip to California for a couple of months over Christmas that year. I think it was a couple of months — it may have been longer. The visit of course was a change in my life pattern during the time of the visit. My mother of course took over the cooking and I suppose at least some of the cleaning. My father though in the early stages of his Parkinson’s disease was still active and he did considerable work in the yard.

To the north of the house on the steep bank leading down to the slide area was a brambly area of wild berry bushes and my father grubbed most of those out during the visit. In retrospect it may bot have been the wisest thing to do as the bushes served to stabilize the slope and prevent erosion. However I wasn’t around long enough afterward to encounter any difficulties if they did ensue. My father needed a spade fir the work he did on the slope so I bought one for him to use. I still have it and use it almost fifty years later.

This was his preferred implement for weeding, etc. and I have come to agree with him that it is better than any hoe or other cultivation tool ever devised. Although the work he did provided something for him to do during the visit I have wondered since if it wasn’t the wisest thing for him to do with his Parkinson’s. I think when he returned to Iowa he more or less soon became incapacitated by the disease. Was it hastened on by his work on my yard?

Rooming at 411 Bonnie Drive

I guess I roomed at the Reymanns’ for several years, but then I moved to a large basement room at the Wilsons’ — my first period of residence at 411 Bonnie Drive. In addition to Mrs. and Mrs. Wilson the household included their daughter and her two children, plus from time to time her husband who was in the Navy and frequently off on assignment somewhere.

During the time I had been living in the Bay Area I had been gradually accumulating a larger stock of personal belongings. Included in these was a business-type desk. This I had purchased with a business discount (arranged through Shell) from an office supply firm close to the Shell Building in San Francisco. The name of the firm as it sticks in my memory now was Beier and Gunderson. The desk has followed me to the various places I have lived ever since and is indeed where I am now sitting. Like my father I acquired a desk during my bachelor days — his was a roll top variety which Vincent now has.

It was while I was rooming at the Wilsons’ that I started to accumulate my stock of woodworking tools. I also made a toolbox which I still have. The Wilsons had some sort of past association with my mother, I believe through her days at Gustavus Adolphus. The Wilsons were reasonably nice people — Mrs. Wilson was somewhat on the discontented and fussy side and Mr. Wilson was sort of a loser who had drifted through life in a succession of menial and low-paying jobs. When I was rooming with them he was working as a janitor — I believe at the high school. His work shift was after the school day had ended so he was usually absent from the house in the evenings.

When the Wilsons bought 411 Bonnie Drive they had to rely on the credit rating of their daughter and son-in-law to qualify for the financing. It seems to me that there was some sort of understanding that the daughter and her husband would take over the house when he retired from the Navy but this never developed.

California Residences

I stepped out of 931 Seaview for the last time the morning of our wedding day. Actually I still had some last-minute things to do there so I did not attend a church service that morning. We had already moved our belongings into 411 Bonnie Drive and we spent our wedding night there.



931 Seaview Drive, El Cerrito, CA

After I had to move out of the Quadrangle because of WWII, I roomed in a house on Iowa Avenue in Iowa City, several blocks due east of the old capitol. Did I spend the night after my graduation ceremony there? I must have since I did not ride back to Gowrie that evening with my parents and Vincent. I can’t remember walking out of the house for the last time.

In San Pedro I roomed in about four private residences as I recall most notably and for the longest time in the home of Hugo and Palma Johnson. They lived in one of the home that Hugo had built in his career as a carpenter and contractor. Another very well-built house. It was while I was living there that Vincent was visiting me at the time the atom bombs were dropped on Japan. He was stationed at the time out near Malibu as I recall.

Hugo had been one of those quick-active people but had developed Parkinson’s disease and was even more restricted in what he could do than my father when he had the disease. It was a sad situation. I suspect that it was because of their reduced finances that they took me in as a roomer.

In San Pedro I also lived briefly in an apartment and I also spent some time at the YMCA over in Long Beach. I cannot recall when I stepped out of all these places for the last time.

And then there are the two houses I lived in, in Berkeley and Oakland after the move from the Los Angeles before rooming at 411 Bonnie Drive in the first of my two residences there. The first was on Shattuck Avenue right next to a little park (Love Oak? Codornices?). The second was on Grove Street (later Martin Luther King) another well-built house that was torn down when Children’s Hospital of the East Bay expanded.

Then there was the house on Seaview that I owned while still a bachelor. That house was greatly expanded and modified by the people that I sold it to. And the house in Houston which looked the same the couple of times we drove past it later on, in 1977 and 1980.

I forget the name of the people in the Shattuck Avenue house but they were quite elderly then in the late 1940s so they are long since deceased. So are the Reymanns on Grove Street and the Wilsons at 411 Bonnie Drive. They were also well into their 60s when I knew them so they have been dead for years. I never kept in touch with the Reymanns but we did keep up with the Wilsons for awhile — actually visited them once or twice near Felton where they moved to after we bought 411 Bonnie Drive from them.



411 Bonnie Drive, El Cerrito, CA