Sunday, November 30, 1952

November 30, 1952

931 Seaview Drive

El Cerrito, Calif

Dear Brothers & Sisters

Today is a rather different day, as I see by looking over my previous contributions to the round robin, than the one on which I wrote last time. Today is partly cloudy here in Calif, altho right now the sun is trying to break thru. Later today and tomorrow it is scheduled to rain according to the weatherman. This was also the forecast for last night but not very much materialized. This morning it was rather nippy out, but by now (9:30 am) it is probably warmed up to 45° or 50°F or so. Because of the rain some two weeks ago, the wild oats on the hills is starting to sprout so they are beginning to look green. However the trees have lost their leaves & the lawns are rather static right now, so the overall green hasn’t changed.

As you all doubtless know I am eagerly awaiting the visit of mother & father, who will becoming next Saturday. I guess they’ll be glad leaving all that snow and cold for a warmer clime. I have finished the downstairs in preparation for their coming, but a fair amount of work remains to be done upstairs. I also have now all the necessary furniture to accommodate them. Probably I have missed some things that will be needed but mother will have better ideas on that subject than I. Outside I haven’t done too much recently having concentrated on the inside of the house. However, right now the lawn doesn’t grow too fast & the weeds seem a little slow too. The daffodils along the curb are starting to come up now; I was wondering if they would make it since I had filled in dirt along there so they were considerably deeper than before.

At work, things continue about as usual. There is usually plenty to do — sometimes it seems like too much. The latest rumor going the rounds is that Shell Development is going to buy the Western Electric building across the street — what for I don’t exactly know. It’s a great big concrete barn of a place, 5 stories tall, but it would take a lot of changing over to make it suitable. However, things are fairly crowded here, so perhaps there is something to the rumor.

Thanksgiving I spent at the Uddens — together with some of the Knock relation. They all think, Marold, that you & Jeannie should be married out here because so many of the relation, both sides, will be out here right then. Of course, the principals won’t be, but that’s a small matter!

Yesterday I listened with considerable joy as Notre Dame beat USC. Out here the football scribes are freely predicting a win at last for the west in the Rose Bowl (as they have 6 previous times). I hope this USC loss presages their fate in the Rose Bowl, despite their vaunted might.

I should drop a line to the folks so will stop for now.

With love

C.P.

September 26, 1946

Sept 26, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is al

Friday NIght Basketball

I have written a little already about the athletic program at Gowrie. Though I never “went out for a team” I did attend the basketball games which were held in the local gym. Somehow or ther I had a season ticket I believe. The games were invariably on Friday evenings and were usually preceded by a pep rally on the last period of the day on Friday. As I recall I was rather emotionally involved early in high school but this attitude had tended to fade by the time I was a senior.

On occasion I attended games away from Gowrie. My friend John Woodard was permitted to drive the Model A Ford belonging to Well Lines, his uncle, to a few such games and I rode along. There was also the time John and I rode along with Darwin Liljegren to one of these out-of-town games. Darwin had taken the car his father, a rural mail carrier, had and when we were to start home the car wouldn’t start. I think a relative came to get us, but we were brought back only as far as where Darwin then resided, which was in the old Amanda Gorman house next to my grandmother’s house. 

John and I were left on our own as to how we would get home. It was suggested that we wake up my uncle Carl and have him drive us home but I mentally vetoed this idea. I wasn’t about to meet his reaction to such a situation. Instead John and I walked the four miles home — it wasn’t a hard walk. The night though cool wasn’t cold. I suppose we got home sometime in the early hours of the morning.

High School Basketball

I did not participate in any of the school athletics in high school, which consisted mainly of basketball. The coach preceding Archie Gerber had mounted a track program, but that rapidly disintegrated under Gerber. And other sports such as football were not included at all. There were a couple of tennis courts out behind the school, near the garages for the school buses, but they were either not used at all or very seldom. Softball as a sport was limited to the elementary or junior high level.

The high school basketball team played the small adjacent towns primarily, typically on Friday evenings. On occasion I would attend such games, perhaps in company with some of my siblings. My father, as a member of the school board had a pass to the games which he seldom if ever used. At the time I considered it a misfortune that the pass was not transferable.

I can recall being rather caught up emotionally in the games, as were the other students. And often the townspeople, merchants and the like were even more involved and the coach was under considerable pressure to field a winning team. At the penultimate event of the season there would be a tournament of the smaller high schools in the county which (I think) would be invariably held at the Gowrie school because it had the largest gymnasium and seating capacity.

Because of its size Gowrie was more often than not the victor, although a town Lehigh on the Des Moines River and having a populace somewhat steeped in violence prevailed on occasion. I remember attending one of these county tournaments when I was in elementary school — my aunt Laurine provided Clarice and me with tickets to the games (costing as I seem to remember about a dollar). Both Clarice and I were eager to attend. The largest school in the county, Fort Dodge, was not included in the tournament as it was beyond the others by a considerable margin in size, so that its inclusion was inappropriate.

The final events in the basketball season were the sectional, district and state tournaments. Gowrie I think may have won a couple of sectional tournaments but they never passed the district level to participate in the state tournament. These statewide tournaments were I believe arranged in several levels of school size, so that even here Gowrie would not compete with the larger schools. Perhaps at the end there was a playoff between the different classes as the affair seemed to produce a so-called state champion. I wonder now if the smaller earlier county tournament was discontinued during my later school years in junior and senior high. I don’t remember attending or even hearing of them in this period.

After Gerber arrived as coach I believe girls’ basketball was introduced and I can remember seeing a few games in the school gymnasium. Actually I think the Gowrie girls’ team was more successful than the boys’, measured by how they progressed in the statewide tournament.

A Lucky Catch

I’ve also mentioned I believe the softball games we played in physical education and how there were occasional games played with teams from neighboring schools. Participation on these teams required satisfactory academic performance and sometimes fielding a team involved reaching down to the “bottom of the barrel” in softball playing prowess.

Characteristically I would be placed out in right field where balls were seldom hit, with the implication that if I failed to perform the damage would be minimal. My one moment of glory occurred in a softball game played in Gowrie. I was in right field of course and a looping fly ball came in my direction. I ran towards what I thought would be its fall to earth, arrived at the proper moment, and miraculously caught the fly ball. This feat permitted an additional player out because he had raced from third base toward home plate anticipating that I would not catch the fly ball.

After I caught the fly ball I had to be prompted to throw the ball back to the infield for the further play. At that point I was in a bemused state, not quite yet aware of what I had accomplished. In the report of the game that appeared in the Gowrie News, my feat was noted as being an important factor in the outcome of the game.

I might mention one additional thing. Out in right field there was a concrete post sticking up — for use as a finishing line when the area was used for a track meet. I was aware of its presence as I ran to catch the fly ball and my fear of running into the post was only matched by my fear that I would err in catching the ball.