Trumbull, Conn., March 5, 1944
Dear members of the family circle:
The Trumbull Weekly Clearing House Association is ready to report on the news from the far corners of the world.
From Dan: Nothing startling to divulge– life has followed much the same pattern for the past month or so — plays, concerts, French lessons, pub crawling – all the little uselessnesses that keep life fascinating. I heard from Sylvia in Canada with the names of a few people I might look up. Tobacco is scarce over here for civilians and exorbitantly priced. Cigars are scarce for everybody, GIs included. I am sorry to realize that grandmother has passed. I was very fond of her — always good-natured and helpful. She grew old so gracefully that she seemed much younger — her spirit never lost its youth. Well, maybe with so many Guion’s thrown into the war we can bring it to a speedy conclusion. To the day when we all meet again. Cheerio.
From Ced: (Seattle, Feb. 29th) I am leaving this morning at 9 AM on the North land Transportation 
Companies NORTH SEA. It looks like a nice ship. Arrived here last Saturday night and have been through a great new section of the country en route. Saw Lad and Marian and looked up Edna Schwenke in Tacoma. Details in letter later.
From Dave: I’ve finished one week of basic training and don’t find it a bit tough. I am told that the first couple of weeks aren’t usually hard anyway. I also find that you must go from one thing to another here (you can’t waste time or dilly-dally). Naturally that’s kind of tough for me. I’m not supposed to tell what I do, see or hear while I’m doing my basic, which gives me very little to talk about because everything one does here is basic training. I still like the camp very much. The food for the most part is excellent. My face is filling out and I know I feel a whole lot healthier. Saturday is the big day around here. We have barracks, rifle (which is plenty tough), and personal and foot locker inspection on Saturday. Everything is spotless — especially that old Enfield rifle. There’s plenty of recreation here – movies (we get a lot of them before they are released to the public), three service clubs, each company has a day room (which has a piano which gets plenty of exercise) and of course PX. Even the KP isn’t bad here. I was on KP last Tuesday — just routine detail, not punishment of any sort. I spent most of the day in the pantry munching on cookies, dried apricots and what have you. I still haven’t heard from Lad. I do hope they can get a week off and come up here to pay me a visit. I also wish Ced had known where I was when he left home. He could have gotten a train from St. Louis to Camp Crowder and a bus from here to Texarkana. My love to all — even Smoky.
From Lad: I have been upped a grade. My official title in writing is T/3 but I am still addressed as Sgt. The big point is that it puts me up into the first three grader classification and means $18 more per month. It should not be mistaken for what is called a Tech. Sgt. Three days before leaving for Calif. the Buick clutch started to slip so I had to put in a new one. To do it I needed a free day and the first one I could get was Monday of last week or my first day of traveling time. Had it not been for the clutch we would never have seen Ced. He showed up at Hooks early Monday morning. He seems fine but has changed a little in the interval since I last saw him over five years ago. He’s a little heavier and his hair is darker and he has matured a great deal. He’s still the same old Ced otherwise.
From Marian: The Army decided that the Red River Depot wasn’t equipped to give the fellows their technical training so rather than trying to bring in and set up the proper equipment they decided to move the fellows so here we are back in California, at Pomona, about 25 miles from Santa Anita. You are probably wondering whether or not we made connections with Ced. We did. It was so very nice to meet him (Are all of the family as nice as the two I’ve already met?) And he and Lad had quite a time catching up with each other’s travels since they last saw each other. He arrived at the Blue Streak about six o’clock in the morning and rather than wake us up he went back to Texarkana and had breakfast and came back again about 7:30. Lad was taking a shower so I answered the door when he knocked and for a few seconds thought that someone had made a mistake and come to the wrong cabin. Then I took a second look (there is a family resemblance that I could see) and he said: “I believe you are my sister-in-law” so I knew of course who he was. His train did not leave until 3 PM, so we fooled around until the car was ready, had dinner and started on our way — very happy over the prospect of getting out of Texas, arriving in Pomona Friday morning. We found a very nice apartment temporarily, living and bed room in a private home.
From Dick: There is not too much to report from South America. Yours truly has been moderately busy
Richard (Dick) Guion
doing his sundry duties. The city of Fortaleze is said to be the sixth largest city in Brazil. Anyway it’s a great improvement over Natal. The city has spent much time and effort in beautifying its streets. There are numerous parks and esplanades, the sidewalks are comparatively clean and there are some pretty homes in the better sections of town. The horse I purchased is typically Brazilian. He really has no desire to go anywhere but out in the pasture. Since our ideas as to the best form of entertainment differ greatly I have to use quite a bit of persuasion getting him to amble in any direction away from his home. I believe his conception of what life should be would be one continuous siesta. By the time we return home I have exerted more physical activity than the horse, and my arms and hands are more fatigued than my bottom. I’m sure it’s only a mental condition, tho, because he can run when he wants to. He usually wants to just about the time when I consider it more advisable to proceed cautiously, perhaps when there are numerous low hanging branches or deep puddles covering the road. If he could run steadily at the speed he develops when we near the stables on the home trip, I think he could beat Whirlaway.
And now for a few comments. Carl got home last night. One of the places his boat visited was London. Too bad, Dan, you couldn’t have visited each other. Incidentally would be interested to know if you looked up any of Sylvia’s friends or Catherine’s orchestra leader. We’ll get some cigars off to you soon.
Paul’s associates at Remington’s gave him a farewell party last night. Jean took care of Skipper and Susan so Catherine could go. They gave him a billfold containing a $20 bill and a most delightful dinner. He goes for his final physical Friday and hopes to get into the Navy.
The bond arrived safely, Marian, and goes into Lad’s envelope in the safe deposit box. Incidentally I am enclosing a check which came for Lad. I am sending it on to you for obvious reasons. Any way you can probably use the cash.
Enjoyed your letter Dave and hope you can continue to write as interestingly of the camp.
I’m looking forward to your letter from Seattle, Ced, and hope you have a pleasant trip. Am enclosing a few photos (except to Dave and Ced who have seen them), just to vary the interest a bit.
And so, my dear ones all, a pleasant good night to you from DAD
Tomorrow will be the next installment of the Autobiography of Alfred Duryee Guion and on Sunday, we’ll have more of Ced’s comments on the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair.
Judy Guion
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 
It’sd good to get a catch up on every member of the clan. Especially nice to hear from Dan and Dick. I love the way Dick writes…very colorful description of the horse…very colorful indeed!
I just realized the work and organization that went in to these weekly letters. Not only was grandfather writing them but he was distributing copies and such to the others as well. It’s quite amazing when you look at the time, effort and money that this would entail, doing it on a weekly basis.
Mrs. P. – I wonder if he would have done it – he probably would have anyway – but his first thought was to make sure both Lad and Dan got their letters in Venezuela so he sent one to each, figuring if one letter was lost in the wilds of northern Venezuela, at least when they saw each other, they could get news from home. As it turned out they didn’t see each other more than a few times. Grandpa also didn’t realize when he began that it would be 7 1/2 years before all his sons returned home after the war. It was an amazing accomplishment and took several hours each Sunday afternoon – with interruptions quite often, as he tells us in the letters.)
So much happening in all directions; amazing.
Gallivanta – I think Grandpa’s title for the Association is quite appropriate, don’t you? I love that he sent copies of each of his letters to each of the “correspondents”. That way, everyone knew what was going on in the lives of everyone in the family. Even though Lad and Ced hadn’t seen each other for five years, they did know what had been going on in each others lives.