My heart was cheered by receiving your long letter on the sixth written on August 27th from camp — AND with the brand-new black ribbon. This will make my birthday present of new glasses seem extra good. My impression from your letter is that Cuidad de Bolivar is mainly a circus town. That of course is just facetious, but you seem to have gotten behind the scenes of a circus in a very interesting way. You didn’t mention getting intimate with the bearded lady, the snake charmer, the sword swallower, the tightrope walker and the “man on the flying trapeze”, but I suppose it takes time to ripen such friendships. I am a bit surprised that you liked this city better than Caracas.
With all this experience, you are getting to be quite an oil man. That’s good, because you never know what knowledge will come in unexpectedly handy in the future. I noticed you also got in some duck shooting. To say nothing of the airplane rides. Shall look forward to hearing about the trucks at San Joaquin. Your four-page letter made up for lost time, but somehow or other one is never satisfied, is one?
Grandpa (Alfred Duryee Guion) and Aunt Elsie (Elsie May Guion)
(Time out for a note from Elsie Guion (pronounced Geon).) Here I am up here today on one of the New Haven Railroad excursions. I decided only last night to come so when I arrived at the station I phoned and found out later Dick was routed from a delightful dream to come down to meet me. I came for many reasons – it was a long while since my last visit, my brother’s birthday tomorrow, Aunt Betty was here, to say nothing of the rest of the family. When I arrived I found my cousins were expected later. So altogether it has been a delightful day. Business is startlingly bum. If it doesn’t pick up soon, something will pop – and I don’t mean corn!
My only other excitement is moving from the Tudor hotel last spring when the rates were jacked so high I couldn’t stay. I went down to Gramercy Park Hotel at 20th St. and
when the Tudor Hotel found out the money wasn’t pouring in as they had expected – in fact they were losing money – they lowered the rates and back we came. Oh, it is so much better at the Tudor in every way, service, equipment, location, etc. I’m paying more than when I left but I can’t do better. ”That’s all, folks”, says Mickey Mouse and so says I. I’m terribly ashamed of myself because I haven’t written to you and won’t make a lot of fool excuses. But I’ll really try to write you soon and until then keep on being the grand lad that you are. Love and lots of it, from ELSIE.
That was a little surprise I pulled on you. It must get monotonous getting one ”style” of writing all the time, so I thought I would bring in a variation by a substitute for a change. I shall miss you tomorrow, as I always do at family celebrations of one sort or another (Grandpa’s birthday celebration) , but there will be many things besides memories of a more tangible nature to remind us of our generous absent boy — a new fresh looking home that makes us all feel a lot more comfortable when guests come in. I hope you will like the new colors. The halls are light green, the upper hall floor a red, the living room sort of a light peach tan, and all the woodwork and ceilings white. To most people that see them they are blank but to me “Laddie” is written all over every square inch, and I can see it much more clearly too, with my new glasses.
Elsie has just gone to get her things on to go to the station, so aurevoir until next week. I’ll be a year older than.
DAD
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I will be posting a letter from Grandpa to Lad with a newspaper clipping regarding Trumbull politics with Grandpa right in the middle.
Judy Guion
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 
You are so fortunate having letters that hold a wealth of family history
Jeanne, Thank you for taking the time to comment. You are absolutely right. I was given an amazing treasure because both my Grandfather and my Father kept all of this information. I did not know that these letters existed. They came to me in two boxes after my Father passed away. It is a priceless treasure. You might want to check out a Category to read about a particular “Slice of Life”, like Ced’s Coming of Age Adventure ((the summer he hitchhiked to North Dakota and Wisconsin to meet his Mother’s family with a stop at the Chicago Worlds Fair) or Living in St. Petersburg (Elizabeth’s (Bissie) year staying with her Aunt Anne Peabody Stanley, caring for her children maturing drastically in the process).I hope you enjoy my daily posts.
Yes after the A to Z is over I plan to return. We have been traveling since early March and every night in the hotel I’m on the laptop pounding away. My car is so packed on the way home I may be holding things! I have to get photos of it. I feel I look like the people traveling with everything tied on their car!