P.O. Box 491
Pomona, Calif.
Dear Home Guard,
Marian (Irwin) Guion
Trying to keep up with the Army and the A.P. Guion’s is too much of a good thing, isn’t it? Needless to say, we were just as surprised about this latest move as you probably were. It was very sudden and quite unexpected, altho’ anything the Army does certainly shouldn’t be. But the “powers that be” 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 South Pasadena and Santa Anita. So alltho’ we won’t be able to drive over there quite as often as we might like, at least we can see our friends occasionally. We are tickled pink to be back here in California, and our only regret is that we are now twice as far away from you. We were hoping that after Lad finished his technical training he would get a furlough and we were looking forward to coming to Connecticut. But we’re going to get there yet, so I hope you can be a little more patient than I am about it. I want to meet all of you so much, and I will – we can’t say exactly when !
After getting the telegram, you were probably wondering whether or not we made connections with Ced. Well, we did and had a very, very enjoyable time with him on Monday. If it hadn’t been for the fact that we had to have the clutch fixed on the car, we probably would have been on our way Sunday night and would have missed him entirely! So, our very deepest thanks to “Honey Bunch” for acting up so the we had to wait. It was so very nice to meet Ced – (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. Ced didn’t seem to have any trouble in finding us – in fact he arrived at the Blue Streak at six o’clock in the morning and rather than waking us up, he went back to Texarkana and had breakfast, and came out again about 7:30. Lad was taking a shower so I answered the door when he knocked, and for a few seconds I thought that someone had made a mistake and came to the wrong cabin! Then I took a second look (There is a family resemblance between them 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 didn’t leave until 3 PM so we had quite a visit with him, and then 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.
We had a very nice trip out here – only difficulty was a slow leak in one tire which we had fixed right away, and arrived in Pomona Friday morning. We found a very nice place to stay through the War Housing Agency, and altho’ it isn’t an apartment (which we hope to find eventually) it is really very nice. We have a living room and bedroom in a private house – the people are very nice – a young couple who have three children, and although we don’t have any kitchen privileges, we like it very much.
Lad reports to the post today so we will know more about the setup later on, but from all reports it sounds very nice.
I am also enclosing the bond with this letter. We moved to suddenly for me to think about it before —
Love to all of you – will write again soon –
Marian
Tomorrow, another letter from Marian telling the folks back home about their continuing search for a house.
Judy Guion
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 