Trumbull – Dear Prodigal Son (2) – Ced’s Bike And Christmas – November 15, 1942

Page 2    11/15/42

So you’re a bike owner now, you say. Well, under present-day conditions that might be a wise move. Where can you keep the car without spending so much for garage rent as to endanger the $10 an hour fee for airplane rides? Of course I want to see you attain the things you desire most, but when you write me about planes crashing or I read about experienced pilots wrecking their ships on mountain sides, I can’t help but wish you would get more interested in the ground end then in the flying. Incidentally, that was good news yesterday about Eddie Rickenbacher being found. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker  (read the story in section 6.2) Too bad you can’t get Art (Art Woodley, owner and Ced’s boss at Woodley Airfield) to let you fly one of your own planes at half price or less.

The camera purchase is interesting. Some time ago you mentioned wanting a camera so I decided that was what I was going to try to get you for Christmas. The kind Dan and Dick have, I am informed by the dealer, are under government priorities and even then are hard to get, so then I asked him to try to get me a first-class used one, but up to date he has not been able to find even that, and as I have not heard from you as to anything else you might want and the time is growing short, I am sort of up in the air as to how to handle the Alaska Christmas. Your bike seems to have everything, and what you need most for the car can’t be bought, and there I seem to stick.

Lad came home today for a weeks furlough before he goes to California via Flint, Mich., and Dan also was able to get off and come home for a short visit.

Yesterday the weather turned real cold and I lighted the furnace. Holding off this long, it is possible I have enough coal now in the bin to last me through the winter if I don’t have too many cold spells. The adjustment on the Stoker is not right in that it doesn’t seem to be burning all the coal, but with Lad home this week, maybe he can teach it to behave better.

I was glad to get the two more pages on the Farewell rescue trip and hope you can finish it soon so that I can be sure you finally got there. There is a gap in the narrative I think, but I will look it up definitely and let you know.

Wish you were going to be home for Thanksgiving. I guess neither of the boys will be able to make it. I know Lad won’t be here for Christmas.

Thanks for the clippings; also thank Rusty a lot for his brief note. I wish he would write more often and tell me more about himself, how he is getting along, his hopes and plans, etc. I wish he would walk in on us again as he did so many years ago the night we tried to suffocate him. Aunt Betty, Lad and Dave all want to be remembered to you both.

DAD

Three more letters from Grandpa to his sons far away from home will finish out the week.

Judy Guion

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