Category Archives: Friends
Trumbull – R-113 (1) – Dear Lad – A Car For The Alaskans – February 2, 1941
Alfred Peabody Guion (Lad) in Venezuela
R-113 February 2, 1941
Dear Lad:
There are two big events in the offing. One is Dick’s leaving for Alaska next month and the other, your homecoming in June. Already in imagination I have met you several times as a Grace Line boat pulls in, and I hope it won’t be messed up as it was when Dan arrived home and we were not there on time.
I got your interesting letter last Wednesday at the office, the one written January 20 telling me of the interesting New Year’s party, and enclosing the draft of the letter to the F-M (Fairbanks-Morse) people and your comments on job opportunities in Venezuela. I have rewritten the letter of application as I would suggest your sending it and have also commented on it on a separate sheet enclosed in this envelope.
You saved the most interesting news to the last, I notice, that telling of the raise to $225 a month. I’ll bet I am more thrilled at this evidence of your material advancement and this recognition of your worth than you are. Even CONGRATULATIONS in capital letters doesn’t do proper justice to the occasion. And in this connection, you say that you would like to have me so arrange your funds that you may have cash on hand to (1) outfit yourself again and (2) for spending money. I will so arrange, but if you can give me some idea within $100 just what your idea is of these amounts it will make it a bit easier for me to arrange it without feeling I may be holding too much out that might otherwise be invested profitably for your advantage.
I will also take care of the McGraw bill for trade papers and in this connection I have filched about $30 from your account for Christmas gifts. I hope this will not seem too much.
The Alaskan branch of the family is quite insistent that Dick catch the first boat for Alaska in the spring which, according to Ced’s last letter, sails from Seattle on March 20. They base this on the fact, aside from the fact that they want their car to use as soon as possible, that the housing shortage up there even now is acute and with the influx of new folks in the spring, lured by the promise of jobs due to government building activity, the chances are that latecomers may not only find it difficult and expensive to find living quarters but may also miss out on jobs that will be available to the early comers. For this reason, now that the car has been bought, Dick plans to start somewhere around March 1, depending somewhat on what further dope we get from Anchorage. Dick is quite disappointed that he will not see you, so he “can really get acquainted with his big brother” and has been trying to talk me into taking a two or three months vacation when you get home so that you and Dave and myself can take a trip to Alaska. Of course, the time away from my business and the expense is my problem and is dismissed with a wave of the hand.
As to the reference to Sylvia. “Who is Sylvia?”, you ask, in the words of Olie Speaks song. Back last year sometime, I wrote that I had a visit from my two cousins, daughters of my father’s sister (another child in the same family is my lame cousin Guion Kilbourne of whom you have probably heard me speak. His father was an Army surgeon who knew Gen. Custer), one of whom had married an English army officer and had spent many years in India. Her husband had died, leaving her with one child, a daughter just about your age, named Sylvia. They were staying with an old sweetheart of hers that she didn’t marry, who lived in Norwalk and had driven up to see me. Later I wrote that Sylvia’s mother had died very suddenly and Dick and Dave and I went to the funeral. Later I wrote that Sylvia had landed a job taking care of too little English refugee children on a big estate on Long Island.
You are correct in assuming that it was Charlie Hall with whom Dick had gone riding. It was Dick who was driving when they sideswiped another car, doing about $5 worth of damage which Dick had to pay for.
Ted (Human, married to Helen (Peabody), Grandma Arla’s next younger sister, and who hired Lad and Dan for their original work on a road project from Caracas to Maracaibo)) at present is working on some engineering work for the US government at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Helen wrote me a week or so ago that they have moved to Brooklyn.
The letter B instead of R as a prefix to letter 106 is just a bit of temperament exhibited by my typewriter. It gets cranky at times and although I clearly pressed the R key, in a contrary spirit it has at times made a B impression. You’ll have to overlook these little peccadilloes, whatever they are. It is a variety of the same disease that affects your machine on the ½ character.
L to R: Arnold Gibson, Charlie Kurtz, Carl Wayne,
Ethel Bushey
Carl’s plans are up in the air again regarding his marriage plans (to Ethel Bushey). They had already decided to go through with their plans anyway and get hitched on February 22, and had made reservations on a boat sailing for Haiti a few days later. Early this week however, Carl got a summons from the Draft Board telling him he would be called for duty and was to report on the 19th. If the second physical exam at that time passed him he would not return to Trumbull but would immediately go on to camp for training. He saw the local Draft Board head, who told him that if he had gotten in touch with him and informed him of the circumstances within five days after his first notice some weeks ago, he might have been able to put Carl on the deferred list, in fact they considered him a borderline case anyway on account of his eyes and teeth, and that possibly the Dr. would reject him on the second exam on the 19th. Not to know definitely however until that time would make it very unwise for Carl to go through with his present marriage plans and he accordingly canceled his steamboat reservations. Today he tells me that three of the boys called for the 14th had been rejected and he is therefore to take the place of one of them and go up for his examination on the 14th. If he is accepted, he will not of course be married until later, if rejected he can be married but will have to wait two weeks for the next sailing on the cruise he wants to take. To complicate matters still further, his arrangement and lease with Kurtz (Carl had leased Kurtz’s Gas Station, pictured above) expires in June, and he has just received word from the Socony people that they will finance him if Kurtz will sell the station. The whole thing is quite a mess. I will of course keep you posted as to developments.
DAD
Tomorrow and Friday, I will post the rest of R-113, a letter written to Dan and Ced in Alaska.
Judy Guion
Trumbull – Report Of The Purchasing Agent – The Car – February 1, 1941
Purchase Agreement for Ced’s 1937 Buick
Report of Purchasing Agent
on Conn. Reg car TO-71
February 1, 1941
Bought Jan. 30th, 1941, a 1937 Buick sedan, black, model 37-47, serial # 3130614, Motor # 43304745, price $400 from A. L. Clark Co., salesman, Priestley. Purchased and registered in the name of Cedric D. Guion, Daniels Farm Road, Trumbull.
Car formerly owned by a man named Collins, used exclusively as family car and serviced by the A. L. Clark Co., mileage 38,400. At 23,000 miles it was thoroughly overhauled by the A. L. Clark Co., at which time the hydraulic brake system was thoroughly overhauled, pumps plungers etc., put in first class condition, brakes relined (this job alone cost $37), a valve and carbon job, new plugs and points, front end checkup, etc., which was all that was necessary to be done at the time to put it in A-1 running condition. It is equipped with four new Lee white sidewall tires and a spare tire on wheel, also in very good condition. It is equipped with an Arvin heater and built-in defroster and electric clock. The upholstery is said to be like new, owner having had slipcovers installed when purchased from the A. L. Clark Co., which have never been removed and are still in first class condition. The paint job looks like a new car. It is waxed and has evidently been driven carefully and kept up in excellent shape — not a scratch or dent on it, inside upholstery clean, unworn and unspotted. A trunk compartment in rear housing spare tire and tools. Double windshield wiper. It is a Buick special 8 cylinder. Drives beautifully, handles as well is my new Buick. Arnold’s comments: “I think this is just the car the boys want.” Price asked $475 with allowance of $50 for Arnold’s Packard, agreed to let me have it for $425 cash. Held out against all kinds of pressure for $400 although Arnold told me privately that from his knowledge of car values, if you could not get it for less than $425 to take it as it was worth that. However they finally consented to give it to me “as is” without customary 90-day guarantee, but with the private hint from the salesman that if anything was wrong to bring it in. The battery is not new and Arnold’s advice is, before starting for Alaska, to put in a first-class new battery of an approved make. My plan is to run it a few weeks and find out any weaknesses it might have and then have Arnold give it a thorough checkup before it starts on its western trip.
Brakes need to be taken up a bit. Does not burn oil, said to get from 15 to 17 miles per gallon. Registry fee $4.50 which expires April 1st. Two additional keys purchased for $.35. Will await instructions from you as to insurance. In the meantime Dick understands he is to use car in moderation. He may not drive it back and forth to work but does want to use it once or twice a week, nights for pleasure, subject to your consent. Due to the increase in employment in Bridgeport the market for used cars is quite active at the present time and Priestley says he could have sold this car to another fellow who was very anxious to buy it the same day. He had other cars he could’ve offered me at lower price but this was the cream of 1937 cars that they had come in for some time, so he says. Discounting the salesmanship in the remark it IS good value according to my amateur judgment and Arnold’s mechanical opinion. I feel satisfied I have carried out your instructions creditably and I hope you will feel the same, even though it is black and not some brighter color.
A.D. Guion P.A.
I’ll be finishing the week with one letter written by Grandpa to Lad, working in Venezuela and another, written to Dan and Ced in Anchorage, Alaska.
On Saturday and Sunday, the David Peabody Guion Photo Album and the Eleanor (Kintop) Guion Photo Album (I hope).
Judy Guion
– Dear Alfred and Laddie – Two Notes from Friends in Trumbull – January 26 and 30, 1941
Alfred Peabody Guion (Lad) is working for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (Mobil eventually) in Venezuela, Daniel Beck Guion and Cedric Duryee Guion are both working in Anchorage, Alaska, Dan as a surveyor and Ced as an airplane mechanic for the Army at Woodley’s Airfield . Grandpa’s three oldest boys are far from home but continue to help support their younger brothers and sister.
Alfred Peabody Guion at one of the Oil Camps in Venezuela
Sunday, January 26, ’41
Dear Alfred —-
Lova, such a lovely surprise – your card! You are coming home in May we hear, but can not wait that long to tell you we miss you, we’re looking forward to seeing you and it was good to hear from you! How’s that ?!?!?! So much must have been happening with you, Laddie, it’s been a long time you’ve been away. If you have a chance to write before you come home, please do, but otherwise, you are hereby invited for a “catching up” get together at the Bebee’s domicile when you return!
Let’s see what I can do in the way of news items, re: the Beebes in this epistle —- Edna and Peggy are entirely on their own and happily (and rather dashingly) keeping home for themselves in an apartment. Mother stays in Redding Ridge all the time now. She’s happier in the country and we are so seldom home. Edna was a student at Teacher’s College in New Haven until last month but left to enter the Library, too. We are both Librarians now, but on our honor, not stodgy ones!
Edna and a Yale Senior, of whom I heartily approve, are very devoted to each other. Laddie, you should see Edna — she is so lovely! After all the publicity she received when elected May Queen — our house was over run with males! Walter (the Yale Senior) is both our favorite, tho’. Is that sentence correct grammatically, I wonder !?!
Peggy broke her engagement about six months ago and is much happier! In fact, life, in general, is extra specially good! We have friends ‘n friends ‘n friends and they come often and stay long! Most of them help on our work here in the Village with the children on Saturday and after we finish, gather here for tea, music, conversation and fun. Most stay for dinner, too, and sometimes overnight. Walter usually comes for Saturday night dinner too —- and any friends of his! Last night, for instance, we were six when someone began to set the table (everyone helps) and nine when we finally sat down! Oh, Laddie — I love it! Good friends, good music (almost everyone plays some instrument) hospitality and general good will!
I don’t know what kind of picture all this paints for you, but come and join us when you get home!
Take care of yourself, Laddie ______
Love from all of us —-
Peggy
(NOTE – Edna and Peggy Beebe were part of “The Gang” that hung around at the Trumbull House for years and years.)
**************************
Arnold Gibson, Lad’s best friend in Trumbull
The Roamer
Trumbull, Ct.
Jan. 30, 1941
Dear Laddie,
Thanks for the birthday and Christmas letters which I certainly should have answered long ago. You see, I hear the news from you through your Dad, and am so darned careless that I don’t write myself. It seemed great to hear your ______ of Nomad and our good times toghether. I sure hope there will be more such trips.
As you must know, Dick is to buy a car for Ced and Dan and drive it to Seattle. Alta (Arnold’s wife) and I were all set to tow our trailer out with it and go to Anchorage, too (with the Roamer). I could do that by June but Dick must leave by March first, so I’ll be $200 short and as I don’t know where I could borrow it, I’m afraid a great opportunity is lost, as jobs there won’t last forever. I may go alone and send for Alta, and perhaps the trailer, later. I even thought that as you expect to be home in the spring, you might like to drive Alta and Roamer to Seattle in the summer, at my expense, of course. Or you might want to go to Alaska, too.
Of course my dream and wish is that, if you are not returning to S.A. (South America) or not going for several months, you might like to go to Alaska with me in the summer or fall as we planned before you went to Venezuela. I think that this would be wonderful, and that you would enjoy travelling with us in the trailer, which is pretty nifty, even after a marsh buggy. All this probably sounds wild to you, but I’m dead serious. You might let me know how crazy it sounds to you.
Nomad is still going strong and my canoe is all rebuilt.
I understand your sufferings to uphold the white man’s prestige with women, women everywhere, but not a one to ______, or is there perhaps one?
Please answer about Alaska,
Gibby
Tomorrow and for the rest of the week, I will post a four-page letter from “The Purchasing Agent” regarding the car Dick is driving to Alaska.
Judy Guion
Trumbull – Dear Son (4) – Grandpa’s Local News And Some Advice – January 14, 1945
Marian (Irwin) Guion (Mrs. Lad)
Jean (Mortensen) Guion (Mrs. Dick)
There is a report that Ray Wang has been wounded although not seriously. Catherine Warden (who had been renting the apartment with her husband, Paul Warden, until he was drafted) is preparing to leave here somewhere around the first of the month for Oklahoma where Paul will be stationed for quite a while). I don’t expect there will be much difficulty in finding a new renter but it will leave us seriously handicapped regarding the laundry problem, which she has been doing for us every week on her washing machine. Jean and Marian are willing to tackle the job after I get our washing machine put in order (Ced fixed the electric ironer when he was home a year ago). I figured however, that with them both working all day, five days a week, they might not have the time, so I took our wash down to Crawford Laundry which used to do it and was told that, as a special favor to me, they would take it this week, but only the de-luxe expensive service was available, that they were not taking on any new customers in fairness to their old steady customers and that in any event, they could not promise the return of any wash inside of a month. That, coupled with the fact that it is impossible to buy any sheets (they had to call the police at a recent sheet sale at Read’s, one of the officials at the store was knocked down in the scramble and two women tore a sheet in half, each grabbing one end and claiming it was hers), sort of settles the matter for us. Either we wash our own stuff or go without, or wear dirty clothes. Reminds me of my cousin Dud’s (Dudley Duryee, childhood friend of Grandpa’s)test to determine whether his socks were dirty enough to go to the laundry. he threw them against the wall, and if they stuck, they were.
It’s been snowing here all afternoon, in spite of which fact, two young things journeyed up here in the bus to get married this afternoon, reminding me of another 14th only a month later, when I performed another marriage ceremony (referring to Dick and Jean’s marriage on February 14th, 1943) here in the house and then the groom shortly thereafter ran away to Brazil, and, personally speaking, hasn’t been heard from since, – – well, hardly ever.
I spoke forniest (? not my typo) in this letter, about your possibly inheriting some of your parents characteristics. There is one thing you did not inherit from me and that is a, what for the lack of a better term, I shall call “money sense”. I suppose it is largely my fault that most of you are not more thrifty. When you were born, I started for each of you a bank account but fell down somewhere along the line in inculcating the idea of saving for the rainy day that invariably comes with the change in life’s weather. Later, this fund was transferred (small as it was) to the Home Building & Loan here in Bridgeport, and none of you have added a cent to it, as far as I know, since that time. In Ced’s case I suppose the atmosphere of Anchorage makes it particularly difficult to develop the habit of laying by for future needs. I religiously saved for him the money he sent home from time to time, thinking he was paying me back for some fancied debt he owed me, and then when he came home last year, he spent it out of his generous heart. He gets a bonus from Woodley’s and immediately thinks about buying Christmas gifts in spite of the expense of fixing up his car. If you boys can’t save something from the small amount you are being paid, just for the mental discipline and good habit formation, then bolster your good intentions by sending me something REGULARLY to put aside for you. I speak out of the experience and observation of sixty years and know someday you are going to thank me for it, if you heed these words now, and it will make me face your future more confidently also. This is not something you married ones can push off onto your spouses. It’s your job. Sorry to end on so somber a note.
DAD
Trumbull – Dear Son (2) – News From Ced In Alaska – January 14, 1945
Cedric Duryee Guion
Ced, from up near the Arctic Circle, reports on December 29 as follows:
The Buick is again performing its long neglected duties and does pretty well at it. There are a few bugs to be chased out of it yet and the way it looks, I may have to take up on the bearings a little later on, but I think I’ll wait until warmer weather. It seems that somehow or other, either from incorrect fitting or by misuse in some way, one of the rods loosened up a tiny bit in the first 100 miles. I didn’t drive fast but I had the spark set a little late and it tended to overheat a little. That, added to the fact that we had nearly 2 feet of snow at just the time I started running it, made the going very tough for a new engine. There is nothing serious at all about it but it was very disappointing after doing the job so thoroughly. It still lacks 285 miles of being run in. I installed the Stuart Warner heater which I bought from Carl and it really is swell on these cold days.
We have had a couple of extremely cold snaps down to 25 below on a couple of days, but for two weeks preceding yesterday, weather and temperature have been extremely and unusually kind to the Arctic dwellers. For some time now the frost peculiar to this section has been building up each night and gradually, completely shrouding all that is exposed to the elements in a gorgeous a blanket of lacy white. Right now when the sun comes out to peek briefly at Anchorage in its hurried course across the southern section of sky, I am privileged to look upon what I believe to be the most beautiful formations of this frost which I have seen in my four odd years up here. Everything, however ugly in the nude, is now resplendent in its new white drapings. Later however, the wind came up and blew most of the frost away. Christmas Eve I spent at the Morgan’s open house and at the Church, singing a Christmas concert with the Presbyterian choir. Christmas dinner was at Jerry Keene’s. The shortest day of the year has finally come and gone and now the days are lengthening again, although I haven’t noticed it as yet. I figured on calling you on the phone from here on Christmas day, around five a.m., catching you at ten, but found there was no openings until Thursday, and again New Year’s Day with the same report. At the night rate of $20 for five minutes and four or five dollars more on day, I decided it wasn’t worth it unless I could get the right time.
Tomorrow, I will post the next section of this letter and continue it throughout the week.
Judy Guion
Trumbull – DEAR A S F (American Setrvice Field – News From Dick And Lad – January 7, 1945
Yesterday’s letter wrapped up 1944 and as 1945 begins, I’m sure Grandpa is praying fervently that this war will come to a conclusion and by Christmas of 1945, his boys will be home for good.
As 1945 begins, I’m sure Grandpa is praying fervently that this war will come to a conclusion and by Christmas of 1945, his boys will be home for good.
The Summer Porch at the Trumbull House
Trumbull, Conn., January 7, 1945.
Dear Members of the A S F: (American Service Force, of course, to all of you except Ced, who rates his own designation, as Art’s Stationery Flyer , possibly Anchorage’s Sinister Firebug, Alaska’s Skeeing Favorite, or it might even be Anyone’s Steadfast Friend – – write your own.
Well, here it is with 1945 one week old, the Christmas tree and decorations have been laid away in camphor balls, winter has returned with a steady snowfall, income tax is drawing near and we’re not yet in Berlin.
News this week is conspicuous by its absence on the Trumbull home front. About the only item of note is that Paul (Warden, who lived in the apartment with his wife and children) has definitely received his appointment permanently locating him in Oklahoma for the duration and has sent for Catherine and the children. She has already sold her car, but as he was not able to find living accommodations there until February 1st, they are planning to stay here throughout this month. Catherine prefers to leave her furniture here, so that I may rent the apartment furnished. She is taking her washing machine and sewing machine along with her, but at present she feels she would like to come back to Trumbull when things again come back to normal.
Marian (Mrs. Lad) and Jean (Mrs. Dick)
Both Marian and Jean have heard from their respective lords and masters, but the old man, being only a father, has not heard from any of his tribe this week. I suppose Dave got back to camp safely and that Ced is still percolating as usual, but those assumptions are but due to my vivid imagination. Special message to the Benedict’s of the family: isn’t there some he-man information you can write about once in a while to your paternal ancestor.
Of course I know your first obligation is to your wife but I figured once in every few months I might rate a few lines. Not that I would have you do so from a sense of duty, but merely on the basis that being still a member of the family, your other brothers and sister would enjoy hearing from you just as you, I hope, enjoy hearing from them through the medium of Trumbull headquarters, and this quite understandably is not possible in the letters you sent to your wives and sweethearts (one and the same thing, of course), because the letters they get from you are the one slender thread that unites you and they assume an importance and practically a sanctity which is not to be commercialized and spread, broadcast, for all eyes to see. I can quite appreciate this feeling and you will too, if you ponder it a moment and try to view it from the feminine viewpoint. The net consequence is that, while verbal comments of interesting news is passed on, it is not the same as having something down in black and white before one to quote in these weekly blurbs of mine. Save the love and kisses for your sweeties but get expansive once in a while and include the whole family in on your broadcasts. Lad, for instance, writes Marian, if we can read behind the few deleted words of the censor has destroyed, that he is evidently located on some old French castle and that Lad has something to do with running the diesels which supply the juice, enough at least to run his electric razor. The walls of the edifice in which they live our thick and their quarters are cold and damp. Jean reports that, for Dick, the rainy season has started and for about three months it will continue to rain harder each day and then will taper off again for another three months. Right now it is oppressively hot where he is.
Marian is “doing her bit” for the war and starts working tomorrow for Sikorsky, something to do with helicopters. We’ll know more about it later. And that’s about all right now. Meantime, keep your chin up.
DAD
Tomorrow,, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I’ll be posting another letter from Grandpa to his five sons away from home.
Judy Guion
Trumbull – Dear Gang – The Great Guion Mystery – December 5, 1943
Trumbull, Conn., Dec. 5, 1943
Dear Gang:
Cedric Duryee Guion
The Great. Guion Mystery, unsolved to the present moment, is: “Has Ced left Anchorage en route home?” The last word from Alaska, as reported to you in a previous communication, was that our arctic explorer expected to leave for his long trip to Connecticut on December 3rd , and I have been anxiously, almost fearfully, looking for further word that would relieve the tension and let us know that nothing is intervened to prevent his leaving per schedule.
Dave has received notification that he is now class 1-A, and if rumors are to be given credence, he will leave Trumbull January 10th . The last hurdle he has yet to get over is his final physical exam. He is flirting with the idea of asking to join the Navy, probably because several of his buddies here have chosen that branch of the service, but this, I hope, will not happen.
Our guest for dinner today was Harold LaTour whom you older boys may remember. For a while he was salesman for an American concern in South America but is now with the Daily News in New York. He was one of Roger Bachelder’s college friends.
A review of incoming correspondence this week reveals the following:
A card announcing the arrival of Donald Robert Whitney, Jr., on November 25th , weight, 8 pounds ten and a half ounces.
Marian Irwin and Lad Guion
Another nice letter from Marian expressing the expectation of drinking a Thanksgiving toast to the “Guion Clan and the fervent wish that another year will find us all together”. She also reports receiving a congratulatory telegram from Ced bemoaning the fact that he would not be around to tie tin cans to the car. It seems that the newlyweds waited so long before starting away for their home trip that all the guests got tired of waiting for them to leave, and in consequence, they escaped the horseplay that usually accompany affairs of this sort.
A letter from Dan enclosing signed registration certification which makes Dave happy in that he will now have about a month in which to drive around a car of his own (provided he can get it running). After a typical Danielesque description of English weather in lieu of the real news he hints he may write about, were it not for the limitations of censorship, he goes on to say his expected studies at Oxford or Cambridge have not yet materialized. He ends with the words: “Hurrah for Lad. I shall write to her personally.”
It is many weeks now, Dan, since a package of Rum and Maple, Kleenex, shampoo, etc. has been sent to you, but if I can secure anymore of that brand of tobacco (they told me it was not being made anymore and what I got was the last of their stock), I shall get off another shipment with the hope that sooner or later one of them might escape Hitler’s U-boats.
Thank you, Marian, for your welcome letter. I hope next time you or Lad write, you will be able to say that you have found a cozy little house or apartment. I’m going to miss you all here Christmas, but I hope Ced will be here to partly compensate. Jean and Dave anyway will save the day and I expect Bissie and her two hopefuls will be on hand. Jean is a way with her Aunt this week and visiting friends in New Milford.
Aunt Betty, Dave and Smoky all send their best, and as for me, you all know what to expect from DAD
Tomorrow, I will finish the week with another letter from Marian.
Judy Guion
Trumbull – Dear Absent Ones (2) – News Of Local Interest – November 28, 1943
This is the second page of a letter from Grandpa to his sons – and daughter-in-law) letting them know what has been going on in Trumbull the past week.
page 2 11/28/43
Jean (Mortensen) Guion
Just so that you will know, Dick is still alive and kicking, I asked Jean to extract a few lines from his letters to her, which she very kindly consented to do, as follows: He is permitted to tell where he is now – in Natal, Brazil, but of course no mention of this fact is to be made on any letters you may write him. The camp where he is staying has a day room equipped with a radio phonograph, books, magazines, ping-pong table, horse shoes, boxing gloves, baseball and basketball equipment. They have built a tennis court and he has played on it several times. He is learning to ride a motorcycle but doesn’t have too much time to devote to it.
I spent most of the day on storm windows. Remember the weather stripping you put around the inside kitchen door, Lad? Well, one night last spring one very bold rat got in the laundry in an effort to get into the kitchen gnawed portions of the weather stripping away and this too, I repaired. Dan, do you recall the good job you did last year in chinking up the spaces between frame and storm windows? Some of it was still in place this year. Ced, do you recall the day you gave me a set of hardware for my bathroom window? Due to warping or settling or something, the storm sash this year was considerably out of whack, so that, too, I remedied today. About half the windows on the ground floor are now completed and I’m hoping, before the weather gets too cold, I can complete the balance.
Dave is away today – he went up to Hartford to visit his friend Howard Mehegan, who is going to school up there at Uncle Sam’s expense. Tomorrow night Dave presides at his first formal dinner, formal not in dress but in the fact that as President of the Trumbull Rangers, who are holding their first annual dinner at the Algonquin club, no less, he presides as Toastmaster.
We have had one storm so far this season which however was neither very deep nor did it last very long. Most of the weather we have had lately has consisted of beautiful cool, but mainly sunshiny, days. Due to the coal shortage we have not yet started the furnace, keeping the real chill off by generous use of oil stove. Up to the present, we have been able to get by without too great discomfort, and as soon as I get all the storm windows up, or in case of a particularly cold spell, we will start up the old ash maker.
And that about closes up the session for this evening. Maybe by next week I will be able to tell you more about the news from the scattered points where the Guion boys are holding up Trumbull prestige. Until then, spare a thought occasionally for all of us back here in the hills of Connecticut, and especially one who now and again describes himself as
DAD
Tomorrow, another letter from Grandpa and on Friday, another letter from Marian.
Judy Guion
Trumbull – Vol. 112 – Headlines Of Today’s News (3) – Miscellaneous News Flashes – January 26, 1941
Enclosed for each of you is an etched bookplate which I have wanted all my life and which I have finally ordered done for me by Mr. Stilson with some of the funds you boys sent me as a Christmas gift. It embodies the Guion coat of arms. It is perhaps one of those things that comes under the heading of foolish sentimental expenditures, but it pleases me and is one of those luxuries that one seldom feels he can afford, and for that reason perhaps it is all the more appreciated.
Monday of last week I was overjoyed to find P.O. Box 7 redolent of letters from far off points. A letter from Lad, written on Jan. 13th, in which he briefly describes how he spent the Christmas holiday and telling me how much of his time on the new job is taken up by clerical work, which leaves him little time for correspondence. Two letters from Ced, one written Jan. 3rd and the other Jan. 9th and one from Dan on the latter date also. Eleanor (Kintop, Dave’s girlfriend) told me Barbara (Plumb, Dan’s girlfriend) received four letters in the same mail, so there must have been some very serious delay in the mail service.
I will have to tell you a little joke on myself. Dan wrote some time ago he was sending a watch for me to have repaired in Bridgeport. It came one morning and as I was rushing down to the office, and assuming it was the watch in the little square box, I took it out to the car with me, unopened, and at noon time, I hurried with it, still unopened, around to Mr. Johnson, the watch repair man. While I was undoing the string I briefly explained to him that my boy in Alaska had sent it down for repairs, that the man from whom he had bought it had explained it was “drilled for 14 jewels” etc., so that we were both sort of taken off our feet with surprise when we saw the contents. Mr. Johnson said he had seen some pretty dilapidated watches in his day but nothing quite to equal this exhibit. We had a good laugh over the thing, and needless to say, he didn’t get the job of repairing it.
Winter is really here now and even the new Buick, with all its latent power, has trouble making the driveway.
As usual a few miscellaneous newspaper clippings are enclosed for any interest they may hold.
Dick wants Lad and Dave and me all to come to Alaska for a visit this summer in view of the fact that he will leave before Lad gets home and will not see him.
DAD
Tomorrow and Sunday I will post the Elizabeth Westlin (Guion) Zabel Photo Album and the Raymond (Zeke) Zabel Photo Albums.
Judy Guion
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 