Special Picture # 351 – Lad’s Gold ID Bracelet And Ring

Both these pieces of jewelry were my Father’s and they are now mine.

While my Father, Lad, was in Venezuela, he had this ID Bracelet made, probably by a jeweler or artisan. Engraved on the back is “A P GUION” and “TRUMBULL, CONN.” You may also notice two gold nuggets included in the chain.

After he had asked my Mother, Marian Irwin, to marry him, he asked her if she wanted an engagement ring. She told him, “No” He gave her this ID Bracelet to wear instead. Now I wear it continually.

This Cloisonne ring was also made in Venezuela, probably by the same person who made the ID bracelet. I believe that neither my Father nor the Artisan knew of the English tradition  of monogramming,  placing the last name initial in the middle (and larger) and the first and middle initials on the sides. I’m guessing that when the order was placed, my Father was asked for his initials and he told them his initials were “APG” and this is the ring that was made., although the “G” should have been in the middle. I also wear this ring continually.

Trumbull – Dear Lad (2) – Good Investment – November 5, 1939

Grandpa with Mack on the side yard

Page 2 of R-48

Your reference to the pilot, Dave Duryea was quite interesting. I wonder if he is not some relation. My mother was a Duryee or Duryea as it was sometimes spelled. Her father, Joseph Duryee was one of several brothers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (twins) Joseph, my grandfather and William. Abraham was a noted general in the Civil War, head of the Duryee Zouaves and commander of the famous 7th Regiment of New York. Perhaps that will give enough of the family background to enable him to identify the family if he knows the family history. The family originally was Long Island Dutch and before that were French Huguenots.

Your comments on the prospects of taking Mr. Leander’s place versus being a diesel man are interesting. I think your idea of playing along for a while to see what happens is a good idea. It may be if the new man is a veteran or expert diesel man and you, more or less, come in contact with him, one of two things will happen. You will have an opportunity to learn something from him that will increase your knowledge or he will soon learn your value and knowledge in this field, and if the work increases so that he will need an assistant, he will want you and you will be in line for advancement in this field, as you now are in the transportation and garage line.

It is now 7:45. The electricity in all the vicinity is still absent. My one candle is burning low and I don’t know how much more of this letter I can write under the circumstances, but there is one topic I want to cover before the candle fails entirely. Perhaps you remember Bob Shedden. He is now selling a form of investment known as Investors Syndicate. He told me about it. I had heard it before and knew it was a good thing. I told him I would take out, in your name, a share or whatever they call it, which will cost about $130 a year and which at the end of 15 years yields a good income, which in the meantime is entirely safe. It is a combination of all the best features of Building and Loan, insurance and investment combined. I have asked him to write you about the details and have you sign the necessary papers, but I have definitely told him to go ahead. I will take care of the payment out of the money you send home. I don’t approve of putting all funds in one thing, putting all your eggs in one basket, as the saying goes. So with the home building and loan card, for which I have received duly signed by you, and this Investors Syndicate, we have a good diversification in, but will yield a good income in time, be safe and still leave some funds to be invested in some other form of investment that will be worthwhile.

I brought Elizabeth home from St. Vincent’s Hospital on Monday. The baby (Raymond Zabel, Jr., Biss (Elizabeth (Guion) Zabel) and Zeke Zabel’s son) is a cute little tyke and seems to be good and doesn’t cry much. Well boy, this is about all that little candle will permit me to do tonight. Until next week, then old Laddie, my very best hopes and wishes and love from your one and only    DAD

I know about the 7th Regiment of New York but I’ll do some additional research and do at least one post about that. It’s quite an interesting story.

Tomorrow and Sunday, more Special Pictures.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Dear Lad (1) – Candlelight – November 5, 1939

At this point in 1939, Dan has returned to Trumbull from Venezuela and is attending the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Lad is the only son away from home as he continues to work for an oil company in Venezuela. With his weekly letters, Grandpa  makes sure Lad knows what is going on in Trumbull and within the family.

R-48 of Nov. 5, 1939

Dear Lad:

This is stormy afternoon. It has been raining all day– a steady, hard downpour with a high wind, whistling and howling and beating the rain against the windows, by contrast making the lights and the cozy fire in the fireplaces all the more cheery by contrast. It is for 4:45. Dan has just come back with Barbara and Jean.

(lapse of some time) It is now six o’clock. Just as I will wrote the above sentence, the lights went out. They are still out and am proceeding with this by candlelight. Dan is trying to pop corn over the open fire. Barbara (Plumb, Dan’s girlfriend)  is lending him moral support. Dick and Dave are singing to accompany Dick on his guitar, assisted by Jean (Hughes) and Barbara. Ced has gone to work (I don’t envy him on his outdoor job in this weather).

    Daniel Beck Guion

The following message is transcribed: ”I saw one of your old girlfriends recently. I have been told that she used to engage you in conversation by the hour when you drove the school bus. I have further been informed that your repeated attempts at discouraging her advances fell flat. Her name? Alice Habersham! She had a small part in a play which was presented in Trumbull by the Ladies Improvement Society, Munroe. I did not meet la muchacha, but Jean told me the story. Dan”

      Cedric Duryee Guion

Whimpy expired the other day — died of a broken axle while Ced was driving her home from Bridgeport. He had just about decided to sell the tires to Carl. He is now preparing to register old Peep., after he gets another tire, battery and a waterproof top.

Tuesday is usually the day mail reaches me from Pariaguan and I’ve been fearing, all this week, that this would be another time I did not hear from you regularly, but the day was saved by a welcome letter in the box when I went for the mail yesterday. I note you are a convert to the theory of relaxation. I suppose what you say is good advice, but there is a difference in temperaments that has to be taken into account. You are more like your mother, who could do just what you find works so well in your case. I don’t know as I do relax completely in the sense that you mean, but when I have nothing to occupy my leisure moments, such as a good book or cooking the meals, or writing letters or doing crossword puzzles or listening to the radio, I am apt to concern myself about the bills or problems at the office or some non-comforting thought, so as an escape, I like to put these things away that do not profit anything by thinking about them. I believe my health is apt to be better by replacing worrying thoughts by some form of activity than it would be by trying to relax and have disturbing thoughts intruding into my solitude. Anyway the only way I can truly relax is by getting away from the ordinary, everyday obligations that force themselves on one’s attention. That’s why a sea voyage is prescribed so many times I suppose. Someday, maybe I can leave all the things that call for attention here and start out on a voyage to see my eldest son in his South American haunts. I’ve always felt any way, that I would much rather wear out than rust out. It’s nice to know that your old man’s well-being concerns you. Right now you are doing the maximum job contributing to my piece of mind by your contribution to the family exchequer. If it were not for your financial help I would have a real serious problem that I could not help worrying about…

Tomorrow I will post the rest of this letter.

Judy Guion

Friends – Dear Lad – Investors Syndicate – November 4, 1939

This is the letter accompanying the “Application” for the Fifteen-Year Investment Contract Lad is applying for that Grandpa has recommended.

62 Center Street

Southport, Conn.

Nov. 4, 1939.

Dear “Lad”,

I am writing you at the request of your father in reference to his purchase for you of one unit ($2500) Investors Syndicate plan.

After discussing this with him, he decided that this would be a fine thing for you to own.

Since it would take volumes to give you every detail of the Company, its background etc. I am not going to attempt to go into these details in this letter since I have gone over the whole thing with your Dad. However he suggested that I forward to you one of our brochures which will give you all the dope in case you want to refer to it at a later date.

The main purpose of this letter is to have you sign the application where I’ve indicated in pencil. It is only necessary to sign one of these but I am sending to in case you should, by some outside chance, lot the signature or make an error. As you probably know, companies do not accept contracts of this nature that show any erasure or changes.

We also sign the small slip as receipt for our booklet “A Presentation of Living Protection”. This will go forward to you in this same mail but I’m not sending it airmail since the cost, I am told, would be exorbitant.

After you have returned the application to me, the company will issue a formal contract which I will deliver to your father for safekeeping in your name.

I presume you will remember who I am since I used to see you frequently when I was at the Bay Company and other times at your father’s office.

I was very interested in learning about your job with Standard Oil and wish you all kinds of luck. With kindest regards,

Sincerely,

Robert F. Shedden

This is just the top of the Application. 

 

Tomorrow and Friday, I will be posting a letter from Grandpa to Lad expressing gratitude and giving some advice. Judy Guion

Peabodys And Duryees (1) – A Letter To Lad From Aunt Helen (Peabody) Human – November 2, 1939

Aunt Helen, the writer of this letter, is Mrs. Ted Human, Jr. He is the uncle that was hired by InterAmerica and then hired his nephews, Lad and Dan, to go to Venezuela with him. Dan was out in the field surveying the route of the highway they were going to built across northern Venezuela. Lad was primarily in Caracas acting as Uncle Ted’s right hand man and did some vehicle maintenance. He was the contact to the family after Uncle Ted’s almost fatal accident ( See “Life in Venezuela (13) – Hazardous Roads and a  Brush With Death” in the category Peabodys and Duryees) and made the arrangements to get Uncle Ted home. Therefore, both Ted and Helen felt closer to Lad than the other children.

Aunt Helen (Peabody) Human (Mrs. Ted)

Nov. 2, 1939

26 Coligni Ave.

New Rochelle

My dear Laddie –

Your letter, dated October 15th, came as a thunderbolt – but a very pleasant one. You can’t imagine how pleased I was to get it and thank you so much for your birthday greetings. Your letter arrived two days early at that. It is a very singular thing, but I had been thinking so much of you lately – I even spoke to Ted about it, and then I dreamed about you – I dreamed that you were coming home and I was disappointed because it meant you were tired of South America, and I had been so hoping that you would really like it — and so your letter was a very pleasant piece of news.

The news of your camp is interesting. Glad you can finally sleep on a Beauty-Rest mattress with comfort. I like the idea of your “Club Pegasus”  and your Spanish classes. You are fortunate in having someone like Mrs. Gerdes as the wife of the manager. A person in that position can do so much to make life enjoyable outside of working hours.

It is true that you have been gone for nearly a year – and I hope you will like the work and life down there more and more – at least enough to complete satisfactorily your full time – perhaps you will want to stay even longer, after a vacation in the states? If you enjoy the work a lot and there are enough people of both sexes near your own age, you should have a very pleasant time. Naturally, you probably get feelings of homesickness at times, but if you are like I am, they won’t be too severe.

At the present time Aunt Dee (Aunt Helen’s youngest sister, Dorothy Peabody )is reading the New York Times – she has been interrupting me so much to read snatches of European news, but I couldn’t keep my mind clear to write, so now she’s keeping quiet and reading solely to herself. She hasn’t made a peep for several minutes. The nurse, Mrs. Myers, is taking care of Grandmother. Grandmother very much enjoyed reading your letter and still says she is going to write to you. She has been sick as you probably know, since the middle of July – she has had two operations, the last 3 weeks ago – she has been home now just a week and is getting along very nicely. By Sunday she will be sitting up a little on the edge of her bed and next week will be getting up for a while each day. Then she will probably keep on getting better and better. She already looks better than she has for the past few years. Even if she doesn’t write you soon, I know she would love to hear from you. She happens to like you an awful lot.

This morning she had a letter from Cedric in which he asks if he, your father, Dan, Dave and Dick may come down Sunday afternoon. We haven’t seen any of them for a long time so we are looking forward to seeing them.

Tomorrow I will post the rest of this letter. On Wednesday, a post concerning some sort of investment purchase Grandpa has made for Lad and on Thursday and Friday, a letter from Grandpa to Lad.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Dear Future General Manager – News Concerning Back Pay and InterAmerica – October 29, 1939

This weeks chronicle to Lad of happenings in Trumbull include several celebrations. It’s  also been 6 months since Lad left Interamerica for his current job at Socony-Vacuum Oil Company and four months since Dan traveled home from Venezuela, but the battle with Interamerica for wages due continues on. This letter does supply some indication that things will be coming to a close fairly soon.

Alfred Peabody Guion at one of the camps in Venezuela

Ye last Sunday in October, 1939

(October 29, 1939)

Dear Future General Manager:

Picture to yourself lawns covered with newly fallen tannish-yellow leaves, clear brisk October weather, a cozy fire in the alcove, Mack asleep on the floor and me at my typewriter and you will have the proper background for this letter.

Chalk up to your credit some additional heartbeats of joy occasioned by the fact that last Tuesday when I looked in the mailbox there was the welcome letter from you and also one for Dan bringing him birthday wishes. And this makes me quite conscious stricken for it was not until Dan mentioned the cause for your letter that I realized it was his birthday. And then I realized with another shock that I had also utterly forgotten all about Aunt Betty’s birthday – – all the more shameful in that she invariably remembers all of our birthdays without fail. She was born on October 11, 1863, which makes her 76 years old. She would probably enjoy hearing from you if you find time to drop her a line.

The most outstanding Trumbull news item of the week was the marriage yesterday of Helen Smith and Bill Slauson. I am enclosing a newspaper account of the wedding. While Ced and the gang were not invited to the reception they went over to the house in Stratford where the Smiths are now living, Ced, with the generous collection of old tin cans, shoes, stuffed animals, signs and what not, including one of the old grates from the furnace.

I don’t know how it happened but Ced learned today that after the wedding and as they were starting on their trip, in backing the car, the grate punctured the gas tank and being unable to get it fixed, Mr. Smith had to lend them his car for their wedding trip. Red (Don Sirene) had fastened to the grate on, but I think Carl (Wayne) got blamed for it. Carl’s part was cutting up an onion and putting it on the manifold where it would stink to high heaven when the car got warmed up. As Ced observed, they were probably pretty sore about the whole incident now, but as they look back on it in after years, it will be something to remember with a chuckle.

Dan, Barbara (Plumb, Dan’s girlfriend) , Arnold (Gibson) and Alta (Pratt, the future Mrs. Arnold Gibson)  have all gone down to the World’s Fair today. I think this is the last weekend before it closes.

In the same mail your letter arrived, there came a note from Mr. McCarter(a manager at the New York office of Interamerica, Inc, the company that still owes Dan back pay from his work in Venezuela) asking Dan to come to New York and receive a check that was waiting for him. I called up McCarter and was told he had a check for the full amount owing Dan to close up the account being the sum of $399.14 and that it was necessary for Dan to sign a release which was being handled by Interamerica’s lawyer next door to McCarter’s office. Dan had arranged to go down there yesterday morning, but later McCarter phoned that he would not be in and neither would the lawyer and asked if Dan could come down Monday (tomorrow) which he is planning to do. I may go down with him to see that everything is straight.

Daniel Beck Guion in the field in Venezuela

Dan also received a letter from Mr. Humphrey Nolan written on a letterhead of a New York concern, as follows: “I understand that you have a claim against Interamerica, Inc. which you would like to press. Burkhardt, Matthews, Miss Easthagen, Gilman and myself all have our claims in the hands of Levy, Wolf and Feingold. Carl Nelson is making arrangements to put his claim with ours, and we also wish to have Shields, Stevenson, and Myers as well as yourself put your claims with ours, so that action taken may be as strong as possible with the least expense to any one individual. It is our plan to proceed to have a receiver appointed in Delaware. If this is carried through, all of Interamerica’s affairs will be taken over by some company like the Uihlen Company and any assets which exist will be used to pay off our claims. However, we believe that Interamerica will do everything possible to make payments and stop this action. Will you let me hear from you at once as we understand that Interamerica has payments of approximately $19,000 due in November we should like, of course, to come in before these payments are made. Levy, Wolf and Feingold are the attorneys who were successful in getting Govin’s money and they have a judgment for Gilman. Awaiting your immediate reply, I am”

I have quoted this letter at length for one reason and that is to urge you to take immediate action in the matter of filing your claim for the balance due you. Simply stated, the proposition as far as you are concerned is this: if the tools are of more value to you than the back salary then you need do nothing about it and let things ride as you have up to the present, with, however, the possibility that if things come to a head with Interamerica, you might be subject to a claim for the tools which you might have to prove in the law court you had not obtained illegally.

On the other hand, if the cash seems to you more useful than the tools, then I should let no grass grow under my feet, in view of the action which these other people intend to take as expressed in the letter above, because if they put the company out of business, (and I think I can see Ted’s fine Italian hand behind this move) and your claim is not in with the others you will be out of luck and may have to return the tools anyway on a court order.

My advice to you is to get busy at once. In any event I should be interested to know what you decide to do and the outcome in case you demand the cash. I still feel you are entitled to the balance of your back salary and the equivalent of your fare home and believe that is what you should demand as a requisite of releasing the tools to Maxudian (Yervant Maxudian, owner and President of Interamerica) . As I suggested in a former letter, if there is no one there among the higher ups that can advise you in the matter and you can’t get to Caracas to talk to McMillan, you had best write him and get his help, sending the tools to him with the request not to release them to Maxudian until your back claims are entirely satisfied.

Zeke has just informed me that Elizabeth and your new nephew are expected to return home Tuesday.

Assorted clippings are enclosed. Does this look like your marsh buggy? I wonder which tires are bigger, the marsh buggies or Bird’s snow cruiser. Thanks for the Building and Loan card. Here is your statement. Oh yes, I have been asked to be in a play the Parent-Teachers Association is giving in December. I am to take the part of the judge. Will tell you more about it when I know more about the cast.

Thoughts have run dry again, so until next week, when the old Remington will be exercised again, I’ll be gathering news for my Venezuelan branch of the family. Meanwhile I’ll be thinking of you often and fondly,

DAD

For more information on how the Interamerica situation developed, check out earlier posts in the category “Life in Venezuela”.

On Saturday and Sunday, I will post more Special Pictures, ones that do not fit into the to the time frame of these letters.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Dear Uncle Alfred (2) – News About Family and Friends – October 22, 1939

This is the second half of a letter I began yesterday which included the birth of Grandpa’s first Grandchild.

Richard Peabody Guion

Dick is down in the dumps today because yesterday Bassick (High School in Bridgeport) lost (20 to 0) to Central (High School, also in Bridgeport). The Robinson’s have a young horse that they use for farm work that has been trained also to the saddle and Dick has been going up there after school several days a week and, with Aunt Elsie’s saddle, has been riding him around. He now thinks he would like to go down to Texas and be a cowboy.

So, you sort of got swindled on the watch, hey? You wrote in a previous letter that Boccardo went with you when you bought the watch so that you felt you not only got good merchandise but good prices also. Maybe it was just one of those things that no one could foresee. The main spring could not have been broken when they sold you the watch or it would not have gone an hour even. They will probably make it right under the circumstances. With good cameras selling around here for five and $10, it seems to me you must have a super excellent camera at the price you mentioned, which as I recall was $100. Maybe you meant 100 Bolivars.

Arnold Gibson, Gibby, Lad’s best friend in Trumbull

Arnold came in yesterday afternoon, after having spent about eight weeks, mostly on his Aunt’s farm. Some of this time he spent trying to figure out the boundaries of the 6 acres that his grandmother left him. He went out with Alta. He asked if he could occupy the cottage until such time as I was able to rent it. He suggested five dollars a month but I pointed out I was paying for the electricity in view of which fact he said $7.50 would seem fair. His other alternative was to get a trailer that was for sale and live in that in Pratt’s backyard.

Just as I was getting dinner today Malcolm Baker, his wife and mother stopped in to see us. They were on their way to the cottage at Madison but it had started to rain so they decided to turn back. By the time they arrived here, however, it had stopped raining.

Grandpa, Aunt Elsie and Aunt Betty

Aunt Betty (Grandpa’s Aunt Lizzie Duryee) is spending the week with her friends in Newburgh. I sent postals yesterday to Aunt Betty, Aunt Elsie (Elsie May Guion, Grandpa’s sister) and the New Rochelle folks The Peabody clan, Mother and some siblings of his late wife, Grandma Arla Mary (Peabody) Guion). I have not heard from any of them yet.

I am just about at the end of my news tether. Ask me a few questions about things you would like to know and I’ll try to answer them a little more thoroughly than you have answered my various queries over the last several months. (The trouble with making statements like this last is that before you get it, you may already have made up for lost time and then one’s guilty conscience points its finger at you).

The Merritt Parkway is now practically finished as far as Nichols and for the last two Saturdays those traveling to and from the Yale football games have used one side. Now both sides have been completed although the planting in the center has not yet been started. There is also a bridge to be built over the Parkway at the continuation of N. Park Ave., and if the weather keeps up for a few months more, I assume the highway will be opened to traffic both ways, although not really finished. Then next year they expect to have the new bridge they are building over the Housatonic completed and the traffic which is now being dumped in Nichols will become the problem of Devon or whatever town the other end of the bridge enters.

And that exhausts the last bit of news that I can cudgel up, so my hearty, good night and take good care of my oldest son until we meet again.

DAD

I’ll continue with one more letter from Grandpa to Lad, about friends and family, tomorrow. 

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Dear Uncle Alfred (1) – Exciting News For The Family – October 22, 1939

In this weeks letter, Grandpa starts off with a  very mundane piece of information before getting to  some surprising news for Lad and the family is quite excited about it. He rounds out the letter with lots of news about everyone else.

October 22, 1939    

Dear Uncle Alfred:

I am starting this letter a little late today due to the fact that I have taken time out to fix the space bar on this typewriter which has been broken in two for some months and which was, I believe, the reason for the tendency to skip spaces which you undoubtedly have observed in former letters. Some time ago I did try to fasten the two pieces together with rubber insulation tape but that still allowed the bar to sag in the middle. Then I asked Dick to cement it with a hard rubber cement but that did not hold, so today I got an old hack saw blade, broke it in pieces of the proper length and using these as splints, fastened them in place with cloth adhesive tape so that, while it does not look especially neat, it seems to have been doing the trick, if the foregoing paragraph is any criterion.

This picture was taken when Raymond Zabel, Jr., known as Butch to the family, was baptized, probably in the summer of 1940. L to R: Alfred Duryee Guion (Grandpa), Richard Peabody Guion (partially hidden behind Grandpa), Cedric Duryee Guion, Elizabeth (Guion) Zabel (Biss), David Peabody Guion, Raymond Zabel Sr. (Zeke to friends and family) holding Butch, and Daniel Beck Guion. Alfred Peabody Guion (Lad) is the only sibling away from home in Venezuela.

Well, the big news of the week lies in the salutation above. I am a grandfather and you are an uncle, Grandma is a great grandmother, and Aunt Betty is a great-great aunt. You have a nephew. Thursday evening after coming home from work I was looking for David to help with the supper and suspecting he might be in with Elizabeth I went into the apartment and there they both were listening to some comedian. Elizabeth was feeling chipper as ever. Late Thursday night however, Elizabeth began to have pains and because they were becoming worse and more frequent, she called up the hospital and they told her it didn’t mean anything. However, as time went on and she had no letting up, she finally decided to go to the hospital anyway at about midnight and about 2:30 AM Friday morning the little fellow arrived. Friday morning as I was shaving Ced came up with a big grin on his face, knocked  on my bathroom door and said, “Good morning, Grandpa”. Suspecting nothing, I didn’t show enough excitement to suit him whereupon he asked me if I had seen the note Zeke had left on the top of the stove downstairs? This note said, “Biss gave birth to a daughter this morning”. Both Zeke and I naturally told those interested that the baby was a girl. It was not until later in the day when I called at St. Vincent’s to see Elizabeth that she told me it was a boy. “It looks just like a little Dutchman,” she said. Both are doing very nicely.

Ced did not have to work yesterday so he started off at 7 AM to visit the World’s Fair. After that closed, he drove into New York and went to the automobile show. This morning he is all excited about the new Willys, which he feels is ace high this year. He even offered today to help me on payments for a new Willys if I would turn in the old on a trade and let him use it some of the time. If I make a killing in the stock market or something I might be tempted to do this as my old boat is getting to the point now where it is beginning to need frequent repairs and adjustments. It has gone over 30,000 miles and I suppose this is quite natural.

Dave wanted me to tell you that he noticed Wells has a new bus which was bigger than the regular buses and as it had a charter sign on it, he assumes it will be used for that purpose.

In another session of the adjourned town meeting held Friday night under Mr. Sexton’s leadership, they decided to refuse to select the report of the town officers.

Tomorrow I will post the rest of this letter filled with news about family and friends. On Friday, another letter from Grandpa to Lad.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Dear Laddybuck (2) – Thinsies -October 14, 1939

~  !  @  #  $  %  ^  &  *  (  )  _  +  this marks a lapse of several days.

It is now Tuesday the 17th. The cousins came Sunday, we had a waffle-help-yourself supper with Burrough’s cider. Monday night I had to attend the Selectmen’s meeting because I am still the Third Selectmen, so tonight is the first opportunity I had of finishing your letter.

Your note written on the 11th reached me this afternoon. There is a manufacturer of crackers in this country who has recently put on the market a new cracker which he calls Thinsies. Without intending any criticism or appearing to be implying anything smacking of ungratefulness, when I felt the missive which reposed in PO Box 7 from Venezuela, Thinsies is the thought that popped into my mind. If you don’t hurry up and look back over those letters of mine and answer some of my questions pretty soon they won’t need answering – – they’ll be outlawed by the statute of limitations. Next time you write give me a schedule of what you do on a typical holiday. (I don’t suppose that psychologically, this is a very good time to suggest writing a long “catch-up” letter home, but that idea did occur to me).

Socony-Vacuum Camp Pariguan Memo regarding responsibilities of Committee members

You had not mentioned the club in any of your previous letters. I should like to hear more about it. Is it just local with your camp or is it general throughout S. O. properties? I suppose the flying red horse is your club insignia. What office do you hold beside membership on the Board of Governors? What equipment have you got? Maybe the books I send down from time to time, you can contribute as your share of initiating a library.

That must have been some shower! When you have big storms and thunderstorms there ain’t no fool ‘n about ‘em, is there? I was much interested in your comment about the way they are so soon forgotten after the terror and panic of the occurrence is a few hours old. It explains something I have wondered about – – why it is that people living at the base of an active volcano who have seen their property or relatives destroyed, go right back a few weeks after it is all over and start over again in the same spot. People are sometimes like animals or insects. The spider will start weaving his web in the same spot it has been brushed away a few minutes before and will apparently keep on repeating the performance. Experience may be a great teacher but the pupils also must have some intelligence.

The last few days have been quite cold. I am trying to hold off lighting the furnace as long as possible, as I still owe over $200 on last year’s coal bill and the loss of the Selectmen’s income makes living expenses a serious problem. (I’m not going to draw on your money that you sent home more than the $50 you arranged for first, as there will always be something that it could be spent for and to take advantage of a very indulgent and generous son is unfair and too selfish, so, short of a dire necessity and stark emergency, the balance of your check from now on will go into your savings accounts). I mention this because otherwise you might think my remark was a hint that you should again offer to come to the rescue. As long as I keep my health we can muddle through some way without encroaching on your future.

Well so much for my Thinsie, which is twice as thicksie as yours, so nya, nya.

Shall be interested to know what Cecelia thought of her flowers and cigarettes.

DAD

Tomorrow and Thursday I will be posting another letter from Grandpa and on Friday, one more from Grandpa to Lad.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Dear Laddybuck (1) – October 14, 1939

The Old Homestead remains the center of activity with all the children living there, except Lad. Biss and her husband, Zeke, are renting the apartment in the Main House and Arnold and Alta Gibson will be renting the cottage, at least for a while.  Various friends and family feel free to just “drop in” when convenient and Grandpa takes it all in stride.

               Alfred Peabody Guion

October 14, 1939

Dear Laddybuck:

How many dry-cleaning establishments do they have in Pariaguan and do you know all of the young ladies in charge in each of them? You seem to be making a collection of dry-cleaning girl clerks. I took a suit in one day to a place on John Street between the Plaza and Main Street and the girl asked about you, and today I called for a suit I had left at a new Good-work place that has just opened in the building across the street from my office, formerly occupied by the Sherwin-Williams Company, and there too, the girl asked me if I lived in Trumbull and was I your father. She said she had written to you some time ago and has not heard from you and would quit being your friend if you didn’t reply soon. Her name is Mildred Goldstein. Oiu. Oiu.

Right next door to this place is a tobacco shop who sold the two packages (50 each) of ivory-tipped Marlboro cigarettes which I yesterday delivered to Mr. Mullins with the request that he deliver them to Cecilia (Cecelia Mullins, Lad’s girlfriend back in Trumbull) today. I also called up Mr. Lockley who promised to send today a nice bunch of chrysanthemums. I sent him two dollars with your note, so I am reporting that I have faithfully fulfilled my duties as your agent. In fact I feel just like Cupid, using cigarettes and bouquets instead of arrows.

Dick is quite thrilled today because, at a football game yesterday, Bassick beat Harding : 6 to 0. Dave is visiting the World’s Fair with his class from Whittier. Ced is asleep, having worked from 12 midnight to 12 noon today. (This, by the way, is Saturday P.M. My cousins from Norwalk just phoned they are coming up to see us tomorrow afternoon, which is my regular Laddie writing time, so I am getting in a few licks beforehand). Dan says there was a fellow working over on the Merritt Parkway gang who says he was a classmate of yours by the name of Pete DiNardo. He wants to be remembered to you.

You will probably have assumed from the above that I received a letter from you this week. I did. It arrived in record time too. It was dated October 4 and reached me on the 10th. My clipping bureau has the following collection of items for you. (1) Death of Fred Root. I have not learned the cause but assume it had something to do with the loss of his arm. (2) (don’t laugh at this one) announcement of winner of the crocheting contest in a shape of an old friend of yours, (3) picture of your Dad getting the evening meal, (4) account of last night’s town meeting.

Tomorrow I will post the rest of this letter … which was written several days later.

Judy Guion