Trumbull – A Double-Header Birthday Celebration (4) – Aug., 1940

I’m home from Rehab and will be posting letters again. This week, the letters are written in August of 1940, Grandpa’s letter is a real long one so I’ll be posting it over four days and them I’ll be posting a letter from Biss to her older brother Ced in Alaska.

The remarks in my letter to Dan about his stock certificate also apply to your Fairbanks-Morse stock, so I have enclosed for you also, a blank for you to sign opposite the X also. Don’t fill it in anywhere else. No date. Just your signature as indicated.

Your August 4th letter arrived with news of the new plane, the cutting of your force and arrival of new equipment at Pariaguan. If I remember correctly, Chris is going to leave soon. Will that mean you will be in charge? Are they still drilling on the old wells or have they started new drillings? Ced writes a description of the planes he has to service in his new job but it is too long to copy. In fact I think the only way for me to keep you informed of the many interesting items discussed is to send you the letters themselves, but they seem to be so much in demand from interested friends that I don’t like to send them on a two months journey.

A letter from Rusty just received commenting on a letter he received from Ced, says: “It was my dream for many years to have my father see Alaska with me. I hope you will be able to see a great part of it in the near future — also that Alfred will chuck his job down there in Hell and go to Anchorage for a little cooling off, or why not all of us move right in on the Alaskans and settle down there for good? I swear I’ll never put in another summer in this land of suffocation again. Best to Laddie when you write him and tell him to start his packing for a country where there are no snakes or crocodiles messing around your feet and you don’t spent most of the day scratching lice or getting drunk to forget what a miserable wretch you are.”

I don’t recall whether in my last letter I mentioned that Arnold told me he had sent back your watch which you and asked him to have fixed, that the cost was $6 and that you had said something about my taking care of your finances and that he should apply to me for payment. While I had not heard anything from you on the subject I took it for granted it was all right and drew a check to his order for six dollars, as he said he was planning to go on a vacation around September 1st and wanted to get some things with the money before that.

Aunt Betty has just asked me to remember her to all you boys and to say that she intended to write you sooner or later.

The letter from Fred Chion to Dan says that Inter-America seems to be all washed up, but that due to a stroke of fortune in Max’s absence, Dick Wiberly was able to work things so that all the men got paid in full for their back salary and had left the company. Most of them are thinking of forming a company to do surveys down there. Chion has already had a couple of offers so intends to stick around a while to see what happens. He states it looks as though under no circumstances would Max get another job down there. I guess those tools are yours and there is little chance now of your getting cash in return for turning them back, even if you wanted to, which I sometimes doubt.

I just received notification from the John Hancock Life Insurance Company that they have left to accumulate to your account in accordance with standing instructions, an annual dividend on your policy of $3.90. This notification I have filed with your policy in the safe deposit vault.

Dick’s camera supplies amounted to a little over $11. He MAY write thanking you, but in any event he seems much pleased with his gifts. I have not decided on the projector yet. I tried out both the Bell and Howell and the Eastman and while the former has a slight edge on the B&H as far as quietness of operation goes, I do not think it is worth double the price asked. I am thinking of seeing what allowance I can get in turning in our old camera and projector in the 16 mm size to apply against the purchase price of the new projector or perhaps exchange them for a new 8 mm camera so that we can both be standardized on that one size. I am told I can have the few pictures we have on the 16 mm films copied on the smaller size, so we need not lose the benefit of pictures already taken on the old camera.

Ced writes he received his first pay covering a period of approximately 2 weeks, amounting to $76.80 which included some overtime. He says Dodge, Packard and Oldsmobile are the most popular cars there in the order named. Chevrolets and Fords are almost nonexistent. GMC and Dodge are the most popular trucks.

DAD

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting a letter from Biss to her older brother Ced in Alaska.

I’ll be posting Special Pictures on Saturday and Sunday and next week, I’ll be posting letters from 1941.

Judy Guion

 

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Trumbull – Back From Florida – Nov, 1940

1934 – 1940 Timeline

Grandpa keeps looking for letters in PO Box 7 but is disappointed each day BUT he get an even bigger surprise.

November 3, 1940

Dear backsliders:

My eyesight is strained from peering into the gloom of the interior of P.O. Box 7 in an effort to discover a letter either with the Venezuelan stamp or an Alaskan postmark on it. 14 times during the last week (that’s two Saturdays, so no remarks about Kurtz’s is not being open on Sunday, nh, nh, so there), so with no letters to answer and little local news, there is not much skeleton to build the body of this letter on. A preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with. (I got you that time too).

The box with the skates and the music was dispatched this week. Cost, including insurance was a $1.25. Thanks for your thoughtfulness in sending the dollar, Ced, it almost made the grade. I did not know which Spanish grammar Dan wanted, so I picked the one that looked as though it had been used most. As a matter of fact I did not discover the other one until after the box had been all but sealed with my orange tape. I did however include the two magazines that Carol Ravell sent. I should think you would follow Lad’s idea, Dan, and let me subscribe to the Spanish edition of Reader’s Digest for you.

Just after I finished writing to you boys last Sunday and was thinking about going to bed, who should breeze in without

Dick Guion

previous warning of any kind but old boy Dick. They had left Florida the Friday before on receipt of a telegram from Mr. Kascak telling Bob he had work for him to do at home. They had practically lined up jobs too, which they badly needed as their cash had about vanished. Apparently, most of their time down there was spent helping a tennis pro, who gave instructions to amateurs who desired to improve their game. The boys would work on the courts long enough to earn the privilege of playing the rest of the day, which while enjoyable (using $20 rackets, etc.) did not bring in any cash with which to buy grub or pay rent, so that they found themselves in Philadelphia on the way home with $.50 in cash and no gas. Luckily Bob had relatives in Philadelphia where they replenished their gas tanks, pocketbooks and the inner man and arrived in Trumbull with $.50 to the good.

Dick thoroughly enjoyed himself and said it was worth all it cost. He feels much better mentally and is now looking for a job. He tried to get on the Easton Reservoir job but they said they had more than enough men were not interested in taking on any more. He does not want an inside job. He has been doing odd jobs around the house here for the past week, and today I got them to go to town, the three of us. I got them up about nine and put them in good humor by giving them a pancake breakfast and then set them to work getting up the storm windows while I started to clean up around the incinerator. I worked this for an hour or two and then came in and started dinner. After this important function was over and dishes washed, I got them working on the incinerator again until dark. Barbara, Don and Jean have just come in and are now reading last week’s Alaskan letters. I have just asked them what news there might be for me to pass on to the absent ones, with the result as follows.

Jean and Don were the committee, appointed by the choral society, to arrange a Halloween party at Mrs. Miller’s last night. Ghosts, corpses, empty rocking chairs rocking, dark rooms with eerie sounds, etc. apparently sent shivers down many choral backs and undoubtedly put the proper tremolos in the voices of those members of the choir who went to church today.

Jean has had her fang removed and asked me to tell you that she is downhearted, Ced, because you have not written her. She asked me to tell you that she had an infected finger from knitting you a pair of mittens (Don says she is knitting you a pair of infected mittens) and still you have not written.

Don goes to New York tomorrow to take the various exams necessary and will probably be informed promptly whether he has been accepted or not, as in case of a favorable answer, he leaves next Sunday for Quantico, Virginia, for three months trial training, after which he will either be accepted or kicked out. If the former, he will continue his training for another three months, followed by six months active duty.

The new tenants moved into the apartment yesterday. They are Mr. and Mrs. Paul Worden and seven months old baby. He is a reporter on the Times Star and seems to be a very likable chap. She is a rather easy-going homebody who seems friendly and pleasant. Mack has already made friends with the whole family.

I am waiting to hear from all of you lads about what happened to you in the draft area. Arnold and Carl both had their numbers in the first drawing, but so many Trumbull boys have enlisted that I doubt if they will be called.

In Ced’s last letter, Lad, he said they missed a car and had in mind saving up about $400 between now and February so

Arnold Gibson

that I could get them a 1938 Chevrolet or Plymouth with a trunk and then, if Dick liked the idea, have him drive it out to Seattle, load it on the boat along with himself and import them both into Anchorage. Dick is quite excited about the idea, the only aspect of which he does not like, being the fact that Dan wrote there were very few girls up there. As soon as Arnold heard of the plan he told Dick he would like to arrange to hitch the trailer onto the car and travel out with him and perhaps another paid passenger. The trailer would be able to accommodate four and taking it would save expenses en route, where otherwise, they would have to stop at tourist cabins, etc. This arrangement would have its advantages as we could enlist Arnold’s aid in selecting a car and I imagine Ced would feel a little more sure about getting a car which was mechanically sound if Arnold, rather than I alone, did the picking. However he will probably write to Ced and ask if there are any objections to Mr. and Mrs. A. Gibson following out this plan. Meantime Dick figures he will have to get a job as soon as possible in order to save sufficient money to pay his share of the expenses.

The furnace is all fixed up now ready for its winter work. After this note of $75 on my car, which is due, has been taken care of, I will see what I can do about a supply of coal. Up to the present we have been using the oil stove and fortunately the weather has not been too cold. I have had Carl put my radiator in condition for winter driving, using the new DuPont Zerex or whatever they call it, which Carl thinks is better than Prestone and costs no more. That’s something Lad does not have to worry about but which you boys in Alaska would have to figure in if you got a car.

Tuesday is Election Day and feeling is running pretty high here. It looks as if the race would be pretty close, but you will both know who next president is before this letter reaches you, so there is no use my commenting on it here and now. Only, I’m hoping. I’ll be looking for letters from both Venezuela and Alaska, in the box tomorrow, in which case, even if the election goes the wrong way, I will still be able to stand it. So, until then,

DAD

I’ll be finishing out the week with letters written during the fall of 1940 and on Saturday, I’ll have another Tribute To Arla. On Sunday, there will be another installment of Mary E. Wilson’s Autobiography, covering 1926 and 1927.

The following week, we’ll jump into wedding plans and other happenings in the fall of 1943.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Motoring and a Prediction – Oct., 1943

This is the second half of a letter written by Grandpa to his four sons, scattered all over in the service of Uncle Sam. Lad is a vehicle maintenance trainer in California and just got engaged to Marian,  my Mom, Dan is a surveyor in England, Ced is airplane mechanic and bush pilot in Alaska and Dick is an MP in Brazil and also helps with communications with the locals.

Book of the week, page 2               10/10/43

DEAN OF TRUNBULL EMULATES KAISER:     Ye shades of doom! If the Kaiser can be a wood chopper in his exile, why can’t old Pop Guion, when exiled by his own sons, chop up firewood against the coming fuel shortage? No sooner said than done. So, with my regular wood choppers chopping hunks out of Nazis and other vermin, I ups and tackles the old apple tree which blew down last winter. That was my good deed for this week. Next on the program is taking down screens and getting storm windows ready to erect. Who says I don’t miss the gang?

MOTORING ITEM:     Young David, just turned 18, has now turned to motoring and has a yen to run Dan’s Chevrolet. He had some of his buddies put

Dave Guion

it through its paces yesterday and found that outside of a battery, busted taillight and a weak starter, there seems to be little the matter. A car in running condition is a better perspective sale than one that lays out in the backyard with tires deflated, etc., so, irrespective of the fact that this plays right into Dave’s hand, if Dan consents, Dave will register the car, and I will expand what funds are necessary to put it into driving condition, with the idea that anything so spent will pay dividends when the car is sold. Of course Dan, if there is any reason why you prefer not to have Dave use the car, that is something else again. I will say, however, that none of you boys at his age drove any more carefully or with better judgment than he does.

PREDIUCTION:     This is where we outrival Drew Pearson, Walter Winchell and other prognosticators, who either have not thought so far ahead or have not dared put it into print. A Reuter’s dispatch from Zürich states the Germans ”plan to remove the Pope to a North Italian town offering greater security should Rome be in danger of capture by the Allies.” This decision was said to have been taken on the grounds that the Germans had assumed responsibility for protecting the Pope and could not allow him to be endangered by street fighting. Good, kind, thoughtful Nazis. I predict: that desperate Hitler has an ace card in the person of the Pope, that he will remove him to Germany with perhaps all the Cardinals, and when the Allies demand the head of Hitler, that wily paper hanger will reply: “Full pardon for me and Mussy or the Pope and Cardinals go to the block”. When I was a boy, Theodore Roosevelt sent a message to a Barbary pirate chieftain who had captured an American citizen: “Pericardis alive, or Rasuli dead.” And what a poser this question would pose for Roosevelt and Churchill to decide. You may be sure Adolph is not overlooking the possibilities. Talk about political dynamite. This is truly “high explosive”.

SOCIAL NOTES:     A week ago Saturday, Carl Wayne, while at Norfork, visited the Chandlers at Westminster. He is scheduled for his first trip in about three weeks time and after that has a chance to be made 3rd Assistant Engineer. Ethel says he is still using his selling ability, having contracted to do the men’s washing. He then got friendly with the cook and uses the galley to dry the clothes, of course charging extra for this. David Chandler is going to Prep School in Washington. Carol Elizabeth is three months old and is living with her mother when her father isdoing washing for Uncle Sam, at the Bushy residents, with Papa and Mama bushy and Daniels Farm Road.

The Editor says it is time to close the forms and go to press. Letters to the editor are always appreciated. Don’t let your subscription expire.

A.D.G.

Tomorrow, we’ll read a quick note from Babe, Lad’s former girlfriend and on Friday, we’ll hear from Marian’s parents concerning the engagement.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Birthday Letter to 31324665 – August, 1943

Trumbull Conn.

August 15, 1943

Dear 31324665:

THAT, dear children, may be just a number to you, but translated into Uncle Sam Army language it spells Richard Procrastinator Guion, the

Richard (Dick) Peabody Guion

middle name having been earned at birth and as far as correspondence to the home front is concerned, has been reaffirmed weekly since that time with an i\Ivory Soap score – 99 and 44/100 pure, (In view of my chosen profession I just have to get in these little advertising ideas in my correspondence, you know).

Is that, you may well ask, the approved method of having a letter addressed to one? No, NO, perish the thought! It isn’t even in spite of that fact. But by this time you may have guessed. In just a few days now we will celebrate a birthday but it will be a party without the main guest. We can’t even send him greetings, much less a gift because we don’t know in what corner of the globe he is hiding from Adolph. So we have unanimously adopted the theme song for the occasion: ”I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby”. Of course there is lots of that from each and all of us, although we know full well it won’t buy baby a new pair of pants.

What a lot of accumulated celebration we will have to celebrate when this mess is finally settled. Now, there’s a thought. What is your prescription for a suitable method of rendering due honor to the occasion? How about that auto trip down to Mexico and Central America with enough cars to accommodate the whole family, with Lad and Dan as official interpreters? Ced could entertain and charm the natives with imitations of Bradley Kincaid, Dick and Jean might do a rumba or two, Dave would probably make a beeline for the best looking native girls, while I could profitably employ my time sniffing the native flora to see if it produces I hay fever sneeze.

Incidentally, I read recently an article on how nearly completed this Pan-American road was south of Mexico City, and ran across the following incident: the advanced survey party sometimes encountered situations for which neither engineering texts nor guidebooks had any solution. The disappearing surveyor’s stakes are a good example. In the rural sections, clear, straight-grained, sawed wood is in great demand to patch chairs, to reinforce plows and for 1000 other purposes. The surveyor’s stakes of clean new wood, 1 1/2 in. square by 14 inches long, driven into the ground 100 feet apart to mark the route of the highway, were a treasure trove to the country people who pulled up at night all the stakes placed during the day. Both U.S. and native engineers explained often and at length that the markers were necessary. The people listened, nodded, and the next morning the stakes were gone again. After all, if the yanqui senores valued the little pieces of wood so highly, why would they stick them in the ground and go away and leave them? Gringo foolishness. Finally one of the engineers hit upon the simple idea of nailing a short piece to each stake just below the top at right angles, making a cross. Not a stake disappeared from that day until the end of the survey.

Jean has a new name for me – “Marryin’ Sam”. This week, one marriage at my office, the week before, two; the week before that also two. It all came about in this way. I usually have my ad in the yellow section in the back of the Bridgeport phone directory. A few weeks ago when the salesman called for a renewal for the new edition, I happened to notice that in the New Haven directory several names appeared under the heading “Justice of The Peace”. I told him they could include my name under that heading in Bridgeport, thinking of course, the other Bridgeport “justices” would be included, but when the darn thing appeared a few weeks ago, low, like Abou Ben Adam (May his tribe increase) my name not only led all the rest, but, believe it or not, it was the only name under that heading in the yellow section. So, if the angle of incidence maintains (I have to get these engineering boys into thinking their Dad is not a back number) I may accumulate enough fees to pay the expenses on that Central American tour above referred to.

And speaking of marriages, this week, at the Trumbull Church, Jacqueline French was united in holy wedlock to Mr. John J. Schwarz, son of the Bridgeport lumber dealer. No wisecracks now about little chips off the old block, etc.

I want an answer from someone, Dan or Dick, regarding the Chevrolet out in back. I think it belongs to Dan although Dick may have made some arrangement with Dan about it. Anyway, it is not doing anyone any good standing out unused month after month. I have asked Harry Burr to give me a figure on how much it will cost to fix it up in running condition, and then, depending on the owner’s wishes, I will try to sell it or keep it against the time you boys return and want a car to run around in (and they are getting very scarce now in the East). Please, one of you write me about it.

Dave and some of the boys that forgather in the Clubhouse in the barn have an idea they can fix the old Waverley Electric car up to run either by battery or with a motorcycle motor and have been busy today working on it. I am adopting a “show me” attitude on whether they can accomplish their purpose or not.

For some years now, we have been needing a feminine touch around these here diggins’ and it looks very much as though Jean is the answer to this long felt need. She spent most of the day improving the appearance of the music room, with a bit of help from me, and the result is something to write away about. So we are profiting by Jean’s homemaking instinct, and this is fair warning now that the rest of you will have a high standard to match in presenting me with any other daughters in law.

The supper call is about to sound, so I’ll bring this peculiar birthday letter to a close with many good wishes to my boy “who wears a pair of silver wings”, with many happy returns of the day from all of us and most earnest hope that next August 19^th there will be no empty chairs around the table as we sit down to celebrate the occasion. So, Dick old son, here’s more love than you know from your old

DAD

Trumbull – Oil Speculation and Properly Sober, Sept, 1939

1934 – 1940 Timeline

It’s 1939 and Lad has been working in Venezuela for about nine months. Grandpa is thrilled because he has finally gotten a letter from Lad, and a long one at that. I don’t have that letter but Grandpa gives us an idea of what Lad has been up to since we last heard from him.

September 3, 1939

Dear Adolph:

You and Hitler have one thing in common as far as I am concerned and that is the faculty of keeping the other fellow guessing. For three weeks, up to a couple of days ago, I had not heard from you and was beginning to wonder what it was all about. However, as I write on this sunny Sunday afternoon, with war clouds gathering darkly in Europe, and read over again your short letter in lead pencil written August 15 from Iguana # 2, I think I have discovered the reason for the delay. Enclosed you will find the envelope in which the letter came. You will note that the extra postage represented by the stamps on the back were not canceled, due to the fact that probably some careless postal clerk only glanced at stamps on the front, figured there was not enough postage for airmail and sent it by regular mail. You therefore have three good stamps to use over again. I hope this means that someday soon I will be likely to get two letters during one week.

I suppose that with radio what it is today you are receiving foreign news as quickly as we get it here. There is not much use therefore in my commenting on the situation because it is hourly changing so rapidly that two weeks hence, when you receive this, the foreign lineup will be entirely different. There is one aspect regarding this war situation however, as far as you are concerned, that gives rise to some interesting speculations. Oil products are a very important war commodity, and while the US may adopt measures in the interests of neutrality that will prevent American companies from directly selling oil and its derivatives two nations at war, your company is producing oil in a foreign country and some way may be found to supply the undoubted demand for oil from the fighting nations that will cause a great increase in demand for production, which in turn, I should surmise, would step up your activities in drilling, which in turn might mean that those already engaged in this work, who have had some experience, would be given additional opportunities to forge rapidly ahead. There is another phase of the thing which has interesting speculations for you. If greatly

Alfred Peabody Guion (Lad) in Venezuela

increased gallonage of oil is to be shipped abroad there must be a correspondingly greater number of tankers to carry it, and if these new tankers are powered by diesel engines,there might well be an increased demand for men with diesel engineering experience. This, of course, is a longer range proposition, and it may be the war will not last long enough to permit the building of enough tankers in time to make the demand for diesel operators acute. I confess I don’t altogether like the idea of a boy of mine on board a ship during wartime carrying so important a war material and so naturally a target for enemy subs.

If the war does last and the nation’s production of machinery and metal products is speeded up, I assume that as before, New England and specifically Bridgeport, would have another boom, which will be good while it lasts, no matter what may happen afterwards. In this case I may be able to climb back a little bit from an income standpoint and not have to depend so much on the generosity of my loyal sons even though I appreciate the willingness and the great spirit that is back of it all.

For three days now Mr. Smithson has been working here, taking off old wallpaper and applying a fresh coat of paint. The upper and lower hall ceilings are being painted white and the side walls a very light green. Tomorrow we will tackle the living room and the music room and will paint these walls a light creamy tan.

Aunt Anne says Grandma is getting along very well. Larry and Marian are spending Larry’s vacation time in Vermont with the baby, of course, at Munson’s, and will probably be back shortly after Labor Day (which is tomorrow).

Aunt Betty is sitting on the sofa in the living room as I sit in my big chair, looking over your scrapbook. She just asked me to give you her love. She says she wrote you a letter some time ago but if you replied to it, she never received it.

The Trumbull Fireman’s Carnival ended last night. We went down for a short time. There was not much of a crowd for Saturday night. I don’t know who won the Chevrolet car but I heard it was someone from Southbury. Dan Ced and Dick went down to New York last night to have a fling at the big city. They went to a nightclub, but evidently all remained properly sober. Don Whitney and Redd and another chap from Westport went with them. Rusty, from all reports, is back in Wakefield with his folks. Ced has a new kind of work at the Tilo Plant, night work at that. It has something to do with heating up the tar and asphalt in huge kettles to prepare the mixture for the next day’s run. At present he does not get more money but that is likely to come later.

Dan got a letter from McCarter this week telling him he could put through his check for collection as the money was now on hand. I therefore started the check through the bank Friday and we’ll see what happens. If this gets through all right there is the balance of his pay still due which he will have to wrangle out of Maxy in some way. Am anxious to know what you did about collecting your back wages and what you did about the tools. I am also looking forward to hearing about your trip to Ciudad Bolivar, and what you think of the Orinoco. Saw Mr. Page again yesterday. He asked to be remembered to you and said he thought Marie would be getting married within the next six months. Yesterday’s paper carried the announcement of the death of William Vincent Judge, after a short illness.

Just a few minutes ago a man drove up in an auto and asked if Dan were home, and then if Mr. Human were here. He said he was Myers who had just arrived from Caracas. I immediately telephoned Dan, who was at Plumb’s (you might have guessed it) and for the last 20 minutes they have been chatting about affairs at InterAmerica. Myers plans to see Uncle Ted tomorrow and then start war against Maxy, or perhaps I might say, will join up with the reinforcements. He says that Benedict and Nelson are both back in the states now. He is going back in a few weeks on another job which will take him either to Caracas or to Pariaguan with a construction company, so you may run across him sooner or later. And that’s about all I can scratch up, in the way of news right now. So, toodle do and don’t forget to write more and oftener.

DAD

Tomorrow we’ll have another post from Trumbull with some interesting tales of what has been going on there during the past week. We’ll then check up on the boys in Alaska during 1940. I hope the timeline is helping you keep track of where everyone is at the time of each letter so you aren’t totally confused.

Judy Guion

Life in Alaska – Ced – The Perfect Job, July, 1940

1934 – 1940 Timeline

In an attempt to help you keep track of where everyone is at the time of each letter, I’ve created the Timeline above. Please let me know if it helps.I do realize that it is sometimes quite confusing.

The following letter is from Ced to his older brother, Lad, who is still in Venezuela. It was included in the same envelope as Dan’s letter dated the day before.  Both boys have been in Alaska for about 6 weeks and found jobs very quickly. It didn’t take them long to find jobs that were better suited to their plans. Dan is working as a surveyor at the military airfield and Ced is working at an airline transport company.

Monday – July 29, 1940

9:35 PM our time

3:35 AM New York time (Daylight Savings)

Dear Alfred:

I have been intending to write to you for a long time and it seems as though I finally got around to it. I won’t be sure until it’s in the mailbox however.

Cedric Duryee Guion

I suppose you must feel that I am either a lousy correspondent or just a terribly dis-interested person as concerns you – rest assured, it’s undoubtedly the former. I can’t begin to tell you how I appreciate all you have done for Dad and also the rest of us. I know that your help has been invaluable to Dad and he, I’m sure, is very grateful. As concerns myself – ahem – I wanted thank you for the birthday gift of the bag which Dad got for me with your money. Even coming as it does, within two days of two months late, it is none the less sincere. It (the gift) came in very handy on the trip out and I’m afraid I would have been hopelessly short of luggage if it hadn’t been with me. Golly, it’s hot to write. Dan and I sit in our room sweltering with the window and door wide open, just imagine, this in Alaska. The paper says there has been a heat wave in the eastern states too, so I don’t feel so badly.

Just took time out to read Dan’s letter to you so that I wouldn’t duplicate. I agree with him in his disappointment in Alaska, but perhaps I enjoyed the trip out a little better than he, though at times it did get monotonous. At present, I’m in the middle of writing a trip history and when it’s finished, I will send you a copy.

It occurs to me that you might be interested in my work at the airport. Mr. Woodley runs an airline which operates commercial planes for hire. He was one of the four concerns in the commercial flying business upon whom I called on the first day out looking for work. The reason being that I have decided, pretty definitely, to get into aviation (on the top side I hope) and concluded that work in any capacity at the airport would help me get on the “inside”. Mr. Woodley was the last one I contacted as he had been out the first three times I tried to get him. When I finally did get to see him, instead of being the gruff, executive type I had expected to find, he was friendly and reminded me somewhat of Uncle Fred, though not in appearance. He knew Rusty when I asked him if he had known him and when I told him where I was from he was quite interested and said he had come from Boston. He said he would look around and see what he could find and I left, hopeful, but not expecting. The next day I found work at Glover’s gas station and the day after started in there. I told Mr. Woodley I was working but still hoping to get out on the airport. This second visit, I suppose, convinced him I was interested and two days later I was walking to work when he drove up in his car (39 Packard 6) and hailed me. He said I could go to work as soon as I wanted to. I told him I’d see Mr. Glover and let him know that noon. (I of course did see Art Glover, and did let him know the answer was “YES”.) He told me the work wasn’t much – gassing planes, cleaning them inside and out and being a general handyman. So far the job has been just that. My pay is $.60 an hour which is what I was making at the Tilo Company when I left, but Art Woodley told me it would be increasing if I did all right. Soooo,

The company has three pilots: Art himself and two others, a girl and two men in the office, a large hangar at the airport, and old shed at the Lake where they have two ramps for planes on pontoons, a ‘39 panel GMC and a ‘40 station wagon GMC, two planes on wheels – one undergoing complete repairs in the hangar and two on floats or pontoons. All six place and pilot Travelaires with Whirlwind engines, weighing under 400 pounds and developing 310 hp, and one eight place, pilot and copilot, Stinson tri-motor with Lycoming engines and retractable landing gear. The Travelaire‘s are around 10 years old and the Stinson eight. The Stinson is a sweetheart. The seats are overstuffed and pivot; a card table, large map of the US, reading lights, a fan, sick berth and small lavatory and sink are part of its equipment. It will cruise at 150 to 160 miles per hour and what an instrument panel! It has about 30 dials and 35 or 40 switches and about as many telltale lights. The only thing is that it doesn’t get used very often as it is so costly to operate. It hasn’t left the ground since I have been here (two weeks).

The country up here is particularly hard on cars because of rough roads, very dusty and about two thirds of all the cars are Packard‘s – almost no Fords, Chevrolets, Plymouth’s, Buicks and practically all Dodge GMC’s.

It’s bedtime now. Best of luck to you, and I’ll send you that trip report.

Ced

Please let me know if the Timeline helps. Tomorrow, we’ll be going back to Trumbull and see what Grandpa has been up to… or in to… as the case may be.

Judy Guion