Trumbull – Dear Correspondents (2) – News From Dorothy And A Baby Blizzard – Feb., 1945

Page 2    2/11/1945

Well, I’ll tell you Dave, if the post office is open tomorrow (Lincoln’s birthday here, you know) I’ll get a package off to you. If, when you receive it, you find some of the things are wrapped in Christmas paper, don’t think I am losing my mind. The fact is that before I knew for sure you were coming home for Christmas, I began assembling some things to send to you, just in case. And the other day I had an idea you might like to get it anyway, whereever you are when it finally catches up to you, so here it goes. And Dan, there is also another package being wafted on its way to you containing some of the things you asked for and also a couple of toilet articles dear to a girl’s heart which you may want to present to Paulette. I had previously sent your shoes.

Ced, old Bean, don’t forget to let me know how the draft business comes out. Maybe there will be a letter tomorrow or sometime this week from you on the subject. And a couple of week hence I expect I’ll have some snapshots of the girls to send just for variety. They have been suffering from an attack of cameraistis lately and old Eastman has been working overtime trying to keep up with them.

Dorothy writes from Los Angeles: The trip out here was really glorious. I’ve seen pictures of our mountainous west, but to actually be near enough to almost touch them, to see the panorama of endless Mountains – – miles and miles and miles of them – – not for just a few hours but for whole days – – it was the most majestic and awe inspiring sight I have ever seen. The desert was fascinating too and very weird. Altogether I found the trip very lovely. So far the weather has been fine although it’s supposed to be the rainy season. Imagine my surprise when I woke up the first morning I was here to find three enormous poinsettias and a Calla Lily peeping over my window ledge.

Early this week we had a baby blizzard here. Snow on the driveway drifted knee-deep and transportation was pretty much crippled – – so much so the first day that there was no school although the buses ran to and from Bridgeport and both Marian and I drove our cars, leaving them, of course, at the bottom of the driveway. However, this was followed by a couple of days of really mild weather which has done much to reduce the size of the drifts. Our new tenants have not moved in yet. They brought a few of their belongings but said their car had broken down. They could not have driven up to the house anyway, as before mentioned.

Today I had to go to Bridgeport to join in wedlock to young things, the man, in the Navy, having to go back to duty tomorrow. His “best man” said: “Didn’t you have a son that went to Connecticut State College? I thought I recognized the name. Well, I used to drive back and forth with him occasionally. Didn’t he have an old Plymouth? When you write, mention Henry Beigert to hear. I’m now in the Air Force stationed at Mitchell Field.

Tomorrow, being Lincoln’s birthday, I have to relate an anecdote. As you know he married into the rather snooty Todd family. Someone asked Lincoln whether they spelled their name with one d or two. He said one d was good enough for God but they had to have two. I’d like two letters myself.

DAD

Tomorrow and Sunday, I’ll have Special Pictures for you.

On Monday, I’ll begin posting letters from the spring of 1941. Lad is looking forward to coming home from Venezuela in May. Dick is getting excited about his trip across the country and north to Alaska to deliver a car to Dan and Ced.

Why not share this blog with a friend or two. They might really appreciate it.

Judy Guion

Advertisement

Trumbull – An Asylum For Peabodys (1) – July, 1940

This is the first half of a letter written by my Grandfather to his oldest son, my father, who is working in Venezuela for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company. Tomorrow, I’ll post the rest of the letter to his next oldest boys, Dan and Ced, who have just driven across the country and sailed to Anchorage, Alaska, in search of better wages and an adventure.

R-84                                                                    Trumbull, July 14, 1940
Dear Lad:
Tuesday of this week I received a letter from Donald Stanley informing me that he would arrive the next day for an indefinite stay. Upon arrival he said his father wanted me to write him regarding board, etc., that Fred did not want him to stay with him in view of the fact that he had a new wife, and that there were no youngsters of his age up there in St. Albans that he wanted to pal around with, so he told his father the place he would prefer to be was Trumbull. With Ced’s board, which he paid regularly while employed by Tilo stopped, and the considerable amount of food Donnie is able to put away between meals, the financial burden of this additional mouth to feed is not too good; besides we had planned, with only two boys left, to make numerous weekend visits to friends and relatives which I did not feel as if I ought to do with a big flock of kids in the past, and these plans have been knocked into a cocked hat. I so wrote Fred but have not had time to get his reply. Another thing that bothers me a bit is that Don has been subject to fits. Still another angle to the situation is that Dick, on Saturday last, received a call from the Connecticut Employment Bureau about a job for an Addressograph operator being opened at the Columbia Phonograph. He went over and interviewed the employment man and starts in Monday at $16 a week. Dave has a two weeks job at the office enclosing Ashcroft blotters, and this will leave Don at home alone here all day. With his mother in the hospital and naturally inclined to worry about him, and not wanting to hurt the poor lad’s feelings, I suppose the only thing for me is to accept the situation with a smile. This house seems to be an asylum for Peabody’s who have nowhere else to go. I am of course glad to be able to do it but as it is partly your monthly contribution that is keeping us going, it doesn’t seem quite fair to you to be too charitable.
I had to go down to New York Wednesday on business so we got out the old Plymouth and the three boys and myself drove down and back. They went to the movies while I did my stuff.
For a long time I have been behind in my rent at the office, but Miss Denis has gradually been getting caught up with it so that now we are just about square. As the landlords have not done anything to my shabby looking place since the beginning and as we have a very unwholesome heating system, I have been looking around for some other quarters. Last week, on Main Street, just south of State Street, and next to the Bridgeport Land and Title office I located the entire third floor of a small building owned by the Bridgeport City Trust Company, the two lower floors of which are occupied by a law firm. The rent is only $25 a month including heat in winter. To be sure it is up two flights of stairs and there is no elevator, but there is a parking place right next door. I am seriously thinking of making the change.
During the week the only mail received from my absent ones was a letter from Ced dated June 30th, or rather a picture postcard showing the boat they sailed in and indicating on it the location of their stateroom. He says they had seen many miles of virgin forest, small icebergs, whales, a shark, numerous fish and porpoises. By this time I expect they are at Anchorage but it takes so long for letters to cover the distance that it may be a week or two before I know anything definite. I will of course keep you posted.
I noticed in today’s paper that Mr. Cronin’s father and Bob Peterson’s father both died last week.
See attached letter to Dan and Ced for other home doings.
DAD

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting the second half of this letter, written to Dan and Ced in Alaska. I’ll finish out the week with another two-part letter written on July 21.

Judy Guion

 

Trumbull – Calling Stations WAPG and WCDG – Jan., 1941

January 12, 1941          R-110

Dear Trumbull Exports:

The newspapers announced the discovery of new and better ways of treating pneumonia. Science, one by one, perfects methods of conquering disease. There is, however, one ailment which I do not expect you boys to contract and that is writer’s cramp or typewriter Charlie horse to be more modern. Ced, you have been pretty good lately. You are the only one I heard from last week. I won’t enlarge on this subject here and now because tomorrow I might find in PO Box 7 that which would make me remorseful. Here’s hoping.

Lad in Venezuela

Calling Station WAPG, Venezuela: The second batch of colored films arrived and are much better than the first lot. The sunset scenes were splendid. Did you take them on land looking out over the water or vice versa? Off in the distance there seems to be a buoy of some sort too indistinct to identify. The aeroplane pictures also came out well, also the one of the little locomotive. Who was that walking toward you with the camera in his hand? By the way, just as a reminder, you have not given me explanatory captions of the various scenes in the first reel of films which I suggested in a former letter. If you wait too long you are apt to find the details fade from your mind, at least that is my experience.

When you wrote Ethel about postponing her wedding you are striking nearer to the truth than you knew. —  Carl told me yesterday it looked as though the wedding were all off for the present, as he has received notification that his medical examination was satisfactory and he was in line for immediate call, rating A-1, and might expect a summons any time. He did not say, if he knew himself, what he will do about the gas station business.

I am trying to get the house in presentable condition for your homecoming. I have had Mr. Smithson here this week, refinishing the music room. He will then tackle the kitchen and if he has time, I want tim also to give my bathroom another coat. Then, as I can afford it, I want to get new rugs, as the ones we have downstairs are getting considerably threadbare, in a most literal sense.

I think I wrote some time ago that Mr. Ives intended going into the business of reclaiming old crankcase oil. Well he ordered the necessary machinery, had to wait weeks and weeks for it, due to some unexplained delay, then it was lost or delayed in shipment and when it finally arrived, it was broken. He was reported to be much discouraged but I have not seen him lately to get the latest dope on the situation.

There is a possibility that Jane Mantle, when she graduates from Normal School, may teach in one of the Trumbull’s schools.

Calling Station WCDG, Alaska: If you will turn to the first column on the last page of the last section of today’s Post, which I had ordered sent to you

Ced in Alaska

once a week for six months as a Christmas gift, you will observe an article “Canada to build airbases linking US and Alaska”. You will probably notice in the same section ads for used automobiles, 1938 models of various rates ranging from $385-$485. Somehow I don’t feel buying a ’38 model of the cheaper cars is very good sense in view of the circumstances, so I am not going after Chevrolets or Plymouths if I can get something better, preferably Buick, and in this connection I called up Wally Williams and learned he is in Florida and will be there until sometime in April. I phoned A. L. Clark and asked for Priestley and was informed he was out sick. I got hold of him the end of last week (he says Eisenman took care of him on my car), informed him of what you wanted, told him the circumstances and how much you rely on his judgment, etc., and he promised to keep his eye open for an exceptionally good bargain. He did say he had his doubts whether you could get a ‘38 Buick in good condition for $400, but asked why you wouldn’t be satisfied with a ‘37 model in view of the fact that it was the very same motor in each car, the only difference being in the body. I told him to let me know what he could find and would go into the matter further. Meantime, I am hoping to get a reply to my letter and Dick’s regarding the postponement of sailing date, as it were, until later in the year, then I will know whether to get Arnold busy also in trying to locate a real value. He has not made any attempt as far as I know in trying to get hold of me to talk the matter over in any detail, which naturally causes one to wonder if there is a lack of interest. Did you write to him? Has he written to you?

Regarding insurance rates, you can insure a car for any period of time from one month to 12, on the following basis: for one month, 20% of annual rate, three months, 40%, six months 70%. On 1938 cars, coverage for fire, theft and collision, liability and property damage 15/30 and 5, for cars list price of which is $668 to $750, the premium is $49.44 annually, $785 to $880, $51.44 and Packard, $1020 to $1070, $53.44. These figures were given to me over the phone so they may not be accurate in all details but at least they will give you an estimating basis. No extra charge for private trailer.

On registration, while I have made no inquiries from Miss Jones, I should think the simplest method would be to take out temporary markers and figure on one renewal with the understanding that Dick, upon reaching Seattle, would remove the plates and send them back to you, in the meantime making arrangements to take out permanent markers in Alaska when it gets to its destination. Otherwise, there would be considerable delay certainly in correspondence back and forth and in shipping the plates with the uncertainty as to what reciprocal privileges might be allowed Alaskan markers, rules regarding trailers, etc. The mail and transportation facilities to your burg seem to be in a bad state of disruption, particularly from the states to Alaska. Read’s shipped Dan’s blanket and your field glass on December 1^st , and as near as I can determine, they arrived in Anchorage on December 19^th , which was not bad, but other packages sent a week to 10 days later had not reached you on December 30. This surely indicates some congestion somewhere along the line which I expect would be from Seattle north, as even the stuff you ordered shipped to you from Sears Roebuck in Seattle had not reached you. Your letter, by the way, written December 30^th , was received January 6^th , which would indicate service south and east is not bad, however I expect a letter from you or Dan tomorrow which may inform me that the long expected packages have arrived. Gosh, I meant them for your Christmas in 1940, not 1941.

I am glad the Christmas dinner last minute adjustment came off satisfactorily. A copy of the Christmas cantata program must have evaporated en route as it was not enclosed. I looked under the postage stamp for it even, but no dice.

Almost everyone I see asks how many degrees below zero it is up there, and I have been telling them that I don’t believe, from what you have written, the climate in Anchorage is very much colder than it is here. You better put me right on this point as it is almost a universal question when you boys are mentioned.

Have heard nothing more from Rusty, which is not surprising as he is likely to put in an appearance unannounced, anytime, according to his last letter.

Things here going along just about the same. Last few days have been cold and clear. There is skating.

DAD

Tomorrow, Grandpa tells us what his father thought about smoking cigarettes and how he reacted, in Alfred Duryee Guion’s Autobiography.

On Sunday, we’ll learn about Archie and Mary E. Wilson’s second child.

Next week, we’ll jump ahead to 1943 and check in on the holidays for the Alfred P. Guions in California.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Car Thieves in Trumbull – March, 1940

March 3, 1940

Dear C.D.E. (Chief Diesel Engineer)

The big news this week concerns the theft of my Willys. Perhaps I’d better go back a bit. It has been Dick’s custom lately to work at the office after school and to drive home with

Alfred (Lad) Peabody Guion

me, and because he likes to drive, I usually let him occupy the driver’s seat. He lets me out at the back door and backs the car in the barn for the night. I have had to caution him over and over again about bringing the key in the house and not leaving it in the car, pointing out to him that it is an invitation to anyone who is snooping around trying to swipe a car to leave the key in it. This attitude has been scoffed at as being quite unlikely and a foolish precaution on my part. However, just to humor the old man, Dick has lately been bringing the key in and putting it on my hat, which I usually place on the armchair in the dining room near the telephone booth. Well, Friday night I had to stop at the Town Hall for a meeting at 5:30, and as there was some food in the car, I told Dick after he dropped me at the Town Hall, to take the food home and get dinner started. I walked home after the meeting was over, found supper had been prepared, and in due course went to bed. Yesterday morning I found Dick waiting for me when I came down for breakfast and as he had eaten I told him to get the car out and running so we could get started promptly. The key was not on my hat so I asked him if he had left the key in the car and while he was sure he had brought the key in and put it on my hat, he said he might not and would look. He came in a few minutes later and said the car was not in the barn. Ced had started to work at 7:30, which was evidenced by the fact that the Packard was gone (he had not registered the Plymouth as he had expected to sell it and that was in the driveway). Our first thought was that Ced might have started off with the Packard, had a flat or something, had left it at Carl’s and taken my Willys and because he was late, had not taken time to tell me about it but left a note. However, we could find no note from Ced. We thought Dan might possibly have taken it, intending to be back soon, but Dan and Rusty were both asleep in bed. We then called up the gas station but Ray said the Packard was not there and he did not know anything about it. Our last hope then was Ced might know something about it. We called up Tilo and after considerable delay, got Ced, but he knew nothing about the Willys. I was in doubt about its being stolen because Dick said he remembered putting the key on my hat the night before and I did not see how anyone would know enough to come into the house to get the key if he wanted to swipe the car, but Dick’s theory was that someone might have come in the house in the early morning, snooped around, seeing the key in plain sight on my hat with the name “Willys” on it, and having seen the car in the barn, did the logical thing. So the only thing left to do was to call up Ray Beckwith and report the car stolen. Dick had gone upstairs again to talk to Dan about it and I was sitting down to dial Ray’s number when Dick came down and said that Dan had an explanation that sounded reasonable. It was this: when Dick arrived home Friday night alone and with no meat for supper, Dan asked him about what we were going to have for supper and Dick told him I had said there were scallops home for supper. There were not. Then Dick assumed he may have misunderstood me and that I meant the scallops were in the car, WHICH DICK HAD LEFT AT THE TOWN HALL FOR ME AND WALKED HOME. He then went over to the Town Hall, got the package out of the car and brought it home. After my meeting was over at the Town Hall, it was dark, and as I had intended Dick to take the car home with the food in it, I did not look for the car parked over there. Anyway, when I had gotten out of the car it looked to me as I went in the door that Dick was preparing to back out. However, it looked now as if the car had been parked all night at the Town Hall with the key in it, so I hustled over to the Town Hall expecting to see the car there where he had left it. Whalen has a gray Willys, the same as mine, and as I approached I thought for a moment it was my car, but on second glance I saw it was not. I had already passed through to reverses a feeling that morning — one when the car seemed to be stolen from the barn, the other when I believed it was at the Town Hall. Now I was going to be plunged into the dumps again? I hustled on, and there, behind another parked car which hid it, was my little, old, banged up, shabby Willys, just as Dick had left it the night before with the key in the switch and everything O.K. and that’s the news about the stolen Willys. I hope you got a thrill out of the telling and some of the suspense that I experienced. “All’s well that ends well”. “I am an old man and I’ve had many troubles but most of them never happened”.

If you Google 1937 Willys Coupe, you’ll get an idea of what Grandpa’s car looked like, although I’m not sure of the year for his and it was “a little, old, banged up, shabby Willys.”

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting the rest of this letter concerning the doings around the old homestead of the rest of the bunch. I note that yesterday’s letter from Rusty wasn’t sent with last week’s letter, but with this one. The date fooled me as it was also written on the 25th, just not delivered to Grandpa in time.

On Saturday, the autobiography of Alfred Duryee Guion tells the story of what happened when he tried to take a gun apart… his thinking process was so typical of a young boy at any time. I think you’ll enjoy it.

On Sunday, Archie and Mary E. Wilson face up to struggles during World War II.

Judy Guion

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 – Christmas Greetings (2) – Dec. 25, 1939

Alfred Duryee Guion (Grandpa) carving the turkey

This post contains the rest of the holiday greetings written by family members and guests around the Christmas Dinner table in Trumbull in 1939, and a Christmas Card from Arnold and Alta Gibson sent to Lad, in Venezuela.

Dear Alfred:

Hope you had a Merry Christmas – we did. I received a pair of ice skates, and unbreakable thermos bottle to use for taking milk etc. to work, the book “union now” which is a theory written on the principles of uniting the democracies of the world in which I am much interested in, a photograph album, and other incidentals. I understand that you are largely responsible for the nice gifts received by all. Many thanks to you and incidentally, I am using the heater you gave us for the new Plymouth and it works very well. I wish I could say the same for the Plymouth. It has been a sort of disappointment as I spent a great deal of money on it and it still has internal troubles. Your Packard is gradually aging but still runs beautifully. I will write soon and let you know more about the cars and my doings, and don’t ask me why I haven’t written you as I really have no excuse and am much ashamed of the fact, especially as I promised in the last letter I would. Well, keep your fingers crossed and perhaps, who knows?

Ced

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Oigame, Hermano,

Este muchacho qui escribia arrib sabe nada!

To express myself colloquially, to enjoy real ice and snow is the nuts! But I am planning definitely to line me up a job in some sector of Latin America, for which I continue to prepare myself by studying Spanish etc. Dick and I have acquired a complete “Cortina method” set of recordings and books for learning Spanish.

Ced, Dick and I have set out to learn to speak it well enough to carry on conversations with you later in the event that you have forgotten Ingles!

Hasta luego, pues,

Dan

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

December 25, 1939

3:15 PM

Dear Lad:

I was elected to start this. I suppose because I am the most diligent in my correspondence. We are still at the dinner table after a most delicious Dad-cooked meal. He is getting very expert.

I can’t tell you – maybe you don’t want to hear it – what a peach you are always, but in particular are thinking of us and me to the extent you did when providing for such a sumptuous Christmas. For me some of the check was turned into a beautiful electric clock – alarm, radium hands, Telechron, n’ everything. Also a “ducky” box of dusting powder. Now I really will have time to write you a real letter real soon.

So long –

Elsie

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Alfred dear,

Aunt Betty Duryee

The only lack in this beautiful and happy day is your absence around the tree and offering the presents that you have contributed, to our happiness. Thank you very much for I know I shall enjoy what you gave me. May you have all the joy and happiness and health and what you most desire all through the coming year.

Love,

Aunt Betty

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Dear Alfred—–

Raymond (“Little Zeke”, “Butch”, “Spike”, “Chummy”, “Oscar”) was talking a greeting to you in his language a few minutes ago but he has gone back to sleep now. I am sorry I have neglected you so –  but I promise to write you in the very near future and I

Biss (Elizabeth) Guion Zabel

hope it will make up for the past year. I will write a book then – if I can remember everything I have to say. I am sorry you weren’t here for the holidays and I do think of you even if I haven’t written. I am a great deal busier than I used to be and stay home a good deal more (believe it or not). My writing still seems to be as bad as ever, if not worse, but you can forgive that because I haven’t written in ages!

Little chummy thanks you for the high chair (and so do I) although he says he is, as yet, a wee bit too small to fit into it – but it won’t be so very long. I’m afraid he will be a spoiled brat by the time he is a year old. Well more later (and it will probably be full of his doing and saying) and a Merry Christmas to you —

Love,

Biss

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Hello Chum,

No doubt you saw my writing paper, one of my presents. I got a secondhand Waltham watch (wrist) which was originally an $18 watch. Also I received a tennis racket, and a lettering set with 25 different kinds of pen points. I’ll write you soon again, maybe.

Bonus Dies (Latin – good day)

Dave

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Mack –

Mack’s Christmas Greeting – 1939

With a couple of woofs –

His mark

as recorded by

the undersigned,

Elsie M Guion

Aunt Betty

Witness: AD Guion

Christmas Card from Arnold and Alta Gibson – 1939

Christmas message from Arnold and Alta Gibson – 1939

Christmas Card Greeting from Arnold and Alta Gibson – 1939

Tomorrow, I’ll have another Tribute to Arla and on Sunday, the next installment of Mary E. Wilson’s Autobiography.

On Monday, we’ll move ahead to 1940, with Dan and Ced in Alaska and Lad still inVenezuela. We’ll catch up on what is happening with the other children in Trumbull.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Item No. 3 and Incidentals – Oct., 1940 (2)

1934 – 1940 Timeline

This is the second half of a long letter written by my Grandfather to his sons about several items. Yesterday, my post included Item No. 1 – Biss, Zeke and baby Butch moving out of the apartment and Carl Wayne  (Red Horse Service Station) wanting to rent the apartment for Ethel Bushey, his fiance, and himself. Item No. 2 was all about the move of Guion Advertising to their new headquarters on Main Street. This post covers Item No. 3, which Grandpa said was the BIG news, as far as he was concerned.

No. 3 might be termed the BIG ONE, at least as far as yours truly is concerned, and concerns the newest five-wheel addition to the Guion garage. I have been having increasing fuss and bother and expense with the Plymouth. I had difficulty in starting it in the morning, and it worried me as to what I would do in the winter if it were hard to start in the mild weather. The other morning I came out and found a flat in the front left. I had to pump enough air into it to carry me to the gas station, but being unsuccessful, I took a chance on running it over flat.The result was that it did not do the inner tube any good, and in view of the fact that a blowout patch caused a shimmy, ( like we had in one of the other cars, I forget which one), and my spare tire had a blowout patch on it, it seemed necessary to spend more money for a tire. Then one day last week on a very rainy day I found my battery too low to start the car and had to call up the Blue Ribbon to send a man around with a hot shot battery (more expense). When the inspection  arrived, and I undoubtedly would have to incur more expense in getting it ready for that, the fact that the windshield wiper was very sluggish and sometimes could not work at all, etc., etc., all created in me an urge to do something about it before cold weather set in. So I wrote to the salesman who had been real nice to let us try out their cars and told them I was in a quandary as to whether to buy the 1940 model at a reduced price now or wait on the chance that the steel market would go up and perhaps permit us to buy a 1941 model, — what have they to suggest?

Bill Schott of Packard was the first to respond. He had a 1940 demonstrator, similar to the one we tried out that he could let us have for $900, based on an allowance of $193 for the Plymouth on the price of $1093 which was their sales price. He pointed out that the Plymouth was really worth about $50 and he would stretch this $93 and take off $100 for the fact that it was a 1940 model and had been run about 3000 miles. The car had no extra equipment, no radiator, heater or other accessories, only standard equipment. They would be repaired, cash payment of $140 in addition. We could have the car at the rate of $70.40 for 20 months.

Willys called and said they had no 1940 Studebaker’s on hand but the new 41 models were better, etc.

Eisenman, of Buick, asked us to come down and look at a 1940 car that had just been turned in by a doctor, who every year bought a new model. This was a little better car than the one he loaned us to try out and that it’s was a super, with practically the same body that the 41 cars had. It had the same length as the Special we were considering but 10 inches wider than the Special and lower. It had five white sidewall tires, the spare had never been used, was two-tone green, had been carefully driven, had run 1300 miles, and installed-at-the-factory a 7-tube radio, factory built and installed air heater, clock, air foam cushions, high-grade tan upholstery, division armrests in rear seat, had been sanitized without the extra cost. Originally, $1389 and white sidewall tires $20 extra. The Plymouth was appraised at $60 but they could allow $135 on it on the sales price of $1050, bringing the net cost to me to $925.

The Nash man also had an ambassador-8, with twin ignition and a number of extras – clock, special steering wheel, air conditioner, divided rear seat armrest, cigar lighter, deluxe floor mats, equipped for radio, but no radio, the original cost of which was $1324, he too, estimated the Plymouth as worth about $60 but he also would allow $125 in a trade it, bringing the net cost to me to $875.

Packard gave a years guarantee, Buick a 30 day guarantee. Then I went back the Buick people, not having heard from the Chrysler at all, and told them I had a better offer from the Nash people. Of course they tried to talk me into doing business with them, how much better turn in value there was in the Buick, etc., but I must’ve looked unconvinced so he went back and talked to Mr. A.L. Clark and finally told me he would knock off $50 but that was final, so I AM AN OWNER OF A BUICK.

1940 Buick Roadmaster

Description	Glendale, CA, Buick Club, May 2, 2009
Date	2 May 2009, 12:00:31
Source	Flickr: 1940 Buick Roadmaster – green – rvr
Author	Rex Gray

Both Dick and Dave are wildly enthusiastic and I am a little pleased myself. The only bug in the wood pile is the payments, and right here I must confess that your birthday present, Dan, yours, Ced, the amount to your credit, Dan, which authorized me to use in payment for the sale of the Willys, plus odds and ends of cash I have been able to put by for this purpose for the last year, all went into the kitty, which, plus borrowing to be later paid back as I can, still left me $75 short for which I had to give a 3-day note. Perhaps I was foolish in view of the fact that Dick’s weekly payments cease, the apartment rent stops and my Selectmen’s salary ceases, but there is still the hope stock market may boom a bit if the right man is elected in November, so keep your fingers crossed and remember me in your prayers.  “Nothing ventured, nothing won” in true gambler’s spirit. So there you have item No. 3. Dick is almost ready to give up his trip with Bobby Kascak in order to drive the new car – OCCASIONALLY.

Now to come back to the reason for this letter being late. Last night, Dick was so anxious to drive the car before he went away and wanted so much to use it in driving the gang to New York, that I let him have it for the evening. This threw into the discard a promise I made to Dave to take him to see “The Ramparts We Watched” Saturday PM if he cleaned the downstairs, which he did. I then arranged to have an early dinner today so we could go to the afternoon show because Dave had a Young People’s meeting at seven. Dick was supposed to go to a football game but thought he would be able to be home at 1:30. I had prepared a special going away dinner for him and told him it would be ready at 1:30. It was. No Dick. 2:30, no Dick, so Dave and I ate. At 3:30 Dick had not even been put in an appearance, so we left anyway and have just gotten back. I have not seen Dick since but suppose he will show up before he leaves which he expects to do at about 10:30. They expect to drive all night and spent the day in Washington, and then on South, eventually to Clearwater, Florida, where they have heard some Trumbull people live and where they expect to get a job. Depending on circumstances, they may head for California but there is a chance that they will be back in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the Knolls, where we have been invited by Aunt Betty.

Dave, today, “joined the church.” His school work is going satisfactorily, he is thrilled with the new car and he told me tonight the world looked rosy, or words to that effect.

Your birthday letters to him with their “interesting” enclosures arrived a day or so late but were nonetheless welcome on that account. On your account, Lad, I gave him a five dollar bill for clothes and promised to have his watch fixed at the jewelers. The latter, I have since learned, will cost about five dollars, which is more than I anticipated, so if you think a total of $10 is a little steep, say the word and we will make some other arrangement.

Your interesting letter, Lad, written on the 23rd, contains news that will surprise Dan. I referred to the fact that Fred Chion is working for Socony-Vacuum on a road construction gang. He has sent his wife back to the states because the country did not agree with her. It is a coincidence that I should have sent you his letter to Dan, last week. Thanks for your letter, Ced, re: the ski slide and your airplane drunk.

Good night, my boys three.

DAD

Tomorrow will be another Tribute to Arla and on Sunday, we’ll check in to 1943 and find out what is happening to Lad, in California, Dan in England, Dick in Brazil and Ced in Alaska. We’ll take a break on Tuesday, the 11th, for another Guest Post from gpcox about the involvement of Hollywood in the War effort. We’ll finish out the week in 1943.

Judy Guion

Trumbull – Cars, More Cars and a Play – Nov, 1939

1934 – 1940 Timeline

Lad is still in Venezuela, working as a mechanic for an oil company, Dan is a student at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, Ced is working the night shift, Biss is a new mother, Dick and Dave are still in school.The subject of cars seems to be the theme of this weekly missive to Lad, old ones, new ones and everything in between .

November 19, 1939

Dear Lad:

Alfred Duryee Guion (Grandpa) carving the turkey

Elsie has just written that she too will be coming up for Thanksgiving, the 30^th (this is the day that Gov. Baldwin has set for this state while Roosevelt has made the date the 23rd, which is now being referred to here as Franksgiving).*  So that makes two extra, Aunt Betty and Aunt Elsie. That is one of the days that we’re going to miss you an extra lot.

As I told you in one of my previous letters Ced registered his old Packard, the closed car, a while ago as Dan had been using your old Packard getting back and forth from Storrs. Since that time he has been having a series of troubles, the top blew off one rainy, windy day, he had to get a couple of tires, retreads, one of which seems to be no

good; the battery gave out and he bought another used one which doesn’t seem to be functioning; it uses a lot of oil, is heavy and gas consumption, and in general has been disgusting him more and more lately. So yesterday he decided to go to New York and see if he could not pick up some bargain down there. He took the train down and visited several dealers whose ads have appeared in the New York papers. He made the rounds and wound up finally at the New York Packard place where they sold him in 1933 Plymouth sedan. It needs an engine job, one of the spring shackles is worn and the clutch slips out. The body is in fair condition, upholstery under the slipcovers fairly good, and in view of the fact that cars of this make and age are advertised in the local Bridgeport papers as selling for from $125 to $250, he feels he got a fairly good buy at $50. He has already arranged with Arnold to overhaul the engine. He will now try to find a buyer for the old Packard in order to reimburse himself for at least part of the cost.

Ced also stopped in at the Willys dealer place and found that the delivered price of the Deluxe sedan (1940) is $687 and that the top allowance they would make for 1937 Willys would be $250. He is very anxious to have me make the switch, claiming that it would be economical for me to do so, but – – –

We have been having pleasant fall weather lately. Some of the days have been pretty cold, but we have managed to get by so far without starting the furnace. I have been

A MERRY DEATH Playbook – 1939

busy about three nights a week rehearsing for the play the PTA is giving in December. It is a pretty good comedy entitled “A MERRY DEATH”. It is being coached by a young lady named Doris Card who is teaching dramatics in the local schools. In the cast are a Mrs. Herlihy, Mrs. Drescher, Evelyn Wells, yours truly, Barbara Plumb, Mrs. Ehrencrona, Jean Hughes, Richard Guion, Skippy Wildman, Mrs.Rubsamen and Mr. Herlihy. This scene is laid in the living room of the Taggart household (I am Judge Taggert in one act and take the part also of his twin brother in the second act) in the suburb of a medium-sized city in the middle West. Mr. Carson is also in it, taking the part of the Dr. and not doing it any better than he did his part in other plays in which he has acted. It really is a highly amusing comedy and, if played well, ought to make quite a hit. Why don’t you folks plan to put on some sort of amateur play in connection with your newly formed club? You are on the entertainment committee, I think you said, in one of your letters.

Your letter written on the ninth was duly received. So it was the pump on the white that was at fault, just as you had thought. Dan has the scrapbooks up at school, so I was unable to follow the course of your trip to Guanta via Guario. I note, however, that Mr. Breeding’s place, where you went in for a swim with all your clothes on, is near Barcelona, so I can get a fairly good idea of the location. Better look out for sharks, which I suppose they have down there. We don’t want you coming home speaking in a squeaky voice. If the experience on the way back didn’t do anything else it probably learned you not to repeat the stunt of taking chances of your getting sick, so far away from home. There is one comfort and that is you don’t refrain from telling me when you are laid up. If I thought you did otherwise I would be considerably worried when I didn’t hear from you each week, fearing that you are laid up and no way of knowing just how serious it was. That is one of the assuring things about the English war news. When one of their ships is sunk by the Germans they promptly announced that fact and tell the whole truth about it so that when they deny some rumor that the enemy has spread, you can rely on its being so. Am glad the rainy season is about over, which means that you have had a full years experience of Venezuela and climate and are earning your classification as a veteran. You say that because of  the rains you have had no second class mail for the past two or three weeks so you have received no letters from me. Is anything but airmail classed as second-class? The letters I send you regularly are classed in the US as first-class, but maybe the Venezuelan government does not take the same view. I cannot understand the reason for the government not allowing letters to come to Pariaguan via airplane, particularly as they are technically free of responsibility when they deliver letters to your Caracas office and what you do with them from then on, whether they read them in Caracas or send them on to Pariaguan, I should think was nobody’s business but your own – – that is assuming the plane is a company plane and not run by the government. Anyway, that accounts for the fact that you haven’t answered the questions I have asked you my last few letters, particularly as to what you were doing about your back salary. Apparently most of the InterAmerica employees have received their back salary and you want to get yours while the getting is good. No one knows when something may happen, particularly with Ted on the job to close up the company, and then you would have lost your chance and really be throwing $250 away.

I am enclosing a clipping from the Bridgeport paper to show you that Venezuela makes the first page locally once in a while. I suppose you have already heard about this fire in Laguanillas, but I thought it would be interesting to get it the way the news reaches us here.

As Dave has been asking me all the afternoon when he can use this typewriter for his school work, and I am nearing the end of the page (I can’t think of any other news anyway) I suppose I may just as well close now with all the good wishes you know come pouring out of here to there, all concentrated on my little old laddie boy that holds such a large place in his Dad’s heart. We’ll drink a toast to you on Thanksgiving.

DAD

* Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States, according to Wikipedia.

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting a soliloquy on Man’s Military Strategy based on Nature’s example.

Saturday, I’ll be posting another Tribute To Arla, this being the second half of the announcement that Lad had joined the family. This was supposed to be posted last Saturday, but I forgot I already had the post and created a new one. I apologize for the confusion.

Then we’ll move on to 1940 where Lad is still in Venezuela and Dan and Ced have moved to Alaska and found jobs they truly enjoy.

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

Trumbull – Possible Plans For Ced – Mid-1939

It’s 1939 and Lad and Dan are still in Venezuela. Lad has left InterAmerica for a job with the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company and Dan will be leaving soon to return to Trumbull. Ced, has included a letter with his Dad’s addressed to:

Almost Europeans:

Dad wrote you a letter last night but I’ll tell you about yesterday anyway. The Larry Peabody’s, Anne Stanley, Kemper Peabody, T.H. Jr.’s, Aunt

Cedric Duryee Guion

Dorothy (all Grandma Peabody’s children) and Rusty were here for a birthday party for Grandma. We took movies on the rest of the film in the camera, played toss ball with a ball and talked. The kids Dick, Dave, Don and probably Gwen), however, wandered off to the sandpit and proceeded to throw dirt clods at each other in a mock war – were they a sight when they got home!

Aunt Anne has a new Plymouth touring sedan (grey – standard) and likes it very much. The Kemper Peabody’s also have a new car – a 37 Buick roadster touring sedan left them by Mrs. Merriam who died about two weeks ago. They also inherited everything else. (Dad says about $250,000, two estates etc.). I feel so sorry for them. Aunt Ethel brought up a beautiful lamp and lots of nice bedding which she didn’t need.

I am working at Tilo’s Factory and will stay there until I get the chance at Alaska, which I’m waiting for. Mr. Mosier, the department head, spoke to me last Friday and said he was raising me from $.40 per hour to $.45 next week (beginning today) and that in about a month he would try to get me a better job; perhaps driving one of the skid trucks. Skid trucks, in case you don’t know,are little four cylinder units which lift skids piled high with shingles and transport them. You put the projection at the front of the machine

Ced’s drawing of a skid

under the platform of the skid and a hydraulic lift lifts it off the floor and away you go.

I go to work today at 2 PM and work till 10 PM and here is the point of this letter. I have no way to get over to Stratford except by bus as Arnold has had his working time changed (he used to take me over and back). Therefore I must register a car promptly. Your car needs the front axle straightened. I bent it as I had probably told you last winter skiding into the stones at the foot of our driveway on the ice. The axle will cost three dollars at Huntington and Arnold will install it for five dollars. Not bad eh? My plan at present is, I think, to repair the Phaeton, drive it until I can sell it, first selling all equipment, possibly to Arnold and others, and then send the money to you or do as you suggest with it. I shall be very shrewd, never fear. I expect at least $125 and perhaps more. The wheel is also sprung and I may have that straightened, it is on the spare now. The Whippet I may turn to after that (Biss says O.K.) and I will need a battery and valve – (isn’t that right?) Therefore I want your signature on the registration form and a Bill of Sale on both cars to carry out tentative plans. I shall get the forms in Bridgeport today and enclose them here with. The rest I leave up to you but please rush, as I want to car as soon as possible. I might register mine (the sedan) but I would have to have the battery repaired, buy two tires and fix or replace both the generator and the top, the latter having split badly standing in the rain, sun, snow etc. I just made the annoying discovery that the Whippet was never registered in your name but I’ll send the form to you anyway as you will probably see Dan sooner than I could get a letter to him. Anyway, the Packard is the more important car although the sooner the better on the Whippet, as I am quite certain that it will do.

In the event that Dan will not see you (I’ll know about that in a couple of days), if you can send the necessary papers to him and let him sign them and return them to me. I can’t seem to remember whether the renewal form is necessary and I will find out when I get to the Motor Vehicle Department and if they aren’t necessary, I’ll send a duplicate set of the blanks to Dan and you will not need to bother.

Well so much for that. I hope I’ll be able to get a car to use soon in any event, and yet I may go to Alaska to, in which case – well, I still don’t know. I’m very glad you were able to get a job down there so soon and hope you get along well. Hope we will see you before too long and get a first-hand report in person on your exploring (or is it exploiting) the country and its inhabitants with all the sanitation etc. We all get a big kick out of your letters and feel quite wise on anything pertaining to Venezuela. It seems almost as if we had been there. You, for Heaven’s sake, stay away from all cows, Ford’s and Maxudians, and don’t forget to brush your teeth and wash behind your ears. I will try to write soon again and who knows, I may succeed. This letter wasn’t too hard to write anyway if, of course, you excuse all cross outs write overs etc.

Best of luck,

Ced

Tuesday 5:30 PM

I couldn’t make it yesterday so here it is today. The only thing necessary is the card I’m sending you, which must be notarized down there (if this is not possible, just sign your name and I suppose you can use the Trumbull address and let Helen Plumb notarize – savy?) And also from you I must have a Bill of Sale, also notarized, (this is merely a written statement by you saying you sold me the car for so much money). On the Whippet, if you see Dan, there was only the one number – apparently the engine and makers number are the same.

Regards,

Ced

In the letter, Ced has drawn a Skid and a platform, but for some reason, “an error has occurred when setting scanning properties” and I can’t get the scanner to scan. Bummer. I also wanted to show you Ced’s handwriting. Maybe next time.

Judy Guion