C. P. S. #59
Elkton, Oregon
Feb. 5, 1943
Dear Kin-folk,
How time does fly. In a few days I’ll have been in CPS 6 months. It sure doesn’t seem like that long. Tho a lot has happened.
I got your letter dated Sun. today which is Fri. Is that fast or slow fro airmail? How long does it take for my letters to reach you? Would it help if I’d go to sending them Airmail?
I’m glad that you liked that letter. It has been so long that I forgot what I wrote and my carbon copy is over at the dorm. I’m in the wood-shop now. I found that I get more letters written if I stay in here than if I get some one else to keep shop and go to the dorm to write. When I try to write in the dorm I get to talking with some one and the first thing I know it is 1:00 and I have to go to bed or I won’t feel like getting up for meditation.
You are right about the town not being able to supply the boys with candy and stuff. We have a Co-op store in camp run by some of the fellows that want it bad enough. They sell shares to any one in camp that wants one at two bits each. Then we get a share of the profits in proportion to what we bought. The Co-op sells a little candy when they have it. On Tuesdays the head cook and some of the office men go to Eugene to buy supplies and they usually bring back some Ice cream of some sort to be sold in the Co-op. also they sell fig bars or fig newtens and some other kinds of cookies. The Co-op handles toilet articles and a few other items like stationary and ink.
That ‘Buck’ you pined on the corner is appreciated. It will go into some worthy cause, or at least I’ll think so at the time.
Imagine “Toots” weighing 108# and being taller than you, Mama. I’ll bet I won’t know her when I see her again. I hope they don’t take a nothion to shut off Civilian travel altogether before I get to come home.
So Charles is going in for skating and Mary. Well I always said that Mary was a cute kid. And I always like to skate with her. I suspect that I would be above going on Sun. night tho. That makes Charles quite an old sinner don’t it. He’s about as bad as Harry, you know he seldom went to church on Sun. nights at Osky. However I doubt our concern will change his mind any. In myself I have had a disire for freedom from restraint many times and most of the time I have stifled this disire. But occasionally I would break down and do something out of the beaten path. Like one time Harry and I drove to Jeff one Sun. night last summer to see some show after church. Well that was quite a departure for me. I wonder if Charles may feel something the same and want to do something after being on the shelf sort of and also sticking pretty close to church too. Then of course there is the “Mary” side of it too. There is a guy here in camp that will darn near worry himself sic once in a while because he’s afraid that all the girls will be gone when we get out of CPS.
Say but I really enjoy this job. This guy that was working with me is the original gaget maker. He is far worse than I ever will be. We had a great time making gagets and fixing up the shop, then the Assistant Director went on furlough and we chose him to take his place so I lost my good man, but he is very good as assistant director. He knows how to get a long with people. I have a pretty good man helping me now tho. He has been a ‘carpenter’s helper’ and then in the last few years he built himself a house. He has never wirked with any power tools tho. There are several guys here that know more about some of this work than I do but I just let on like I know everything and don’t say too much and no one finds out. I’ve found that if you use your head you can figure out the right way and it is the way that I manage to give good service and keep the job. Right now we are building drafting tables. We made two and now they have brought us some lumber that is supposed to be clear kiln dried Ponderosia Pine. It is not clear at all every one of the boards has a knot but it isn’t very big, and there are going to be two tables made entirely of warped boards. They are soft tho and that is better than fir. I’ll tell you more about it some time.
Time to quit and go to bed. Sat. is a busy day.
I have read a little of the Eugene guy’s prophesys and it is rather interesting. I’ll send it home if I ever get it done.
Yours,
Bernard
Sunday, February 28, 2010
February ,?, 1943
Mon. nite
Dear Folks,
The cookies arrived today and the top layer is in good shape. I was glad and a little supprised to hear from Harry. He certainly must not have anything to do or he wouldn’t have written so soon.
The wood-shop business is booming. Every man in camp except those on overhead and drafting will be going to a tree-planting camp in about three weeks and there are going to be some boxes made between now and then to pack clothes in. After they are gone I’ll get something done, there won’t be more that 25 or 30 here. There will be new men coming in tho.
Yours
Bernard
Dear Folks,
The cookies arrived today and the top layer is in good shape. I was glad and a little supprised to hear from Harry. He certainly must not have anything to do or he wouldn’t have written so soon.
The wood-shop business is booming. Every man in camp except those on overhead and drafting will be going to a tree-planting camp in about three weeks and there are going to be some boxes made between now and then to pack clothes in. After they are gone I’ll get something done, there won’t be more that 25 or 30 here. There will be new men coming in tho.
Yours
Bernard
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
CPS Camps - Religious run or Gov't run
The issue of having the Gov't run the camps instead of the historic Peace Churches comes up in this letter. In WWII conscientious objection was religious based, though some of the CPS people seem to be more politically based. Having the Peace churches run the camps gave the men more freedom to do self organization of each camp and also did not put all of the financial burden on the Government. Some objected to helping the government out during war time. It was a unique experiment. It was reminding me of Gandhi in England in 1914. When England was in the midst of WWI, Gandhi and other Indian citizens living in England, all part of the British Empire volunteered to be part of an ambulance corps. They ran into trouble as they wanted to follow their own leadership and not be lead by others in the military. Eventually they ended up helping at a hospital which would allow them to take their own leadership.
I think most governments allow for conscientious objectors and keep them away from those in the military since they cause so many problems with conscientious approach to most work.
I think most governments allow for conscientious objectors and keep them away from those in the military since they cause so many problems with conscientious approach to most work.
January 30, 1943
C. P. S. #59
Elkton, Oregon
Jan. 30, 1943
Dear folks,
What do you suppose, it has been snowing all afternoon here and we have about an inch and a half of wet slushy snow. It just stoped a little while ago. This wet snow sticks to everything and the REA light lines aren’t made for it out here. We are expecting to have the lights go out any time now. The last time we had this kind of snow they did and stayed out for three days. While we were eating tonight the lights faded out real slow and we thot we were in for it and the assistant dirrector ran out to start the small generator that they had rigged up the last time they were out but while he was trying to start the engine the lights came back on and he had his back to the buildings and didn’t know it till somebody yelled loud enough to tell him. The current made by the generator is DC and all the motors and radios are AC so when the current is off and we make our own no motors or radios can run. And that means the wood-shop isn’t open either. I have been keeping it open for the fellows to work in the evenings. I get somebody to take a couple of nights and then there is a camp meeting each Wed. so it isn’t open that night. I usually spend about three nights a week in here. That’s where I am now.
It has started to rain now. Say, I’m getting so I write weather reports too.
I don’t have much to say this time. I told most of the new in Harry’s letter. There is to be a special camp-meeting at 8:00 tonight and it is that time now. There was something important or we wouldn’t have had it called I don’t know what it was tho, guess I’d better go find out.
Back from the meeting. It seems that there has been some agitation for Gov’t operated camps. This was started mostly by the pacifists that base their stand on the economic or political side rather than the religious. There was a committee set up to investigate this and see what could be done to get camps to suit those who were dissatisfied. This meeting was called because our director had received a report on this committee and had been asked to read it or see that it was brought to the attention of every man in camp. The report didn’t amount to much in my opinion. The committee wasn’t able to decied anything definite. They made a couple of poles of the men in camp and found that there were only 47 that would definitely go to a Gov’t camp. There were, I think, over 200 that would go if the camps were run a certain way, which seems rather unlikely to me. The committee didn’t think it wise to do anything that might cause the CO situation to be brought up in congress. If the Gov’t. was to maintain a camp for a few men it would have to come out of the money appropriated for the seclective service and they would not have enough to last them, then they would have come to congress for more money and that would give those against us a chance to start thinking what good we could do if we were to all work in the munitions plants or something.
That’s all the meeting amounted to. This camp is new and hasn’t had much to say about this sort of thing. I don’t think that there would be many here that would want to go to a Gov’t camp so there wasn’t much said about it then. It is clear that if the Gov’t. was sponsoring a camp it would dictate most of the policies and the men would have very little to say, so that keeps some of the agitation down.
Dash me off another letter when you get to it, I’ll answer them as fast as I get them. I just got this one today. It was written Sun. and Mon. It has an airmail stamp on it. Did you send it airmail? If you did it sure went slow, I got it Fri. morn.
I was glad to see that Christmas program. You don’t need to send me that FOR stuff, I can see plenty of that here. We get a copy of that CPS news letter too, but I hadn’t read it yet so I did so this noon. They always put the news letter up on the bulitten board but I hadn’t got around to read it yet.
Well, good nitht.
Yours
Bernard
P.S. I got that pamplet from that guy at Eugene Or. but haven’t had time to read it yet. I’ll send it home if it is good enough.
BA
Elkton, Oregon
Jan. 30, 1943
Dear folks,
What do you suppose, it has been snowing all afternoon here and we have about an inch and a half of wet slushy snow. It just stoped a little while ago. This wet snow sticks to everything and the REA light lines aren’t made for it out here. We are expecting to have the lights go out any time now. The last time we had this kind of snow they did and stayed out for three days. While we were eating tonight the lights faded out real slow and we thot we were in for it and the assistant dirrector ran out to start the small generator that they had rigged up the last time they were out but while he was trying to start the engine the lights came back on and he had his back to the buildings and didn’t know it till somebody yelled loud enough to tell him. The current made by the generator is DC and all the motors and radios are AC so when the current is off and we make our own no motors or radios can run. And that means the wood-shop isn’t open either. I have been keeping it open for the fellows to work in the evenings. I get somebody to take a couple of nights and then there is a camp meeting each Wed. so it isn’t open that night. I usually spend about three nights a week in here. That’s where I am now.
It has started to rain now. Say, I’m getting so I write weather reports too.
I don’t have much to say this time. I told most of the new in Harry’s letter. There is to be a special camp-meeting at 8:00 tonight and it is that time now. There was something important or we wouldn’t have had it called I don’t know what it was tho, guess I’d better go find out.
Back from the meeting. It seems that there has been some agitation for Gov’t operated camps. This was started mostly by the pacifists that base their stand on the economic or political side rather than the religious. There was a committee set up to investigate this and see what could be done to get camps to suit those who were dissatisfied. This meeting was called because our director had received a report on this committee and had been asked to read it or see that it was brought to the attention of every man in camp. The report didn’t amount to much in my opinion. The committee wasn’t able to decied anything definite. They made a couple of poles of the men in camp and found that there were only 47 that would definitely go to a Gov’t camp. There were, I think, over 200 that would go if the camps were run a certain way, which seems rather unlikely to me. The committee didn’t think it wise to do anything that might cause the CO situation to be brought up in congress. If the Gov’t. was to maintain a camp for a few men it would have to come out of the money appropriated for the seclective service and they would not have enough to last them, then they would have come to congress for more money and that would give those against us a chance to start thinking what good we could do if we were to all work in the munitions plants or something.
That’s all the meeting amounted to. This camp is new and hasn’t had much to say about this sort of thing. I don’t think that there would be many here that would want to go to a Gov’t camp so there wasn’t much said about it then. It is clear that if the Gov’t. was sponsoring a camp it would dictate most of the policies and the men would have very little to say, so that keeps some of the agitation down.
Dash me off another letter when you get to it, I’ll answer them as fast as I get them. I just got this one today. It was written Sun. and Mon. It has an airmail stamp on it. Did you send it airmail? If you did it sure went slow, I got it Fri. morn.
I was glad to see that Christmas program. You don’t need to send me that FOR stuff, I can see plenty of that here. We get a copy of that CPS news letter too, but I hadn’t read it yet so I did so this noon. They always put the news letter up on the bulitten board but I hadn’t got around to read it yet.
Well, good nitht.
Yours
Bernard
P.S. I got that pamplet from that guy at Eugene Or. but haven’t had time to read it yet. I’ll send it home if it is good enough.
BA
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Quakers and Chocolate
Dad once again gets to talking a bit about Chocolate. With the selling or take over of Cadburys by Kraft last month it is nice to note some of the history of Chocolate candies and it's origin in English Quaker families. I found the following from a Meeting website in England.
Vickie
As the 17th Century drew to a close, Friends were gaining a reputation as good merchants. Of course, few other career paths were open to them. Quakers were excluded from the universities. And, as people committed to nonviolence, careers in the military were certainly out of the question!
In time, Quaker merchants were attracted to the chocolate trade. With its medicinal qualities endorsed by estimable scholars, Friends embraced chocolate as a healthy alternative to alcohol.
The first Quaker to make a name for himself in the chocolate trade was a British physician named Joseph Fry. Friend Joseph's Bristol shop sold pharmaceuticals. He included chocolate among his other wares.
By 1795, the Fry family had nearly 50 years of experience in the chocolate business. That year, with the help of a Watts steam engine, Fry's Chocolate became the first chocolatier to use factory methods in the manufacture of their product.
In 1824, at the tender age of 23, Quaker John Cadbury was given a sum of money by his father and told to sink or swim. Perhaps inspired by the liquid imagery of his father's ultimatum, Cadbury opened a shop selling tea, coffee and cocoa. Cadbury's shop was also noteworthy for its plate glass window (the first in Birmingham) and for employing a Chinese clerk at the tea counter.
The trinity of Quaker chocolate is completed by the name Rowntree. The Quaker Rowntrees opened their chocolate shop in York.
During the 19th Century, Friends helped to transform the way we eat chocolate. Up until this time, chocolate was a beverage or perhaps an ingredient in other recipes.
In 1847, the descendants of Joseph Fry introduced the chocolate bar to English society. Melted cocoa butter was mixed with cocoa powder and sugar. The resulting paste could be pressed into a mold.
Other innovations were taking place at Cadbury's Chocolate. For years, people had been extracting cocoa butter from chocolate in order to make powdered cocoa. But no one could squeeze all the fat from cocoa. Therefore, additives (like potato flour) were used to keep the powder, powdery. In 1866, the Cadbury's were able to eliminate additives from their cocoa powder by discovering an improved method of extracting the natural cocoa butter. This innovation allowed the Quaker Cadbury's to advertise, Absolutely Pure: Therefore Best.
Not only was the marketing strategy a success, the process provided the company with extra cocoa butter (a boon for their candy making operation).
As another feather in their cap, the Cadbury's started the trend of boxed chocolate candies (achieving this distinction in 1868).
Milk chocolate was invented in 1875. This time, the credit goes to Nestl� (who was not a Friend). Soon thereafter, the Quaker companies developed their own formulas for milk chocolate. Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate bar became the company's best seller by 1913. It remained king of the British chocolate bars for the following 75 years.
Although the brand names all survive, the chocolate empires of Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree are no longer under Quaker control. Fry's and Cadbury's merged in 1919. In 1969, the resulting company merged with Schweppes Ltd. Rowntree was purchased by Nestle in 1988.
The Cadbury company is worth special mention for its enlightened attitude toward employees. This Quaker-owned chocolate company was the first firm to grant its workers a 5-day work week. Also, sports facilities, medical facilities, schools, kitchens and community gardens were built for the employees.
In 1893, the Cadbury brothers purchased 120 acres near their factory (to help workers escape the slums of Birmingham). 144 cottages were built for Cadbury workers and for the public at large. By 1915, rates of death and infant mortality in the Cadbury development were half those of Birmingham as a whole.
http://www.westhillsfriends.org/QVWchocolate.html
Vickie
As the 17th Century drew to a close, Friends were gaining a reputation as good merchants. Of course, few other career paths were open to them. Quakers were excluded from the universities. And, as people committed to nonviolence, careers in the military were certainly out of the question!
In time, Quaker merchants were attracted to the chocolate trade. With its medicinal qualities endorsed by estimable scholars, Friends embraced chocolate as a healthy alternative to alcohol.
The first Quaker to make a name for himself in the chocolate trade was a British physician named Joseph Fry. Friend Joseph's Bristol shop sold pharmaceuticals. He included chocolate among his other wares.
By 1795, the Fry family had nearly 50 years of experience in the chocolate business. That year, with the help of a Watts steam engine, Fry's Chocolate became the first chocolatier to use factory methods in the manufacture of their product.
In 1824, at the tender age of 23, Quaker John Cadbury was given a sum of money by his father and told to sink or swim. Perhaps inspired by the liquid imagery of his father's ultimatum, Cadbury opened a shop selling tea, coffee and cocoa. Cadbury's shop was also noteworthy for its plate glass window (the first in Birmingham) and for employing a Chinese clerk at the tea counter.
The trinity of Quaker chocolate is completed by the name Rowntree. The Quaker Rowntrees opened their chocolate shop in York.
During the 19th Century, Friends helped to transform the way we eat chocolate. Up until this time, chocolate was a beverage or perhaps an ingredient in other recipes.
In 1847, the descendants of Joseph Fry introduced the chocolate bar to English society. Melted cocoa butter was mixed with cocoa powder and sugar. The resulting paste could be pressed into a mold.
Other innovations were taking place at Cadbury's Chocolate. For years, people had been extracting cocoa butter from chocolate in order to make powdered cocoa. But no one could squeeze all the fat from cocoa. Therefore, additives (like potato flour) were used to keep the powder, powdery. In 1866, the Cadbury's were able to eliminate additives from their cocoa powder by discovering an improved method of extracting the natural cocoa butter. This innovation allowed the Quaker Cadbury's to advertise, Absolutely Pure: Therefore Best.
Not only was the marketing strategy a success, the process provided the company with extra cocoa butter (a boon for their candy making operation).
As another feather in their cap, the Cadbury's started the trend of boxed chocolate candies (achieving this distinction in 1868).
Milk chocolate was invented in 1875. This time, the credit goes to Nestl� (who was not a Friend). Soon thereafter, the Quaker companies developed their own formulas for milk chocolate. Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate bar became the company's best seller by 1913. It remained king of the British chocolate bars for the following 75 years.
Although the brand names all survive, the chocolate empires of Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree are no longer under Quaker control. Fry's and Cadbury's merged in 1919. In 1969, the resulting company merged with Schweppes Ltd. Rowntree was purchased by Nestle in 1988.
The Cadbury company is worth special mention for its enlightened attitude toward employees. This Quaker-owned chocolate company was the first firm to grant its workers a 5-day work week. Also, sports facilities, medical facilities, schools, kitchens and community gardens were built for the employees.
In 1893, the Cadbury brothers purchased 120 acres near their factory (to help workers escape the slums of Birmingham). 144 cottages were built for Cadbury workers and for the public at large. By 1915, rates of death and infant mortality in the Cadbury development were half those of Birmingham as a whole.
http://www.westhillsfriends.org/QVWchocolate.html
January 21, 1943
C. P. S. #59
Elkton, Oregon
Jan. 21, 1943
Dear folks,
Well, Warren got here a few days ago and we have talked over everybody around Baton and some that aren’t. It sure is good to see someone from home. I guess I missed Ab a lot. He and I used to get together about once a week and talk about people we knew.
I got the chocolate today and ate one bar, gave some of it to some of the guys in the dorm, we all thot it was pretty good. The cocoa we get doesn’t tast very much like cocoa. It must be either cheep stuff or some kind of subistute. What we had for cocoa at Coshocton was an imitation but it didn’t taste bad. So you see real chocolate tastes pretty good.
I still have quite a bit of that Nestle’s chocolate left. At first out here I didn’t find quite the right bunch to drink chocolate with. But I have been working with a very swell fellow in the shop and we will heat up some water and have a cup of chocolate along about 4:00. Then there is another good guy that isn’t able to do hard work that I have become very will aquainted with. They let him stay in the infirmary and sort of look after the few guys that are staying there because of bad colds or typhoid shots. That gives him about a hald days work to do every day and then he can rest. Well, he and I have got to be pretty good pals and find we agree on most everything. Last Sun. nite I took a box of Chocolate over and we and the one patient he had had a good visit and some chocolate too. Both these fellows came from Coshocton.
The guy that helps me in the shop will be there till we get through with some work we are doing in there for the project. They are going to do some sort of drafting work here and they want some drafting tables made. So we are making them. It is a rather annoying job so far tho. No one seems to know exactly what the nature of the work will be or how many tables they will need but we have to make tables. Kit and I designed and made a table. This guy’s name is Harold Carson, they call him Kit. Well, the project superintendent looked it over and couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with it but he had see one that an old lumber-jack friend of his had made and he though that it couldn’t be beat. So he wouldn’t have anything but we should make one like that. We naturely don’t think it is as good as our but we figure the only way to prove him wrong is to make a table and let him see. I have learned a lot about how to get along with bosses since being in CPS and think that I wouldn’t make a very good one. I’d be too inclined to let people do things the way they wanted to. I don’t know maybe that would be good. That is the way I would like for a boss to do. I find it makes a lot of difference whether I’m interested in what I’m doing or not too. Now, I sure hate to have a guy telling me to do something that I know is a dumb thing to do in carpenter work, while I didn’t care so mush about some of the other things that I did before now.
The main purpose of a wood-shop in CPS is usually rescreation for the fellows and small improvements, along a cabinet-work line. However, this shop is a little different. We have here all the tools that belonged to the CCC before they left. There are a lot of good tools too. At Coshocton there was a Gov’t man that had charge of the camp grounds and buildings and had frist claim on us before the project did. He was called the Teshnical Supt. Here we have only a Project Supt. At Coshocton there were two men that did only repair work and worked under this man while here all the tools have been signed over to CPS and there is not Tech. Supt. and no CCC tool room like we had there. So I am in charge of all the tools and the repait work too. There is much less work along that line to do here tho. At Cosh. there was an awful lot the ASFC spent 2,000 dollars on repairs and improvements and they havn’t spent hardly any here yet. The buildings were in much better shape and the weather isn’t cold just rainy. The most noticeable thing here is the doors most of them wont close, they are swelled and the kitchen roof leaks. I am a long way from getting to that tho. as soon as we get this drafting table worked out, I must get the tools collected and fix a place for each one and then the shop will be in good enough shape to let go while I do some repair work.
Those cookies are still good, I have a few left. I sort of horded them a while, there was a lot of candy and cookies around just after Christmas so I just didn’t pass mine around much and there were a lot in that box too. I don’t know if I’l ever get those magazines read. I don’t have much time to read tho I do like to. We have to work on Sat. afternoons now and I have to spend some of my nites in the shop to keep the fellows from doing something dumb like sawing nails. I have time at night while I’m in the shop to work on some thing for myself so the time isn’t wasted and I enjoy it too.
Well, I’m convinced that the Lord takes care of his own and all we have to do is take care that we live so that the Lord will be proud to claim us.
Thanks for the dollar. I’m thinking of trying a little photography out here. They have two dark-rooms and a sort of Co-op deal on the chemicals used in developing so it wouldn’t cost much. I think it would be a good chance to learn something about it. I imagine that some of the money you have been sending me will go for that.
Don’t work too hard and keep trusting in God. I think He has been pretty good to us.
Your son,
Bernard
P.S. Say if there is family group picture around there that belongs to me put it in with the next package you send me. I’ve been going to have you send it but always forgot it. I want to show the fellows how goodlooking the rest of my family is.
There is about 2” of slushy snow on the ground here. The natives here say it is very unusual. The light wires are down somewhere and that whole area has been without light all day. It is the R.E.A. that explains it. The town of Elkton isn’t on a R.R. so they use REA too. The camp rigged up a D.C generator to use with a gasoline engine and (?) we have light while it snows(?). It has ---- some so the lights are out once in a while. We can’t use any of the motors or radios tho cause it is DC not AC.
Eugene is 54 mi N.E. up the coast
Elkton, Oregon
Jan. 21, 1943
Dear folks,
Well, Warren got here a few days ago and we have talked over everybody around Baton and some that aren’t. It sure is good to see someone from home. I guess I missed Ab a lot. He and I used to get together about once a week and talk about people we knew.
I got the chocolate today and ate one bar, gave some of it to some of the guys in the dorm, we all thot it was pretty good. The cocoa we get doesn’t tast very much like cocoa. It must be either cheep stuff or some kind of subistute. What we had for cocoa at Coshocton was an imitation but it didn’t taste bad. So you see real chocolate tastes pretty good.
I still have quite a bit of that Nestle’s chocolate left. At first out here I didn’t find quite the right bunch to drink chocolate with. But I have been working with a very swell fellow in the shop and we will heat up some water and have a cup of chocolate along about 4:00. Then there is another good guy that isn’t able to do hard work that I have become very will aquainted with. They let him stay in the infirmary and sort of look after the few guys that are staying there because of bad colds or typhoid shots. That gives him about a hald days work to do every day and then he can rest. Well, he and I have got to be pretty good pals and find we agree on most everything. Last Sun. nite I took a box of Chocolate over and we and the one patient he had had a good visit and some chocolate too. Both these fellows came from Coshocton.
The guy that helps me in the shop will be there till we get through with some work we are doing in there for the project. They are going to do some sort of drafting work here and they want some drafting tables made. So we are making them. It is a rather annoying job so far tho. No one seems to know exactly what the nature of the work will be or how many tables they will need but we have to make tables. Kit and I designed and made a table. This guy’s name is Harold Carson, they call him Kit. Well, the project superintendent looked it over and couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with it but he had see one that an old lumber-jack friend of his had made and he though that it couldn’t be beat. So he wouldn’t have anything but we should make one like that. We naturely don’t think it is as good as our but we figure the only way to prove him wrong is to make a table and let him see. I have learned a lot about how to get along with bosses since being in CPS and think that I wouldn’t make a very good one. I’d be too inclined to let people do things the way they wanted to. I don’t know maybe that would be good. That is the way I would like for a boss to do. I find it makes a lot of difference whether I’m interested in what I’m doing or not too. Now, I sure hate to have a guy telling me to do something that I know is a dumb thing to do in carpenter work, while I didn’t care so mush about some of the other things that I did before now.
The main purpose of a wood-shop in CPS is usually rescreation for the fellows and small improvements, along a cabinet-work line. However, this shop is a little different. We have here all the tools that belonged to the CCC before they left. There are a lot of good tools too. At Coshocton there was a Gov’t man that had charge of the camp grounds and buildings and had frist claim on us before the project did. He was called the Teshnical Supt. Here we have only a Project Supt. At Coshocton there were two men that did only repair work and worked under this man while here all the tools have been signed over to CPS and there is not Tech. Supt. and no CCC tool room like we had there. So I am in charge of all the tools and the repait work too. There is much less work along that line to do here tho. At Cosh. there was an awful lot the ASFC spent 2,000 dollars on repairs and improvements and they havn’t spent hardly any here yet. The buildings were in much better shape and the weather isn’t cold just rainy. The most noticeable thing here is the doors most of them wont close, they are swelled and the kitchen roof leaks. I am a long way from getting to that tho. as soon as we get this drafting table worked out, I must get the tools collected and fix a place for each one and then the shop will be in good enough shape to let go while I do some repair work.
Those cookies are still good, I have a few left. I sort of horded them a while, there was a lot of candy and cookies around just after Christmas so I just didn’t pass mine around much and there were a lot in that box too. I don’t know if I’l ever get those magazines read. I don’t have much time to read tho I do like to. We have to work on Sat. afternoons now and I have to spend some of my nites in the shop to keep the fellows from doing something dumb like sawing nails. I have time at night while I’m in the shop to work on some thing for myself so the time isn’t wasted and I enjoy it too.
Well, I’m convinced that the Lord takes care of his own and all we have to do is take care that we live so that the Lord will be proud to claim us.
Thanks for the dollar. I’m thinking of trying a little photography out here. They have two dark-rooms and a sort of Co-op deal on the chemicals used in developing so it wouldn’t cost much. I think it would be a good chance to learn something about it. I imagine that some of the money you have been sending me will go for that.
Don’t work too hard and keep trusting in God. I think He has been pretty good to us.
Your son,
Bernard
P.S. Say if there is family group picture around there that belongs to me put it in with the next package you send me. I’ve been going to have you send it but always forgot it. I want to show the fellows how goodlooking the rest of my family is.
There is about 2” of slushy snow on the ground here. The natives here say it is very unusual. The light wires are down somewhere and that whole area has been without light all day. It is the R.E.A. that explains it. The town of Elkton isn’t on a R.R. so they use REA too. The camp rigged up a D.C generator to use with a gasoline engine and (?) we have light while it snows(?). It has ---- some so the lights are out once in a while. We can’t use any of the motors or radios tho cause it is DC not AC.
Eugene is 54 mi N.E. up the coast
Monday, February 15, 2010
Turning around in the rain
This is a Monday morning post. I thought of something to write last night. Usually I read the letter I'm posting and it prompts me to write something. It took longer this time. I was thinking about rain and our family and the camping trips in the 1950's. The first trips we did were in the Desoto and most of the roads we traveled on were dirt with a lot of switchbacks, not that many tunnels and no Interstate highways. Dad liked to go to out of way places where there were not lots of people and especially no fisherman. A couple of times I know we ended up on these high narrow mountain roads in the rain, I would look out of the window of the Desoto and could see the road washing away down the side of the mountain. Father was always a calm driver, mother was not, so we were glad in the back seat when he was driving as the road seemed to disappear on one side while on the other side rocks and mud were coming down into the road. I remember once when he actually turned around the car on one of these narrow sections in the rain, we didn't wear seat belts then and I was so scared I just hunkered down on the floor, I couldn't stand to watch the turn around process. I didn't look up until by the tilt of the car I could tell we were going down the mountain road instead of up. I think maybe Dad got his comfort with the rain while in Oregon. I feel a frustration as many do today with the position our country is in, I feel we are on one of those muddy dirt roads high up in the Rockies and it's a road that does not lead anywhere. We need that acceptance, knowledge and skill to turn around.
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