August 27, 1943, Santa Ana, California

The brownies arrived. The visit to see Aunt Mollie in South Pasadena went wrong, and Tom never got to see Aunt Mollie. He offers more thoughts on his father and stepmother.
August 27, 1943, Page 1
August 27, 1943, Page 1

Tues. night.

Hello,

I think those were the best brownies I have ever tasted and that you have ever made. They were still good and fresh when they got here and really hit the spot. You really did a good job in packing and sealing them.

Yesterday I really had to drag myself around. We didn’t get into L.A. till about 11 PM. Sat. and then we couldn’t find anyplace to stay so we went to the show and came back to the base. It takes about 4 hrs. to get to L.A. and we didn’t get back till 5:AM. I had planned on seeing Aunt Molly Sun. morning but you can see what happened. I don’t think I will even go to L.A. anymore unless we get off a little earlier Sat. afternoon. We had our regular Sun. parade and while we were standing at attention, (and it wasn’t cool) the Gov. of Calif.[1]Earl Warren & General Cousins[2]Commanding General, Western Training Command made a speech and gave away a couple of medals posthumously. It was pretty spectacular but not very restful. To top things off I had guard duty Sun. night from 10:PM. till 3:00 A.M., (they were an hour late in relieving me) and only got 2 hrs. of sleep. As a result of all this I was in a complete daze all day yesterday and went to bed at 8:00 P.M. Have felt 100% better today.

Dad forwarded me a letter from Steve and he is still at Fort Pierce, Fla. His address is

Ens. C.S. Hempelman, USNR.
USNATB, SBC#1
Ft. Pierce, Florida

August 27, 1943, Page 2
August 27, 1943, Page 2

I had written him the last part of last week so guess he hadn’t received it yet. He sort of thinks he will either go to New York or Norfolk soon.

We have our last math test tomorrow and I have to get a 10 to pass the course, however, I plan on beating that by 90 pints. It covers vector prob. in navigation. This completes our math and then we start Physics. The nights before we have a test we are not allowed to sign out to go to the P.X.[3]Post Exchange, a store on the base for small items Just about everyone is writing letters which is a good way to study for a test.

Is Karen making any friends with the neighbors children or doesn’t her Mother allow such things.?

I got a letter from Dad tonight and he says that all’s well at home. Maybe he means that this is the lull before the storm. I received a letter from Cleda Sat. and wanted to send it to you but lost it somewhere, I though I had put it in my footlocker. Anyway she had wondered why I sent all my letters to Dad and addressed them Dear Folks and that she felt they weren’t meant for her. I wrote her and told her that I thought they would get them sooner if they came to Dad’s P.O. box. What a life – I am about ready to give up on the diplomacy.

Give Karen a big kiss for me.

Love, Tom

August 27, 1943, Santa Ana, California
August 27, 1943, Santa Ana, California

References

References
1 Earl Warren
2 Commanding General, Western Training Command
3 Post Exchange, a store on the base for small items

A Young Man Went Off to War