July 4, 1932 - Monday

This has been the busiest day yet and still it doesn’t equal just an average day last year. We worked until 3 so did not do sheets. Was on duty this evening so was busy carrying blankets. It’s cold.

A letter to George from home on Irwin-Hodson Co letterhead:

 Hello Son:

This being my birthday I thought it an appropriate time to write my boy a letter.

Mother is making me my favorite cake and then we are gong to Slauson’s on the Tualatin for an outing. Dr. & Mrs. Wilson and Uncle Ralph and Aunt Lydia are making up the party and we wish we had a blonde haired boy and a brown haired girl with us to help celebrate my 46^th birthday but we will have to wait until Sept. for them I guess.

We sure enjoyed every minute of Annie’s stay with us and miss her very much. I suppose she has told you of our picnic at Slauson’s and how I did the “Crawl”? Well I’m telling you kid she sure is some swimmer. I sure wish I could swim like Annie does.

Ralph and I are going to try and get Doc to dive today but I am sure he will have an alibi.

We have been looking for a letter from you all week but suppose you are so busy you do not have time to write. Will it be ok for us to come up for a couple of days? I think we will drive to Medford and come in from there. How is the road?

Give Annie our love and tell her we miss her very much.

Love Dad and Mother

George's letter home to his dad on his birthday:

Hello Dad,

I have a real job shoveling garbage for $45 a month. It just about disgusts me beyond all endurance. This man Price doesn’t tell you a thing until he hands out the money; and by that time it is too late to find another job. Next summer this kid is going to be somewhere else.

Here it is your birthday and we have to travel around here all bundled up like we do in mid-winter. At that I think it is more comfortable than to roast in the valley.  I hope you had a happy birthday, Dad. Maybe I can help you celebrate it next year.

I have been thinking a lot about school the past two weeks, and I have come to this conclusion. I want to go back to Eugene in the fall and change my major to history. That doesn’t mean I am giving up law, however. After next year, I want to stay at home and attend law school in Portland. I am becoming tired of living with a group of people where you can have no privacy, where what you consider is your own, isn’t your own, and where you have some of the conveniences of home. I miss my mother and father too; I certainly don’t want to be drawn away from them. Now you see, I will finish my law in Portland and at the same time I will have an unfinished course at the University which I can finish by correspondence at my leisure. It may be a little longer to do it this way; but it will certainly be less expensive and I will be much happier than I am now. Write me, and let me know, Dad. We must settle this before fall, because I will go direct to school from here.

Thank you for sending my books and ink; it will not be long until I have to close them. I am not anticipating a pleasant time without my adding machine.

Say hello to mother, and take very good care of her.

Love, George

P.S. You should see me cut wood on a ten foot snow pile.