Here is the next installment of Pop’s letters. July 31, 1959, with a little bit left out. I’m the “baby” Pop refers to. Whatever was the cause of my former Speech impediment (mentioned in the letter), I did not need an operation.
July 31, 1959
Mr. Harold Lufkin, V.P.
Newton Mfg. Co.
Newton, Iowa.
Dear Mr. Lufkin:
Since we have to take the Baby over to a Speech Clinic this morning sometime, I will sit down and “ramble on for awhile.” The heat has been simply awful all the month and the humidity has hovered in the 90’s most of the time. I have not figured it up yet but in spite of that I think I am ahead of any July that I have previously had.
Hope you did not get the impression that I am particularly partial to Negroes. The opposite is true. I DID seem some things in the Navy though that sickened me of my own Race at times. For instance once I had to take a Draft of men from Miami to New Orleans. Pulling out of Miami our Southern boys threw bottles out of the windows at Negroes working on the Tracks and called them all the obscene words that I ever heard and then some. The WORST incident though that I ever saw was out in the Pacific. We had Liberty once and about 80 of us were coming back in one of the boats to the Ship when the Bugler (a Southerner) all of a sudden, kicked two Negroes right in the face. Since I was outnumbered, with the exception of the two Negroes, about fifty to one, I could do nothing at the time except threaten (I was the P.C. of highest rank in the boat at the time). However, when we got back to the Ship, I immediately put the Bugler on report.
In the meantime here is what took place. The two Negroes waited their chance and caught the Bugler in a dark corner of the ship and gave the Bugler a good going over. They also got put on report. The thing that I am getting at is at the Trial. The Bugler (who started the whole fracas in the first place) lost a stripe for a month or two. He was busted from First Class to Second. The two Negroes who were minding their business in the first place, got several years of hard labor in Naval Prison. Justice?
As for the reaction of the Townspeople to Pete. The fact that he is a fine boy and never caused me any trouble is enough for me without their plaudits. It did puzzle me though for a few days. I can understand it though.
In Norfolk you are not a NATIVE until you have lived here at least twenty five years and we have been here only thirteen. In addition to that as I wrote years ago in the Bulletin, I drove old cars with the windows out of them and the roof leaking, our house was falling down over our heads. We HAVE improved it a little bit, and hope to some more. There was nothing startling about the Sinclair family. THEN when the boys began their High School and College Careers, they all began to get Publicity in Torrington and Waterbury papers Etc, and I in turn took Pride enough in them to want to keep them there so I suppose to these people “I am too big for my breeches.” Pete for instance was the first boy (as I remember it) from this town EVER admitted to Dartmouth College, and he was not only admitted to Dartmouth but to Duke and several others if he desired.
Well enough of that. Needless to say during this terrific Heat Wave, I envy him his Alaska very much. If you have a map of Alaska, he is right now at Lake Shrader, which is I believe about fifty miles from the Beaumont Sea and the Arctic Circle. I don’t expect that he will be home for the Wedding although he would like to very much. He says that he will make enough if he stays there a couple of weeks more to get out of debt once and for all and have enough left to help his Brother Ernie out a little when he goes back to School.
All of our sons have a definite sense of duty to their family and to each other as Brothers. I have instilled in them time and time again, that “blood is thicker than water” and I don’t want them EVER to desert each other or their Mother if anything should happen to me.
I run into so many instances of a customer in business, and I will say “So and so in such and such a Town, has the same last name as yours, are you any Relation?” You would be surprised how many times they answer, “That S.O.B. is my brother but we haven’t spoken to each other for twenty years.” To me that is a very sad thing. I don’t THINK I shall ever have that problem, BUT on the occasions when I do get compliments on the boys, I am naturally pleased, but I always say “Yes they are swell kids, but that’s today, they might be in jail tomorrow for all I can tell.”
Well off to the Doctor. As you know Kirk has a little Speech difficulty. It breaks my Heart as he is so bright, but when I read of the parents that are struggling with such courage with a Blind child or a deformed one, I thank God that of five Sons we have been very fortunate. I don’t think this is anything that we can’t handle. It’s just that he is so bright. If it IS a physical thing and he has to have an operation or something, I’ll just have to dig in my heels and make more money somehow. He could recite the Alphabet at Two years of age from A to Z, could count to thirty and at four and a half he reads some, so Thank God there is no problem there. It’s just that there are certain sounds and syllables that bother him, and we want to find out WHY they do.
Oh! By the way, I picked up a Baxter Clock at Seth Thomas yesterday and offered my check for it, but they said they would charge it to Newton. I will send you my check or you can put it on my sample charges. Also although I hate to ask you, we do need to save all we can on Ernie’s Wedding. If I send you an order for half a dozen Coack Line Wallets for Ernie’s Ushers, could I get them at your cost? Whether or not I can I shall want some and will get him to pick them out tonight and they must be here before August 22nd which is when Ernie starts to wear “the ball and chain.”
My very best to you and the Mrs.
Sincerely,
Leon.
Tags: Pop's Letters
