To Edith Gaddis
Cheyenne, Wyoming
[4 August 1942]
Dear Mom—
Well back at last to civilization — electric lites and running water etc. But I mean that ranch was the real stuff!! We were finished branding (yes we — you should have seen me holding down the back ends of those calves!) about Friday but H — convinced me I ought to stay thru the weekend so I left this morning and came down to Cheyenne — a little over two hundred miles. The ranch was swell tho — and so were the ‘boys’—his father and two uncles — and I saw and did it all — branding, herding, driving cattle & horses, fixing fence, killing rattle snakes (!), washing dishes, and myself less frequently, and riding most of the time, and it was wonderful.
I plan on going down to Denver tomorrow — we’ll see if Mr. Keating is there or Pueblo or where — then down to Colorado Springs to see this Harvard ‘classmate’ of mine for a day or two — then if Mr Keating’s around I’ll contact him. That’s as far as real plans go, but expect to continue on down to Tucson after this.
Am trying to keep expenses at a minimum — because I do want to get some new clothes when I come home in the fall, as these two shirts and levis are all I’ve gotten in recent times. Harold did run me in a little, as he was broke when we hit Denver and I staked him to various stuff — and then the rodeo and room etc in Cheyenne, but it was worth it with that time at the ranch to pay off! And speaking of clothes I was looking at cur[rent] Esquire today, and gee — I love this west etc. etc. but do you think there is any chance of Harvard in the fall? The trip is swell but it is really sort of escapism — I do want to go back there this fall more than anything, and after I talk to Franny in Colo. Spgs. I hate to think how I’ll feel. Gosh I’d kiss the ground Dr. (?) Williams walks on or blow his brains (??) out if I thot either would do any good. The more I think of a southern college the less I think of it — ye gods I could wear coats — even sweaters — even a sterno stove under my bed — I really think they were utter fools to let such a point drive them to such drastic lengths. In short I am still quite disgusted but hopeful—‘bloody but unbowed’—and Mom if there is anything you can do — tell ‘Byard’ I spent a nite in jail and have been branding calves — it may help.
Love
Bill
Mr. Keating: unidentified.
Franny: Francis Ware, a roommate at Harvard later.
Harold: the H — mentioned in the first paragraph, but otherwise unknown.
Dr. Williams: unidentified. ‘bloody but unbowed’: from the once-popular poem “Invictus” by British writer William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) expressing determination: “Under the bludgeonings of chance / My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
‘Byard’: unidentified.
To Edith Gaddis
Colorado Springs, Colorado
[8 August 1942]
Dear Mom—
Well everything is still under control, and I’m presently enjoying a fine time in Colo. Springs as Francis’ guest. I rolled in about Wednesday evening and have been entertained royally since.
You have probably received a card asking you to send the field boots (and the barracks bag if you haven’t sent them yet) to Leadville — it is up in the mountains and there’s a big job of some sort going on there; it is really at ‘Pando’ which is just outside of Leadville but I doubt if they have a post office. At any rate I expect to go up there and work for a while.
Harold was a fine fellow — real ‘Wyoming’—and believe me the ranch was wonderful.
Having been here since Wednesday I do feel rather guilty but Francis is having a party on Sunday and they want me to stay for that, so I’ll probably be off for Pando around Monday or Tuesday.
It did feel good getting back into shoes and a coat and tie and bath after the ranch, and in Denver I hit another book store and got a nice leather bound copy of O’Neill’s sea-plays, Vanity Fair and Crime and Punishment to catch up a little.
Well Pando is supposed to be pretty tough — one of the toughest towns out here, as it’s just a camp, and I’ve met men who wouldn’t stay because of their familys, so I mayn’t last long but it does sound interesting and worth a try—
Love
Bill
O’Neill’s sea-plays: probably Eugene O’Neill’s Moon of the Caribees and Six Other Plays of the Sea (1919).
Vanity Fair […] Crime and Punishment: classic novels by William Thackeray (1848) and Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866).
To Edith Gaddis
Pando, Colorado
[15 August 1942]
Dear Mom—
Well am settled for a few days — not more — because this is some job; cold in the morning and now we are working 12 hrs. per day— ½ hr. off for lunch — go on at 5:30 A.M. and off at 5:30. We are 2 miles high but the alt. seems all right tho it is cold especially mornings. Don’t know how long it will last.
Well I can’t write any college because I don’t know where I’m going to be — I do expect to be home early in September and then will start out for school again. And so since there isn’t any chance for Harvard just pick out any southern college with a nice name — I think Tulane sounds better than Tucson — and let H — send what ever they have to. I don’t know and it doesn’t particularly matter.
I got the check at the Springs and thanks tho I shan’t need it for a while unless I’m fired which is very probable.
I think it’s foolish to try an urinalysis — besides have no place to so just tell Williams and all his buddies to find some other where to peddle their bottles and pills — I’m all thru with them.
The address is just Pando Colo. and the boots will probably come in a few days—
Well must get to bed to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning—
Love
Bill
To Edith Gaddis
[WG returned to Harvard in September 1942.]
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
[25 September 1942]
Dear Mom—
Well it began today — classes, I mean — and oh boy! Now the devil to pay for eight months hence I guess.
I had a talk with Dean Leighton — am only supposed to take 2 subjects but have signed up for 4—think I can talk Dr. Bach into it. Am taking Eng. A (required), French C (required—lousy course — just lousy right thru to the last day, but required), Eng I — good course — history of Eng. literature — open to freshmen and sophs — and psychology I — a 2nd year course — had to get permission from the instructor to take it — reputed to be tough but a good course. Also books have been changed for all courses but Eng A — so today spent practically $10 on books — still lack three.
The extra $100 for tuition is OK — all the boys had trouble — many with own checking acc’ts — were stymied — but they don’t catch up for a day or two and by that time it will be straightened out.
Got a letter from Underwood — they say the typewriter is on the way — I already owe a 600 wd. theme! Boy they don’t waste time.
I got my lamp back from Neil and the clock — and am going to get the rug as soon as I have time!
Francis is OK for roommate — very conservative — quiet — extremist really — maybe he’ll be a good influence.