4/12/38
Dear Marty:
Boy, is this place a mess! I have notebooks all over the place, and a swell collection of slightly soiled clothes. I’m too lazy to look up my last letter, so I shall just mention a few of the things I’ve been doing.
I was elected to Eta Kappa Nu, honorary electrical society, a few weeks back. I am now being initiated, and it is very disgusting. I have to carry everything but the kitchen sink with me. Rough initiation is in the form of a series of damned hard problems. Some of the fellows work on them all night without getting the solution. I’d almost rather have my rear paddled. The problems are from any field of electricity from hair drying motors to vacuum tubes.
The Wabash is way up, although no danger. Understand you’re having a little heat out there. (Landlady’s son is out there). Temperature here is just nice, 70. Of course, we had about three weeks of liquid sunshine for a while.
Sat. was spent taking a bunch of river pictures. Two of them came out quite well from a scenic standpoint, although they don’t show the water too well. A couple of the others show lots of water. The one I have enclosed was taken from the understructure of the Brown Street bridge (upstream from the levee) and pointing over towards the campus from the east side of the river. The shadow of the bridge is in the foreground, and the normal edge of the river is shown by the tops of the trees sticking out where I’ve marked them. The river must be over half a mile wide at this point. I wish I could send copies of all of these pictures to my friends, but I’d go broke in the process.
Sunday two of us walked up the North River Road for more pictures. As the road is under water, we had to wade. I saw a boat caught in some bushes a few yards from shore, and started to wade out after it. I got caught by the current and had to swim back, as the water was well over my head. I’m probably one of the few people who has ever swum from the Wabash River to the River Road, especially in April. Boy, that water was cold.
[ Caption from Buddy’s photo album: “North of Lafayette along the River Road. Jim was on the road and I was going out after the boat and went in to my waist. He asked me to go back in to get the picture. Just after the picture was taken, the ground I was standing on washed away and I had to swim back from the Wabash River to the River Road. Yours truly wringing out shirt after soaking. Air temperature was about 45 and water must have been about 38. Taken by J.P. Hope, April 10, 1938 a little after noon.”]
I took off my jacket and shirt, and soon ripped the legs off my pants, as it was warmer with nothing on my legs than with the wet trou dangling there. The fellow who was with me got my picture just before I got washed away, and has been kicking himself ever since for not waiting. He says I looked slightly scared, although I didn’t have time to feel that way myself. The water was quite swift, and about 36 degrees. We went from there up to the new by-pass (see map on other side—it is to let truck traffic get by Lafayette without going up Salisbury and keeping the people awake all night). We took quite a few pictures from the understructure of it also. We took one of the bridge which should be quite good. It is looking lengthwise and shows a lot of pretty engineering symmetry (oh, nuts—you spell it).
One of the dinky street-cars broke loose at the top of the hill last Friday night, coasted down the hill, and slammed to a stop on a steel trolley-support pole at the start of the levee. Jim and I went down and took a picture of it that night, and it came out quite well.
Well, enough about photography. I’m yet trying to catch up on my work. I’m not very interested in the stuff, though, so I don’t try too hard.
My last polished article back-fired. I got in a hurry towards the end and slipped in a couple of erroneous calculations. I’ve gotten only one fan letter from it, and it may go unnoticed. I have written the editor and requested that a correction be inserted in next month’s issue. I could kick myself, because if I had read it over, I would have noticed the error immediately. It is a very simple one, and easy to make. The answer is approximately correct, but not absolutely so. Well, even smart people make mistakes.
I’m writing a book now on my experiences in college. I hope I get it finished someday and can find a publisher for it.
Well, I must scram to dinner and then come home and prepare for my afternoon lab. Drop me a line when you can.
73, Cy.