1932-12-15: "All I Want for Christmas..."

Elmshorn, Germany

December 15/32

Dear Mother and Dad,

Yes the water on the Rhine is muddy.  But even so, people go swimming in it.  Big mail came in today but without the cake.  I hope the ships crew didn't get hungry and make a raid on it.  Perhaps tomorrow is the day of arrival of said cake.  What???

Well, I guess you can start sending my mail via North Pole.  I received a transfer last week which is to take place a couple of days after Christmas, the 27th.  Yes I am going just as far north as they can put me.  The Flensburg Branch of the Schleswigg-Holstein district is my destination which is just a stones throw from Denmark.  There is one thing about it, I 'll have to go south on my next transfer.  Probably way down into Switzerland.  That is usually the way it goes.  By the way, did you get the map I sent you?? being up around the land of the midnight sun will probably necessitate a lot of midday oil to be burned.  even now, here in Elmshorn, we have to turn the light on at four o'clock in the afternoon.  the sun comes up at ten and goes down at three.

They are taking us our of Elmshorn entirely.  Missionaries are getting short so they are putting us where we are most needed.  Do you remember of me telling you of a minister with whom we had a debate?  Well, he got up in front of his members the other day and said, "You people want to be careful to what you listen to nowadays.  the devil is all around us.  There is a sect over here in Elmshorn who have a sign in front of their meeting house saying, "Guard yourself from the Mormons".  And only last week, we picked up a magazine which ran us down from one end to the other.  So you can see that we haven't easy going in this land of the abominable church.  I see by the Guardian that there is beginning to be an enormous amount of stuff concerning activities in our church on the front page.  Have you converted Daisy or something???  I also see that Richard R. Lyman was down to conference.  He was the one who set me apart for my mission.

So it is still warm in Arizona...Would that some of Arizona's sunshine were here.  I don't believe the sun has shined in Elmshorn more than ten minutes for a whole month.  Today there has been a very fine mist in the air which is about half way between rain and fog.  It certainly took the brand-new crease out of my pants.  At least I will see Christmas weather this year if I don't see anything else pertaining to the occasion.  I bought me a pair of spats to keep the cold air from driving down through the tops of my shoes now if I had something to keep the air from getting in at the bottom, I would be all set.  My soles are getting so thin that  can count the pebbles as I walk over these cobble-stoned streets.

I have always wanted to see a big Drama played in a big Theater.  So last week, while in Hamburg we took in a Deutsche-Schauspiel.  It was a comedy, "Charley's Tante" or Charley's Aunt.  Perhaps you have seen it in the picture show at home.  I saw it in Tucson last year.  Anyway by seeing professional dramatists act and opera singers sing, I have satisfied myself in that phase of human art.  I only wish we had more of such things in America. 

If you want to send me a Christmas present you can wrap up some shaving cream, toothpaste, razor blades, and Mentholatum and give it a ticket towards Germany.  We have a sister here with a little girl about three to four years old.  The little girls has had some worms and her mother is bent upon having something out of America for it.  Having once had something our of America for such things she thinks there is where the medicine has got to come from.  She asked me to have you send something for the worms so if you happen to think about it, throw in a bottle of something, therefore.

Don't let the flu get you.

Love,
Clarence

My new address:

Clarence L. Crandall
Südermarkt 4-IV
Flensburg/ Schleswig-Hölstein
Germany