Dec. 9, 1941 (Tuesday)

Santa Clara

Sat around Gram’s all day. Packed my stuff into three of the cruise boxes. One I filled completely with books, one with assorted souvenirs and papers, and one with clothes — mostly woolens. No sign of the two from the East arriving till the early part of next week. I wonder if I shall still be here?

Played completely through Noje’s album of Tyrolean ski songs. They brought me back to some of the wonderful times we had together in Germany. I truly like that country and its people. Such duplicity of character as they exhibit seems incredible at times — Bismark and Beethoven, Ludendorff and Goethe, the two extremes, and yet each essentially German, and each revered by the German people. Even my German professor, Walther Thomas, at the Naval Academy, exhibited it — the deep appreciation of culture and the childish delight in military might.

I noticed that the best songs were recorded by “Electrola.”