History of John Smith Griffin
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School Days 1913-1918
Next to us on the corner of 21st Street and Monroe there lived a lady named Mrs. Bowen. She use to keep her home and yard looking very nice and was always after the kids in the neighborhood for running across her lawn. She was nevertheless very kind hearted. Mother was terrified by electrical storms of which we had quite a number during the summer months. She would frequently take us all into the back rooms and pull down all the shades and with each flash of lightning let out a scream. Of course, this made us children very nervous. I recall one especially bad storm one night when Dad was not home. After it was well under way, Mrs. Bowen came over and took me and my father Ben over to her house until the storm passed. Over there I did not seem frightened at all. She used to always bring us a basket of candy and eggs on Easter and continued to do so even after we moved to the house on Madison Avenue.
Moving from our house on Monroe to Madison Avenue was a big event in my life and I recall clearly how I would ride up on the driver's seat with the delivery boy that Dad employed while we were hauling all of the house furnishings over to the new house. The house on Madison was new only to us. Actually it was an old house and shortly after we moved in, Dad remodeled the house and built an addition on the back consisting of two bedrooms and a bath, as well as a basement. Many years later I helped my father excavate further under the house so that a hot air furnace could be installed.
I shall never forget when I started to school at the Madison elementary school about a block from our home. I was really "scared stiff" at the thought of going to school. The teacher in the class I was assigned to had a reputation around the school of being very strict and of dishing out corporal punishment whenever it was necessary and sometimes when it was not. A few days after school started I saw her break a ruler hitting the hands of one of the children and for many years thereafter I had a strong dislike for all school teachers. I was not considered a good student in my early years at school. I recall that our second grade teacher used to try to teach us number combinations by writing the numbers on cards and then passing down the aisle which them (sic). The student who gave the answer first received the card and the one who had the most cards when she finished was called up before the class. I seldom would get even one card and do not recall ever having been the best in the class. This tended to develop an inferiority complex in me which I had a great deal of difficulty to overcome all through my elementary school years.
Our home on Madison was located in the sixth ward of the Ogden Stake and the first Bishop that I can remember was Bishop Sanderson. He lived directly across the street from the chapel. I recall one evening near Christmas Dad sent me over there to get something and he invited me in. He had two large wooden pails or buckets filled with colored semitransparent candy animals. I had never seen so much candy at once before and I was greatly impressed. He got a sack and gave me several different animals to take home. He had no children of his own and used to be very kind to other peoples' children.
We had a large back yard on Madison and Dad built a barn to keep the horses in and the cow. I recall that in addition to the two delivery wagons that we had in connection with Dad's business we also had a buggy for family purposes and used to go for rides about town on holidays when the horses were not otherwise engaged.
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