History of John Smith Griffin
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Junior College  1926-1927

The skills that I learned working with my father have stood me in good stead and I recently used all of them in building my home, and in helping build the new church in La Canada. The store was first located at 2310 Washington Avenue, and has since moved several times.

Following my graduation from High School it was decided that I would attend the Weber Junior College. At this time Weber was a school of the Mormon Church and the president of the school was Aaron Tracy. I enjoyed my year at Weber more than any year I have spent at college. Each day they would have a 15 minute period (from 11:45 to noon) as a devotional. I recall that part of the program was the playing of a prelude on the piano by Lester Hinchcliff the music teacher at Weber. He was a wonderful musician and his piano preludes at these devotionals were exceptiona Because it was such a small school we all knew each other and had a great time. I played football and that year our team won the Intermountain Junior College championship. I played center and was given a little gold football as my "letter". I believe that it is still around somewhere. Some of the other fellows on the team were Ray Price who played fullback, Pug Mortensen who played quarterback, and two Halverson boys who's father was a plumber. We used to call one of them "plumber".

In addition to playing football at Weber I was on the debating team and was a member of several clubs and was in the school play. I really don't know when I found time to study, and looking back on it now, studying was the least of my worries. I was having a good time, was going steady with a girl (my present wife) and study seemed only a necessary evil. The school play that year (1926-27) was "The Lion and the Mouse." Beth Winkler (now Beth Price of Tuscon, Arizona) had the lead in the play; Dorothy Israelson had one of the character parts, Rulon Budge had the man's lead, and Nolan Taylor had a character part. We put the play on many times and in all parts of Utah. It was great fun and I will always remember Harvey Taylor who directed the play. He was really a lot of fun and all the students liked him. This year at Weber I was elected "debating manager" for the following year but never did serve in the office. As events developed, this was my last and only year at Weber.

During the Spring of 1927 my father and I, after frequent and long discussions, decided that I should go on a mission for the Church. I had always wanted to go on a mission but did not know whether it would be best to go in 1927 or to go to college for another year. About the time school was over we had a talk with the Bishop (Bishop Halverson) and I was asked to express a choice of where I would like to go on a mission. My first choice was South America and my second, England. That summer I worked hard to earn money to help defray some of the expenses of the trip to the mission field.

I started out doing painting for my father. I had only worked a few days at this when Woody Morrell called me up one day and asked me if I would like to go to work for the railroad as a painter. Woody through his dad who was railroad doctor had got a job as time keeper for the Ogden Union Railway & Depot Company on the "bridge and building" gang. This gang had the job of keeping up all repairs in the yards. After finding out that the pay would be about $165 a month, I decided to go after the job.

The foreman of the gang interviewed me and upon examining my experience working for dad, hired me. Woody had also called Pug Mortensen and one of the other gang whose name I cannot recall. I know we called him Mac. Pug got by with some difficulty on the basis of experience he was supposed to-have had painting at Weber College. Mac, however, could not think of any experience as a painter except that he had painted some switch blades while he was working as a section hand a couple of summers previous for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

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