Ogden   1930-1931

We crawled through the fence and climbed to the top of the hill. Down a little way from the top on the side opposite to the road we dug into the ground a bit and found two arrow heads. We had learned from the Book of Mormon that this was the site of the last great battle between the Lamanites and the Nephites and we thought that if this were so, there should be some arrow heads there. We felt very fortunate to find some, especially since I understand that the hill has been dug in and plowed many times. I have not seen this area since this visit, but I understand that the Church has now purchased the hill, the far, and the grove, and that it is well kept up with a bureau of information and full-time missionaries serving there.

During my crossing of the ocean I got something in my eye. It did not bother me much at first but got steadily worse. By the time I got on the train to leave Palmyra it was giving me a lot of trouble. I didn't sleep much that night and when the train arrived in Chicago the next morning I was in real pain. I got off the train to make connections with the train that was going to Ogden, and asked the station master if there was a doctor around there somewhere. I told him what was the matter and I guess he could see by the looks of my eye that I was having real trouble. He sent me to the company doctor located there in the station. The doctor looked at my eye and then got a pair of tweezers and started probing. Finally he pulled something out and showed it to me. It was a little piece of steel. He said that it had been working its way deeper and deeper into my eyeball and that it was fortunate that I had had it removed when I did. My eye was sore for a day or two but felt much better than it had for the past several days.

It seemed good although a little strange to be home again. The folks were at the station to meet me, but Dorothy who was so much of a part of the going-away scene was not present. After cleaning up and visiting with the folks, I drove down to her place and knocked at the front door. She came to the door wearing a light frilly dress and looked tome more beautiful than I had ever seen her. Although she seemed happy to see me I felt a strange reserve that was certainly not present when I had left her almost three years earlier.

I found it a little difficult to adjust myself to living a normal life again. Dad gave me a job in his paint business but I had not worked there long before it became apparent that the business was having a very rough time to survive. I arrived home near the end of July, 1930 and the big depression was just getting under way.

Only one who had the misfortune of living through that depression will ever know the fears and terror of no work, no pay, and nothing with which to buy the necessities of life. As the depression became more intense and as I noticed the decline in business at my father's store, I realized that if I were to ever get an education I would have to get out of Ogden and go to work. A brother Chambers who lived in the Ogden Sixth Ward had previously approached me and asked me why I didn't go to Washington D.C. and get a job with the government and work my way through school. He said that he would help me by writing Don B. Colton who was then the Representative from Weber County. In the early summer of 1931 I talked the matter over with Lou Wallace who had just come back from Washington where he had worked his way through school. Lou gave me a lot of encouragement, at the same time reminding me that it would be rough getting established. In looking back now, I believe that Lou Wallace influenced me more to go to Washington than any other person and encouraged me in the face of many difficulties.

(PARIS JOURNAL OF JOHN GRIFFIN - page 7)

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