Ogden  1930-1931

During this same summer Dorothy's Aunt Mae had visiting with her a Mrs. Vera Shaw, her sister, whose husband was secretary to a congressman in Washington. Mrs. Shaw also ran a boarding house for young LDS fellows who were working back there and going to school. I talked to her about going back to Washington and she also gave me some encouragement. Finally I decided to go.

I had been seeing a lot of Dorothy since returning from my mission and finally gave her the diamond which I had purchased in Holland and had mounted. I felt badly when I discovered that she was a little reluctant to accept the ring, although I had felt that we had an understanding predating my departure on a mission that we would be married. She did finally accept it and wear it. Thereafter there were many stormy hours of courtship with the ring given back and forth several times. When I told her that I had decided to go to Washington and get a job so I could work my way through school she informed me that she was leaving two weeks before I was to go to California with her mother on a vacation trip. I did not like the idea-of her being away when I left and I wished her to save her money so as to be able to come back to Washington to be married when I was able to get work. Nothing I could say, though, changed her mind and she left for California with her mother several weeks before I left to go to Washington. She had been teaching school and had saved this money to go on a vacation. I must have been awfully selfish to expect her to do otherwise.


YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1909 (9012) Dorothy Griffin - infant
1909 (9105) Dorothy Griffin - Birth Certificate
1909 (9084) Dorothy Griffin - Blessing Certificate
1917 (9087) Dorothy Griffin - Baptism Certificate
1930 (4713) Dorothy Griffin and Mother
1931 (1030) Dorothy Griffin telegram to John Griffin

When it came time to leave for Washington I had saved up $100. I paid $25 of this to Rossel H de (now chairman of the Federal Communications Commission for transportation in his 1930 Ford sedan from Ogden to Washington D.C. I also paid Mrs. Shaw $37.50 for my first month's board and room. The trip to Washington took five days. There were five of us in the car and I was glad when we finally arrived. Mrs Shaw put me in a room with Osmond Williams. Oz is presently (1957) working for the Customs Service in Los Angeles. He has a family of five kids and a nice home in Glendale.

I immediately started looking for a job. Lou Wallace had written quite a number of letters to friends of his in Washington in my behalf as had several other people. I started out by calling at the offices of Don B. Colton and Reed Smoot. The secretaries of these men were very friendly. and said that they would do everything they could to help me. I found that I was just one of many, many young fellows looking for a job so that they could go to school. I went to all of the government agencies and filed applications for jobs, receiving very little encouragement from any of them. Time passed and I was still without work. I had barely enough to pay my next month's board and I was becoming worried.

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