History of John Smith Griffin
page 40

Early Washington - 1931/32

This lasted for several weeks before Christmas. Finally Christmas Eve came and the word was passed around that the store would close at 6 pm and that we would be paid off before that time as this would be the end of our employment. About four o'clock in the afternoon the paymaster started his rounds passing out the pay envelopes. He visited everyone in our department except me. At first I was a little concerned, then I considered myself lucky as I figured that it meant that I was not being layed off. About 5:30 the personnel man came around and told me to report back for work the day after Christmas. I did this and found that I and another fellow were the only two out of the whole toy department that had not been layed off. The two of us spent the days between Christmas and New Years changing toys and cleaning up the space where the toy department had been.

LETTERS
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(L311221) John Griffin to Father / Washington D.C.

There also lived at the boarding house Don Candland's brother Harry who was secretary to the Public Building Commission and had a lot of jobs to pass out. They had recently completed building the Commerce Department's new quarters and he had told me that there would be a job at $7 per day for two or three weeks, inspecting furniture after it had been moved to see that it was not damaged by the movers. It was to start right after New Years. Thinking that my job with Sears would be over Christmas Eve I had told Harry I would like to go to work for him.

So on New Years Eve (1931) when the personnel man at Sears again called me into his office and offered me a job as assistant manager of the house furnishings department on a permanent basis I faced a really important decision. He gave me until after New Years to make my decision. I knew that the manager of the paint department made on an average year a little better than $50 a week which in those days was good money. I could see no reason why I could not be in his position before many years and if I did well I might go on from there.

At the same time I knew that I would have to give up entirely my desire to study law. I had no one with who I could discuss my problem except the Lord and this I did. After much thought and prayer I decided to turn down the job at Sears and go to work at the Commerce Department for the Public Buildings Commission.

This job was a hard one to fill. The hours were from midnight to 8 in the morning every day of the week including Sunday. All I had to do was to go around after the movers had put furniture in the offices and see if any of it was damaged. I would then make out a report if it was. There was much time when there was nothing at all to do and it was hard to get through the night without going to sleep. The pay was good though and I was very grateful for the work. This work lasted for two weeks, and then I was transferred to a moving gang. Here I worked along with lots of other fellows like myself that were back looking for a job to go to school on. This lasted only for a few days (the wages were $3.60 per day), when Harry Candland told me that if I could qualify as a painter he could get me a job for a week or so at $7 per day. I went down and finally convinced the lead painter on the job that I was a painter. Another fellow who later became one of my close friends, Larry Manwaring, went down and got a job as a carpenter. We went to work the next morning.

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