History of John Smith Griffin
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Washington D.C.   1936-1937

My fourth year I received an average of 78.7 and graduated 12th in a class of 101. A11 of those who had A.B. degrees or equivalent were given an opportunity to work for a special degree called an S.J.D. To recieve this they had to have in addition to an A.B. degree a high average in their 4 years. These were not counted in rating my class standing; my standing was 12th of 101 who received an LLB degree. I did not have an A.B. degree on entering law school.

LETTERS
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(L340606) John Griffin to Mother / Washington D.C.
(L340625) John Griffin to Father / Washington D.C.
(L340908) John Griffin to Parents / Washington D.C.
(L350913) John Griffin to Parents / Washington D.C.
(L350913A) John Griffin to Mother / Washington D.C.
(L351222) John Griffin to Parents / Washington D.C.
(L351228) John Griffin to Parents / Washington D.C.
(L360229) John Griffin to Father / Washington D.C.
(L360728) Dorothy Griffin to Griffins / Washington D.C.
(L361115) John Griffin to Mother / Washington D.C.
(L361210) John Griffin to Mother / Washington D.C.
(L361210A) John Griffin to Father / Washington D.C.

My brother Ben had, two years previous to this, obtained a job in the Customs Service in Paris, France. He married Marion Hussey and took her over there with him. In 1936 they received their first vacation, a paid trip back to the states. They arrived at Washington D.C. the day before I was to take the bar examination. We had moved from the apartment on Columbia Road and were living at this time on New Hampshire Avenue in a one room apartment with a Murphy (let down) bed. We also had a studio and so we opened that up for Ben and Marion.

Their son Glen was about 18 months old at the time and we folded.some blankets and built a bed for him under the gas stove in the kitchen (the gas stoves were on high legs in those days). We all went to bed early but had been to sleep only a few hours when Glen wanted to get up. It seems that he had not adjusted to the change of time from Paris to Washington and at 3 am it was his normal getting up time.

I got very little sleep that night and with the exam the next day I was sure I'd never make it. The examination lasted three days. During this time Ben and Marion were with us as well as Glen and I had a rough time getting sleep enough to be sharp at all the next day. You can imagine my surprise when the exam results came out and I found that I had passed.

During the fall of 1936 Dorothy got jobs off an on as a substitute teacher out at Bethesda, Maryland. She had also applied as a clerk at the American Red Cross and one day she received an offer of a job down there. It was for night work from 4 to 12 midnight. In those days when she was substitute teaching, she used to rush from Bethesda after school, down to the Red Cross and work until midnight. It was a hard grind for her and I really admire her for her hard work. Later she got a full time job teaching for a year and when that looked like it was going to fold up she went to work at the N.R.A. in the government. From there she went to the Travelers Aid Society where she stayed on until just a few weeks before Bob was born.

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