History of John Smith Griffin
page 69

Wartime Washington   1946

Two or three weeks after Marian arrived I moved the family up to Packenack Lake with my brother, Ben. This was the beginning of a very trying period in our lives. I was working very hard on the General Foods case and on the weekends I would drive from Washington D.C. up to Packenack Lake (a distance of about 300 miles) so that I could be with my family. At first things seemed to go pretty well. I expected to be transferred to California and Dorothy and the family were getting along all right at Packenack Lake. So it seemed only a matter of time until we would move to California and we were looking forward to the move. When things seem to be going well, that is the time to look out and this was the case with us. On one of my visits to Packenack Lake I found that there was a great deal of friction between my wife and family and Ben's wife and family. There was nothing serious, just the friction that arises by trying to put two families together. There was a definite conflict of personalities between Dorothy and Marian, Ben's wife. This made for a great deal of unhappiness, and some of the trips that I made back from Packenack Lake to Washington D.C. were sorrowful trips. My big consolation, however, was that we would soon be moving on to California and this would be behind us.

Finally the General Foods case hearings were concluded and we fixed a date for departure to California. My family was to leave on a Monday and I was to follow a few days later in the car and bring a carload of odds and ends that we did not ship. The Friday before we were to make the move I received a call from Mr. Bucy to come up and see him as soon as possible. I went right up and he told me that he had just talked to Mr. Shields who was in San Francisco and that Shields had told him that he wanted it clearly understood that the job I was being transferred to in San Francisco was not a permanent job, but was merely a 6-month job to tide me over until I could find something else in California. Bucy said that this was not his understanding of the offer that had been made to me previously by Mr. Shields and that he wanted to check with me immediately in view of my pending departure. I told Bucy that this was not the offer that was made to me by Mr. Shields at all and that I did not intend to go to San Francisco with only a temporary job to go to. Bucy called Shields back and told him what I had said and Shields simply replied that because of commitments made to other attorneys, that was all he could offer me. I told them to forget the transfer and then called Dorothy and told her what had happens.

That weekend was as dark and dreary a weekend as we have had in our married life. The problem now was to find a house or apartment in Washington, which was almost an impossible task, and to revise our plans completely. I returned to Washington and started house hunting.

Shields had been appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture as the Administrator of the Production and Marketing Administration, and was leaving as Solicitor (later changed to General Counsel) of the Department. He was in San Francisco on a final inspection tour of the field office when he called Bucy. He returned to Washington the following Monday and I tried for more than a week to make an appointment to see him but he would not see me. Finally he left and went across the street to the Administration building to take up his duties as Administrator. Carroll Hunter, who was the Associate Solicitor in charge of litigation was made the new Solicitor.

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