History of John Smith Griffin
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Berkeley 1946-1947

The next few months were some of the most dismal that I have spent in my lifetime, up to the time of this writing. We found after we had purchased the house and moved into it, that we were "on the wrong side of the tracks." Anything below Grove street in Berkeley was looked upon as a rental district or a district where laborers lived. The house itself was not too bad and could have been fixed up to be a comfortable place in which to live. Because of its location, however, Dorothy resented spending anything on it to fix it up and was very unhappy. My situation at work made matters worse and she blamed herself for our predicament.

As a result she could not sleep and began to lose weight. Because she could not sleep it was difficult for me to sleep. The few friends that we had in the San Francisco area all lived in beautiful homes, entertained a lot and lived high. This did not help us and I bean to wonder if we would ever make the adjustment.

In the meantime I painted the house outside - white and trimmed it in dark brown. It was the best looking house on the street from the outside, but that still did not overcome Dorothy's depression. I liked the people that I worked with at the office but there was just not enought work to go around. Jobs that could be done in a few days were made to last weeks. Fortunately I was advised from Washington that I was to come back to argue the General Foods Case before the Judicial Officer of the Department. This gave me work that kept me busy much of the time and also gave me a,,chance to see the powers that be in Washington again. I looked forward to the trip.

Shortly before I was to leave for Washington, John G Gault who was the attorney in charge in Los Angeles (then a sub-office under San Francisco) had a stroke. At first it was not determined how serious it was and a fellow named Carl was sent down to take his place until he recovered. Carl's reports seemed to indicate that Gualt might only be out for a few months and so no thought was given to transferring someone down to Los Angeles permanently I was working on my argument and planning my trip to Washington and was not too much concerned with what whas happening in Los Angeles. Before I left, however, the report came from Los Angeles that Mr. Gault was not improving and that he would be out at least a year and perhaps would never come back.

It seemed good to go back to Washington. I had a very difficult task ahead of me as General Foods and the Chicago brokers were represented by expensive and very capable lawyers. I had worked hard on the argument, though, and felt that I was ready. The argument lasted most of the day and by the time I had finished, the perspiration had come through my shirt and soaked my coat around my arms and across the back of my shoulders. I thought I did well, and I received a copy of a memo from the Administrator of the Commodity Exchange Authority complementing me highly on my argument,

I remained in Washington a few days after the argument to see some people in the office and to visit with our friends. The day before I was to leave, Mr Hunter (the General Counsel) called me and asked me to come up to his office. He told me that he had received word from Los Angeles that Mr. Gault was in very bad shape and that there was very little chance that he would ever return to work. He asked me how I would like to move down to Los Angeles. This seemed to me to be a real opportunity and an answer to many of our problems. I told Mr. Hunter however, that while the assignment appealed to me, that I wished to consider it and talk it over with my wife before giving him an answer. He told me to write him after I had returned home and had made a decision.

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