19 Jul 1932
John Griffin to Mother / Washington D.C.
We will have been married a month next Sunday. It seems like a day, and I wonder how the time goes so fast. I didn't ever know that anyone could be so happy and contented with life. Almost everyone that writes Dot asks her if she has had her first quarrel, or how many she has had by now. But really mother, we havn't had even a minor spat or the semblance of one. I can' see right now why we should ever have one. We seem to get along in every way and I am really surprised myself that things go so well as they do. I am all the time afraid that something will happen to spoil it all.
You would be surprised at the attitude Dot takes on things. I was greatly surprised the other day when she said to me, without my mentioning it, that we must pay our tithing this pay day. She pays tithing on whatever she makes and insists that we pay tithing on whatever we have. She didn't pay it at home and I was quite surprised when she said what she did. We go to Church every Sunday and I believe that she likes it. Unless I am greatly mistaken, about 99% of the trouble with Dot when she was home was her friends or would-be friends. I am surely glad that we are out here where I am the only one that influences her to any extent and the friends that we make are the kind of friends that one would like to have.
Since we have been married the young married crowd has tried to take us over. They are most all young and a good crowd. There's Lawrence VanDyke and his wife, Mr and Mrs Nixon, Mr and Mrs Snow, Henrickson, Richeman, etc. They are a lot of fun and all good clean people and good church members. Dot seems to like them and I think that we should have a good time here. They all go to school and so don't have much and appreciate what they do have. I am glad to get in that crowd as I have felt somewhat all alone since I came back here.
Our eats bill is very small. Last week we spent $6.19, and that included a chicken for Sunday and about 60 cents for stuff we bought to entertain some friends that came to see us. We also bought with that a lot of staple stuff which we still have on hand, such as peas, corn, beans, etc. If we bought just what we got along on we could get by, or rather I should say that when we get a few things on hand, or a start, I am sure that we can live on from 4 to 5 dollars a week for eats. We eat two loaves of bread a week, and a pound of butter lasts us for more than a week. We used canned milk mostly, except for what Dot drinks, and back here you can buy that for less than 5 cents a large can. All other food stuffs are way down and we surely appreciate it. We pay 19 cents a dozen for eggs and those are the seconds, but we find them just as good as the firsts and so we use them all the time. We shop at The American, Piggly, and other chain food stores and buy all the specials that they have. It is a lot of fun, and it helps a lot to make the old pay check go around.
Dot has a promise of a job with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for the first of August. That would mean she would make about $90 or $95 a month, and with that we could easily save enough to insure my school this fall. She has some teaching leads too just as soon as her recommendations come and if she gets a school this fall we'll be setting pretty. Things have worked out much better than I had ever hoped they would and I am so happy that I don't know what to do. It seems that there hasn't been one riff since she came. In fact I am afraid all the time that it is too good to last.
When this new relief bill goes through, the R.F.C. will have several hundred million dollars more to give away that is to lend. I wrote Mr. Israelson the other day and told him to try and get a job with them. I don't see why with all his banking experience he couldn't get a good job with them. There will be a lot of vacancies when this new bill goes through, and if he can get the right pull he ought to get something.
There goes the bell so I'll have to sign off. Write Often.
Love to all, John
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