25 Sep 1937
John Griffin to Father / Washington D.C.

Dear Dad,

It seems that I am becoming very dilatory lately. I just found a letter in my desk half written to you dated September 14, and here it is 11 days later. I have been quite busy lately however, we have just fired 52 people and that makes a lot of work for me. As soon as they are all paid off and things settle down again I wont be so busy.

You are surely having tough luck with that car that is from one point of view. I hope that you are able to fix it up OK so that it does not look too bad. I would have someone else do the paint job on it though because that it pretty hard to do and do right unless you have the necessary equipment, I am very glad though that you were able to pay off the finance charges so that you wont have that worry anymore. You were quire fortunate in that respect.

Here I found this letter still unfinished and unmailed. It seems that I have a terrible time to get all of the things done that I am supposed to do. However things have been happening since I started this and so you'll have to forgive me. You no doubt received my wire this morning about the arrival of the kid. We were surely happy about it and very glad that it was a boy. I haven't had a chance to get a good look at him yet but the doctor and the nurses tell me that he is perfect and does not have a blemish of any kind. He has real dark black hair and quite a bit of it though not so much as Bee's baby had. He looked like most all other little babies do to me and that isn't very cute. I suppose though that he will come out of that and show his stuff in a few weeks. He has Dot's dimple though it is not nearly so pronounced. The doctor says that-he looks just like me, but as I said before he looks like a regular baby and nothing more to me.

Dot is getting along OK. Last Thursday when the doctor examined her he found that she was due any moment and so we have been waiting since then. He told her to come to the hospital last night whether she had any pains or not and so we went to a show at 5 and then at 7:30 we went to the hospital. They gave her a big dose of castor oil and we sat around and talked till 10:30 an they kicked me out and so I came on home. She said that they gave her everything but the kitchen sink after I left and at 2 A.M. the doctor called and said that they were taking her to the delivery room and at 3 he called and said that I had a son. Dot felt pretty groggy this morning and seemed to me like she hadn't come out of the anesthetic quite yet. The doctor told her mother this morning that the baby came so fast when it got started that the ordinary anesthetic did not have a chance to a take effect and so they gave her gas, and to me it smells like they gave her either too. She didn't suffer much though and said that it was not as bad as having her tonsils out. The doctor says that because she had it so fast, she is quite weak and must have plenty of rest and quiet for a few days. No visitors are allowed until Thursday. When I get the kid home and can give him a first had inspection I will tell you more about him.

Mother has no doubt received Dot's letter telling her of the arrival of the shawl and how everyone thinks it is the swellest thing she has. I think that you have both about done enough for us. We are of course going to use the dress to bless the baby in. We have not decided on a name yet. Dot wants to name it after me but the name seems so common and then too the endless oonfusion which results. I suppose he will be called Oscar all his life anyway, at least that is what everyone has called him around here for the last nine months.

I received Donny's letter some time ago telling me that he had been called to the British mission. I suppose that he is right thrilled about it all. I regret a little that he is not going where he can learn a new language, but I suppose that he should go where they send him. I know that it will be a big financial burden to keep him there and I think that your estimate of from $30 to $35 is rather low. I think that you will find it more from $40 to $50. At least that was the way it was when I was over there. I am planning on sending him at least $10 a month and will send more if I possibly can. I am happy that he is able to go and hope that he makes the most of it. Tell him to be sure and stop by here on the way up to New York. Let me know if you need any money to get him away. I of course have a lot of expense right now, but if you have to have some I can dig it up somewhere.

I was glad to hear that business is so good this fall and that it is lasting so late, I always did think that there was good money if a person would just get out and go after it. You had better get someone to stay in the store. Speaking of business, our group has now lost some $900. The stock market has gone into the skids and it does not look so good. We are still hanging on and hoping.

What do you think of Clark's warning about a new depression. I think that the church is making a grave mistake to mix church and politics. Clark is an old mossback reactionary and would give his last shirt to see the new deal fail. The statement did not meet with much favor back here.

Well I must sign off and get this in the mail or you will never get it. I haven't had much sleep in the last 36 hours and feel pretty groggy. Excuse all the errors. I am going down to see Dot again in a minute or two, so will say goodby for now. - John

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