2 Oct 1940
John Griffin to Mother / Los Angeles, CA
Dear Mother
I should have written before to thank you for making our stay so pleasant while we were in Utah. We really did appreciate your taking care of Bob, and the many other things you did to make our visit pleasant.
I am trying to write this propped up in bed. I've been in bed just about every day since we got back. It all started in Wells the night we left. I had a real high fever but no sign of a sore throat or cold. I kept going until I got home and every night and sometimes in the day too my fever would come up but no sign of cold. I thought I'd get over it by staying in bed, but my Monday noon my fever went up past 102 and so I went down to see Con Stratford. He took all kinds of blood tests and said there was no trace of typhoid, undulant, or any of the other kinds of fever. I thought yesterday I was getting better, but last night my fever went up to about 103. It has been normal all day today and I am hoping that this is really the end. I have so much work to do that I hate to spend this time here in bed.
Thanks a lot for the birthday gift to Bob. We were traveling through Nevada on his birthday so we celebrated last night. We invited over some of the neighbors and their kinds and he had a great time. Neither Bob or Dot have been sick in any way so this that I have must not be contagious.
When we arrived home we found Donny had cleaned the house up and waxed all the floors. He seemed none the worse for his three weeks of self-cooked meals. In fact he looks fatter than when we left. He is worried about what to do in regard to the draft. He thinks he would probably be ahead if he went after a commission in the Navy. It would take about nine months. It is pretty hard to advise him.
We went through a lot of old mining towns in Nevada on the way home, and then crossed Death Valley to get into California. It was really very interesting. Most of these towns were build up during 1906,7,8 during the gold rush and were later abandoned or at least partly so. The buildings for the most part are still in ruins and look as that Hitler had taken a crack at them. One place we visited, called Ryerton, had 20,000 people in 1907. Now all that is left is a night club which has been built from the railroad station. In 1907 there were three railroads going there, a bank that cost $100,000 to build, the Ry station that cost $11,000, and a big main street with stores etc. Now the only building that is completely standing is the Ry Station. The rest is just a mass of ruins.
Death Valley was very interesting too, and very hot. it looked very desolate and uninviting and we were glad to see the green coastline of California when we finally got home. Again, thanks for our pleasant stay, and I'll let you know how this crazy sickness gets along.
John
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