524 W. Elsmere Place
San Antonio Texas 78212
Monday, 9 December 1963 |
Dear Minna:
Sister said to tell you all the ministers from New England were coming down
south to incite the negroes. Well, Mr. Kennedy met a very ugly death and we
are sorry it happened, he did take a lot of chances and Dallas is a very funny
place, they do not care what they do or say. Warren used to say that he hated
to live in Dallas and changed his work elsewhere because it is so close to
being in a hustling northern city. I believe that he was a very sweet man
at heart and I liked to see the pictures with his children, he seems so well
educated, more like a statesman but on the wrong track as president and he
was responsible for the hate they talk so much about. At the school where
I have a part time job they took the children out to the airport here to see
him. Forced on by ideas and ideals, dreaming, dreaming and Bobbie was after
him all the time to force things. What will happen now we do not know but
I have always heard some very ugly things about Lyndon Johnson and it is no
secret either -- how he beat Coke Stevenson for the senate in one of the trick
valley counties in Texas that is well know [sic] for dirty politics. Well,
we will hear more of Martin Luther King but about Bobby I do not know as I
do not think he can boss Lyndon Johson.
I am sending a small box of candy to you all and I like to send it, it is
so different I am sure than anything you can get in Arkansas. Why do people
like to make fun of Arkansas. I have known so many nice people from Arkansas,
but a good many I know have liked to go barefooted but they were just a little
ahead of the times -- I see girls and women all dressed up in fancy slacks
etc get out of cars and they are barefooted. Sometimes I do not wonder at
seeing the kind of shoes they put up for the women to buy. Those heels! I
just cannot wear them amd am about to get a most common sense pair as I have
been trying to consider the looks of my feet too much in a small way and foot
is so thin that it just will not hold up without some very practical support
in the way of a shoe.
I have several letters out trying in a round about way to get a line on the
original John Jay Johns but people are so slow in replying. I know for sure
that a man in Maryland has information on his son John but he does not answer.
Have you ever seen or read the book "The Virginia Bishop" the Yankee
here of the confederacy. It is a story of Bishop Johns and it surely has the
whole history of that family which may be kin but is not our line -- as they
say. Their aamily records seem to have been intact. He was born in 1796 and
died in 1876. He was older than grandpa Johns but was living when Col Johns
died, which was before 1821 I believe. Tax records seem to indicate he died
about 1815 or 16. It seems there should be records somewhere however it takes
a good mind to figure out those early census' as they reported them so poorly.
I think I will ask Mrs. Leather if she has seen an 1810 census of that family.
The typing of the diary is a little rough now on account of the paleness
of the writing and I use a magnifying glass to protect my eyes. Heavens knows
I need to get my glasses changed and must be about doing it too before the
first of the year. We hope you all have been well and that Lois is still getting
along well. Guess you heard about Glenday. It has been sad for Caroline for
the past few years with Joe and that trouble the doctor gave him. They led
such an irresponsible life more or less -- now one can tell what is just around
the corner.
Love
Florence
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