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D: I enjoyed it immensely.
R: I interviewed our friend the year before and she was a social worker and I
think it was wondertul. Did you know her when you first came here?
D: No. I would like to have continued but John and the girls voted against it.
We had a family conference. They voted to send me home and I agreed, but it
was very hard when I first got to Gainesville.
R: While you were a social worker in Tallahassee, what happened to the girls?
D: They were in demonstration school.
R: The same one you had gone to?
D: The same one I had gone to, only now it had all grades.
R: And those days you could have a black servant in the household to be there
when the girls got out of school.
D: I did. And then when we had only been in Tallahassee onryear, my father
had a stroke in St. Petersburg. He had always wanted to live in Tallahassee
when he retired. They bought a house there, and we lived with them; but he
only lived a year after that.
R: Now we have finally come up to the time when you had come to Gainesville.
D: The spring before we came, John had been commuting back and forth because
Dean Hume had asked him to come down and teach some courses and John still
hadn't decided whether he would come to the University of Florida or stay
at the college in Tallahassee. He would come down here and teach for four
days and then come back to the Geological Survey to write up all of the
stuff he had on hand for the rest of the week.
R: Do you remember what Dean Hume...
D: He was a wonderful man. John admired him greatly.
R: We are all grateful to him for writing the books about how to raise
Camelias and Hollies.
D: Well, that was just one of his...
R: And he founded the Camelia society, didn't he?
D: Yes, I think he did but his big hobby was I'lex or Hollies. He's planted
many varieties on the campus.
R: And he's written a book on all of this.
D: He was a thoroughly well-educated man. He gave a commencement address here
in Latin. He was president of the University during the time interval between
Dr. Miller and Reitz.
R: That's right. A temporary president.