S: I came back to Gainesville about December and I was back in school in
 January. I missed one semester in school and I made it up in summer
 school and graduated in 1920.

M: Did you meet your wife before that time?

S: We were raised in the same town. She grew up in Gainesville too. Her
 maiden name was Lillian Glass. I married her in '23.

M: During the '20s, what kind of business were you in?

S: Well, I graduated in civil engineering and I had several engineering
 jobs. I worked for the county engineer down in South Florida. I worked
 for the government out on the Mississippi River the Mississippi River
 Commission, the Corps of Engineers. Then I was a city engineer for the city
 of Natchez, Mississippi.

M: So you were gone from Gainesville for a few years.

S: We had the famous Florida boom in 1925, and they wrote me and said, "Whatever
 you're doing, just drop it and come on back here because everything is booming
 down here." So I came back home, and I really was glad to come back. I've
 been here ever since.

M: When you came back in '25 and it was booming, what did you do at that time?

S: I did some engineering and surveying. They had a lot of these subdivisions
 at that time.

M: Did you have anything to do with Golfview?

S: No, I didn't survey Golfview, but I surveyed other areas around the country.
 In about 1927, the boom had busted and my father wanted to go out of the
 business. He had Sweetwater Mills and my Uncle Robert had a branch in Gaines-
 ville called the Stringfellow-Harmon Company, a wholesale grocery business,
 and he died. So Mr. Harmon and my father and Mr. Livingston got together
 and combined the two companies, and had me take it over; just, you might say,
 started me up in it. In other words, they just combined the two and turned
 them over to me. I went on from there in the wh61esale grocery business, and
 I did pretty well in that until about 1929 when the world Depression began
 developing. Also, the chain stores bought direct from the manufacturer.
 See, the wholesaler bought from the manufacturer and then sold to the retailer.
 That was the set-up. Well, the chain stores bought direct and that enabled
 them to undersell our customers.

M: Did that include Piggly Wiggly?

S: Well, Piggly Wiggly, at that time, was a good customer of ours because it was
 a franchise deal. Fred Borland ran it and he was one of the best customers
 we ever had. He is still living here. He's retired, but lives in Gainesville.

 Our business emphasized grain and grain products, and the horse and buggy days
 were getting over. Back in those days, we had three or four big livery stables.
 Now, this is prior to 1929. About 1920, the State Road came through Gainesville
 going from Lake City on down through Micanopy to Ocala. It's now U.S. 441, but