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Nile Kinnick correspondence, June-August 1942
1942-07-19: Page 01
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July 19, 1942 Dear SB: Another Sunday evening has come around, and possibly you have been conscious of the same thoughts that we often mention - How grand it would be to have the boys all home again. Some day it will be true, and we shall renew those little family gatherings that have meant so much to us, and which are the real sinews of a people, I am certain. Yesterday afternoon, mother met me down town and we eyed Orson Wells' latest, "The Magnificent Ambersons". They were lousy. Don't bother. We didn't stay for the second because we saw the tail of it first. So we hardly got our money's worth. We shopped abit; I for some closet hooks and mother for a lamb roast. After three tries I found the hooks, but no lamb. We settled for a beef roast at Bill's after we came out from town. We sat down to the roast, with mashed spuds and gravy, sweet corn and combination salad, vienna bread and iced tea; we surely did wish that you and Ben and George were around the board. Ben has been away for just four weeks; George has been in Adel for nearly the same time, and you have been away almost six months. But when it is all over the time will not seem too long. Last evening we attended to a few domestic problems; motherdid the dishes under some handicap while I physiced a constipated sink drain. When you build a house, or buy one, pay some attention to those installations which contribute so much to the smooth functioning of a household, tho usually unseen. Many are undersized or tortuous, and practically all need attention at one time or another. Lets pause here a moment, as mother has just brought down a cold beef sandwich, You do remember the sunday evening lunches at the snack bar in the cozy little kitchen? By the way, reference to the stoppage in the drain reminds me of a story that was told by a scholarly and venerable member of the Washington office of the FCA who was with us for a couple of weeks when we were making the change-over at the bank in June. One day in the conference several men tried to illustrate points with quotations from this and that. The s. and v. member said that he was reminded of the chap who belonged to the college literary society and was always quoting Patrick Henry; never rising to speak without finding some excuse to refer to PH. At one meeting the president of the society resolved to outsmart this boy, and asked him to come to the platform for an impromptu talk, and after he was on the platform asked him to speak on "Constipation." Without hesitation the lad began by saying that first he should define constipation, and he said, "Constipation is characterized by a gust of wind rushing up and down the alimentary canal, crying at every turn, 'Give me liberty or give me death'". Another crack, also a beltline sally, was uttered by one of the senior members of the Farm Credit Board of Directors at a banquet given about a month ago to welcome the new President of the bank. Probably you have heard this one, but with some show of hesitancy when introduced, he said that he was reminded of Mark Anthony's remark when he entered Cleopatra's tent and said, "I didn't come here to make a speech." There were others but we shall not take up more space. The change-over that I mentioned above relates to the reorganization on the "regional" plan. Instead of having a loan department for making new loans; a loan servicing department for attention to collections; a real estate department for leasing the farms and a a sales department for selling the farms, with subdivisions in each of those departments to care for designated areas; we now have the territory divided into districts with one man in the office responsible for all functions, loans, servicing, real estate and sales. It is a scheme that has been developing over several years and this is about the eighth or ninth bank to adopt the plan. After nearly a year of study and about six months of acute
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July 19, 1942 Dear SB: Another Sunday evening has come around, and possibly you have been conscious of the same thoughts that we often mention - How grand it would be to have the boys all home again. Some day it will be true, and we shall renew those little family gatherings that have meant so much to us, and which are the real sinews of a people, I am certain. Yesterday afternoon, mother met me down town and we eyed Orson Wells' latest, "The Magnificent Ambersons". They were lousy. Don't bother. We didn't stay for the second because we saw the tail of it first. So we hardly got our money's worth. We shopped abit; I for some closet hooks and mother for a lamb roast. After three tries I found the hooks, but no lamb. We settled for a beef roast at Bill's after we came out from town. We sat down to the roast, with mashed spuds and gravy, sweet corn and combination salad, vienna bread and iced tea; we surely did wish that you and Ben and George were around the board. Ben has been away for just four weeks; George has been in Adel for nearly the same time, and you have been away almost six months. But when it is all over the time will not seem too long. Last evening we attended to a few domestic problems; motherdid the dishes under some handicap while I physiced a constipated sink drain. When you build a house, or buy one, pay some attention to those installations which contribute so much to the smooth functioning of a household, tho usually unseen. Many are undersized or tortuous, and practically all need attention at one time or another. Lets pause here a moment, as mother has just brought down a cold beef sandwich, You do remember the sunday evening lunches at the snack bar in the cozy little kitchen? By the way, reference to the stoppage in the drain reminds me of a story that was told by a scholarly and venerable member of the Washington office of the FCA who was with us for a couple of weeks when we were making the change-over at the bank in June. One day in the conference several men tried to illustrate points with quotations from this and that. The s. and v. member said that he was reminded of the chap who belonged to the college literary society and was always quoting Patrick Henry; never rising to speak without finding some excuse to refer to PH. At one meeting the president of the society resolved to outsmart this boy, and asked him to come to the platform for an impromptu talk, and after he was on the platform asked him to speak on "Constipation." Without hesitation the lad began by saying that first he should define constipation, and he said, "Constipation is characterized by a gust of wind rushing up and down the alimentary canal, crying at every turn, 'Give me liberty or give me death'". Another crack, also a beltline sally, was uttered by one of the senior members of the Farm Credit Board of Directors at a banquet given about a month ago to welcome the new President of the bank. Probably you have heard this one, but with some show of hesitancy when introduced, he said that he was reminded of Mark Anthony's remark when he entered Cleopatra's tent and said, "I didn't come here to make a speech." There were others but we shall not take up more space. The change-over that I mentioned above relates to the reorganization on the "regional" plan. Instead of having a loan department for making new loans; a loan servicing department for attention to collections; a real estate department for leasing the farms and a a sales department for selling the farms, with subdivisions in each of those departments to care for designated areas; we now have the territory divided into districts with one man in the office responsible for all functions, loans, servicing, real estate and sales. It is a scheme that has been developing over several years and this is about the eighth or ninth bank to adopt the plan. After nearly a year of study and about six months of acute
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