Happy New Year, dear friends - to all of you.

Please consider this in the form of a personal greeting. And may I say "Thank you" with all my heart to the dear souls who sent me a Christmas greeting. If I failed you (and I did - for I sent exactly three cards), it was because every spare moment was given to writing Service men and women of our church. Every one of the 300 connected with our church, discharged or not, was remembered at Christmas time. I hope we shall never forget our debt of gratitude to these men and women. Our memories are so short. Cleveland business men are already forgetting. There is little heart in big business. It is up to those of us who have no big money at stake to keep prodding the social conscience. It will take many years to bind up the wounds of the broken in body and spirit.

I hope you had as nice a Christmas as we. The children were all home - including Tommy, who came from overseas the first of September. I was too dog-tired after the Christmas rush in the store to have much enthusiasm, but the children, bless their hearts, always carry you along, willy nilly. Father Taylor's birthday comes on Christmas Eve. This year he reached his eightieth birthday. So we had quite a celebration at our house. (Mother and Dad live here now). I have had a few inquiries about "Santa Claus" - his name, address, etc. He gave me the name at our first meeting and the story of his business career which toppled from the millionaire class. He has a terrible sense of failure - a wrong conception on his part. And when I submitted the typed manuscript to him for his sanction, he asked me to withhold his name and his business, because of the financial failure (which was cased by the merciless squeeze of a powerful banker). It took the zip out of my story. But the story is his, and he trusted me not to betray his confidence.

Now I must close, and take up less interesting tasks. But I'll be with you next week - God willing. Let us take on the New Year with fresh courage.

Sincerely,
Florence B. Taylor

Next - 1/24/46 - A Jingle a Day. Strike at Cleveland Press. After-the-War Heroes
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