Bookkeeping

From letter dated March 22, 1962

Once the hubbub over the Guatemalan invasion quieted down, I spent most of my time catching up with my bookkeeping. The company has started importing meat and wholesaling it. It is a good deal, since Don Eckis, Bucher’s partner from Miami, already is in that business and can get the best possible prices. It has allowed us to charter a plane at very favorable rates to bring the meat down and fly our seafood back. However, it has just about doubled my bookkeeping.

And let me tell you, this British system, which I’m forced to use, already involves about twice as much posting as the U.S. system would for the same business. However, somewhere along the line, I’ve learned what I’m doing. That helps. I now can do my own trial balances at the end of the month without the auditor’s help, and can deal with almost all of the odds and ends that don’t seem to fit anywhere. Still, instead of taking an afternoon or two a week, it takes a good half day everyday. By the time I try to do some news gathering, write stories, and manage my house, I find I’m neglecting my mending, letting drawers get disordered, and not answering letters.

From letter dated December 8, 1962

Everything has seemed in a snarl lately and I seem hard put to get through the days. Most of the problem is that the company is outgrowing my bookkeeping…there’s more and more routine work and I have trouble keeping up with it and also running a house and doing a little of my own work. That will be solved after the first of the year when Bucher has a new man coming. Meanwhile, I’ve been in a swivet.