ON THE ROAD AGAIN. JUST CAN'T WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN (CLARE)
Black. Darkness. Nothing. I blink a few times and light and colors appear. All I can think is ow and where am I? Well it turns out I’m in the county jail in Amarillo, Texas. Oh, now I remember. It all started a few weeks ago, when I left home. Daddy had owned a shop in downtown Ponca City, Oklahoma. It was a nice, little general store. But lately, we didn’t have as much customers….I remember he came home one day all sad, saying stuff like how we didn’t have no money and that me, Harper, and my older brother and sister would have to leave home. Leighanne and Beau left a couple days before me. Said they were goin’ to California and I should meet them in a place called Los Angeles. Course it would be harder for me to get there they said, cause I was so much younger than they was. I’m only fourteen; Leighanne and Beau are both seventeen. I left home on April 27, 1931. I expect by now it’s late May or early June. Judging by the weather here in Amarillo, it’s probably June. For a couple days I wandered outside Ponca City, looking for odd extra jobs, anything that would pay for food. I could never consider stealing food from a family. That was ‘cause we’d had some people steal from my daddy’s store and it had set us back a few weeks on the payments to the town. Some people would hire me for a bit, but they said girls couldn’t do as much hard labor as boys, so it’s more smart to hire a boy. I was so hungry. Some nights I would just have to sleep outside a building somewhere or near the tracks to try and stay warm. Eventually I started to see other kids riding the rail roads to other places. They didn’t have a ticket either. I decided to give it a shot, might as well try to get to California and see Leighanne and Beau before I starve to death. But now I’m in the county jail all on a count of the fact that I was riding the rails without a ticket. On the rails, me and this other girl, Jezebel, would ride the rails together for a couple weeks. She was really helpful too. We met up in between Ponca City and Amarillo. She had been riding longer than me and she was older too. She said she was gonna teach me the ropes of riding the rails as a teen hobo. She said it was necessary to steal from people, cause we would’ve starved to death whereas these folks would’ve just thrown out the extras. That technically takin’ from folks before they threw things away wasn’t really stealing, but we had to do it. She was lookin’ for adventure she said, didn’t need her parents for anything. I couldn’t imagine living like that, voluntarily away from my folks. I wonder where she is now….We tried to catch a train together and it didn’t work out too well for me. Jezebel told to steal some of the extra food, stuff that wouldn’t go bad too fast. I got a couple cans of beans, some evaporated milk, and a tin of tuna. An’ half a loaf of bread. We also had some mulligan stew from another camp we had been at. They all went into the backpack my daddy had given me when I had to leave. I was sure scared of getting caught. But Jezebel didn’t seem too scared, all calm an’ stuff. She told me to run for the train tracks that were near the town. Well we kept runnin’ for a while, til we reached the tracks. It was nighttime then. After a couple minutes, I could see the pinprick of the head light in the distance, the deep rumble of the engine, and finally as it got closer, the horn. This train was comin’ up on us quick so Jezebel said we better start runnin’ if we wanna catch it. Out of nowhere, two bulls start runnin’ behind us, yelling for us to stop running. I shouted to her, “Jezebel, I think some of the bulls are coming!” So we start runnin’ faster and all of a sudden the train’s right next to us. Jezebel grabs the handle and swings into the open door of the train car. She yelled to me to hand her the back pack, she would help me up after. I keep runnin’ next to the train and I swing the bag up to her. She grabs it and reaches out her hand. The bulls were pretty close behind us now. My palms were so sweaty. I try jumpin’ and reachin’ for her hand, but each time her hand is just too high up for me to reach. We come up on a turn and she says she can’t hold on for much longer on the turn. I yell for her to grab me. She suddenly backs into the train, where was she going?! That was when I tripped on another track that ran parallel to the one the train was running on. I hit my head and everything when black. When I woke up, I was in Amarillo Country Jail. Looks like I won’t be making it to Los Angeles for a while.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN. JUST CAN'T WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN (CLARE)
Black. Darkness. Nothing. I blink a few times and light and colors appear. All I can think is ow and where am I? Well it turns out I’m in the county jail in Amarillo, Texas. Oh, now I remember. It all started a few weeks ago, when I left home. Daddy had owned a shop in downtown Ponca City, Oklahoma. It was a nice, little general store. But lately, we didn’t have as much customers….I remember he came home one day all sad, saying stuff like how we didn’t have no money and that me, Harper, and my older brother and sister would have to leave home. Leighanne and Beau left a couple days before me. Said they were goin’ to California and I should meet them in a place called Los Angeles. Course it would be harder for me to get there they said, cause I was so much younger than they was. I’m only fourteen; Leighanne and Beau are both seventeen. I left home on April 27, 1931. I expect by now it’s late May or early June. Judging by the weather here in Amarillo, it’s probably June.
For a couple days I wandered outside Ponca City, looking for odd extra jobs, anything that would pay for food. I could never consider stealing food from a family. That was ‘cause we’d had some people steal from my daddy’s store and it had set us back a few weeks on the payments to the town. Some people would hire me for a bit, but they said girls couldn’t do as much hard labor as boys, so it’s more smart to hire a boy. I was so hungry. Some nights I would just have to sleep outside a building somewhere or near the tracks to try and stay warm. Eventually I started to see other kids riding the rail roads to other places. They didn’t have a ticket either. I decided to give it a shot, might as well try to get to California and see Leighanne and Beau before I starve to death. But now I’m in the county jail all on a count of the fact that I was riding the rails without a ticket.
On the rails, me and this other girl, Jezebel, would ride the rails together for a couple weeks. She was really helpful too. We met up in between Ponca City and Amarillo. She had been riding longer than me and she was older too. She said she was gonna teach me the ropes of riding the rails as a teen hobo. She said it was necessary to steal from people, cause we would’ve starved to death whereas these folks would’ve just thrown out the extras. That technically takin’ from folks before they threw things away wasn’t really stealing, but we had to do it. She was lookin’ for adventure she said, didn’t need her parents for anything. I couldn’t imagine living like that, voluntarily away from my folks. I wonder where she is now….We tried to catch a train together and it didn’t work out too well for me.
Jezebel told to steal some of the extra food, stuff that wouldn’t go bad too fast. I got a couple cans of beans, some evaporated milk, and a tin of tuna. An’ half a loaf of bread. We also had some mulligan stew from another camp we had been at. They all went into the backpack my daddy had given me when I had to leave. I was sure scared of getting caught. But Jezebel didn’t seem too scared, all calm an’ stuff. She told me to run for the train tracks that were near the town. Well we kept runnin’ for a while, til we reached the tracks. It was nighttime then. After a couple minutes, I could see the pinprick of the head light in the distance, the deep rumble of the engine, and finally as it got closer, the horn. This train was comin’ up on us quick so Jezebel said we better start runnin’ if we wanna catch it. Out of nowhere, two bulls start runnin’ behind us, yelling for us to stop running. I shouted to her, “Jezebel, I think some of the bulls are coming!” So we start runnin’ faster and all of a sudden the train’s right next to us. Jezebel grabs the handle and swings into the open door of the train car. She yelled to me to hand her the back pack, she would help me up after. I keep runnin’ next to the train and I swing the bag up to her. She grabs it and reaches out her hand. The bulls were pretty close behind us now. My palms were so sweaty. I try jumpin’ and reachin’ for her hand, but each time her hand is just too high up for me to reach. We come up on a turn and she says she can’t hold on for much longer on the turn. I yell for her to grab me. She suddenly backs into the train, where was she going?! That was when I tripped on another track that ran parallel to the one the train was running on. I hit my head and everything when black. When I woke up, I was in Amarillo Country Jail. Looks like I won’t be making it to Los Angeles for a while.