Chapter 4

 

Kid of the 50ties

Chapter 4

      I graduated from Campion in the spring of 1955 and went home to South Miami, Fla. After two weeks of boredom, I decided to hit the road and hitchhike to Decatur, IL to see a girl named Kathy Doyle who was the sister of a classmate of mine at Campion. I met her during Easter vacation of 1955 when her brother Pat invited me to spend Easter Vacation at his house in Decatur, IL. I didn’t tell my Mom I was leaving because I knew she would try to stop me from going. I packed a small suitcase, walked up to Hwy 1, stuck out my thumb and was on my way. Up US 1 to Hwy 27 and in Ocala Fla. I took Hwy 41 up into Ind.  Around Rockville Ind, I turned onto Hwy 36 and proceeded west to Decatur, IL. to visit my Campion buddy Pat Doyle and especially his sister Kathy. I spent two weeks there and, since Kathy didn’t seem to be interested in me, I decided to cross the Mississippi and head west hitch-hiking US 36, headed for Denver Co. and the Rocky Mts.  When I got to Denver, I took a bus downtown from the outskirts of town. The driver said there was a park downtown where all the young people hung out. He also told me that when asking for directions, always ask 3 people and go the way two of them said. And when I got there, there were a lot of young people by the fountain in the center of the park.  I went over and started talking to them.  They told me that there was a small a riot about an hour before and that it was ok now and the cops had left. It seems that the young people had got into it with a bunch from the Air Force Base over territory around the fountain.  Now everyone started dwindling off and since it was around 1:00am I decided to just sleep in the fountain since it was turned off and dry.  The next morning about 6:00 am I was awakened by a park person that told me that I had better get out because they were going to turn on the water.  I walk down to the unemployment office about ¼ mile away to look for a job.  I was told that the summer jobs were taken up by the local kids out on summer break.  I caught a bus to the outskirts of Denver and started a hitch hiking south.  Before I could even catch a ride, the cops pulled up and told me that it was against the law to hitchhike in Colorado.  I told them that I had no other transportation.  Haha, they said to catch a train. So I did. I was by a train yard.  I climbed on a freight car, went up the ladder to the roof and tried to walk on the roof.  The train was only moving about 10 miles per hour and it was swaying so bad that I lay down. Ha-ha, it looked so easy in the movies. In my travels I never got on top of a freight car again. The only car I had access to was an empty coal car, so I climbed in. My first ride ever on a freight train was in a coal car. On the way down to Colorado Springs I met up with a young black dude who was riding in the car in front of me. We got off the train in Colorado Springs. He stayed in the freight yard and I went into town and enjoyed a big square dance in a park for about 3 hours and then went to the back of the park and spent the night. In the 50ties, it was ok to do that. Next day I checked the unemployment agency and again there was no work, so I headed back to the train yard. I met up with my friend again and we hopped a southbound train south toward Pueblo. Since we got down to Pueblo late in the evening, I stayed on the flat roof of an old abandoned building in the freight yard. Across the street was a beer joint that played “I’m in the jailhouse now” all night. Little did know that would come true the next day. Next morning I went over to a gas station and washed up and shaved and headed for the unemployment agency again. Again, I was told there was no work. I met another young guy at the agency and we went up town to hang out. We went in a department store to browse around. As we left, a security guard stopped us and the next thing I knew I was in jail accused of shop lifting. I spent Saturday night and Sunday in jail. All Saturday night, the Mexican kids and white kids spent the Saturday night and Sunday yelling and screaming at one another. What a night that was! Mon morning I went to court and since the other guy had stolen stuff on him and I didn’t, the judge turned me loose. After that I was careful who I hung out with.

   I went back to the freight yard, met my black friend and we decided to head back up to Denver. In Denver my friend went off for about an hour and came back with a cooked ham and a lot of other goodies to eat. About 6 of us had a feast in the freight yard that day. One of the guys said that he heard there was a pipeline being built up around Laramie Wyo. I was also told to get out of the Cheyenne freight yard quickly because it was a school for train detectives.  I said good-bye to my friend, paid a yardman 50 cents for a engine number and headed north to Cheyenne.