Chapter 6

 

Kid of the 50ties

Chapter 6

I thought to myself wow. One ride all the way to Decatur, IL.  My hitch-hiking luck was always very good. That is why I always hitch-hiked instead of riding the bus. Took us a day and a half. We stopped in a rest area and slept in the car that night and he even let me drive a lot of the way. He dropped me off at the front door of Kathy and Pat Doyle.  I spent two days with them and then Kathy drove me out to the east end of town to Hwy 36 where I headed towards Indianapolis and Philadelphia.  Again, I was lucky and got a ride within a few minutes. Another lucky ride where the guy that picked me up was headed all the way to Phila.  He also dropped me off at the front door of my aunt and uncle John Jackson. We split the driving and made it the next day. 1700 miles in two rides. I have always believed that my good luck was due to my dressing in clean clothes, clean shaven and standing up straight and tall with a smile while hitchhiking. My aunt Ann was a heavy-set woman about forty years old with a very happy outlook on life.  I remember and loved her dearly. I remember my uncle Jack as being very stern, but I liked and respected him. I remember that every night we all, his children and I had to dress in coat and tie I for dinner.  They had five children named chip, John, Helen, Mary, and Jimmie. I stayed with them my freshman year and had some very happy memories.  School was very hard to get used to especially calculus in math. I thought I was going to flunk calculus and my teacher told me to just keep plugging along and doing my assignments and everything would fall into place. As it turned out I didn’t even have to study for the final exam and I got a “B”. I don’t remember my 1^st semester grades except they were all above C average. I remember that in the fall, I used to walk a lot whenever there was a very light rain. It seemed to help me think clear.

    I remember that one evening my friend Richard McKeever picked me up in his olds powered 32 Ford pickup truck for a visit to the Diner on the West Chester Pike where all the young kids hung out. Haha going down Cityline avenue the front left wheel came off. It rolled through the intersection missing two cars, jumped the curb and landed in the bushes. We made to the side of the road and Richard jacked up the truck while I retrieved the wheel. He took a lug from each of the other three wheels and secured the wheel and continued our way

   Since I had about 2 or 3 weeks off for Christmas break, I decided to hitchhike to Florida for the Christmas Break. I headed down US One from Media Pa. through Baltimore and then Washington, DC and on into Virginia. The last guy dropped me off at a Truck-stop and I got something to eat. When I came and started hitchhiking again. I got a ride right away and within 20 miles I noticed familiar sites and realized I was going the wrong way back towards Washington DC. Ha ha I quickly got out crossed the road and started south again. Another lesson learned early. When you get out of a car always keep track of the direction you are going in. I then got a ride with a young guy who said he was going to Wilmington North Carolina by way of Hwy 301 and 17. Made good time all the way down to Wilmington No. Car. He dropped me off at an intersection on the south side of town around 8 pm that night and there I stayed until 8 am the next morning. Around 11 pm I crawled into some bushes along side the road and went to sleep. I was caught in the same spot the next year and those two times were the longest times I ever got stuck in a spot while hitchhiking. Ha ha. The next morning, I caught a ride right away and made it all away to Palm Beach Florida.  From there I caught a couple of rides on into South Miami Florida.  I knew I was in South Florida because the next morning, I went outside a about 7:00 AM and here was a guy cutting the grass with a heavy overcoat on and his collar pulled up around his ears when the temperature was around 50°. Later on his son Joel Mayer and some some of his friends took me out to the Everglades.  We parked on a Levee and those guys dressed only in Levi’s and sneakers went off into the swamps waste high water looking for snakes that they sold to the South Miami snake serpentarium for 50¢ each.  Back in the middle fifties there were not a lot of alligators in the Everglades like there are now.  Since I did not like snakes or swamps, I waited up on the levy. I had a good visit Christmas New Years and started back to school in Philadelphia the day after the New Year Holiday.  My mom wanted me to ride the bus and paid my way so I did.  It took me three days and was very tiring.  I can’t remember ever riding a bus again.

   Back in school again, I studied hard and got good grades. I graduated my sophomore year the last week of May. I had bought a 1946 Ford two sedan in April. The engine went bad on me the second week in May. A day after my last exam my friend Richard Mckeever came over with his pickup truck and we went to the junkyard and bought another engine for $75.00.  Early the next morning we put a chain hoist on a tree in front yard and switched engines.  Since my uncle Jack lived in a very elite neighborhood, we must have been the talk of the neighborhood for a long time having done that.

    My cousin Chip, who was a 15-year-old teenager was rebelling at home.  My Aunt Ann and mother talked and agreed that he could come and spend the summer in Florida.  So, we packed up and headed for Florida the first day of June. We followed Hwy. 1- 301, 27 and US 1 to South Miami Fla.