Chapter 7

         Kid of the 50ties

      Chapter 7

     I stayed in South Miami until the middle of June and then set out for Decatur, IL to see my friend Kathy Doyle and her brother Patrick. I took hwy 27 from Miami up to Ocala and then hwy 441 and 41 north. I drove late in the afternoon and through the night and crossed into Georgia just after daybreak. I was toolin along hwy 41 about 65 mph, which was a new road with wide sloping shoulders, when suddenly, I woke up bumping along off the road. I slowly hit the brakes, slowed down and gradually steered back up onto the road. I found the quickest pullout and got in the back seat and went to sleep for about three or four hours. I was so lucky that the road shoulder was flat and wide. Scared me bad, but taught me a lesson to pull over and rest whenever I started nodding off when driving. Got sleepy once again up in Tenn.  But this time I pulled over and slept for about 4 hours. I continued up hwy 41 into Indiana and turned off on hwy 36 and headed for Decatur.

    I spent three days in Decatur and realized that my girlfriend Kathy was having too much fun with her wild ways running in the bars. Then my car engine blew up. I was so disgusted I just left the car on the street, packed my suitcase and started hitchhiking hwy 36 west. This year I headed towards Cheyenne looking for pipeline work again.  There was no pipeline work in Cheyenne and and was told that there was a big pipeline job in Washington State on the Columbia River.  I followed hwy 80 and turned off just west of Little America and followed hwy 30 up to Boise Idaho and then on to Pocatello Idaho. I went through Pocatello at night and remember the bright lights on the Mormon Tabernacle Golden Dome Roof. I went through Le Grand Oregon, to the Columbia River and then west to the Dalles and crossed over into Washington State. I then followed hwy14 west to the town of Stevenson. There I got hired on a pipeline job. I hired on as a welder’s helper for $4 per hour. Twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Time and one half over 8 hours and Saturday and double time on Sunday. I found a boarding house in Stevenson and rode the work Pendleton Oregon and on up to the Columbia River. I followed bus every day to the job site. Some days it was windy and they had to shut down the job for fire safety. During those times I remember the welders running around with their Uranium Geiger counters, looking for Uranium. The job only lasted five weeks and was over the second week of August.

   Two of the guys I worked with had heard of a job up in Billingham Washington. We went west on hwy 14 and then north up US 99 to Billingham. When we got there, the job was finished. That night, we camped on a riverbed near Billingham and I remember the river was flowing north and it seems strange to me. The next morning the guys I was with headed home to West Virginia to spend the winter.  We traveled back down to Seattle and headed east through Ellensburg and Yakima Wash. I left the guys in Yakima and headed down highway 97 south towards Oregon and Cal. I last heard that my brother Jimmy was in Long Beach Ca.  And I decided to go look for him. I hitchhiked down hwy 97 through Bend Oregon and crossed into California south of Klamath Falls Oregon. At Mount Shasta California I took hwy 99 and went south toward Long Beach. When I arrived in Stockton Ca. I called home to my folks in Miami Florida to see where Jimmy was living in Long Beach and get his phone number. I used 7/16 flat washers in a phone instead of quarters to make the long-distance call. I had learned this trick from pipeline workers back in the summer of 55 .I made a lot of phone calls home using this method. Sometimes would call collect and ask for myself. My dad wouldn’t answer the phone and accept the chargers, but he and my mom know I was ok. I was so surprised when my brother jimmy answered the phone. When he realized that I was in California he told me that his motorcycle was in Las Vegas and would I pick it up and bring it back to him in Florida. I gladly told him yes. Instead of going down to Long Beach. I turned off at Bakersfield, Ca and hitchhiked hwy 58 over Tehachapi Pass through California City to Barstow. From there I caught the main highway into Las Vegas Nevada.