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View Full Version : I met Jim Crow when I was 9



Trailer Park Casanova
09-07-2006, 09:24 PM
The Depression, World War 2, being held captive and into forced labor & witnessing murder by the Russians after his bomber was shot down near Ploesti ( http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part2/09_ploesti.html ), then working the Nuke industry and being on scene with nuke "Spills", pushed my dad over the edge.
One day, he stuck his keys in the ignition of our inline 6 chevy pick up, drove away, and we didn't see him again for several years.
My mom then suffered a broken heart and couldn't take care of us kids. No medication for depression back then,, at least none that kept a person functional like today.
An old eldery Aunt put us kids on the train at LA Union Station headed for South Florida to be dealt out to live with various retired relatives.
Us kids then traveled down to the south US,, to Klaxton Georga. Yep, Klu Klux Klaxton Georgia, where we'd make the train connection to head south to Florida.
At various cut and couple train stops, they had segregated colored only waiting rooms, rest rooms,, drinking fountains,, and even seperate eating areas for "Colored".
It was really shocking for us little kids be in the middle of this stubborn lateral thinking, brutal poverty.
My brother and I, while waiting in a train station for our connecting train, used the "colored" restroom. We didnt know better,, or I still think my brother did, but he's a defiant kid,, stubborn, wanted to break the rules.
And old farmer looking guy with thick coke bottle glasses, WWII long sleeved khaki shirt and pants came up to us and cussed us out.
As he yelled at us, his huge adams apple bounced up and down his throat following the path of his blood scab razor cut from shaving that morning.
He poked my brother in the solar plexus while cussing at us,, and my brother standing there flat footed, shaking but stubborn and not backing down, poked him back saying: "Don't poke me".
A disrespecting child in the south back then!! The horror!!
The southern drawls were so thick, we couldn't understand what this old buzzard his hag of a wife were cussing at us,, and that made it all the more scarryier for us little kids.
The site of really poor black people and children shocked me, and I think I grew up over this and similar incidents. I'll never forget it,, it sucked.
Looking out the windows of the train my brother mentioned the awful shacks among the tobacco fields: "were probably the ones they lived in during the civil war, and the colored people still live in today".
Seeing it all made it hard to swallow. Shocking to kids that only knew Los Angeles.
The black railroad employees on the train took good care of us from the start of the trip to the finish.
I was sent to live with my Chris Craft loving/owning Uncle Bill who lived in the inland water way.
It was a good childhood from that point forward. Learned all about boating, and somethings about women and life and to not accept the darkside of life racism from a really cool Uncle.

sorry dog
09-09-2006, 08:40 PM
The southern drawls were so thick, we couldn't understand what this old buzzard his hag of a wife were cussing at us,, and that made it all the more scarryier for us little kids.
The site of really poor black people and children shocked me, and I think I grew up over this and similar incidents. I'll never forget it,, it sucked.
Looking out the windows of the train my brother mentioned the awful shacks among the tobacco fields: "were probably the ones they lived in during the civil war, and the collered people still live in today".
Seeing it all made it hard to swallow. Shocking to kids that only knew Los Angeles.
Yup... I called Ole Tom Brown wunce on da fone an he sed to rite him back cus he dont understand a word I say.
BTW- You ever make it ta Union Springs? Now aint that place a time warp...

My Man's Sportin' Wood
09-10-2006, 07:32 AM
Good reminder. I can't imagine having to come back to that after fighting for your country either in WWI or WWII. Especially seeing how different things were in Europe. From what I understand, much of it still goes on today in the rural areas.
Driving through the Navajo reservation in the four corners area will give a similar feel of the total poverty, I think (having never been to the south). We always make sure to point it out to the kids when we drive by so that they can be aware that people still live that way, unfortunately.
My daughter could not understand why some of my students would not have backpacks or notebooks. She kept saying, "they are only $10, why don't they just go BUY them?" I took her for a drive around downtown Perris at 6 o'clock on a Friday night. She's not asking that anymore. But I still don't think she quite gets it.
It's good for kids to have wake-up calls, however.