Forty-Two

            One weekend a couple of months later we found an old lumber camp that was closed. About fifteen or twenty camps. We divided to look through them. There wasn't much in any of them. One had a lock on it and that made us want to see what was inside. We had a small pinch bar but couldn't get the lock open so we pried the boards and all loose.

            I sprung it out enough so that Frank could get inside and he told me to stay outside and watch for anyone that might come around. He kept telling me what he was finding. It used to be the office. There was nothing around, only old papers, figures, and records of the work they did.

            All of a sudden he was quiet. "What you doing?" I asked. He said he'd found something we might use. I waited a few more minutes and wondered what I could pull on him. Finally I just yelled "Cops!" and I took off around the next camp and watched what would happen.

            I heard him trying to get out. He sounded like someone trying to wreck a room. He called for me to hold the door far enough open so he could get out but I just stayed put. He pushed the door and boards far enough out so he could squeeze out. He ripped his pants on the nails as he came through and I heard him say "Oh!" as he took off down through the camp. I seen envelopes flying out of his pockets as he ran. He was maybe two or three hundred yards before he realized there was no one around. He stopped and looked back and seen me just standing and watching him break another world's record and laughing my head off.

            Boy, I'm telling you, from the time I said "Cops!" till the time he stopped running I bet no more than ten seconds had gone by. He had found a drawer full of envelopes he was filling all his pockets. That's what was flying out as he ran. I never did know what in the world he wanted with all those envelopes. He didn't know himself when I ask him, but he did say the next time I could go in and he's watch outside. Said he's like a chance to nail me in. One thing, he never could tell when to trust me. I never did know why.

            Anyways, we always did have a lot of fun while we were together. One thing for sure, anyone never wanted to be in his road when he get scart because he'd run them right over to get away.

            It wasn't too long after that Frank headed back for Pennsylvania to our Uncle's place and I got a job on a farm in southern New York state. It was a big farm. They had four hired men all the time. We got so much pay and our board. They served real good meals. They had a good cook. We had our own table to eat at. In the summer there were six men working there. I used to look forward to breakfast. They used to bring plates piled up with hot cakes, others with bacon and ham and eggs. I sure used to put away plenty of those kind of things. After all when we ate breakfast we had already done two and a half hours work. They had 85 milking cows and back at that time there was no milking machines. We done it all by hand. We each had 23 cows to milk. They all gave any where from 14 to 22 quarts each at a milking. I was a pretty good milker and could milk 15 an hour so by the time we had them done and fed we were ready for a good breakfast.

            The only trouble, there wasn't no time for anything else. Our day was from 4:30 in the morning till 7 in he evening so nobody felt like doing anything but rest and sleep at night.

            I did have an old bicycle I used to ride Saturday night to see the movies in town close by. There was no coaster brake on it. It was like a tricycle. The pedals kept going around on it. If I was going too fast I couldn't get the brake on, I had to slow it down by pushing backwards on the pedals but I got along with it for a while. It was better than walking.

Forty-One

            We used to get a lot of vegetables from gardens to have cookouts. Mostly sweet corn and potatoes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We never did take much from one place. There was around eight to ten different places we used to go visit. Chickens was another thing that wasn't too safe around us. Sometimes we got a few eggs from the chicken houses. Milk, that was easy to get. Frank used to take some kind of vegetable along and we stopped in somebody's pasture at night. The milking cows were tame anyways. We could walk right up to them. Frank used to let them eat while I milked a couple of quarts or a gallon then we hung it in an old well or brook to get it cold. We had to get that quite often as we couldn't keep it too long.

            One Saturday night real late we decided to get some honey. We knowed where there was fifteen or twenty beehives in a field quite a ways from the people's house. Frank parked the car off the road about two miles from them and we walked the rest of the way. We picked on big hive with four sections on it. We plugged the opening with a rag. Frank took one side and I the other side and headed for the road. Frank had his loose rubber boots on. They come about two inched below the knee. They were always making noise so we had to take it slow and easy.

            Everything was going along fine but it was a cloudy night and real dark. We got over the stonewall and gone down the road when Frank made a little noise with his boots and the people's dog started barking and we hard him coming our way.

            Frank, as always, got scared and dropped his side of the beehive. The four sections slide all apart. Frank was going to try and put them back enough so we could keep going but all at once he just took off down the road.

            I couldn't see him but I could hear him going with his boots. By then I started brushing bees off my hands and arms. I just headed for the stonewall and lay down behind it. I had stripped my shirt off which took most of the bees off me as the hive had fallen toward Frank and dumped hundreds of bees on him and into the tops of his boots. I heard him stop then run then stop each time he had gotten rid of a boot. He stripped his shirt and pants off somehow while he's running. I could hear him hollering and swearing till he was out of hearing distance. There must of been a hundred thousand bees in the big hive.

            I lay quiet behind the stonewall and heard the dog out at the hive only for a short time then heard him let out some yips and take off. I guess he got covered with bees and got stung. I stayed where I was for about ten minutes, till things seemed quiet then followed Frank's trail down the road. I stumbled over his first boot, never did see the second one or his shirt. His pants was the last to come off. I didn't touch them. I knew they'd be covered with bees. When I got to the car Frank wasn't in sight. He heard me coming and thought it might be the farmer so he took off again into the woods. I called two or three times till he heard me and came back to the car.

            At that point I couldn't help but to start laughing. I just sat down and laughed till the tears was running down my face. Frank was a mess. His legs was banged up and scratched. His feet was bruised and cut, and no clothes. He sure wasn't laughing. All he said was, "Damn you and your bees". I came out of it not too badly off, only five or six stings but we had enough for one night so we headed back.

            Every time I thought of that night I was laughing at him for a month after that that. One thing, we didn't try for any honey again. 

Forty

            I soon ended in New Hampshire with my brother Frank. We stayed on a large farm for work. It was called the Country Farm. We worked for our board a a little pay but we done a lot of running around nights and weekends. We had an old care to get around with.

            They raised a lot of steer for their own meat and I sure had a lot of fun riding steers. There the foreman that was over all the work liked to do it too so I had a friend there. We had the big hay field after the hay was cut. We had the bunch of around thirty turned loose and the field to ourselves. I got so I was pretty good. Never had so much fun at anything. We just run among the bunch and jumped on anyone we caught and went riding own through the field. We done that on weekends as we had Saturday and Sunday off so we had to do something. But Frank just wouldn't have anything to do with that kind of fun. He just didn't have quite enough never for it. I think the horns on them kind of scared him. The horns were good to catch hold of while running along side of them and bulldog them. It doesn't take much of a twist to turn their head and cause a steer to lay down while running. I liked to dig my heels into the ground for quite a ways to get him stopped, like the cowboys do at a rodeo show. I sure loved that kind of stuff.

            They had three riding horses there and the foreman and me would put the saddles on two and take them out back of the barn in the field and play cowboys. He was pretty good at most of everything and used to be able to stand up on the saddle while the horse was galloping. I couldn't quite do that for very long but I did get so I could leave the saddle and hit the ground with my feet and swing back up into the saddle on the other side while the horse was galloping. We used to try to use a rope to lasso them but we couldn't do that very well. We didn't have the right kind of rope.

            My brother Frank used to stand and watch us. He just kept telling us we were going to get killed but at that time I never thought of anything like that. I just knew I loved having that kind of fun.

            That's where one of the fellows got hit on the head by ice that slid off the roof while he was going in the house. He died the next day. That was in the spring while the ice and snow was melting.

            One weekend Frank and I were out driving around. It was late, around 1 am. We were on our way back to the farm. He was real low on gas and nothing was open. Frank always had a hose and 2 three gallon cans in the trunk. We passed a house all the lights on and people were dancing and having a good time inside. Their cars was parked right in front of the house, parked in the driveway.

            Frank stopped a little ways down the road and got the cans out and and the hose and said, "Let's get some gas". We walked back and kept their cars between us and the house. We got one can full and was waiting for the second one to fill up when the house door opened and a fellow came out on to the porch. We thought he was coming out to the car so we took the one can we had and stayed on the dark side of the car and moved towards the road and kept going. If that fellow didn't see that can and hose I know his gas tank was completely empty because it would keep running out the hose till someone stopped it or the tank was empty.

            Anyways, we got one can but lost our hose and one can which was not much of a problem. The next day Frank had a piece of somebody's garden hose and he bought the oil for the car in those cans anyways. 

Thirty-Nine

            I started taking rides with my Uncle Melvin again. He was back at it again after staying at the reform school. He got a year but was so good while was there they let him out at the end of ten months. They really didn't know what they turned loose.

            The money was so good in the bootlegging he just couldn't stay away from it, but they never did catch him again. I don't think he bought a gallon of gas the whole three or four years he was doing it, he was always draining it out of the other crooks' cars.

            My Uncle Paul never did go in for cars. He always had his horse and buggy. He used to tell me how him and some of the other fellows used to race with their horses and buggies on the way home from town. The big buggy horse he had at that time was all white and was pretty fast but Paul would never let anyone else go near her as she was what they called a kicker and we could hear her kicking at the side of the stall anytime during the night. Paul was the only one that could go into the stall to take care of her, like feeding her or cleaning the stall or to put the harness on her. Sometimes she would kick at him and he had a lot of near hits as he called her Babe.

            Then he had one heavy workhorse he called Dan. He weighed 2,200lbs. I used to lead him out to the field, sometimes to ride him. I don't know why Paul had him. He had no work for him to do. I guess he just liked him and kept him for a pet. I know he was quiet and easy going and didn't care what we did around him.

            I used to watch the blacksmith put the shoes on them. The big horse would just stand there while the blacksmith picked each foot up and done the job. But Babe the buggy horse, he tie her hind up real high then had Paul put a rope around one back leg near the foot, then he'd pull it way back and up and tie it to a tree so she wouldn't kick. I asked him why he did that. He just said he didn't want to get killed.

            One night Uncle Melvin asked me if I wanted to take a ride with him, wouldn't say where, just said, "You'll see". We went over the state line into Maryland where he always got whiskey but he stopped off the road in the woods and said we walk from here. It turned out one of the fellows he was mad at just bought four live turkeys two days before and Melvin found out.

            So this was the night Melvin cleaned him out. He carried two and I half carried and half dragged my two. I asked him what he was going to do with so much turkey. He said they were sold the day before so all he had to do was deliver them. He kept one to take home for us.

            We got to bed around four in the morning and Melvin just said, "There, I can sleep now that I got even with that guy. At least he owned them two days."

            I never seen such fellows. They'd go sell anything somebody had then go steal it and deliver the goods. I think I was glad when I did get away from him. I got so everywhere I went with him I found myself looking over my shoulder to see if the Police was following me. It was an awful feeling sometimes, just wondering if I was going back home or be in jail that night and I got so I didn't like being afraid all the time.

            I stopped going with him so much but he soon met a girl and began seeing her pretty steady and he soon stopped doing so many of those crazy things and soon decided to get married and really straightened out and settles down.

Thirty-Eight

            I got up into NY state and had to change trains in Jamestown, NH. It wasn't a very big place and I found out there was only one train through there a day going my way. It didn't stop, just slowed down a little. I had to catch it or wait till the next day for the next one. Some fellows told me where the best place was to try it. They said some fellows make it and some don't. All I knew was I had to make it. I was pretty good at it by now and felt sure I could so I settled down and waited.

            After quite a wait I heard the noise. I couldn't see it but I could hear it and I knew it was traveling. I soon seen it and knew it was going somewhere in the middle of forty miles an hour. I was almost afraid to try it as the engine went by throwing dirt and gravel. I had to try it quick so I'd have the second chance before the whole train went by.

            I started running with it as fast as I could. The train was still going past me awfully fast but when the next steep came past I made a jump and grabbed for it. I had the bundle over one hand so I had about one and a half hands when I caught hold it jerked me off the ground and my feet was straight out in the wind.

            My fingers felt numb and I felt them slipping. I was thrown across another set of tracks and hit the rail after the third one with the back of my leg, just back of the knee. I thought it was broke it hurt so bad.

            By now the train was too far gone. I couldn't move well enough to make the second try so I spent the night beside the railroad tracks waiting for the next one.

            The leg was so sore and aching. I decided to head back to Uncle Paul's place. It was nearest so I got rid of the bundle and made a try the next day at the train going south. I had both hands free this time and it was all I could do to hold on when my feet left the ground. It was the fastest traveling train I ever caught and I was sure glad I had a year's practice behind me.

            It was the next day, towards evening. I was going back down the mountain over the horseshoe curve near Altoona, PA. I was riding the top of one of the boxcars and the view was just as nice as I enjoyed the first time. I looked forward to seeing it again after leg was ok and I started my trip north again.

            It was a couple of days ride till I got back but as soon as Paul seen my leg he got me to the doctor's in the horse and buggy. I had a read bad bruise where my leg hand landed across one of the rails. He had to put a tube in my leg in the back of the left knee and I had to keep my foot up on another char so it would keep draining. I was laid up for six weeks. My Uncle Paul laughed and said, "Just think, after all the miles you traveled and all the know-how you have, now something like this happens." I told him I just met up with a train anyone had to be crazy to try and catch. Guess I just thought I was better than I was and learnt my next lesson. I knew after that, a train traveling around forty-five miles per hour was just too fast to handle.

            One day, after I was getting around okay, Paul took me along to a funeral of a man he knew. The man had shot himself in the forehead. He was alone at home. When they found him he was sitting upright in a corner.

            It was the first time I had ever seen anyone dead. I went along with Paul up to the coffin and looked at him. They just had a small piece of cheesecloth over the hole in his forehead. I could see right through it where the bullet went in. That's the only part of it I remember.

            One more thing I never forgot was, when my friend and I were in Mexico and the people there got us to put a pepper in our mouth and chew it up. We thought our mouths would never stop burning. It was our first time with hot peppers and the people there got a big kick out of us trying to find something cold to drink.

Thirty-Seven

            Uncle Melvin's steady job was working in the coal mines, the same place my Uncle Paul worked. I remember when they came home from work they sure was dirty and black. My Grandmother heated water on the kitchen stove in a wash boiler. Uncle Paul would set the washtub on two chairs right in the middle of the kitchen in front of the stove. He liked the tub because it was big enough so he wouldn't be slopping water all over the floor. They burnt coal in the stoves and had oil lamps and lanterns for lights. They always had one along when they were gone to be out at night with the horse and buggy or sleigh at night in the wintertime.

            I used to watch my Grandmother, Mom is what we all called her so I will now, put up my Uncle's lunch pail. She put eight sandwiches in the bottom. It had a tray in the top. She put in half of a pie and some cake in that part then he had a gallon jug he carried his drink in. I don't remember what he took. It was either water, milk or coffee. I know he never touched hard drink of any kind. None of them in the family did. Even Melvin didn't even though he was hauling it for the ones that made it. It was for the good pay he got.

            While I was there I shared his bedroom. We used to lay wake till after midnight lots of times while he told me of his experiences. I had my own bed in Uncle Paul's room but lots of times when we went upstairs to bed it wasn't too long till I heard "Hey Nate, you want to hear what happened to me today?" That's when I was out of bed, went to his room and jumped into bed with him and it was a couple of hours just listening to him. Sometimes we played cards till late. He liked cards a lot but never gambled. We played 500 Rummy most of the time, sitting on the bed. He and I would begin to see it get daylight some mornings sometimes before we'd get to sleep.

            I used to like to look at his guns he had. He had three in his bedroom and the one in the car. He cleaned them a lot and he'd let me help take them apart to oil and clean them. A lot of the time he'd take me down back of the house in the woods and show and teach me how to shoot targets. I got so I could do pretty good for me back then. He let me take the shotgun on Sundays and we'd go rabbit hunting.

            The rabbits were really thick out around the stone piles in the field. Sometimes they would get almost a washtub full. They would give a lot away to different people as everyone around there ate a lot of rabbit. I used to take some to the place I used to go to play cards and ride the horse. The man was a brother to my Grandmother so I guess his children would of been about third cousins to me. Anyways, they liked to roast rabbit over an open fire in the backyard and they sure were good.

            I was thinking a little every day about going back home so one day Melvin took me to Somerset, a town about seven miles away, where I could get a train going north and I was on my way. I had a small bundle with a change of cloths and some sandwiches Mom made up for me. I had a little of my own money from working but Melvin gave me five dollars more so I thought I was pretty well off.

            On my way up across PA I went through Altoona, PA. There was some mountain the train had to cross and there was a horseshoe curve the train went around. I could look right across the valley and see the last half of the train going up the mountain and the half I was on was going the other way. It was quite a sight. I kept wondering why the engine didn't pull the train right off the track in the middle going' around such a turn. 

Thirty-Six

            The only thing when we went home that might be took a different way; it was three times as far around, I ask him why he did that. He said he always done that because of the Police or different people that followed him. Sometimes they would try to crowd him off the road or set up road blocks to make him stop. He said that's why he carried the gun, just in case they did get him cornered. He said other bootleggers would try to put each other out of business. Sometimes they'd use dynamite and try to blow up each other's stills or cars.

            One thing Uncle Melvin would never tell me to come along and help him or even think of doing what he was doing. He said he'd give me a ride now and then but that was it. He was good in that way with me. I guess I can be glad he was like that because at my age at that time I could of ended up in jail or been killed.

            I never knew much about my Uncle Melvin. I mean things he done or was in away from home. Only a few rides he let me go on once in a while and I knew it wouldn't of been good for him if they caught him. I know some of the rides was fast, wild ones.

            I remember one day he came home all excited at what he seen that day. The automatic transmissions where just beginning to come out and he saw one and tried it out for the first time for himself. He said he was sure gonna own one of them and that no body would catch him. But he was wrong.

            The Police sure earned their pay but they finally caught him asleep in his car one night. When he woke up every direction he looked he saw one standing with a gun trained on him. He decided he better give up. He went to reform school for one year but it straightened him out and he went to work.

            The same thing happened to brother Frank. He went straight after that too if he thought he might get caught. He still done little things. The trouble with him; he'd lose his nerve awful quick and run off and leave everything and everyone. He sure stayed in running shape and he could run.  There wasn't many times I could keep up with him.

            Uncle Melvin, he still was mad at the Police and he showed me one night in town how he jacked up on back wheel of a police car. Then he took me across the street and called them on the phone. He told them someone was being hurt or robbed at a certain place in town. Then we watch them come running out, jump in the car and not move. The wheel would just spin. They had to get there jack out, jack up the car to get the block out from under the rear end.

            He's the one that showed me how to put a half pound of sugar into the oil and a few days later they were doing a motor job on the car. Then one night one night he put five gallons of water in the gas tank of a Police car. It made them drain the tank, blow the lines out and clean the carburetor before it would run. The Police was sure mad at him and they sure knew he was back but they couldn't do anything unless they caught him and he made sure they didn't.

            He used to set roofing nails under the tires so when they started to move they'd end up with flat tires or loosen the nuts on the wheels. I think if they did catch him he'd still be in jail. 

Thirty-Five

            Uncle Paul had the main house and a summerhouse they lived in during the summer and one night both of us was sleeping in the summer house. Frank seen the police car stop out front. He woke me and said they were after him. We were up the stairs. He told me to go down and let them in. When I did he went out the upstairs window, out to the road, and took the police car and got away. He left the car up the road a little ways and went on foot. He stayed away about a week, till things quieted down, before he came back.

            Him and Uncle Melvin got a half grown steer one night and somehow forced it into the car and took it down into the back country and sold it for meat. While it was in the car it sure made an awful mess all over the back seat and the floor. It was a long time till they could get the smell out. They were always after chickens, ducks, pigs and young livestock. They would always sell those things cheap. A lot of the people couldn't afford to by meat any other way.

            One time Frank got a ride from a fellow driving a pick up. He was riding in back. The fellow was going about forty miles an hour when Frank saw a police car come in sight about a half mile back. Frank thought they were after him and just jumped right off the truck. He thought he was going to kill himself before he stopped rolling and bouncing. He got pretty well banged up and was lame and for a for a week. H got up somehow and got into the woods and just lay there. The police car went on by. They wasn't even after him that time.

            One time I want along with my Uncle Melvin. He wasn't hauling any whiskey and he wouldn't tell me where he was going, just said he had to take care of some fellows that was mad at him.

            It turned out they were a bunch that kept chasing him when he was delivering whiskey. When I got in the car I seen a bunch of chains in the back of the car. I asked him what they was for. He just said I was going to see a lot of fun.

            It was about two in the morning when we got to where he stopped. He said we had to walk the rest of the way. He had me carry two of the chains. He took the other three. We were deep in the woods. He said we had to sneak up to the backside of the house.

            When we got there I could see five cars parked there. They were all backed in so they could get out fast. Melvin too the chains and chained them all together then hitched the last one to a tree. He said now let's sneak back to the car, I'll show you something.

            He drove the rest of the way, right up to the house, turned around, making all kinds of noises. He had a gun along, he always carried it in the glove compartment. He shot into one of the cars. About then they were coming out of the house and Melvin took off. He only went a little ways and stopped and told me to watch.

            They jumped in their cars and really started out. They wrecked and pulled the rear ends and wheels out from under all the cars. Melvin had hitched the chains to the rear end not the bumpers like I thought he done. When they got out of their cars that's when Melvin yelled and said, "Good-bye fellows! See you on my next trip!" and we went home. All Melvin said now wasn't that fun. I bet they think so. The best part was they never chased him again. 

Thirty-Four

            I done all kinds of jobs around the farm. I didn't work Saturday and Sunday as he was home. I only got $1.00 a day and my dinner. I spent a lot of my time weekends at one of the family's homes about half a way to where I had to go to work. I had to cross their land on the way to work. They had two girls. One was my age, the other about a year and a half older and, as always, I started to look as I come and went. I didn't bother with them. They started standing outdoors when I went by, a little nearer to where I had to pass each day.

            Soon they started to wave and soon said hi. That was it. Soon I was invited down to their place to ride the horse. Then I was playing cards with their Father and Mother and a beautiful friendship was underway. Soon it was like my second home and I was in on picnics with them. Sometimes I slept over on weekends and help them on little jobs or in the garden. Both the girls was pretty good at riding horses and they showed me quite a lot about it. I liked horses anyway and learnt everything quite fast and easy.

            We used to walk to a small town three miles away to get a gallon of ice cream. If we come straight home it wouldn't be too bad but one time we fooled around on the way back and the ice cream all melted. We all had to drink it from glasses. It was still good anyways. Her Father told us to do our fooling around on the way to the store and not coming home. It did work out a lot better too.

            There used to be a lot of chestnut trees down around my Uncle's place and we used to go gather a lot of them Her folks used to put them up in the attic and have them evenings during the winter months.

            I was glad I had them people to be with because at my Uncle's place there was no one to be with very much of the time. They were all working and gone in the evenings, just my Grandmother at home. I sat around playing cards myself. Sometimes I'd walk the seven miles to Somerset and go to the movies or get a haircut. I used to run most of the way coming back at night. Back then it was only a dirt road and a lot of woods.

            Some nights when it was cloudy it was really dark and spooky. My Uncle was always talking stories about people seeing ghosts and things around the old places and graveyards and I was always wondering if I'd ever met up with any of them. I think that's the reason I always ran coming back home late at night. The people around there really believed in those things. They used to tell some hair-raising stories and made it sound interesting.

            Uncle Paul used to tell how things would come out of the graveyard when he was driving home at night in the horse and buggy and would spook the horse so he could hardly keep it from running away. I think some of it he had me believing.

            Then on day my brother Frank showed up but he didn't stay around much. We went around together part of the time. I remember once he left a farmer's pigs out one night then sold them back to him the next morning before he realized his was gone. He had the police chasing him around the country most of the time but always managed somehow to keep from getting caught.

Thirty-Three

            I got to my Uncle Paul's place around noon and they were sure surprises to see me in the shape I was in. They had no bathroom at that time, had an outdoor toilet. They were called the backhouse in those days. My Grandmother got the washtub out, heated some water on the kitchen stove and I got cleaned up. Uncle Paul gave me some of his clothes to wear till Grandmother got mine washed and dried.

            I slept late for a couple of days to get rested up again then my other Uncle, Melvin, started to give me rides in his car just to show it off. He had a 37 Buick but he had a bigger and more powerful motor in it and it sure could travel.

            The Blue Ridge Mountains came up to Maryland and the southern line of PA also the Appalachian Mountains came right up through central PA. Uncle Melvin used to deliver booze for the people that had stills down in the Mts in Maryland. He was called a rum runner. The Police used to hide and wait till he came by with a load and they would try to catch him. That's why he had a more powerful motor in the car and would always outrun them. Sometimes they had road blocks set up.

            When he'd see one he'd spin around in the road and go back with them after him. There was all kinds of old roads through them Mts and woods and he knew them all. He'd just turn off on one of them and he was soon lost to them in the woods. Sometimes after he got out of sight he'd pull off into some parking place they had cut out in the brush and wait till they went past him. He'd go back and delivery his load of whiskey. The police very seldom went up into the Mts where the stills were as them people had killed quite a few officers over the years so they'd try to catch the cars when they came out with a load to delivery.

            Back in them days, once in a while, some officers would decide to go in and bust up a still but would never get it done. Them Mt people and the law would have a real shootout. When it was over it left a few dead on each side with the police on the run and that officer never did decide to try it again.            

            There used to be some real wild times down there. That was during the years of Prohibition. It was sure a lot of fun but it was a job where a fellow could get knocked off most anytime. It was sure fun riding with him.

            Uncle Melvin got me an outfit of clothes when I came there and got me a job on a farm close enough so I walked to work every morning. The farmer worked in the coal mines and came about 4 pm to help with the jobs I couldn't do. There's where I tried to plow the first time with the team and a walking plow. At the end of the first day my hands were all blistered from trying to hold on to the handles. I held tight. The farmer told me to hold loose and let it go a little to one side or the other till I learnt and got used to it After that it didn't take me long to catch on.

           He had a few sheep and one day he showed me how to shear a sheep then I had the job to do the rest myself. One day, I had big old clippers I had to work by hand and try to hold the sheep down at the same time. It was an awful job for me to do till I done about twenty or thirty. That took me all but when he got home he showed me a lot more to make it easier and showed me how to flip a sheep over and the way to hold. Then the sheep just lay there and didn't even struggle. He laughed when I told him how I was fighting all day long just to keep a sheep down and keep it from getting away from me. 

Thirty-Two

            It took me about a week to get back home as I had stopped two times on a couple of days work for different people that gave me food. One place let me sleep in the barn and let me have breakfast. I helped them with milking and chores that morning.

            I went into Kentucky and Tennessee near Nashville. I stayed at the HoBo Jungle for one and a half days. There was a lot of fellows with music and banjos and they were having quite a time right on through the night and slept most of the day. About half of them stayed right there. I liked that kind of music and hated to leave but I had to get back to Ohio so I headed north.

            I didn't have so much fun since I was alone and kind of stayed to myself. I was starting to get lonesome and was kind of glad I was getting back. In a couple of days I was back in Canton, Ohio and had only fifteen more miles to go. I was feeling good now. The closer I got the better I felt. It's funny but as I was happy to get back as I was to leave. I had some time to wait for the train so I took up sometime getting a little food then caught the last train.

            When I did get back I went to the house I found my brother in bed sick with a cold so bad I thought he'd end up in the hospital. He didn't have any money and I didn't have much so I went to our old boss and he helped me get something from the drugstore and it took a couple more days but he started to get better. I went to work at the same job as it was another week before my brother Frank could do much. I worked a couple of weeks then I was back on the trains again headed for my my Uncle's place at Somerset, PA.

            It was still nice weather and warm so I didn't bother with any heavy clothes even though it was kind of late in the fall, but when I got down towards Johnstown, PA the weather turned cool and the nights got pretty cold.

            I had a two hour lay over at Johnstown and it was late evening when a coal train came by. It was made up of all coal cars loaded so the only place to ride was on top of the loaded coal car. I dug down in the coal with my hands to make a hole next to the front end of the car to lay in out of the wind. It got really cold later in the night and started to snow. I was really tired and somehow went to sleep. I had about seventy miles to go and I didn't know how long I slept but when I wok I was all covered with snow There must of been an inch.

            I didn't know how far I had traveled or just where I was. For all I knew I could of went past Somerset so I just had to keep riding till I went by the next town. I saw a few lights and signs and soon knew I had only about fifteen miles to go.

            It was beginning to get daylight when I got to Somerset. I was so cold and shaking so bad I could hardly move good enough to jump off without getting hurt as the train didn't stop, it went right on through Somerset. So I had to leave a train traveling around forty miles an hour.

            I almost made it. I was so I cold I couldn't quite make it and stumbled and fell. Had to finish it out rolling till I come to a stop. Most of the fellows learnt that if they fell.

           Anyways I didn't get hurt, only a few scratches. I now had seven miles to go out in the country and I walked and ran to get warmed up. All I had on was overalls and a light summer shirt and that was the coldest ride I ever took in my life. Dirty. I looked like a coal miner coming home from work after working all day. After all, I slept in a hole right in a pile of coal then all that dirty black smoke from the engine coming back over me all night, that was full of fine black cinders falling on one all night. I sure had it on that ride.

Thirty One

            I remember one time our boss came to our place on Saturday and we all had a little to drink. I know I was feeling pretty good and would of done about anything anyone would of dared me to do.

            Anyways, he asked my brother to give him a haircut. he had quite a bit to drink and when he sat down he went to sleep. My brother looked at me and said, "Here, you cut his hair. I can't do a very good job."

            It just seemed I was waiting for that chance. I said, "Sure, Ic an do it." I started to trim it. At the same time the idea came to me to put one over on my brother. I just started cutting and went all over his head. No hair left.

            When I was done (he never did wake up while I was doing it), my brother walked in and saw it. he was about ready to leave home as he knew he'd get blamed for it because he started to do it before the boss went to sleep and all I could say was, "Ya, I know, boy are you gonna get it!"

            I did think for a couple of days that my brother was gonna get fired but after a couple of days the boss started laughing about it too, but he always did think my brother done it, but he never did ask for another haircut after that experience.

            We were beginning to talk about doing something different for a change. We got word of a big Circus coming to Chicago in the near future and decided to go see it so the day came that we caught the train from Canton, Ohio and headed west.

            My brother wasn't too good at catching trains but I had plenty of experience at that so it wasn't too much of a problem, only he was awful slow at getting around and at certain things we had to be fast at. He acted like an old clumsy horse. A few times I thought he might get killed till he learnt a little about it and caught on.

            Anyways, the Circus was there when we got there. They beat us by two days but they were there for fifteen days so we didn't miss anything. We both liked it so we decided to take jobs with them. At least we would have a place to sleep and something to eat. We didn't work together so we didn't see each other much during the day. There was plenty to eat but sleeping was another thing. We had to sleep anywhere we found a place. Sometimes in the big top, sometimes outside on nice nights. The sometimes we found a place on the Circus train parked on a siding nearby. It was always on the ground or the floor in the train.

            We soon found out it was an awful life. I worked in the center ring (it was a three ring Circus). I helped to put whatever they used in to the ring for an act. When it was done, take it out and put what they needed for the next on. It was ok while everything was new to us but after we see the same things every day it soon got to be old stuff and wasn't much fun. Then when we were moving from one town to the next, sometimes we were traveling at night, the train was packed with all the help, there was no beds or any place to sleep. A few times I crawled under a seat on the floor.

            One night a bunch of fellows was sitting at a table playing cards. There was a spot under the middle of the table and that's where I lay all curled up with feet all around me. I sure didn't wake up feeling like I had a good night's rest. Then sometimes while they were setting up it would be raining or a real thunder shower would come up. We all had to keep working right on through it. Sometimes it would be in a big field and by the time the Big Top was up, certain spots would be in a regular mud hole. All the help, the horses and wagons, some of the wagons would get stuck and they would bring the elephants out to help push the wagons along.

            It was all a great experience and adventure for me but it didn't take long to get enough of that kind of living. Then there never was any place to wash up about half the time. It wasn't like the Circus is today with everything to do with and a lot of places to set up indoors and some machines to do a lot of the work that was all done by hand back in the 1930s.

           I think we was with them about three weeks when we started thinking of getting out but one day I didn't see my brother. Then the second day I began to wonder where he was at. No one knew. So on the third day I left and started back to Ohio.   

Thirty

            We went to Cranston, Ohio every Saturday and came back Sunday. It was about twenty miles and we rode the train so we had to go and come back when the train did. We had got to know some of the girls that lived there so the weekends were spent there.

            After a couple of months the boss told us about a place on an old farm we could live for nothing so we were making plans to move in about a week when one night we heard a girl screaming down the street. We looked out the window and saw a fellow hitting a girl. My brother said, "Come on, let's go get him." Me, I was all for that and I beat him down the stairs, out onto to the street and right up to the fellow and said, "Hey you, what you think you're doing? Cut it out!" That's all I got out when he turned around, took hold of the front of my shirt and said, "I'll show you what I'm doing," and drew back his other hand.

            He was big and that fist looked bigger. All I could say was, "No, no, no, I was just passing by, I don't want any trouble." I looked around for my brother Frank and he was no where in sight. He just took off.

            It happened the fellow told me to take off and I sure got gone but I looked for ab out half an hour before I found my brother out back of the store hiding in the outdoor toilet. He sure wasn't much help to me when it came time I needed him. I wasn't fully grown yet and that fellow sure looked big when I got right up to him. My brother always did have plenty of nerve to start with but between the start and whatever the trouble was he always lost it and took off in some other direction and I was the one left holding the bag, and when he took of he could of won the world's fastest race as he was always outrun any of us with him and he always seemed to disappear into some hiding place. It was weird sometimes. Sometimes I thought he must of had some hiding place picked out ahead of time.

            I remember one time me and the fellow that owned the farm where we stayed decided to scare my brother. We wanted to walk to town that night. It was five miles if we followed the road, three and a half if we cut across. It was dark and my brother said he wouldn't take that short cut for anything. He decided to take the road and meet us in town so we let him go. We took the short cut and decided to wait for him where we came out to the road.

            It happened where we was to come out there used to be an old house. It was gone, just the old open cellar hole left, but we didn't know it.

            We stopped just before we got to the road and waited for my brother. The cellar hole was between us and the road, unknown to us.

            We soon heard him coming. He had a pair of knee high rubber boots on and a heavy long overcoat. He had his carbide light that he used in the mine for light.

            When he was about right we jumped up and started running and yelling. All at once we had the ground drop out from under s and we went down into this cellar hole on a pile of old dead brush. It was about an eight foot drop. The brush was dry and brittle and made a noise. At the same time the fellow with me started laughing and he had a high pitched voice. He could be heard a half a mile away.

            I never seen anyone take off like my brother did. I bet he took about three steps before he started moving. The wind kept blowing his light out. Every time he rubbed his hand across the flint to light it, it would make a little bang. That's all we could hear was bang, bang, bang and them rubber boots hitting the ground. The old coat was sticking right out straight behind him. Anyone could of played a game of checkers on it. An old care came by just bout then. they slowed down and kept him in the lights. He never stopped till he got into town. Boy, he sure called us some nice names all the rest of the night and the next day too.  

Twenty-Nine

            I was in Minnesota now, near Minneapolis in a Hobo Jungle. I found out I had to head farther south or I'd run into Lake Michigan and there was no way for me to cross something like that so I went down through Madison, Wisconsin, past Chicago, into Indiana. I was headed back to Ohio but when I did get there my father and mother had moved so I kept going for my Uncle Paul's at Somerset, Pennsylvania where I could met up with my brother Frank. We headed back for Mineral City, Ohio where we met a fellow who had a small country coal mine and he gave us a job and taught us about working in the mines.

            It was only about four or five feet high. I had to walk bent down all day. When I shoveled coal onto the little car that run on a track I had to do it on my knees. Some days I drove the pony he used to pull the car out of the mine. I sat on the front bumper with my feet up on the single tree of the pony and rode out and back into the mines that way.

            My brother Frank and I had a room on the second floor over a store. There was one long stairway to go up, seventeen steps. I used to count them many times. I also fell at the top and rolled all the way down and out onto the sidewalk. I'll never forget that night.

            We had our boss come over and was drinking a little. I couldn't drink much anyways till I was dizzy or couldn't hardly walk. Sometimes I'd be sick. My brother Frank was going down to the store. I wanted to go along. He said no, then I wanted to go any ways. He was half way he steps by the time I got to the stairway.

            Anyways, I stepped right off the top step and fell. He heard me and looked around, seen me coming, he just stepped to one side and watched me go rolling on by and right out the door. I just heard him say, "It's good you're drunk or you'd be dead now, what the hell you trying to do?" He didn't help me up either. I think after a while I did get up on my hands and knees and crawled all the way back up the stairs.

            I did get like that once more after that. I had to get to the bathroom and couldn't so my brother helped me there, sat me on the toilet and left me. He came back a couple of hours later after I didn't come out and I was still sitting there. He just walked out and left me. I came out when I could. That was the last time for that. I just didn't enjoy that. It was just one drink after that.

Twenty-Eight

            While we was in Bakersfield we headed out one day to collect different things to cook up and we forgot to say where we would meet and never did find each other again. I stayed around there for almost a week just looking for the fellow. I went westward but had no luck so I went on alone.

            I heard years later that he had stayed there and found a job and never did come back east. Years later I stopped in where he lived when we were in school but his folks weren't there anymore, different people had the house and no one knowed where they had went so that was the end of that boyhood friendship.

            Anyways, I was so close to Arizona that I went across the southeast corner of the stat just so I could say I was in it and headed back to the northern part of the state. The heat wasn't so bad but Idaho and Montana, the trains were finding their way over the Rocky Mountains and I had never seen so much hilly country and rock mountains. It was cooler weather all right. Some nights I was shivering and was thinking of the desert.

            There was plenty of cowboys but by now I had seen so many it didn't get me all excited like at first. There was quite a lot of nice big ranches and real big valleys after I did get over the mountains. I was alone now and missing my friend real bad. We had a lot of good days together in school and on the trip gone west. We were together all the days we skipped school. I used to go to his home quite often. I remember eating with him and his folks but there wasn't too much to do as he was alone at his age. His brother was a lot older and he didn't hang around with them much so we went our way. I don't remember much more about his home and we didn't stay there much.

            Anyways, I sure missed him now that things had ended so quick with us. The days was long and the trains seemed so slow now that I was used to them. I didn't make friends very easy and that made it bad. I was alone most of the time except when I got off to stop at the HoBo Jungles. The fellows there always called me over when they see me coming. They did that with everyone. They all was in the same boat, out of work and just traveling around looking for work and they seemed to want to be together.

            The only one during the day I was with very long was a girl dressed like a fellow and had a man's haircut. I was there three days before I found out she was coming back east too so we was together for a while, ten days, until she went in the other direction towards where she lived.   

            While we were together she would help find food and share things she got different. We slept the last two nights in the end of a reff car as she would not go to the HoBo Jungle. That was a train car like a box car for refrigeration or meat. It had a trap door on top at each end to fill with ice. It was four feet by eight feet across the end. When empty it was a good place to climb down in and sleep while riding at night. Her father was a coal miner in Kentucky and I didn't want to go down there at the time she left me. 

Twenty-Seven

            I heard a lot of the fellows talk about the Grand Canyon in Arizona and wondered why we missed it but at that time I didn't know anything about it and never heard anyone talk about it at home. I went up through the state a little too far in the eastern part of the state so I missed it. I went into the southwest corner of Wyoming, a small town of Granger right on a river a large Ho Bo Jungle.

            A few of the fellows at that one had little shacks made of tin, old boards, even card board, just about anything they could get their hands on. Some of the pieces was held in place with pieces of wire or rope. Those few just decided to stay right there instead of traveling around. They picked up odd jobs when they could, no pay, just some cigs or things they could cook up and get along.

            The Jungle was something to see but it had gotten too big for the size of the town and part of the fellows had to go to the next town to collect things to eat.

            The next day I went to the railroad yards to get the train and headed for Nevada. It was a week of slow going as there was a lot of small mountain ranges in that part of the country and the old trains had a lot of climbing to do and not many towns al through the state of Nevada.

            There was a day now and then with nothing to eat but as we got near to California we were running out of desert and into more towns and better days ahead.

            We ended up in the southern part of the state at Bakersfield.  It was a lot easier to pick up odd jobs. There was a lot of lettuce fields and grapes. We got a job bagging beans. They were put threw an old looking machine that got most of them out of the pods. Something like the old thrashing machines we had at home on the farm later on in the years to come.

            I stayed there eleven or twelve days and got a little money. It wasn't much but it sure felt good to have money in my pocket. There was some real good Hobo Jungles near a large city too. I spent a lot on ice cream and frappes while it lasted. I never had anything like that at home and I went crazy over it but after I had enough bagging beans I headed north as there was more open country.

            I didn't like the big cities too much. I went through Fresno, Stockton, then after Marysville and up through the Sacramento Valley the big cities thinned out and the Arizona state line was getting near.

            I was alone at the time and was thinking too much of the farm back home and was about ready to head home.

Twenty-Six

            I didn't get to the next town 'till the next day and there wasn't any trains stopping to set off or pick up anything the next day so I had a day to wait around. It didn't turn out too bad. I met up with another fellow and we was at a horse ranch nearby. We had a big three sided shed to sleep in. The whole front was open so the horses could get in and out as they wanted to and we had a job in the morning for about an hour and a half then had a good breakfast. They also fixed us a lunch to take along. They told us about a brook not too far away that they had dammed up and made a small lake for the livestock to drink at. We had a swim and got cleaned up a little.

            When the time came to go the first train didn't stop. It went by around fifty miles an hour. We didn't dare try to catch it. We thought we were stuck for another day but we found out there would be three more. The next one did stop to leave some cars loaded with grain so we was all set and I was on my way again.

            It was another day's travel before we got to El Paso, Texas. It was quite a wild town and a lot of Mexicans there. I didn't think much of it. Everyone looked unshaven and was just laying and sitting around. I didn't see many doing any work.

            We was told about going across he border into old Mexico so we looked for the crossing. It was a bridge over the Rio Grande river. People was going and coming both ways. We had to pay two cents to cross over into Cinedad Juarez, Mexico. All we could do was walk around and look at things as nobody spoke English. There was a lot of women and young girls on the street and they kept running after us and grabbing our arms and trying to pull us into their houses. We thought they were crazy. We didn't know anything. We found out later we were walking right through a Red Light District and thought they were after us because they thought we was good looking, but we found out before we got out of there. Just one of the first lessons learnt in life.

            We didn't hang around in that town too long. It seemed there was a lot of drinking everywhere. There wasn't many Americans around so we headed back for the States.

            It was good to find a HoBo Jungle after a couple of days. I was over the state line in southern Arizona headed north toward Tucson. There was a government CC Camp there and I got new clothes and food, slept over then was moving on again. Just before I got into Phoenix, Arizona there was a HoBo Jungle, a really big one. It was just like walking into a city. I got in with seven other fellows and we decided to take different streets in town then meet back at the Jungle and combine everything for dinner. I bet we had everything anyone could think of and we had the biggest boiled vegetable dinner you ever seen. Everyone was so full, nobody felt like going anywhere so we all stayed there over night.

            I never saw so much desert in my life. The next state north, which was Utah, was the name. I didn't know it at the time but I had twice as much desert ahead of me as I had already seen and I sure found it out when we got up into the Great Salt Lake desert I thought I'd die of heat. Them old freight trains seemed so slow. I sure kept thinking of cooler country back home. The little towns was small and far between and there was a few hungry days and it seemed it never rained in that country.

Twenty-Five

            As the days went by we where headed for New Mexico and it was kind of slow going. We were into the Sacramento Mountains and the engines has some hard slow work to get the trains over them. It was a dry hot country and a lot of desert. Just a few scattered one room shacks. Sometimes there was one alone with miles and miles of country all around it. I still wonder how they ever made a living. I found out some of the ones that was near the mountains was where the fellows stayed that was looking for gold in the mountain streams. They had a horse to ride and a mule they led to carry what little food they had to carry or other little things they did need. They lived mostly by a little hunting and a few traps.

            I used to think that was a great life and wished I could of tried it. I wanted to try everything back at that time as everything was so new to me. I guess while it was the first time away from home it was all one great adventure to me, like a puppy that broke loose and was having a great time.

            I remember one time I was in an empty boxcar sleeping while riding. When I woke everything was quiet and the train was stopped. I wondered where I was. i went to the door and looked out. I was all alone. The engine had stopped and sat eight or ten cars off on a siding for another train to pick up and take along in another direction. I saw a small town off in a distance so I started walking.

            I didn't eat since the day before and I was hungry and had food on my mind. I tried quite a few houses and got nothing. I began to think I'd starve in that town when the next I house I tried I was invited in. It was a negro family. They were just as nice as any of the white people and they had eat at the table with them. I asked them if there was something I could do to pay for my food. The lady said no, she had one of her family on the road looking for work and knew how it was but they did want to know all about my trip from the time I left home. One of their family lived in Canton, Ohio near where I lived but they could never afford to make the trip themselves.

            I guess I must of been there three or four hours. They did have a small garden. I do remember helping to hoe and pull some weeds in it. The woman gave me a sandwich to take along.

            I had to walk and hitchhike to the next town where the train stopped so i could get on one. I remember when that first night came. I was tired from walking and was looking for a place to lay down to sleep. I saw a small barn off in the field. It was so dark I didn't see any other buildings so I headed for it. I opened the door and it was so dark I got down on my hands and knees feeling around for some hay to lay on. I found some and lay down.

            It was about ten minutes when there was an awful racket and somebody taking off. As they went t the door I could see they were carrying some clothes. It was a fellow and girl that already was in there on some hay. I couldn't see them and they couldn't see me. I think they were as scared of whoever came in as I was when I heard them take off.

            Anyways, I didn't know how many more could be in there so I crawled out and took off myself. At that moment I wasn't thinking of sleep. I just wanted to get out of there. About an hour alter I just lay down in the field under the sky and slept for a few hours.

            Sometimes, I think of those two people and wonder if they really had to cut their stay short and leave before they really wanted to. 

Twenty-Four

            I kind of believe so far I was more interested in the HoBo Jungles and the cowboys and ranches and the way they lived and done their work. It was a new and different work and way of life. One that before I only read about and now it seemed like I was living the real thing and that's why there was so much time spent just traveling around, back and forth, while gone through the mid-western states. It seemed like where everyone went. People would tell us of something we should see before leaving the state. Sometimes it seemed like we'd never get out of the state. I think we spent a couple of weeks or more 'till we decided to move on

            The last town in Texas we headed for was El Paso, where fellows told us we could walk across the border and I did want to see the bull fights I had heard and read about, but we were a long way off and had a lot of riding to do.

            I seen a lot of oil rigs working but never stopped at one. I saw one that was burning. I thought it was burning up and no good 'till I was told they would put it out and put a cap on it.

            Sometimes, while riding, I'd be sitting on top of a boxcar. The sun was really hot and off in the distance I could just about make out a mountain with the top white with snow. It looked like they had white caps on lots of times. I wished I could of had a big handful to eat or leave melt in my mouth. It also made me think of how I put snow in a pan back home and put boiling syrup on it to make sugar and snow.

            After a couple of days the train was near San Antonio, Texas. There was two or three HoBo Jungles around that city. We spent a couple of days there, mostly around tow of the nearest ranches. There was a CC camp in town so we slept one night there, got clean cloths and food. We had to wash dishes and do some other work in exchange for the clothes and food but that was ok for a bed.

            Once in a while, at one of the ranches there, I got to try to use a lasso but it was too much rope for me to hold and I came out a zero on that one but I knew I'd try it someday again, but the chance never came again. I just wanted to keep going.

            For the next week there wasn't much doing but ride. One day I was laying on my belly on top of a boxcar on the catwalk with my arms bent, one under each side of it. I didn't mean to but I fell asleep. When I woke up I had slept for fifteen or twenty minutes. The first time it happened I was sure scared about it. I could've put one hand out and rolled right off the top of the boxcar. Nobody woke me because they done the same thing on purpose all the time. It was quite a while before I started doing it, but I did before the trip was over and didn't think too much of it.

            We were getting pretty well towards the western tip of Texas by now and crossing some hilly country. It was the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains and Sacramento Mountains. The train stopped quite often for water along the way and to add more engines. Sometimes there was three or four engines used to get over the mountains. That was some horseshoe curves. I could look straight across a small alley and see the last part of the train coming up the mountain and the front part was going the other way. It seemed funny to me at the time.

            I sit and think so many times of life and days gone by. I wish so many times I could see a certain few of the friends I grew up with, spent days in school with or during my twenties years. Certain little things we did or said, things that seemed to mean so very much at the time.

            The farms back then seemed so far apart and no fast means of travel like today. Farm life then was a hard way of life with no tools and machinery like today, which left very few times to go see any friends, how little we knew, the last time we talked or seen one or the other and walked away it would be the last time to ever see each other.

            I think when people say today, life is so lonely, it's those days, life and friends of so long ago during the years of growing up that we're really missing. It seems that everything, one at a time, was cut off, never to be seen again, especially what few real friends we had. It seems what friends we make later on in life are out to better themselves or make money off each other. No more giving, no more just a handshake or giving your word. When we come right down to it two-thirds of the people on this earth are a pain in the neck, when you compare them with the people fifty years ago.