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.