10) As long as I’m on the subject of the south and the attitude of the people down there, I lived in the south in the early 60’s when people were marching for equal rights and the blacks were treated like second-class citizens. I saw many examples of this during my years down there. Black people had their own rest rooms at gas stations and other public places. They had to ride in the back of the bus. All of the things you’ve heard about as far as discrimination is concerned are true. I’ve seen them all. One particular event stands out in my mind. I’m not sure if this happened in Biloxi or New Orleans, but, for some reason, I was riding a bus. Going somewhere, not sure where. But in those days, the driver would stop the bus at a bus stop, the black person would lean in the front door of the bus and hand the driver the change for the fare and then walk back along the side of the bus where the driver would open the rear doors of the bus. The black person would then enter the bus through the rear doors and take his seat. This is the way it was supposed to work, anyway. On this particular day, I remember a little old black lady. Probably about 65 or 70. The driver stopped for her, she handed her money in through the front door of the bus and then started to walk back to the read door. The driver closed the door of the bus and drove away leaving the lady standing on the side of the street. It was not a mistake. The driver knew exactly what he was doing. He laughed out loud and thought that it was a great joke he played on this poor woman. It’s no wonder they fought so hard for equal rights.
11) Remember David Peters who was my friend in high school? Well, early in my military career, I heard from him, that he was in Huntsville, Alabama. Since I had not seen him in a couple years, I decided to go visit him. This was before I owned a car, so I determined that I would hitch hike to Huntsville. I thought that hitch hiking would be easier if I was in uniform, so I dressed in my dress blues and off I went. Well, it was amazing. Everybody that picked me up talked about the uniform and how it was to be in the Air Force. I traveled over to Mobile and north through Birmingham and on to Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville is near the north most border of Alabama and it took me the better part of a day to get there. I had a nice visit with Dave who was there selling Bibles door-to-door. He seemed happy and all too soon, I had to go back. For some reason, it was a lot harder to get back. I spend several hours standing in the rain under an overpass trying to get a ride. There just weren’t any cars on the highway. I finally did make it, but I’ll never forget hitch hiking. I went on with my life and never saw David Peters again. To this day, I don’t know what happened to him after that. Life is strange, sometimes.
In January of 1965, I decided I wanted to get out of the Air Force so I could start college for the spring semester. I was scheduled to get out in March or April but if I waited until then, I would have to wait until fall to go back to school. As I mentioned in another post, my step-father, Floyd had died and so had my grandfather. My Mom was doing OK, but it was still hard on her. I thought maybe if I was home, I could help her and still be able to go to school. So, I put together a case for a hardship discharge. The Air Force agreed that it was a good idea that I go home to help my mother and so, in January, 1965, I was honorably discharged from the Air Force.
Thus ended four very interesting years of my life. I have always wondered what my life would have been like if I had re-enlisted and made a career of the Air Force. I was eighteen when I joined, so I could have retired at 38 and gone on to another career. But, I didn’t. I got out and because I did, I found the church and I found a wife and a whole different life. We’ll go into that next time.
Dad