| Home Page Riding the Rails Letters About Interview Reviews Video Links Brazil |
| And Baby Makes Three "D.L." Young, Youngtown, Arizona |
| "D.L."
Young was the son of Texas sharecroppers, one of 11 children living on
a 100-acre cotton farm near Fairlie, east Texas. In December 1934, when
"D.L." was 18, six feet tall and all of 125 pounds, he hopped
a train to Gainesville. At a New Year’s Eve party, "D.L." met
brown-eyed, brown-haired Thelma Jones, who was fourteen-and-a-half. Smitten
at first sight, "D.L." began to hop the rails with a new purpose,
courting Thelma all that winter and summer too.
"With the consent of our parents, Thelma and I married in April 1935. We had to borrow the money to get our license. We didn’t know where our next meal would come from, but we really loved each other and had courage to believe we could make a living. Our first job was with Hubert Hansly at Wolfe City, Texas. Thelma and I cut a rick of wood for 25 cents each. It took us all day. We lived on $3.00 a week.
"It was day-light, when we got to Tom Bean City. The conductor and brakeman told everybody to get out of the boxcar and leave the right of way. The old colored man motioned for Thelma and me to move into the corner. The brakeman was short and couldn’t see us. When we jumped off at Sherman, you should’ve seen the faces of the conductor and brakeman. "By June 1937, we had a baby boy. We were having a real hard time, cropping cotton for one dollar a day, and picking cotton for 50 cents a hundred pounds. We saved our first 50 dollars, which we put in the bank at Wolfe City. "We didn’t own a car. Everywhere we went; we walked, hitch-hiked or rode boxcars. When our baby was four months old, we took him on his first boxcar ride to see my parents at Fairlie. We lived north of Wolfe City, 20 miles away, our house a mile from the tracks. "The engine pulled 20 cars on a small high grade, going about 7 miles an hour. Thelma climbed into a boxcar. I ran along the right of way with the baby and handed it to her. Then I hopped in with them. "When we got to Fairlie, it began to rain. My parents’ house was two to three miles away; because of the muddy roads and cold rain, we stayed at the depot. We found everything locked up. We took the baby into the outhouse. I tore apart some cardboard boxes and put them over the seats. It was cold and damp inside, but we kept dry. "We stayed at the depot for about five hours, until the freight came back on its way to Sherman. We sure rejoiced when we saw the headlight of the train. "Nearly 50 years later, my brown-eyed girl and I went back to see the places where we used to catch the boxcars. We found they’d torn up the rails and had built highway #11, from Commerce, TX to Sherman, TX." |
| Home Page Riding the Rails Letters About Interview Reviews Video Links Brazil E-mail |
"We’d
ride the freights to visit Thelma’s folks at Gainesviile. Thelma put
on overalls, a boy’s shirt and a cap. On one trip, we climbed into a
boxcar with two hobos, who were drinking white lightning from a fruit
jar. We went to the back of the car and sat near an old colored man.
The hobos got a little loud with their cuss words. The colored guy spoke
out, telling them there was a lady in the boxcar; they were to stop
their bad words. They did.