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I Saw a Blossom of Stars Irving J. Stolet, Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Irving Stolet took off from his home in Chicago in October 1936, heading south to Florida with a school friend. -- Irving, 16, would be gone for two years, six months of which he spent on the road. -- Before he reached Georgia, Irving and his friend were separated, as they ran to catch a freight. Traveling on alone, Irving rode into a night of terror in the Deep South.
"It was around 2.a.m. I was riding in an open gondola in Georgia, near the border of Florida. I was cold, tired and beat. The gondola was loaded with iron ingots, not a safe place to lie, but I was so exhausted I fell asleep among the bars of steel. "About 3.a.m., the train stopped in a dark woodsy area. Out of nowhere, a flashlight beamed in my eyes. I heard a growl, 'Get out!' "I crawled out onto the siding and joined a group of about 20 guys, all black people. I was told to line up near the end of the line, next to a white-haired black man. Meanwhile, the railroad bulls went on looking for more hobos up and down the train. "There were some dark woods about 40 yards off. The old man punched me in the ribs and said let's make a run for it. "We took off together. I heard a couple of shots and the old man hit the ground. I thought he'd been shot but he was just reacting faster. "A bull came up to us and started kicking the old man. He kicked him everywhere till he was like an empty sack. "I lay petrified. Finally, the bull turned to me, grabbed me with one arm, hoisted me up and slapped me open-handed. I saw a blossom of stars and flipped clean on my back. "They herded us towards a couple of touring cars and pushed us in like sheep. They locked us up in a small country jail. I was given a cell to myself. The black guys were shoved into the remaining cells, six or eight crowded together. "Next morning, the jailer's wife brought me a plate of beans, cornbread and black coffee. I was fed twice a day for the next three days and fattened up somewhat. The third day, I was sitting in my cell playing my mouth organ, when a pimply-faced white boy doing janitorial work whispered to me. " 'Hey, kid, I can get you turned loose. Got any money?' "I'd two one dollar bills hidden in the toe of my shoe. I heard that a county judge would be holding court: For blacks, the usual sentence was the chain gang. I didn't know what a white kid would be sentenced to, but I was worried about being kept in jail. I dug out those two stinking bills and gave them to the punk, hoping I wasn't being suckered. "The next morning, a scraggly old character showed up and held court in the jail office. The blacks were lined up. I heard him sentence one and all to time on the road or at the pea farm. "Then my turn came. The judge looked at me a couple minutes, didn't say a word, and then said: 'Get your ass out that door!' "It took me a moment or two to comprehend; then I was gone. "I walked through the village to the railroad and kept walking south. Ten to 15 miles down the track, it was getting dark, when I saw a small shack, with smoke rising from a stove pipe. I figured to ask for a handout. The shack was no bigger than a chicken coop and dark. "An old black man answered my knock. I asked if he could spare a bite to eat. He looked at me a moment and said come in. There wasn't much of a home – a lantern, a small wood stove and a cot. The stove had a pot of black-eyed peas warming up, only about two inches deep. " 'Help yourself,' the old man said and gave me a spoon. I swallowed the peas in no time and left. All I could say was thank you, but to this day, I believe I ate his only supper." |
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