| Author | Date Entered/Modified | Views |
| Daniel A. Stafford | 8/31/2000 3:33:03 AM 10/8/2022 5:47:38 PM | 900 |
Mississippi Thumb Ride
The night is dark, lonely, leaving home.
Jobs are scarce, searching is a cause to roam.
Money's tight, leave before morning's light,
Praying, searching inside, hoping to get it right.
Am I anywhere near the right road?
Standing alongside the highway,
Traveling lightly in my own way.
One suitcase, sleeping bag, sign.
Corinth, Mississippi, next in line.
Leaving Beloit with my thumb in the breeze.
Catch a semi going my way,
Long rolling miles and polite questions today.
Hit Memphis with the morning's light,
It's pouring rain, and I'm a drenched sight.
Duck under an overpass, I have nothing but time.
Wet German Shepherd, slinks up with a whine,
I share my shelter, it's all quite fine.
Make the best of a hungry gray dawn,
My new friend Chopper, we must move on.
Hitchin' through the back country in a panel van.
Pull into Corinth on a hot summer's eve,
Just a friend's idea hiding up my sleeve.
The dog and I looking for a name,
Folks that don't know me, it's all the same.
My friend sent me to her relatives in tough times.
Kind hearted folk gave me a place to stay,
I was looking for work almost every day.
Junior & Tina my saviors for awhile,
Caroline & Bobby, with a kind smile.
Rex and Marquita a story all their own.
Schooling under Job Service in electricity,
Thirty dollars a week was all I'd see.
Chopper took off while Junior was hunting a squirrel,
He heard that gun and turned tail in a whirl.
The time came when I had to leave.
Folks can only do so much,
But I'm thankful for a touch,
Of hospitality and time.
They gave it freely, never asking for a dime.
Thumbing for Dallas at twenty three, looking back over my shoulder.
Sometimes the road can be lonely,
Solitude's quiet reflection the only,
Companion you can find.
Echoes of those days still flash through my mind.
To those I don't mention, you are not forgotten.
Theresa's folk remembered, and a Tennessee crossing or three.
AquarianM
By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C)2000
Author's Comments
When I was twenty two or twenty three, times were damn hard. The economy was in a recession almost as bad as the Depression. At least that's how it felt, like someone had to die before you could
find a job where I was from. My friend Theresa sent me to her family in Mississippi looking for work. I never found it, but I got to go through Residential Electrical school at the Mississippi State Junior College in Corinth. The trip was really something, hitchhiking a thousand miles. These people have my eternal gratitude for the time they gave me shelter. Dallas is another story...for later.