The Muse is Loose

My roomate at Ouachita Baptist College, Rudy Sullivant,and I were in a missions class at the school.We discovered in that class that Southern Baptists operated a Rescue Mission in New Orleans. It was decided we had to visit the Mission, but not in the usual way. We would check in as vagrants or "bums" as the word was used back then. Having virtually no money we headed for New Orleans on a Christmas break in 1952. Hitchhiking all the way from Arkadelphia, Arkansas we arrived in New Orleans December 29. We went to the bus station where there would be small lockers to rent, changed into our "bum" clothes and locked up everything else including all ID. About five in the afternoon we checked in. Some man interviewed us. I never knew if he was suspicious or not, but he let us stay. We were in a huge dorm filled with double bunks. There were about seventy-five men in the room. They called us to supper which was soup, I believe. Then they told us breakfast would be at 7:30 the next morning after a church service but everyone had to be up by six and stay out in the streets while the building was mopped and clean. Rudy and I both had to sleep in upper bunks. Below us the stories heard were a bit chilling. My bunkmate had only been out of prison a short time. He had killed some guy, as he said it. Needless to say with all the anxiety, snoring, and men being checked in, there was little sleep. The next morning at six we were all out on the street. It was there we heard the scary news. New Orleans had a County Farm and it was during this hour and a half they picked up vagrants and took them to the farm to work for a week. No hearing. No trial. No nothing. You are out on the street and fair game. Since we had no ID we couldn't prove we were college students. We headed for the bus station where we "unbummed" and took off hitchhiking. It is December 30, rainy and drizzly. Getting a ride was tough. We finally got to Alexandria, Louisiana about dark. We pooled our money and had .35 cents. We were starved. Walked to a nearby cafe and bought some matches and potatoes. We borrowed a salt shaker.
Knowing we were through for the night we made sleeping quarters under a large culvert on a nearly new bypass. Built a fire, roasted our potatoes and examined our dilemma. The next morning we set out again. It took us all day to get to Texarkana. Now it is New Year's Eve. We
are hungry. Watch Night parties were popular back then at churches. They usually had lots of food. Sure enough we found a small church having a party and we went... for food. After eating we headed for the train station and spent that New Year's Eve sleeping on one of the long pews found in most train stations. New Year's Day we headed again for Arkadelphia, about 85 miles away. A lonesome trucker picked us up and took us to Arkadelphia where we checked in our dorm that was completely empty except for one student from the Orient. What did we learn from this experience? There are easier ways to see the work. It is no fun being a street person.