More hungry boys
Logan, Bob
THE LAST WORD More hungry boys BOB LOGAN In the spring of 1933, I was sixteen years old, plowing cotton from daylight to dark. The entire country was poor, but my family had been hit...
...Well, I'm on my way home to my family in Texas, but I don't have any money, and I'm mighty hungry," I said...
...Then he turned to get some bread as I grabbed a spoon...
...Dirty, tired, and ravenous, I stood at the entrance and examined the crowd for any person who looked to be in charge...
...Are you willing to work for your food...
...And there ain't no free meals...
...When the work finally ran out and winter invaded even the most southerly states, I learned that home was the place to be...
...Stop...
...A train came through our Texas town every day always heading west...
...As the train passed the outskirts of town, I tossed the board at a road crossing where I hoped someone would see it and give it to my mother...
...A few minutes later Ralph returned...
...Want some more...
...Yes, sir...
...That train seemed my way out of the misery and sadness...
...He took a long look at the 140pound teen-ager before him and said without any hint of either cordiality or sarcasm, "What can I do for you, son...
...Yes, sir...
...I learned how wonderful a familiar face can be and how to live under bridges, not trees...
...Eventually a short, slightly paunchy, fortysomething man, Ralph, I assumed, walked over to me...
...On the floor of the car was a plain wooden plank, and on that board I quickly carved "Bob Logan gone west...
...He led me out the back of the cafe, first to a tool shed where he handed me a sling blade and then to the edge of two acres of overgrown, weed-covered land...
...Ralph walked toward me, kicking aside the weeds I'd cut...
...But life was sad, especially watching my mother's stoic endurance...
...Just as I was starting to sweat, Ralph returned...
...I learned to sing hobo songs and to read hobo signs on buildings, the notes left to help other hobo "travelers...
...What...
...The first few minutes were awkward work, but after ten minutes, I developed a rhythm and my young muscles were beginning to enjoy the movement...
...Every day I dreamed of leaving, not because I didn't like home...
...After tossing out my only good-by note, I settled down to contemplate the hobo life I'd jumped into...
...I said...
...I learned to make a stew from whatever was at hand...
...The entire country was poor, but my family had been hit especially hard, going from the prosperous life of ranchers to being grateful for whatever work my dad, my older brother, or I could get...
...I did...
...He stood at the edge of the lot with his hands on his hips watching me...
...Suddenly he yelled, "That's enough...
...He put out his hand for the sling blade and said, "I know, son...
...But there are more hungry boys out there who'll be coming along soon...
...Come with me...
...I learned a great many things during the next eight months of my life...
...This is good...
...and most of all I learned there are no free rides...
...Surprised but still sixteen, I began cutting the waist-high weeds...
...Then he turned and headed back toward the cafe...
...I walked toward the closest eating establishment, a place with a sign proclaiming it "Ralph's Cafe," and I went inside...
...Sure...
...She'd had such hopes for her children—good educations, good futures— but the Great Depression had taken away all her dreams...
...I learned to harvest Idaho potatoes, Dakota wheat, and New Mexico fruit...
...I learned the art of clever nicknames...
...So on a sunny day, without any planning, I jumped into an empty box car...
...Okay, then...
...There were other hoboes on the train, men who had been riding "rattlers," the hobo name for freight trains, for years...
...After two days of traveling and hungry as only a sixteen-year-old without a meal in fortyeight hours can be, I left a train somewhere on the south side of Oklahoma City...
...I've just started...
...Ralph led me to a stool at the counter and pointed for me to sit...
...Bob Logan, a retired engineer for the Atomic Energy Commission, now lives in South Carolina...
...Come this way...
...Clear it," he said...
...He went behind the counter, dished up a big bowl of vegetable soup, and put it in front of me...
...So just as I'd left—without a friend or money—I headed back to Texas...
...He served up a second helping, and once I'd finished that, I felt ready to work, which I told Ralph...
...Now give me that sling blade and head on home...
...Some helped me, others frightened me, but all taught me something...
...Now her concern was whether there was enough food...
...I learned how cold the ride is on top of a box car when the sun goes down...
Vol. 121 • February 1994 • No. 4
