Oh I wish I had someone to love me

Someone to call me their own

oh I wish I had someone to live with

cuz I am so tired of living all alone.

If I had the wings of an angel

Over these prison walls I would fly

I would fly to the arms of my darlin

And there I would be willing to die

It's starting to cool down now. Even in East Texas at night, the temperature can drop thirty degrees. After a hot one like today, I could sure use some cool weather. I bet the temperature got over 110 today. The back of my shirt is drenched and I have probably lost another couple of pounds. Weight loss is something I sure don't need. They already had me nicknamed "Skinny" as it was. We must look like we just got out from one of those camps they talk about in Germany. The problem was is that I never heard about any Black folk, being in one of those camps and "Snake" is a black as they come. Snake is leaning back against the doorway of the boxcar. You can tell he's still awake only by his feet tapping out a rhythm to some unheard music.

Wait a second, what's a fair haired skinny white boy, doin with a tall skinny black kid, in 1959, in Texas. I suppose I better start back where all this really began.

I first saw snake as he was gettin on the bus in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He had to bend his head down just to get in. He must of been 6 foot 5. He slouched down in one of the seats a couple of rows ahead of me. There were just the four of us. Me, Snake, a foul smellin white guy and the driver. We dropped off Smelly after we had gone about an hour out of Tuscaloosa. The three of us remaining, rode in silence for another hour.

Snake Finally turned, looked at me and said. "where they sendin you"? I just grinned and said, "The judge told me I was going to Hell". no lies there either. He told me "he was going to teach me about manners, in a place that didn't give a shit about Al Burt Lee". All he knew is that I was a wise assed kid from up North. He said " When they get through with you at Number 6 you will want to die, or get the hell out of Alabama". "I really don't care what choice you make." after I asked around, I understood what he meant. It didn't sound like we were goin for no picnic ride.

Especially in a white school bus with big black letters On the side, spelling out Alabama Department of Corrections. The windows were all covered with this steel mesh that also separated us from the Driver. " You scared " he said and I replied without even one hesitation "You Bet". Then the biggest surprise I ever expected happened. He said "Me to". He got up, shuffled back a couple of rows and stuck out a hand. "Snake here". I don't know if I wanted to cry or laugh as I saw outstretched, the largest Hand I had ever seen. It was almost like a fielders mitt I played baseball with, at Morin Park. God, being 6 foot 5 and hands that would fit 3/4th the way around a basketball. That was enough to make him an all state's in Minnesota. It would guarantee Albert Lea a big Big Nine Championship, at least Three years running. But like everything in the late fifties and early sixties, most would follow that with an "only if" smile, and a sigh. "Jerry" I said as my hand became engulfed in his. " Now that won't do " he said. "skinny sounds like it fits ya better".

" You play that thing" as he pointed at the guitar in the seat next to me. I said "some". Truth was I had only learned three chords E-A-B7 ( What I call Rock-N-Roll chords), before I met an old fella in the jail in Tuscaloosa. He said you better learn A-D-E so when you play da blues you can sing it way down there. Now so long as you was singing simple songs with three chords, I was fine. None of that fancy stuff. The Guitar was a 1958 Silvertone arch top with treble cleft openings on the front. By Monkey wards or sears I can never keep em straight. Last winter for fun I had painted an Eagle on the back. "you may need that for company where we're going". Snake turned and stared out the front window.

That's how it started. I know now exactly how friendships start. A handshake and a common cause. We already had the handshake and now for the next 63 days, we had a cause. We surely didn't want to die but we both wanted out of Alabama. We talked about a lot of things over the next couple of hours. Mostly about why we were out on our own. I told Him that I was runnin away from lies and I was lookin for a place to just fit in. He said he knew what he was runnin from. I never really what it was . It was just that he couldn't take it any more. To get on this bus he had beat a man that tried to steal his backpack. The man brought criminal assault charges on him. The judge could of gave him a year at Huntsville but he said 60 days at # 6 would surface. I on the other hand was caught stealing a bucks worth of Bologna at a butcher shop in Tuscaloosa. I guess his anger got to him, Hunger got to me. A couple of real tough criminals, Right?

We bounced over some of the worst roads in Alabama. Especially after we left '43' and started heading southeast. Some of the roads in South Alabama were only made for wagons and mules. Not for a long School bus. Even the driver would have to stop every now and then, go stand next to the road and relieve himself.

It all stopped as suddenly as it had started about four hours ago. When the driver killed the ignition that old bus shuddered and sounded like it was gasping for air. After the dust settled I could feel the bruises on my skinny behind and my hands, so tired from hanging onto the seat ahead of me. The driver turned and smiled as he said " Well Boys your here".

I supposed I ought to tell you where "here" is. If your looking at a map of Alabama you look in the Southern part of the state where the Alabama and the Tombigbee rivers join, you will be real close. Now if can locate a Montgomery Hill, Alabama you are even closer. we are parked about 8 miles west of Montgomery Hill at a place on the river called Montgomery hill Landing. This would be a spot where the goods were delivered to Montgomery hill. Like I told you Roads were made for mules so supplies came in and goods went out By boat.

The driver came around to the back door, took off a big padlock from the door and said "Everybody out". We climbed out and he Walked us right down to the river bank. "Stand Here" he said . We heard him walk back to the bus. Start the engine. Then he was gone.

We stood there both of our heads turning every which way, trying to figure out what was going on. Just about that time I spotted the rope strung across the river. Some one shouted from close to the river. "Hey you two, Get in the Basket" . Then we saw on each side of the river was a small shanty about the size of a one seat outhouse. The rope was strung between them. On the river side of each shack was a vertical slot cut into the side. My heart begin to pick up speed as I saw the Rifle sticking out of one of the slots. On our side of the river, at the end of the rope was a wooden slatted crate about 3 foot wide and 5 foot long. the rope ran right thru the crate and some pulleys were attached. We opened a gate affair on the side and crawled in. "Pull you dumb S_ _ _ _ _ _ 's We ain't got all day". The voice was there again. Snake reached up and started pulling on the rope as we started crossing the river. Boy I sure am glad Snake was there cuz I knew I couldn't pull us over. "If that basket slows down I'll make possum meat out of the both of ya". When we stopped on the far bank Snake pointed at the bollard in front of him. The carving read, "HELL". I turned around and some con had carved on the back side "YUR LUCKY DAY". We had a funny feelin that judge wasn't cuttin us any slack.

We got out on a piece of land surrounded by water. two miles wide and two miles high. if you look at a map the shape was somewhat like the shape of Texas. They didn't call it an Island because it was created where the river separated and then came back together. It was a useless piece of land except to house 12 inmates, in what the State of Alabama called Station #6.

We walked inland with "the voice" behind us tellin us when to turn and when to hurry up. There were lots of trees and at the center was a clearing about 100 yards in Diameter. Probably cleared by Prisoners. I could see two buildings. both the same size and shape. They both looked like those hospital buildings in the manilas, in the war movies. They had a walls about 4 foot high and then 3 feet of post, covered with screen. the roof overhung the building by about 6 foot. This was to keep the rain out. The strangest and yet the most crucial structural part of these buildings is they stood 3 foot off the ground with wooden pillars to hold the building up. I later also found out this was because of the vermin that crawled around at night on #6. Some of the prisoners made home made crosses and other trinkets of some of voodoo just to keep these vermin away.

I guess they were expecting us. The "Jack" took us into the bunking quarters. Oh yes you called the guards "Jack" in Alabama. Not "Boss" like in the movies but "Jack". They had a pair of bunk beds all ready. a pile of clothes that he told us were what we would receive a change of every Sunday evening. A pair of Overalls and jacket (yes stripped), (2) pairs of underwear,(5) pairs of socks, a pair of state issue shoes, (2) big Bandanas (Not for blowin but for wearin),a bar of lye soap, a small bible provided by the ladies aid society and your most precious daily sack of state tobacco. Now state tobacco is nothing more than straw and horse manure dried and crumbled up to look like tobacco. It burnt and make you cough so it sure seemed like tobacco to me. They never gave you fire though. You had to go out to the fire they kept going under that big pot of beans, next to the kitchen. There you could get a lite off a wood stick. At break out on the road crew we got a light from Jack. Sometimes at night he may give you one if you were up and couldn't sleep. You just called out your window real soft like. "hey Jack". In return you may hear "what you need boy"? "Need a smoke Jack". He would appear from out of nowhere and give you a lite. Some nights he may tell you where you should put that Butt, and get to bed.

"Grab a change of clothes and follow me" he told us. Getting smarter by the minute we said "yes sir jack" and we were off to the Kitchen / shower / mess hall. " Strip and try to get clean. You only get 5 minutes of water". Now mind you he did not say hot water. He meant water period. You got river water pumped into a large tank above the roof. The second shower you ever took, you hurried a little faster to make sure you had time to rinse off that Lye soap. That was not of a big concern right now anyway. at the doorway to the shower room Snake stopped. Then I noticed his right hand start to tremble.

Snake was scared again and one peek into that shower, told me why. Lined up along one wall was a string of shower heads and under ten of them stood Ten Very Large Black Men, all about our Daddy's age. This was it. I knew now that if Jesus were gonna come down and save our asses it would have to be in the next 5 seconds. That not happening, I slid right by Snake and commenced to do the craziest thing a white boy in Alabama could do. I opened my smart assed white boy mouth. I said "I have syphilis to the bugger and my teeth are as sharp as razors so if your thinkin about snuggling up close to me, you will learn how subtracting 2 from 9 equals 7."

Dead quiet....Well now that didn't work well. I took one look at them and then at me and I understood. They were all very large men and they were black. Here I stood all 5-10 and weighing about 140 pounds. My arms and face were dark brown from hitchin on the highway. The rest of me was about as white and pink as the day I was born. I almost gave up, and I may have started bawlin, but That's when this peculiar sound started up behind me. Its the sound of a hand slapping against skin. Only this was not an angry sound but something sort of musical. At least it was keeping time. I took a peak behind me and sure enough it was Snake. He would slap his thigh and then his ribs and back and forth until the sound was beating out a rhythm. I just knew that Snake had just went over the edge but it was to quiet for that. Now Snake begin to dance. He would do this thing like tappin lightly with one foot on the floor and bouncing around on the other. What we looked like must have been the most hilarious or the stupidest lookin nigga you ever seen.

Now don't get your drawers in a bunch. This was 1959. Snake himself would tell you things like, This nigger ain't goin nowhere.

I know today that Jesus delayed his entrance that day just to give me a little more time to sweat and a little more desire. They actually started laughin. Hell these guys were only here for 60 and they were to tired from working hard anyway. They had no desire or energy to be chasing some skinny white boy or some 6-5 colored boy around the shower. I will never be sure what was running through there minds that day, they must have thought here are the two dumbest boys on earth, or maybe the worst thing a black man wants to see. People that are slightly titched. Some kind of Voodoo deal or something. Thats the way it was for 60 days. Just about any time some new dude would come in a start eyeballin me or snake, we would do our routine and they would just walk away laughin or shaking their head.

It was sort of routine now you got up every mornin except Sunday, and you would get some breakfast which was eggs and sausage. Then it was off to work. Snake he was lucky he got to work in the kitchen. him and this other fella, His name won't come back to me now, they had kitchen duty. The rest of us was called work gang #4. No one ever knew why. We was chained every mornin in groups of three or four. Now chained is just what it sounds like. They would put this leather belt around your waist. to this a steel ring was attached to hold it together and through that was a chain. Now there was exactly 8 foot of chain between you and the next man so you had to keep up your length of chain when you walked. It was not that this chain was all that heavy, you had to mind it from 6:00 in the morning when you road that basket over the river, until you brought it back home at 6:00 that night. Working 2 hours at every stretch between breaks and a whole hour of rest at noon. This made for a very long 60 days. You cut weeds and cleared trees mostly. but when that would run thin you had to pick cabbage or corn. Returning to station #6 meant Beans, Corn bread and Karo syrup. It was like clockwork and never changed

most nights after you were fed and on Wednesday and Sunday after you got to shower, You mostly would lay on your bunk. talking, telling wild stories or singing. That's how me and snake cooked up the idea to go to Dallas and become famous. We were told that there was a place in Dallas on the west end, where you could lay your bandana down on the sidewalk, and play for money. At sixteen and seventeen years old Snake and me we thought we were better than any singers we had heard. We thought we may make a few bucks with me singing and strummin that old Silvertone. Snake kept me in time with his "ham Bonin." We were sure to make a lot of cash.

And so it was for 60 days and nights. Leaving #6 was about as eventful as it was coming in. The morning of our 61st day they came in and got us. Took us to shower. Our Old clothes were clean and pressed probably by some old spinster getting her Jollies by touchin our clothes and hell she might have even wore a night or two. We got dressed and they led back down to the River. This time I helped pull the rope. I fully understood that carving on my end of the crate. "Yur Lucky Day". On the other side of the river, they just opened that gate and let us out. Not so much as a kiss my ass or Go to hell from those Jacks. But we were free.

We hitched a few rides on a couple of wagons and then a pickup picked us up on 43, and took us all the way to the city limits of Tuscaloosa. I did not need to be seen there and the tracks run just south of town. We got out and ran for the tracks as fast as we could. After talkin to a couple of Hobos down by the creek, they let us know that the 4:30 Southern was usually running on time.

I guess that brings me right back to this boxcar in East Texas. Snake is fussin again as the dancin has stopped and all you can hear was the clacking of the tracks under the wheels. It started when we crossed into Mississippi, and when crossed into Louisiana Late last night. Now its evening again and we just entered Texas. Like I said Snake is fussin. I could tell this trip was gettin worse and worse for him. I look over and there he is just sittin there staring at me. He says " Skinny I got to go back. I miss my gal and I got to get mama out of there before he kills her." I said "sure Snake I understand. I've been thinkin about my Mama to. I was about to tell you that I may head up north any way. Those Idiots in Dallas don't know good music or what they're missing". Then just as he did 65 days ago Snake stuck out that great big hand of his and we shook. Hell he knew we may never lay eyes on one another again but for 65 days we had been friends. Before I had time to do anything he grabbed his roll and out the door he jumped. I ran to the door and only Sn... came out as he was already gettin out of hearin distance.

I sat down and rolled the last of my Bugler. Lit up and I could only say one thing "Damn". What else was I gonna say. I opened that small paper sack and took a chug from the half pint Snake left behind. "Damn I'm tired and straight arrow, I'm heading North once I reach Dallas". It wouldn't be for another 7-8 years before I made it back home. I wasn't done running from something that didn't exist. Station #6 was the first, but not the only corner of Hell I looked for it in.

Now if your stopped at a railroad crossing and are sick of those clanging bells. Take a moment. Look into those boxcars as they pass by. There may be fella sittin in the doorway wearing jeans, a tee-shirt Jean jacket and some old worn out cycle boots. He may be playing an old Silvertone Guitar with an eagle on the back. Wave Hi to him, he May just be headin home.

.......................To Albert Lea, and Mamma..........................