If Carl and his family wanted to travel somewhere it usually involved hitchhiking. This was a fairly common way to travel for people without a whole lot of money. Most of these hitchhiking trips were after his mother had passed away and his father simply didn’t have any other way to travel.
Carl’s brother Everette was stationed in Kentucky for Basic Training and Jasper decided he and Carl were going to go see him. This would’ve been over 200 miles. He remembers when they got around Indianapolis they had to walk all the way through the city because nobody would pick them up. The Salvation Army offered a meal and a place to stay for these types of travelers. The county jails also offered a bed and a meal as well. (This always makes me think of Mayberry and Aunt Bee bringing in a homemade meal). Jasper never wanted to stay at the Salvation Army because they would end up preaching and he didn’t want anything to do with that so he opted to stay in the jail.
On one occasion Carl wanted to go visit his Uncle Freeman and Aunt Mae in Ohio so he hitchhiked all the way to Ohio by himself. He stayed there awhile then Jasper and Everette hitchhiked to go and get him then they hitchhiked home. They wouldn’t have had a telephone at this time to communicate with him at all.
The years after Carl was out of the military and spent some time in Nebraska and Kansas was all by hitchhiking. This is something that I can’t even imagine. We take for granted hopping in the car and going wherever we want to. What an inconvenience this would have been yet it was just a way of life for him.
2FaithfulSisters 