Spring Break Elicited Big Plans

"Where is this thing going?"

We paused for a moment. The truth was we didn't know.

"Maybe," Ricky Hale didn't seem real sure and he hadn't said anything yet, "it will end up in Memphis."

There was more silence. Memphis? That was all the way down on the river. It sounded far away! And from all I had heard, it must be pretty big. I was thinking more like Milan or Jackson but I reckoned Memphis would be alright-

"It won't matter." Bobby Brewer interrupted my thoughts. "It will be away from here."

We all nodded in agreement. I don't know what fills a young man.....ok, a young boy.....with the notion that the grass is always greener just down the road. Or, as in our case this beautiful crisp April morning, just down the tracks.

We had climbed up in one of the rail cars on the siding out by Moseley's Feed and Seed store. It was the first day of our spring break. We weren't about to spend the week sitting at the house! We had plans!

When you live the first twelve years of your life in a town so small they kept the population chart on a chalk board beside the city limit sign, you were always making plans! "I'm tired of school, I'm tired of Miss Mary Ann, I'm tired of my brother whipping up on me, I'm tired of the same old cows and the same old barn and the same old garden.....I figure anyplace this thing ends up in, is going to be better than here." Hollis Mayo about summed up our whole lives in one sentence.

"We could start our own business." Larry Ridinger said it like there wouldn't be nothing to it. We all nodded again. Little details like what kind of business, where to put it, how you figure cash flow and income streams, management tiers, production schedules, world market competition, work force issues, etc. could all be figured out as we counted our profits. When you are out for spring vacation and not cooped up in Miss Mary Ann's six grade class anything is possible!

"It's getting hot in here." Buddy Wiggleton wiped some mostly imaginary sweat off his brow. "I'm ready to get moving. The quicker I get out of this town, the better!"

"What kind of business could we all work together at?"

More silence.

I couldn't remember a day of my life without Ricky, Bobby, Larry, Hollis and Buddy. They just always were. We didn't expound on it much, but we were best buddies. We shared "things" with each other. We felt mostly the same way about school, church, baseball, root beer, water balloons and magnets. We all had "ridden the barrel" down that big hill by George Sexton's house. We invented ways to speed up time. And in our neck of the woods in 1959, that was tantamount to being able to survive each day.

We certainly were not separated by any social, economic or political situations. Didn't any of us have anything!

"What if this train doesn't go to Memphis?" Buddy broke the stillness. "Will that mess up our plan?"

You can't blame us for figuring past Woodrow Kennon's store and Bill Argo's Gulf Station. Surely life had more to offer than a slice of hoop cheese and a checker game while the men waited for Bill to change their oil! We were learning a right smart of reading and arithmetic; our problem was how to relate it to a world that we had never seen and didn't figure the pictures were doing it justice.

Maybe that's why we were huddled up in the corner of this box car, all sweating a little now, and waiting for our ride out of town. We had talked before of Memphis. Jane Hill allowed they had buildings down there as tall as trees. We weren't that gullible but we were bound and determined to discover for ourselves what the city contained that could produce such a lie out of the usually reliable Jane!

We felt trapped! Here it is spring break and not one of us was going anywhere. A vacation was out of the question. Our parents were too busy trying to keep their respective farms solvent. They might could take a short trip (if someone would look after the cows) when crops were "laid by" in September. But not in the spring! And, besides, it wouldn't do me, Leon and David Mark any good if by some miracle our folks decided to take a trip. Their idea of a vacation was to go see Pa and Gran over near Leoma. They lived so far out that the Grand Ole Opry was a week late getting back there to them.

We were not in this box car by accident. Something good was bound to happen if we just wished hard enough!

The truth was didn't none of us have much of a plan; except to find a way to escape the sameness of a small town existence and the boredom of the same chores over and over. At our house Leon, as the oldest, was expected to take the lead in the farm responsibilities. You see my problem right off. Leon had an all powerful aversion for anything resembling work! Every time Daddy turned his back he was making me or David do whatever it was that he was supposed to be doing! I cleaned up after Leon, the cows, mules, nine pigs, a coop of wild settin' hens, two yard dogs.......

No wonder we were in a box car making ready to leave this place forever! We had plans on top of plans. We were going to be world famous. People were going to come from miles around just to shake our hands-

"I'm getting hungry."

"Me too."

"Those cornflakes don't stick with you like sausage and biscuits."

"Let's mosey on to Aunt Beatrice's house. She's always got something on that big table." We climbed out of the box car and scrambled over to the big two story house on West Magnolia.

Memphis would have to wait.

Respectfully,

Kes