This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

the welfare rolls. Some years later I learned that he had named one of his boys after me.
When we topped out the West Pier job, things really got bad in Mississippi. It was impossible to find any kind of work. One day I met Dot Washington in Gulfport, sometime after I had purchased a one-ton flat-bed Chevy truck from his brother Lex. I suppose Dot thought I had a few dollars because he told me he was liquidating the Coast Savings and Loan and that he had a nice little house on Pass Road in Handsboro he could offer me for only $600.00. I told him that I did not have a job. Dot retorted, "You've got ten dollars, haven't you?" and offered the house to me for ten dollars down and ten dollars per month. I accepted his offer because at that time I was paying 15 dollars per month for rent. Within the week we moved into our new home, the first one we owned.
That spring of 1936, Fran's folks rented a house in Mississippi City for the summer, so I gave her all the cash I had except ten dollars, left her and Bobby with the folks, and my brother Red and I caught a freight train for Houston, Texas. About 4:00 a.m. on the third day we pulled into Houston and jumped off the train at Telephone Road. Unfortunately we headed in the wrong direction, and missed the all-night bus into town. So we walked from Telephone Road to Fannin Street and found lodging at the YMCA -six dollars per week for a nice room for two. We showered twice each and hit the hay. We slept all that day, got up long enough to eat a bite for supper, and then went back to bed for a night's sleep.
We awakened early next morning and had breakfast. When we walked out of the restaurant, we bumped into, of all people, Bill Moore! When I told Bill that I was looking for a job, he asked me if I still had my Union card. When I answered in the affirmative, he told me to report to work to help build a piledriver for the Galveston Hospital job. Red could have found work in Houston but chose to return to Mississippi.
I wrote Fran to put our home up for sale with Agur Realty. Before we finished building the driver, I had a letter saying it had been sold for a profit to us of some $250.00. I then wrote Fran to catch the first train for Houston after the sale was finalized (she had my power of attorney). Bill wanted me to go to Galveston and drive piling, but I told him I preferred to stay in Houston, having
46
accepted a job with the Park-Rite Meter Corporation. I was working for them when Fran and Bobby arrived. Aunt Marguerite and Frank drove me down to the depot to meet them and bring them to a nice little apartment I had found a block from Telephone Road. I was a completely happy man that evening with my little family at my side.
Despite the depression, there were perhaps more jobs in Houston than any other city in the United States, if not the world! I ? could have gone to work for serveral large companies - Reed Roller Bit, International Harvester, Hughes Tool, and even the City of Houston - but for some reason I chose the Park-Rite Meter Corporation, the orignators of the parking meter. An Italian immigrant, Charles Toche, and his son Charles, Jr., both citizens of Houston, invented the meter. Charles, Jr., had a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M.
The cost of living was low in Houston, we rented a comfortable little apartment for only nineteen dollars per month which enabled us to save something out of my moderate salary. Both our landlord, Captain Fuller, ship pilot, and his lovely wife, were very friendly. And when the captain learned that I was an experienced seaman, he offered me a job on the pilot boat, the first step in training for a ship pilot. I have always deeply regreted my decision to turn down his generous offer.
I worked for Park-Rite about one year. When their work became slack in Houston, they offered to send me to Watertown, New York, to install meters there. When I declined the offer, I was laid off. I was paid semi-monthly, and became angered when I was handed a final check for only one week's work. I stormed into Mr. Toche, Junior's office, insulted him and challenged him to a fight.
I told him I'd be in the main office next morning, and a check for two week's pay had better damn well be ready for me. I was still upset when I arrived home that evening, but after the usual affection I received from Fran and Bobby I calmed down. I told Fran not to worry, I'd go out and find another job in the morning, and she knew I would not fail!
I had the honor of knowing Wickliffe B. Vennard, Sr., a brother Mason, gentleman, and scholar. I went down to Wick's office the next morning and told him word for word what had occurred the
47