Another historical short story!. If you like this be sure to read the other stories I've written. And, if you have any historical photographs you'd like to see as a historical short story feel free to comment them. Without further ado I give to you I Knew My Kids Were Hungry. Enjoy! PEACE!
It was 1932 the year when I finally lost my job. All my friends and family lost their jobs long before I did. I was working at the steel mill before it shut down. It was one of the last jobs in town, and when it shut down I didn't know how to feed my children. You see ain’t nobody in the town had much food. Even the McFees the owners of the Steel Mill has to rent out rooms in their house to get some food every week. My husband was a smart man though and he had some money saved in a drawer so we could buy some food for a couple weeks, but when we ran out he went out west to look for some work. I haven’t heard from him since.
After my husband left we couldn't live in the house no more cause we was renting and couldn’t pay the rent so we left. I took my children and we walked to a nearby town that people were going to when they had to leave. I heard about it from my friend Margaret who left with her husband and three sons after the bank took their house. They called it Hooverville after the president Herbert Hoover they said there was food and some shelter and people was helping each other. So, I told my girls to bring their favorite toy and some clothes and we sent on down the road to Hooverville.
We found a family walkin’ down the road. They were walking the other direction as we were but they stopped to ask us where we was going. I told them about Hooverville and they said they was lookin’ for it too. They had an older son named Michael, he had a bag with some food in it and gave some to the kids. They was nice people so I said we should look together for Hooverville.
None of us had ever heard of Hooverville before, but I new Margaret went north with her husband so that's what we did. It was nice walking with them the husband was makes Denzel and his wife Sarah Belle. As we was headed north we was talkin’ about life before the crash. Denzel played the horn for a traveling jazz band, The Blues Brothers, and Sarah Belle was a cook at an all negro restaurant. Denzel was tellin’ us all about his band. He’s been all over the country playing at jazz clubs from New York to San Francisco to New Orleans. He loved to play but had to sell his horn to buy some food so they could make it to Hooverville. Sarah Belle said she make to best cornbread this side of the mississippi. They was good folks and good company to have as we walked to Hooverville.
We got to a small town named Pooler as it was getting dark so we decided to find a place to stay for the night. I was hungry and I knew my kids were hungry so we walked to a small dinner to get something to eat. We each had only a bit of money with us so it was all we could afford. We got to the dinner in one piece and grabbed a table, Michael was telling Julie something he learned in school before he had to leave, and Sarah Belle was looking at the decorations on the wall, and for once I felt like thing’s weren't gonna be all that bad. The waitress came over with a man wearing an apron I thought he was gonna tell us it was near closing time. When the man got to our table he looked at Denzel and told him that their establishment was for whites only and that they don’t serve niggers here. I of course got mad at this man, Denzel was a nice man and his family shared their food with us and helps us along the way, so I told this man that that’s no way to talk to a person and that Denzel was a better man than he was. He paused a moment and said that if we didn’t get out of his restaurant he’d hang us from a tree out back. I of course reached up to punch this man like my husband has taught me but Denzel stopped me and told this man that we would find some place else to eat and that we didn’t want no trouble.
We never found no place to eat in Pooler so we slept in an old barn outside town and kept walking the next morning. They shared the rest of their food with us but wouldn’t accept what was left of my money, Sarah Belle said they were repaying us for my kindness at the diner the night before. I felt awful guilty though eating up their food, so I promised myself I’d pay them back for it, when I got the money. It was a nice walk though, it was springtime so all the flowers was in bloom. As we was walking I could smell the honeysuckle and hear the birds. Georgia is beautiful in the spring, and as we were walking the Julie and Virginia were picking wildflowers along the road. I enjoyed talking with Denzel and Sarah Belle and told them all about how steel was made. I didn’t know much else to talk about, and they knew so much. I talked with Sarah Belle about cooking, she though my grandmother's pecan pie sounded mighty tasty.
We came across two men right around noon. They had a stand on the side of the road selling fresh honey for a nickel. They were brothers named Lawrence and Roy Woodruff they were nice men. I bought some honey from them and Lawrence gave Virginia and Julie both a piece of candy. They said they was getting the honey from an old man who would give some to them to sell every morning. We sat in the shade and talked to them for some time about spring and the crash and what life was like before. After a while Sarah Belle spoke up and asked if they knew where Hooverville was, they both laughed and said that’s where they were staying. Roy said that Hooverville wasn’t a town and there were Hoovervilles all over the country. They said after the crash and people started hurting for food people started getting together and making houses out of scraps to hide from the rain. There’s some food and water, and people. After talking about it for sometime they told us they would take us to Hooverville. I was mighty thankful I would finally see Margaret, and there might be other children for Julie and Virginia to play with.
We got to Hooverville just as the sun was getting low and people were starting to make some fires. I’d never seen anything like it before. It wasn’t a town it was small only a few people with little tents made out of scrap metal and wood, or whatever they could find lying around. Roy and Lawrence showed us their tent and said that there was some tents nearby that weren't being used and that we could sleep there. We were all very thankful for Roy and Lawrence I gave them both a hug, if we hadn’t found them we wouldn’t find Hooverville. We all walked over to the tents and set our stuff in them and crawled in. They weren't very sturdy and were small but I was happy to finally have a place to rest. There were some blanket the people before left and a few empty cans. The girls were sleepy so I tucked them in with the blankets and started telling them a story about their grandfather in the war between the states. Once they fell asleep I laid down and fell asleep too.
When I woke up people were walking around and chatting. They were all dirty and there clothes were patched up or ripped. A man walked over to my tent and introduced himself. His name was Dr. Long and he asked if i'd like some soup for me and the kids. He made a big pot of soup and was walking around asking people if they’d like some, I said yes and woke the girls up. We followed him over to his tent were a crowd of people were standing while his wife poured soup into everyone's bowl. I brought the empty cans in our tent with us and thanked her as she poured some soup for us. The soup was plain there was come carrots and bit of chicken some other vegetables and meats. Dr. Long and his wife were very generous and gave everyone seconds and thirds till the soup was gone. After that I saw a group of children playing in a field by the camp and the girls went off to join them. I didn’t want to sit by with idle hands so I walked around asking people if they needed any help. A few people needed to mend their tents or find some extra scrap metal so I was busy most of the day. At nightfall I called Julie and Virginia and we crawled back into our tent. I couldn’t think of a bedtime story so I just tucked them in and said good night.
I couldn’t fall that night so I peeked my head out of the tent and looked up and the sky. I thought of my husband John and how he was looking up at the same sky, and I wondered if I’d ever see him again. I hadn’t thought of it much I’d been too busy keeping care of the girls to think about John. While I was lying down I heard some men arguing nearby so I walked over to see what was happening. There was some policemen with big sticks talking to Denzel and Dr. Long and a few other men. The Policeman in charge was telling the crowd of people that had gathered that Hooverville was on private property and that we had to leave. A man spoke up and said that we had no place to go and they had no right to make us leave. After a while of arguing one of the policemen kicked over a tent and a man lunged at him to stop him. After that everyone started fighting and the policemen started hitting some of the men with their sticks I ran over to our tent to fetch the girls and run away. I woke them up and we started running away when we heard gunshots. I stopped to see what was happening but it was too dark to see so we kept running.
We ran till we were out of breathe and then started to walk. I prayed that nothing bad happened to those people. They didn’t mean no harm they just needed a place to sleep and eat. We found a road to walk along and after some time we were in the town of Buford. I found a barn to sleep in and we slept.
When I woke up I was still tired, I wanted to give up. I didn’t want to keep walking or looking for food I wanted to go back home and sleep in my bed, with my husband and wake up with some coffee and bacon. But, I knew I had to keep going because I was hungry, and I knew my kids were hungry