He woke him up and got a phone number to call the parents and tell them he would bring him back the next day, and that dad would take care of him until he was safely home.
We didn’t have a spare bed in the house, so Mom was making him a pallet on the floor, and the kid said he wanted to sleep in the bus where he was comfortable. Dad finally agreed, but he slept out there with him. I think the kid was about 8 or 9 yrs old.
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Great memory of your dad and his absence of bias back in those days. I grew up in Dallas in the ‘40-50’s and observed my grandparents being very kind to the black customers at their corner grocery. I would often carry the sack of groceries from the store to the black ladies’ homes a few blocks away, during the Summer when I spent weeks there. There was no “general” divide between whites and blacks back then. .....The divide began with JFK and LBJ, pushed by the GOP, to enact the so-called Cival Rights Act, which began the great racial divisions we endure today. jmo
Oh yes—there was a divide! Looking back, I think even back then, it was the politicians that had a lot to do with it, though. I believe that among the people, especially in the neighborhoods where people were just barely making it from pay check to pay check, the divide between the races was much smaller. But, I also think people were much more genteel back then.
Of course we were segregated—in our schools, churches, movie houses—even the malt shops—restaurants, and grocery stores. It didn’t seem bad, at the time, it seemed “normal”.
I don’t know how it was in the more prosperous neighborhoods, I can only speak from what I experienced—but in our neighborhood, it was almost liked we helped each other. We had black families scattered around on the edges of our neighborhood. We didn’t “socialize” so much with them as we mainly would just nod in passing. I don’t remember actually playing with or hanging around black kids—but there was no animosity toward each other.
But this was Beaumont-—a few miles away, was Vidor! In Vidor at the time lived mainly Rednecks. The clan was very active there—and may still be for all I know (just kidding if anyone here is from Vidor—LOL), but I remember as teen agers when we started getting around a bit when someone had an old car of some kind—we never ventured into Vidor.
My point is, I think when everyone is struggling to put food on the table, and shoes on their feet, you don’t have much time nor inclination to fight each other. Of course all the racial hatred was going on all around us—we just didn’t get involved. You lived life as you found it—you pretty much stayed close to your home, or places you were familiar with—the drive in, the “white” movie houses, your friends’ houses, etc. Of course, the era I’m speaking of is the 40’s and early 50’s. Lordy only knows why this is all coming back to my pea brain right now, just because a freeper mentioned that her father was a bus driver—LOL! I now know that I must be truly old. I’m reminding myself of my grandparents who sat around and talked about “the old days” most of the time.