JUDITH DARLENE HAMMER

MAY 31, 1938 – AUGUST 8, 2023

Part 10 was published November 1, 2023, and can be found here.

On Down to Louisiana

From Jackson Mississippi, we went on down into Louisianna and toured a plantation that had been owned by the same family prior to the Civil War. We were sightseeing in Louisiana, and I got lost. I stopped at a filling station to ask for directions. There was a Black lady at the cash register and a long line of Black customers. I walked up to the cashier and told the lady that I needed directions. She said, “wait a minute.” She locked the cash register and told the line of customers she would be right back. She showed me exactly which way I should go.

When we got back to the train station in Jackson, we had a little time. We thought we would take a walking tour through a neighborhood close by. We headed across the tracks to the neighborhood, there was a Black guy standing there. He told us it wasn’t safe to be walking in that neighborhood.

The trip home was pleasant, but uneventful.

Judy’s Birth Certificate

Judy was born May 31, 1938, on a small farm about thirty miles southeast of Topeka, Kansas. When she was old enough, she went to the first grade in a little country school.

The doctor that delivered her was drunk and failed to file for a birth certificate. Her folks moved into Topeka when she entered second grade. I don’t know what she had to establish her birthdate. She may have used baptismal records.

She didn’t have a birth certificate when her family moved to Colorado when she was a Junior in high school. She didn’t have a birth certificate when we got married. She didn’t have a birth certificate when the children were born.

After Judy and I moved to Wild Horse, we started doing some traveling. We planned on taking some trips into Canada. Here is where we could not go without a birth certificate. This presented a challenge, which I faced head on. I don’t remember how much time it took, or amount of correspondence was made, until Judy got her birth certificate. With our passports valid, Judy and I enjoyed our train trips into Canada immensely.

Next: The Longest and Most Interesting train Trip