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the freight in Beaumont, I shipped my luggage to myself in New Orleans. It was not very difficult to board the moving train when it slowed down for the Neches River Bridge. Also at that point, all the crew were on the train and not watching out for some bum to steal a ride. We pulled into a siding around noon which gave me time to run over to a nearby hash house. As usual I had no money-only a cigar box which contained two baby alligators. The waitress asked what I had in the box when I walked in, and I showed her the little alligators. She thought they were so cute I ended up trading them for a cup of coffee and two doughnuts.
We passed through Lake Charles, Louisiana, pulling into the yards at Lafayette, just at sunset. As I walked across the yards to the nearest street a friendly trainman told me the freight would pull out at eleven o'clock that night. I walked down the street just to get away from the freight yard and kill time. In the second block I passed a house where some couples were having a party. Stopping an instant to observe the dancers, I then walked on for six or seven blocks. It felt good to exercise my legs after the long ride in the boxcar. When I got back to the house with the party, a girl called to me, "Didn't you get off that freight a while ago?" When I answered affirmatively she invited me to come in and eat.
I thanked her and readily admitted that I was very hungry. She introduced me to her date and friends - all quite sociable - and the boys insisted that I dance with their dates. In about twenty minutes the little lady of the house appeared with a tray of coffee and a veal round fried in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper and placed between a half-loaf of French bread cut in half and buttered. What a meal! I realized that I was probably not the first bum the little lady had been kind to. The quality ot her sweetness and kindness was so intense it filled the air, it enveloped her friends, it was really something to remember. I have never forgotten her and I have never forgotten Lafayette, Louisiana.
I	caught that eleven o'clock freight, slept all night in my "private car" and finally pulled into Algiers freight yards about three o'clock in the afternoon during a heavy rainstorm. I was wringing wet when I boarded a train ferry and asked the fireman if I could bum a ride across the river. It was late in the evening when the ferry was loaded and ready to leave the west bank, but
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the delay gave me time to disrobe and dry my clothes by hanging them in front of the fire-boxes. After landing it was necessary for me to walk fourteen blocks to the home of my grandparents on Marengo Street. Everyone was sleeping when "Mam" (my grandmother) let me in.
Next morning I called John Graziano, who invited me over for a chicken-spaghetti dinner. John, his wife Victoria, and their little girl, Mary Ellen, were staying with Vic's brother, Mr. Verdigets who owned a grocery stpre on Constance Street. The Depression was worsening. John had not been employed since we completed the Biloxi job. He asked me if I would assist him in rebuilding the shed on the front of Verdigets' store. I asked him if he wanted to start work after dinner. He laughed and said, "No, tomorrow will do." Next day we tore the old shed down and started framing up the new one. I don't know what John got for the job but he paid me fifty cents per hour for helping him, which was more than fair at that time. We completed the job in seven days. After John and I finished the shed, we drove out to the lakefront where the Fuller Construction Company was breaking ground for the Shushan Airport (later the New Orleans Airport). We met Guy Courter and Ed Keller and they offered us a job. I accepted the captain's job on the tug and John became foreman in charge of the pile casting yard. When we had enough concrete tongue and groove sheet piling cast - I began towing them out to the pile driver. Two rows of piles were driven about eight feet apart. The outside row was eight feet above sea level and the inside row just above high tide. Hog-rods were used to tie them together and rock ballast was placed in between to form the completed wall. I rented a room from Pete Verdigets who lived with his family on Constance Street, a few blocks farther up from the grocery. I invited my brother Jack to live with me. He was working for United Motors Service at Lee Circle then. We both spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of 1930 at home with Mama, Sis, Merrill, and Harry.
Jack was now engaged to marry Anna Tortorich, a very pretty and sweet little lady. One evening he invited me to Anna's home to meet the Tortorich family, who lived in a lovely home on Moss Street facing the Bayou St. John. I was really impressed. Mr.
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