Coming of age with the preacherman

( I Never Heard The Blackbird Sing)  Hitching a ride home from Nashville with his preacher friend proved to be the most surreal and traumatic experiences of his early life.  Leaving home at such and early age his  father was concerned that he might fall in with the wrong crowd and be led astray.  When his father found out that a local pastor was attending  a school in Nashville he enlisted the aid of the pastor to help look out for his son, a naive sixteen year old who wanted to leave home and go to college in the early sixties. 

One of the benefits of this arrangement was he could ride home on the weekends. Traveling in a car was much more exciting and more personal than traveling by bus and his young mind was trying to absorb it all.  As darkness began to settle over the beautiful landscape  and the bright lights of Birmingham began to dominate the skyline, his preacher friend informed him that he was going to spend the night in the city with some friends and drive the rest of the way in the morning.   First he would find a place where we could get some food and drinks.

He had never been in a “Juke Joint”, he had heard of these places, and it did not take a rocket scientist  to know that he was in one now.  His first reaction was, “I’m sanctified, I can’t go in there.”  The preacher said, “It's ok, you are with me.”  Inside the dimly lit smoke filled room, the music  and noise was loud and boisterous.  A table was found and he was seated as his friend who seems to be well known went up to the bar to place their order.

The bartender arrived at the table with two brown bags with bottles inside,  two bowel of ice and an assortment of cokes and sprites followed by the two ladies that was sitting at the bar when they came in.   The ladies wore heavy makeup to hide their age and the smell of their perfume was stifling.  They were much older than they pretended to be.   His preacher friend paired up with one of the ladies and the other one one zeroed in on him.  “Don’t worry about a thing I am going to take good care of you.” She said as she fixed him a drink and handed it to him. He prayed for deliverance but none were forthcoming.   

Morning came and he woke up naked in a bed with a severe headache. He had no knowledge of how he got there but here he was in what he would later describe as a seedy motel room, his clothes were thrown across the  floor and his wallet lay open revealing its emptiness.  He was heart broken, all of the money he had saved for his mother was gone.  That night the innocence of a sixteen year old child was lost.   While he was getting dress there was a knock on the door, “you ready to hit the road,” his preacher friend asked.  When he walked outside he was he was crying, "She stole my money and I want it back", he said. 

"Forget your money, it gone ", the preacher said.  "I thought you better than to take your money into that room", how did I get stuck with such a dumb kid",  he added.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.  He never saw the preacher again.

From the book I Never Heard The Blackbird Sing by Earl Gillespie. Copyright 2013 by Earl Gillespie. Published by Gillco Publishing. All rights reserved.