We left this morning from Jay about 8 o'clock. I knew
we had a long day today to try to go to Munson.
The first people that I saw on the road a car stopped and out
jumped J. Kirby Smith from Bagdad. I had met him at the Milton Kiwanis
Club earlier and had also seen him at Milton at a dinner Dick Stone
had. He heard at the Gopher Club at Pensacola this morning that I
was out on the road so he came out to see me and brought the Chairman
of County Commission of Santa Rosa, W. O. Kelly, with him and Clifford
Wilson, also one of the commissioners from Santa Rosa County. So we
had a nice visit out on the road. Then they took leave and I started
on down the road.
The first place that we came to on the road this morning was a place
called Crossroads. That's the local name for it. I think it's where
the road goes south to Milton and north goes up to Alabama. I met
a couple of mechanics there. Had an interesting visit with them. One
of them told me a hard-working young man that this year
he was paying $3,OOO in income taxes, Daniel Sims was his name, and
he had the feeling that the money he was paying, that much of it was
being used to give people. He didn't mind helping anybody who couldn't
help themselves, but he thought a lot of people were getting his money
that weren't working and didn't want to work. He felt there were people
that had made more money than he that wouldn't be paying as much taxes
on a pro rata share of taxes as he was paying, that there were too
many people that just didn't want to work today. He was also real
concerned about the general permissiveness of our society. He said
he was concerned about a bus driver who had almost lost his job because
he had tried to stop the kids from throwing screws with a sling-shot.
This general permissiveness of our society certainly concerned him.
Both of these fellows felt that they had never gotten a chance to
see anybody that went to Washington before and they both said they
were going to help me and they wanted me to remember them when I got
up there.
Then I went on down the road and came to Jay prison. This is actually
one of the Dept. of Transportation road camps. This is where 30-something
prisoners lost their lives when the fire swept through that building
in about a minute. In the Senate we tried to outlaw the use of temporary
barracks and also dealt with claim bills in connection with this fire.
It was very real, seeing what had happened there as a result of the
fire in Jay prison. I had a chance to talk with some people there
today a couple of them were there when the fire occurred.
Again today 3 or 4 people stopped and offered to give me a ride. I
had one fellow Dewell Adams was his name and he heard that
I was out on the road he went to a store and bought a coke
and brought it out to me. He stopped and said he knew I wouldn't take
a ride but he wanted me to have a coke.
Then I had one of the fellows stop from Independent Life Insurance.
He told me that he had seen Rosemary Emmett, who said in Century she
was going to sell me a walking policy. So I'm still looking for Rosemary;
she's supposed to be getting me an application form. She's got a policy
that's going to cost me 50 cents a week, but it's going to insure
me as I walk so I think she'll be bringing an application out as I
walk here.
Then as I walked up towards Pittman's Grocery which is getting close
to the tail-end of my walk for today, two young ladies, Brenda Ellis
and Alicia Simmons these young ladies were 14 years old
had seen on television last night that I was walking and they told
one of the daddies, Mr. Simmons, that they'd like to come out and
walk with me a while. So he brought them out to the road and they
walked down the road with me a while. Mr. Simmons was in the car along
with their sister who was sick and we had a nice visit.
I walked into the Pittman's Grocery store and I got to meet Hank Locklin's
mother. Hank Locklin is a country music star and has a home in Milton.
His mother lives with him at the home. We had a visit about Hank,
who is now in Scotland. His mother is keeping his home while he's
gone. Then I visited in Pittman's store and talked with people there.
Munson is a couple more miles down the road.
I'm going to make Munson before the end of the evening. I'm a good
bit sore today. When I stopped for lunch or a little break, I notice
that my legs get kinda stove up like the old race horse and it takes
a while before I get loosened up again. At one stretch yesterday I
timed myself; and I was walking as much as 4 miles an hour. Today
I was timing it and this morning I think I was making 3 miles an hour.
I stopped for lunch and doctored by feet since I have two blisters
on both feet, and after lunch I was walking at a rate down to 2 miles
an hour. It's going to take more hours right now until I get into
a little better shape in the legs and get these blisters taken care
of.
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©2000 The Lawton Chiles Foundation