Ni Dieu Ni Maitre

How does it feel to have a pistol pressed against your head by a racist threatening to kill you? It happened to me twice while hitchhiking through the American South at age 19. This was back in the early 1960’s. First time was in Virginia, when the driver who picked me up pulled a gun and held it to my temple and said, ‘You ain’t one of them ni…. lovers, is you boy.’ And I quickly used my wits to summon up the correct, but fallacious, answer, ‘No sir, I hate them ni…..s’. Gun put away, we travelled onward.

That photo above is my campsite at 15,450 feet in a Himalayan pass in 2011. Rode up on my bicycle. Put it in here by mistake and evidently cannot remove it.

The second time was in Alabama, on the same trip. A revolver, this time. pressed against my head ‘Is you one of them damn freedom riders?’ ‘Oh, no sir. I got nothin’ to do with that kind of stuff.’ And we rode on. These incidents, as well as the number of times I was dunned into being ‘Saved for our Lord and Savior’ by some insistent proselytizer at the side of the road in order to continue my ride, convinced me to never again visit this part of the country.

Currently in Laos… this is the mighty Mekong River with Thailand on the opposite shore.

Well, carrying on with that bygone trip, Lousiana was next up and a real breath of fresh air. Funny and friendly people in the countryside, speaking with a barely understandable patois. The tensions eased. However, I caught a ride with two large guys in suits who offered to get me to New Orleans if I didn’t mind a few stops along the way. And they did stop. Small town, storefront. They both got out, one standing guard while the other went in and collected the payoff. And over again. Down a dirt road to a black township, this time the guard had his gun in hand, but no trouble. Finally they pulled into a fancy private school and the three of us went in and met the very nervous headmaster, who handed over a packet and offered us a nice dinner as well. Arriving in New Orleans they dropped me at a ‘hotel’ and even paid for it. I got a room, but soon the raucous fun had begun in the other rooms and I realized where I actually was…

This trip went on for over a month more as I circumnavigated the continental USA, did one more semester at college and dropped out and got drafted.