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The "discussion" between Tal and his father went on for several months, but eventually Aaron realized that his son could not be 20 Looking for 1927 swayed, and gave up. His last letter on the subject is interesting for its air of petulance coupled with his touching paternal concern for young Jimrnie. " He was adamant on one point, however, "Don't mistreat James," he declared, enclosing a dollar "to buy James some pants. " The remark that "It is all the bill I have" may have been a comment on his financial condition.

At other times, just as Eliza Rodgers had followed her wandering husband from job to job, Carrie went along when Jimmie, out of wanderlust or necessity, took a notion to see what was over the hill. "Throw your things together, kid," he would say. " "There" was often a railroad boardinghouse or cheap apartment near the yards-"a one-room light housekeeping home," as Carrie generously put it. Soon, however-choes of Eliza once again-she was back in Meridian, pregnant with their first child. Laid off by the railroad throughout the latter part of 1920, Jimmie picked up odd jobs here and there, did day labor, and even drove a road construction truck over in Geiger, Alabama, where his father now lived in semi-retirement.

It was only the first of many arduous adventures she would undertake on the way to success. Between semesters in the winter of 1916-17, Stella spent some time at home and then decided to go to Durant, some fifty miles away, to visit her cousin, May Conn, whose husband, Tom, was a fireman with the Illinois Central Railroad there. Today Durant is a sleepy hamlet of old houses, shady streets, and a few blocks of Edward Hopper storefronts, many of them empty. But around the time of World War I it was the center of a thriving farm community and an important service point on the Illinois Central's mainline, with the only heavy-repair rail shops and roundhouse between Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi.