Diary of Two Motorcycle Hobos #Essentialsofrec #recovery #aa By Lois WilsonIntroduction Bill and I were married during World War I, and after he returned from France, he wasnt sure in what field of endeavor he wanted to earn his living. He had taken an electrical engineering course at Norwich University, a military college in Vermont, but, because of the war, did not graduate. His grandfather, with whom he lived after the divorce of his mother and father, wanted him to become a lawyer. So, after a succession of unsatisfactory jobs, either to him or to his boss, and while employed by the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., he took a night law course at the Brooklyn Law School. His job as investigator of theft had shown him much of the seamy side of the law and dissuaded him from becoming a lawyer. He finished the law course, however, and paid for his diploma, but never bothered to pick it up. He had been interested for some time in the stock market, and in why people buy into companies that they know nothing about, gambling with stocks as they would with chips in a Casino. Would it not be much safer and surer if investors knew something about the companies into which they were buying? When his grandfather wanted to purchase a cow, he went to look at the cow, feel its legs, inquire about how much milk it gave, its age and forebears, etc. Why shouldnt this same principle be applied to the buying of stocks? Feeling he was just the man to do the investigating, Bill consulted with several friends on Wall Street, but, finding no one enthusiastic about his ideas, and knowing the proof of the pudding is in the eating, he decided to take a year out to test his theory. My reasons for wishing to take the time off were quite different. Although I thought Bills stock theories were sensible, I wanted to get him away from New York, with bars (saloons they were called then) on many corners, and away from his buddies, both of which I considered contributed greatly to his excessive drinking. A year in the open, which we both loved, would give me a chance to straighten him out. We had given up our apartment on Amity St., and were leaving from my parents home on Clinton St., Brooklyn. It was not always convenient to write my diary every day on the trip, so the headings often cover several previous days. As I sent my notes home in letters to Mother, I made no reference to Bills drinking; in fact he drank very little during the year, and the trip did us both a lot of good. During the editing of the diary, for claritys sake, I have added a few place names and explanations of now‑unclear activities; otherwise the diary is as a young couple found their world in 1925‑26*. ____________ *Bill and Lois wintered 1926-27 at Clinton St., in Brooklyn. The last of diary of Motorcycle Hobo trip was completed in April 1927. The author scribed this work in the 1920s, but it was not typewritten until 1973.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:19:28 +0000
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