Got hold of a jug one night ‘n caught out on that Stockton man. I was by myself, ‘n it ain’t good ta be drinkin’ alone ‘cause ya wind up drinkin’ too much. If yas got a guy ta split with, why ya only drink half as much, ‘n ya stretch the drinkin’ out ‘cause yer talkin’ while yer drinkin’. Ya don’t git too drunked up that way. Well, I ain’t started talkin’ ta myself yet, so I drunk that jug pretty quick ‘n passed out. I dunno what I was doin’. I musta still been half drunk, ‘n thought the train’d stopped in Stockton. I got up, went over ta the door, ‘n bailed out, ‘n goddamn if that train weren’t still movin’. Shit, maybe twenty mile an hour. It was dark, ‘n I was drunked up enough that I didn’t know what was goin’ on till I hit the rocks. Hittin’ that track ballast at twenty mile an hour’ll sober ya up mighty quick. I fell head over heals ‘n got cut up bad. I didn’t have no shoes on when I bailed out, so my feet got cut, ‘n my knee, my knee was oozin’ blood. My pants was tore ‘n I could feel they’s wet from where my knee was bleedin’. I dragged myself over ta this truck trailer, ‘n tried ta fall asleep under it, figgerin’ ta have a good look at that knee in the mornin’.

I laid there under the trailer till daylight come, ‘n my knee was hurtin’ bad, throbbin’ like a son of a bitch. I give a look at it, ‘n it was a big gash with this big chunk a skin flappin’ off it. When I got up ta walk, I had ta hold the skin against my knee ta keep it from flappin’ off. I was hobblin’ ‘round like that, holdin’ onta my knee. Didn’t have no shoes er gear. Left my bedroll ‘n all my stuff in the boxcar.

I made it ta Oroville, ‘n was gittin’ weak, layin’ ‘round the jungles waitin’ fer the thing ta stop bleedin’. A couple guys come ‘long ‘n give me some a their gumbo ‘n that give me a little strength. Three days went by ‘n it was still hurtin’ bad ‘n seepin’ blood. I made it inta town ‘n was standin’ in the soup line there ‘n run inta a buddy a mine. He seen what kinda shape I was in ‘n took me ta the hospital. Didn’t wanna go ta no hospital, but I wasn’t in no kinda shape ta put up a fight. They cleaned it out ‘n stitched it up. Healed pretty near good as new.

53.