The Bus Station

I was home on furlough from the Army when LSU played Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas January 1, 1947.  My brother was playing for LSU at that time. My mother and I decided we would ride the bus from El Dorado to Dallas to see the game.

While waiting to change buses in Texarkana we were standing next to a wall in the crowded waiting room. Earlier she had observed an older man sitting in one of the chairs trying to roll a Bull Durham cigarette who had obviously been drinking heavily. He was dressed in overalls, tennis shoes, and a big straw hat.

She nudged me in the side and whispered, "Watch this". She was an expert "people watcher".

He very shakily found his cigarette papers and "blew" one apart to use. He then slowly opened the small cloth bag of tobacco by using his teeth to pull on the little yellow string opener. He then shakily tried to pour the tiny grains of tobacco into the paper, spilling most of the contents on the floor of the bus station.

After a great struggle with the few grains left in the paper, he carefully licked the paper into a slight roll. It could not have been more than two inches of paper and half dozen tiny grains of tobacco. Then the long search for a match began. After patting all the pockets in his overalls he finally discovered a large kitchen match. With a great flourish he stroked the match against the seat of his overalls and the light flared mightily. When the flame finally reached his short cigarette, there was a sudden "Poof". In an instant the small cigarette was gone, along with his eyebrows and part of the straw hat he had been wearing.

The score in the ball game was LSU 0 ARKANSAS 0