Life on the Bum in the Early 1930's
by
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This is my tale of how I was able to visit 37 states at an average cost of $1 per state, besides being in Canada. It is a tale of police blockades, big fat egg sandwiches, dust storms and floods, heat so hot it burned my back through my shirt, and cold that kept me up all night tending a fire. I accepted rides from a prizefighter and a wrestler, a U.S. Senator and a cotton picker, a barber and a teacher and many more I'll tell you about later. I saw museums and monuments, mountains and plains, swamps and deserts. I worked as a babysitter, night watchman, fruit picker, and driver. I fished and hunted. I rode in trucks, cars of all types, a motorcycle, a train, a buckboard and more Model T's than Henry Ford. I was given help and directions from little old ladies, truck drivers, Uncles and Aunts, Cajuns, Mexicans, Darkeys, Texans and a U.S. Senator. I found a country crippled by the depression, split apart by prohibition and segregation, but working together, helping each other and struggling, not down and out. I found people from all over on the roads. Okies wanted to pick peaches in California, poor whites from the south wanted to build cars in Detroit, Darkeys from Mississippi wanted to go up North and work in the factories or textile mills, and Swedes from Wisconsin going to work in the oil fields of Texas. Everyone thought it was going to be better someplace else. It was the American way and I was in the middle of it.
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About the Book
Life On The Bum In The Early1930's, is comprised of two diaries. In 1931 Allen Kussmaul spent the summer between his junior and senior years in high school hitch hiking around the United States. He visited 37 states and spent $37.
In 1933, Allen and his older brother Glen, decided to take a year off and bum around the country. They hitch hiked or rode the freight trains, bummed sandwiches and panned for gold, spent time in jail and on Catalina Island, all for the adventure to be found in America at that time.
Al's diary entries followed by his thoughts and memories some 40 years later when he found his diaries in a trunk in the attic, are what makes this book a historic treasure for anyone wanting to relive the past or learn more about how people coped during this time in history.
About the Author
Allen "Al" Kussmaul still lives near Mt. Hope, Wisconsin. He turned 95 in February, 2009. He uses a 4-wheeler to get around and maintain his yard and garden. He still drives to Florida where he winters near Bokeelia, where he enjoys fishing, and maintaining his yard and garden there.
Al joined his brother Rud in the seed corn business in 1939 as salesman and together they built a business with salesmen all over the upper mid-west. After selling out the business, Al started his own seed company and is still calling on dealers today. He enjoys visiting with them and helping them with their business.