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Richard Bostwick Reminiscences Welfare Office Stories
Prohibition Stories |
Aiding And Abetting The first time I came in contact with the following situation was one evening when I was dispatched to a small corner grocery store across the river on the far side of town. As I pulled up in front a young girl came out and climbed into my cab. She was a very pretty girl who I am sure was not a day over 15 or 16 years old-if that. She told me to take her to an address that was back across the river from where I had come. Her destination proved to be a little yellow house which was in one of the poorer districts in town. As she alighted from my cab, she told me to charge her fare to her boyfriend. Now, each of us drivers carried a list of our customers who had an approved credit rating with our firm. Her boyfriend's name had a French flavor to it, and it was not on our list. I informed her of the fact, and she said he had established his credit only that same day. I took her at her word and proceeded back to my regular cabstand where I called my dispatcher. He informed me that the girl had told me the truth-that her boyfriend had established his credit with our firm that very same morning. Well, a day or two later I was dispatched to a local department store. On arrival, out came a large black man who appeared to be in his mid-forties. He told me to take him to the same address as I had driven the young white girl to. He got out of my cab in front of the little yellow house, and told me to charge his fare to his account, which was the same as the young girl had charged her fare to. During the following weeks I drove this girl on several occasions, and often struck up a conversation with her. On one of these occasions, she told me all about her boyfriend who was a maintenance man at a local department store downtown, and how generous he was by allowing her to charge her cab fare to his account. She went on to tell me about the several other accounts he had established for her with several local stores. She sure made use of those accounts. Every time she returned home she would be loaded down with packages and boxes resulting from her shopping sprees. Further conversation with her revealed that she was the oldest of several brothers and sisters, and that her family was on welfare. Being on welfare was not to be held against them, for during those days many of the families survived in the very same manner. She was quite a pretty and shapely little thing, but also she seemed a little ‘slow'-you know, a little dumb and she had a decided hillbilly accent. Quite often during the weeks that followed, one of our cabs would pick her and her boyfriend up around 8:30 p.m. at the department store where he worked and then drop them off at the same little yellow house. Then during the wee hours of the morning, one of our cabs would be called to pick her up and take her home. Her home consisted of a run down shack on the outskirts of town, with all kinds of junk piled up in the overgrown yard. Driving this kid to and from her rendezvous with this big black, man who was old enough to be her father (with years to spare) made me feel as though I was aiding and abetting the situation. All of us drivers knew what was going on-we all knew this big black buck was screwing this dumb little white girl. But what the hell was it any of our business? We were hack drivers, not chaperones. And besides, if her parents didn't object to her activities then why the hell should we? The last time I drove this kid she was accompanied by a matron from the juvenile court. Someone had reported her affair with the black man to the juvenile authorities. I believe it must have been the families' caseworker from the welfare office. The black man was arrested, convicted, and subsequently sent to prison for statutory rape. What became of the young girl, I never knew. I never saw her again after her boyfriend's credit had been canceled.
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Institute for Regional Studies Home Page 701-231-8914 Published by the Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU Updated: 7/30/2007 |