In the early 1940s, Rudolph Washington
worked at his shoeshine stand here
every Saturday and Sunday

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This Week's Stories

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NO MAN'S LAND
By James D. Pearce

In the late 1800s, railroads were the big things in the USA. Everybody wanted one, and the federal and state governments did everything they could to encourage the expansion of the tracks ~ even to the extent of allowing the big lines to condemn and use practically any property along the way that they needed or wanted.

When Ahoskie came into being around 1890, it really was more railroad than it was town. The City Fathers of the time knew that if the village was going to get any bigger, it needed the rails, and they weren't about to do anything to halter the iron horse of progress.

The railroad chose and took a fair-size piece of land north of Main Street, almost to the present First Street ~ on the west side of the tracks ~ for its depot, waiting rooms and ticket office, and freight and express-loading facilities.

The depot, barely 50 yards from Main Street, had two waiting rooms ~ one for "white" and one for "colored." This really was one room converted into two by means of a short wall, a large pot-bellied heater and a little office for the ticket and express agent. At the north end of the depot a long covered loading dock, built to the level of a freight car's floor, was constructed. Between this dock and Railroad Street there was sufficient space for wagons and trucks, so they could load the freight that had just been unloaded from the boxcars on the other side.

The empty space between the depot and Main Street was left for buggies and carts of local folks arriving or leaving by rail.

The area of course was prime business property, and across Railroad Street there came a bank, a hotel, a newspaper office, a furniture store, a school house and a sawmill. And some enterprising businessmen decided that the vacant space between the depot and Main Street would be even better business property.

In the early 1900s, some of the heirs of the owners of the property that had been confiscated by the railroad decided that if ACL wasn't going to use the land between the depot and Main Street, they would like to have it back for commercial use ~ and so they went to court.

The court action turned out to be indecisive, to say the least, since the heirs were contesting each other as well as ACL. The plaintiffs decided around the time of the First World War that pursuing the case probably wasn't going to be worth the cost. And so the matter was dropped. But not without a lot of people making use of the vacant lot ~ and saying, "Well, whose property is this, anyway?"

"No Man's Land," quickly became the standard answer ~ a reference to that part of Europe that at the time was being fought over by the Allies and Germany in "The War to End All Wars."

And that was the origin of Ahoskie's "No Man's Land" ~ a small plot of land undeveloped by the railroad and abandoned by the heirs of the original owners.

It became the main gathering place of the general public downtown, and served as a "hack" and "jitney" pickup spot for rail travelers who were in need of further local transportation. (Hacks and jitneys were early versions of taxicabs ~ their entrepreneurs used everything from buggies to Model Ts to mules-and-carts.)

It became a second home to enterprising vendors of the fruits of the gardens, and a favorite spot for "rummage sales" ~ old-time "yard sales."

A number of fellows set up shoeshine stands to vie for the polishing trade of the railroad travelers and the Saturday shopping crowd.

One of them was Rudolph Washington, who also worked at the newspaper. But his shoeshine stand wasn't just a chair and a short stool. He had a large semi-permanent two-seater ~ on wheels ~ that he used in the early mornings and late afternoons, and on weekends when he wheeled it right up against the sidewalk on Main Street.

Rudolph, who worked every waking hour of his life, soon had a monopoly on the No Man's Land shoeshine business.

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REMEMBER OL' ERA

            One weekend, Rudolph – Boweaver's friend at the print shop – had to cart his shoeshine stand back to his house for some repair work.  He asked Boweaver to help.

            When they left the paved streets and sidewalks of the white section of town and moved onto the muddy roads of Rudolph's neighborhood, Boweaver looked around and shuddered.

            He thought he already had seen some of the world's worst places to live, but he was finding that Rudolph's habitat was about a half-mile closer to Hades.

            After they unloaded the shoeshine stand in the yard, Rudolph took Boweaver in to meet his mother.

            She looked him over.  "You Cap'n Fred's boy?"

            "Yes'm."

            "Well, then, you be Nora Copeland's young 'un."

            "Why, yes, ma'm."

            "Lordamercy, boy," the old woman said.  "I used to work for yo mammy when you was born.  I washed you and I changed yo diapers.  You ever hear yo mammy talk about ol' Era Washington?"

            "No'm," said Boweaver.  "I don't think I ever did."

            "Well, young 'un, I'll tell you, yo mammy knows ol' Era Washington.  You go home, and you ask yo mammy if she don't know ol' Era Washington.  Yo mammy'll remember ol' Era."

            As he and Rudolph went out the door and through the yard, Boweaver still could hear the old woman intoning:

            "Yes suh.  I washed and changed yo diapers.  Yo ol' mammy'll remember ol' Era.

            "You ask yo mammy.  She'll remember ol' Era Washington."

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This Week's Verse

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Hangin' round the water tank, waitin' for a train,
A thousand miles away from home, and sleepin' in the rain,
I went up to the brakeman, to try a little talk,
He said, if you've got money, I'll see that you don't walk.

I haven't a dime or a nickel, not a penny could I show,
Well, get off, get off, you railroad bum;
He slammed that boxcar door.

There aint nobody wants me, or will lend a helpin' hand,
I'm going south from Philly, headin' for Dixieland,
My pocketbook is empty; my heart is full of pain,
A thousand miles away from home, just waitin' for a train.

(Hobo classic, popularized by Jimmie Rodgers, c. 1930)

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This Week's Wisdom

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O, wad some power the giftie gie us,
to see oursel's as others see us.
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
and foolish notion.

(Robert Burns)

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