Mabel

Going to Oklahoma City

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:… for the Lord  holds him with his hand. Psalms 37:23-25

"I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me," Mabel said to herself as she stepped into the train bound for Oklahoma City. Tucked in her secret pocket were the few cents that remained of her saving after paying for her ticket. In her hand she held the most recent letter from Papa? Heavy fog shut out the raising spring sun, as she waved to Wallace and Estella.

         Mabel was 16 and had never traveled alone. She wanted Estella to come with her. However, Estella had no money, also she was in love with Wallace and didn’t want to leave him. Mabel had the feeling it might be the last time she would see Estella, she wondered if Estella was thinking it might be the last time she saw Mabel. She drove away the dark thought by telling herself, that Estella will be happy with Wallace and she will be happy with Papa. The thought of seeing Papa made her giggle. The lady sitting beside her in the train looked over in surprise. Mabel pretended to not notice. She did not want to talk she wanted to dream of the happiness that lie ahead.

         Mabel looked out the train station window in Hobart. She imaged the surprised look on Papa’s face when he would see her. The excitement tingled through her, down to her littlest toe and yet a gloom hung over her head. What if she never saw Estella again or if she did not find Papa? Where would she stay? What would she eat? Mabel pondered these thoughts as she waited for the next train that would take her toward Oklahoma City from where Papa had mailed his last letter to her. She encouraged herself by repeating her favorite verse. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

         As the train entered Oklahoma City, Mabel began reading the street names. She was hunting for 12^th Street. She had never seen so many streets or such large buildings. These must be real skyscrapers, she thought. To Mabel the four-story hospital in Mangum reached almost to the sky but it seemed small now. A large sign on top of a very tall building read, Colcord. It surely must be a hotel, she thought. Maybe I could get a job there. Such a fine hotel would pay good wages and I could rent a little house for Papa and me.

         In the big station, Mabel watched people scurrying this way and that. “I think half the world must be here today. I wondered where each one is going and if any one might be going to see their papa they hadn't seen in four years?”  She mumbled to herself. She wanted to ask someone where to find 12th St but each one seemed so busy. Even the ticket agents were busy selling tickets and answering questions.

         Before she had summoned courage to ask questions, she noticed an advertisement on the wall. It read Lee Huskins Hotel, Oklahoma City, 450 rooms, fire proof. Mabel caught her breath. Four hundred and fifty rooms? They must need many girls to clean all those rooms. After looking around a few minutes longer, she found a large city map on the south wall of the station and studied it. "There is the street where my papa lives!" she said to herself, her heart beat wildly. She stepped out of the station and looked around. There was the Lee Huskins Hotel towering over other building. It was just one block from the train station. She wanted to remember so she could come back and get a job.

         The street was full of cars, more cars than she had seen in her whole life. In the middle of the street going north and south were train tracts. People were getting off a little one car train while, others were scurrying on to the little train. Overhead was a long wire that connected to what looked like an electric wire. “Was electric pulling the train carrying all those people up the hill?” she wondered.

         Mabel stuck her head in the door of the little train, “Does this train go to 12^th Street,” she asked the driver.

         “Yes, Madam” he answered. Mabel jumped on and pulled her box up the steps and sat down behind the driver. ”This isn’t a train. It’s an electric trolley,” the driver told her. Most people call them streetcars. Oklahoma City has 68 miles of these tracts. We can carry people to almost any part of the city. You new in town?

         “Yes, why do you ask?”

         “New folks are arriving every day, a big hunk of ‘um looking for work in the new Model A factory or the meat packing houses. There’res been three companies open up meat packing houses here in the city. Together they represent 3.5 million dollars, and they have given our city 2,400 new jobs. Why the whole part of the city over there is called Packing Town because of those packing houses.” He threw his hand over his head and pointed southwest.

         Mabel made a mental note, Packing Town, another place to find a job. “This must be a very large city,” Mabel remarked.

         “Sure thing, it’s the fastest growun city in Oklahoma, maybe in the whole world. We’re only about 25 years old and boasting a population of 90,000 and like I said new folks are coming in everyday.”

         Mabel gasped, ninety thousand people, where would Papa be among so many?

         Mable had never ridden an electric trolley. It went so fast that her head was in a whirl trying to see the buildings as they passed.

         Before leaving the streetcar, she showed the driver her Papa’s address and asked which way to go. She was soon on the right street. Walking slowly along, she read the numbers on the few house that had numbers. She was going the right direction, soon she would find a number like the one on her papa's letter which she held tightly in her hand.

         “There it is, right in front of me!” me she gasped. Trembling with excitement, she knocked at the door. A woman opened it. "Does Simon Kelly live here?" Mabel asked.     

         "No, he doesn't," the woman answered. "He was living here, but he moved last week. He said something about getting a place so he could do his, own cooking. I only rent out sleeping rooms."

          Mable trembled. She felt dizzy. “You all right?” the woman ask.

         Yes,” she mumbled as she fought back tears.

         “You look like you just seen a ghost.”

         When Mable could finally speak, she said slowly, "Do you know where he moved? I've come a long way to see him. He-he's my-my papa."

         The woman saw Mabel needed help. “Say, Alfonzo,” she yelled, “Do you know where Mr. Kelley might be living?” Then she gave Mabel directions as to where she might find her papa.

         As Mabel walked along following the woman's directions, she quoted the Bible verse. “'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'” On and on she went carrying her box that contained all her belongings. She was thankful for the handle, which Wallace had made when he tied it securely with new rope. 

         Finally, she found the house. "Does Simon Kelly live here?" she asked.    

         "Who did you say?'' asked the lady at the door.

         "Simon Pleasant Andrew Kelly?

         "No, he doesn't live here. Never did. He might be the man who came asking about an apartment last week. But he never came back. There are more apartments at the end of this street. Maybe you'll find him there."

         Mabel walked on the direction the lady had pointed. She was tired and her box seemed to be growing heavier every step. She’d left Mangum early but had a wait over in Hobart and changed trains again in Chickasha. She walked passed a restaurant and the aroma of food in the air smelled delicious, but the lonely ach in her stomach was worst than hunger, besides she might need her money later. "Oh, Papa," she cried to herself, “Where are you? I've come such a long way."

         The manager of the apartment at the end of the street knew nothing about a big man named Simon Kelly.

         "God, help me," Mabel prayed as she walked slowly away. “In an hour it will be dark, and I have no money for a hotel. I don't know anyone in this big city. Please, Lord, help me find a place to get in out of the darkness?"

         The train station! I'll sit unnoticed on a bench through the night, she thought. Mable was completely lost after going to all the different apartment houses. Now where was the train station? The electric train did not run on the street she was on, so asking first this stranger and that she finally found her way back to the station. Dropping her heavy box beside her aching feet, she slumped onto a bench.

         Mabel needed courage so she untied her box and took out her Bible. Opening to Psalms. she read, “As a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him….The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.”

         The next thing Mabel knew was that she was waking up and the train station was empty and quiet. Looking around she noticed the ticket agent glancing at her and then at the clock. Finally, he called to her, "There are no more arrivals or departures tonight. The station will be closing in five minutes."     

         Mabel jumped to her feet and ran to his window, "I-I-I wasn't waiting for a train —" she hesitated.     

         "You'll have to find a room for the night, Madam," he said. "It's time to lock the station doors.

         "I have no place to go, and no money," she protested.

         "I'm sorry," he said, as if it meant nothing.

         Mabel picked up her box and walked slowly out into the night. 

Taken from "Mable" a book about my mother. Lord willing, it will be published in it in 2014. The picture was taken on Mable's sixteenth birthday.