The Light by Reginald J. Williams

Author:Reginald J. Williams [Williams, Reginald J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466908369
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Published: 2012-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Life on the Avenue

THE YEAR WAS 1946; it had been almost a year since President Truman had given the go ahead to drop the two Atomic Bombs on Japan, thus putting an official end to World War II.

James Pettigrew had come to Los Angeles after mustering out of the army on advice from Lonniel Golston, an army buddy. He was twenty one years old, still in one piece with all his mental faculties and he had $1500 in his pockets. The war experience had not been too bad on James, after boot camp it was discovered that he had worked as a fry cook in Tupelo, Mississippi so he was assigned to the camp mess hall. While the rest of his company shipped out to Fort Hood, Texas to begin training as combat tank crews, James remained in Mississippi. Years later he would often wonder how he would have fared in combat. The black soldiers who trained at Fort Hood eventually went on to distinguish themselves as the 761st Tank Battalion, a highly decorated all-black combat unit in the European Campaign. James would correspond with buddies in the unit that kept him updated on their exploits. General George Patton himself had said they were one of the best fighting units in Europe. James wondered how much his life would have turned out different if he had gone overseas with the 761st

Even though James spent the entire war years in the states, he did manage to promote to the rank of sergeant based on his culinary and administrative skills in the mess hall. The camp commander was especially impressed with the meals served at the camp. It turned out that James just didn’t prepare meals Government Issue army style; he used the experience he learned as a fry cook and instituted his own down home southern methods. He used herbs and spices that were passed down from generation to generation in his family to enhance the bland, tasteless cuisine that was usually dished out to the GIs. The camp commander, a good old southern boy himself who was raised on black southern cooking, took a liking to James and made sure that he was treated well by all the southern white soldiers at the base. As it turned out he didn’t have to intervene on James behalf too often. As racist as most of the whites assigned there were, they enjoyed eating good food even more.

Lonniel would tell James, “Boy these country crackers come in here weighing 90lbs. wringing wet and leave looking like Bobo the fat clown. When this war is over” he continued. “You should bring your black ass out to the coast and open up a down home southern style restaurant”. So in the summer of 1946, James Pettigrew found himself getting off the train at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Lonniel had told him to head straight for Central Ave., that’s where all the action was.

Central Ave. from about 14th Street on the north up to Century Ave.

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