What Is It With Me?

By Danny C. Hall

What Is It With Me? is a collection of tales from the mind and life of Danny C. Hall, self-appointed mayor of Turnip Hill. We're not exactly sure where that is, but it's got to be a fun place to live.
Danny, a son of the south, spent some time in his childhood up north. He learned to fight to defend the south, as well as gaining other life skills.
He finally had his fill of the north and eventually made his way back to his beloved Loop in rural Rutledge, Alabama. His adventures of growing up, dating, marrying and serving time in the military, and then back home to Rutledge are now collected in this book. Danny's a teller of tales- some poignant, some humorous, some tall, and some not so much.
We believe you'll enjoy them, every last one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Danny C. Hall
• Release date: Apr 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370977161

Book preview

Chapter 1

Between here and Indiana.

What is it with me? I grew up between here and Indiana. I was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Funny I can’t remember that, I do remember living on a mountain in north Alabama. In a one room shack - we were so poor the only thing we saw on the kitchen table was elbows.

Well I was told Dad got shot, so we had to move quick; my uncle was from Rutledge Alabama - he was a moonshiner who I guess learned a trade while doing a stretch in prison. So we headed up to Indiana where he was to start a new life. I think I was 5 (nobody told me and I didn’t write it down); funny how kids don’t keep up with that kinda thing lol.

Well anyhow I forgot the point I was trying to make so I will tell some more tomorrow (If I can remember). See ya tomorrow.

Chapter 2

One bedroom house in Indiana.

We got to Indiana, lived in a one bedroom house trailer in a trailer park; more like a camp site, the shower and bathrooms were in a block building in the middle of the park. I’m not sure how long we were there maybe a year. Next we were moving on up! Or down?

It was a basement apartment next to Standard Oil Company, if the smell didn’t kill ya! Oh well , I guess I was about 7, I remember well cause I started my life of crime lol. I was in the alley which adjoins Standard Oil Co. And our little piece of heaven and had some fireworks (yep you guessed it) I started a fire in a trash can that went Viral! Oh baby - it jumped the fence to S O C -oh what a fire!

Of course I ran like the criminal arsonist I was to the basement hide out. Mom was home and heard the sirens of a 3 alarm fire and went outside along with two city blocks of people; I, who had seen so many fires in my career as an arsonist, was not interested to go (yea I had never seen a fire truck in action) but I told mom I’ll just stay in and play with my toy soldiers.

I admit I could have won the Oscar that year. I don’t know if the statute of limitations has run its course or not (hope so) but I got away clean. Well, more tomorrow.

Chapter 3

Little Redneck kid up North.

From the basement apartment to an upstairs apartment in Hammond Indiana, we’re moving up town yea.

Now in between all this moving we went to school! Yea little redneck Alabama kids up north, where we were made sport of. I guess that’s where I learned to fight (and I liked it). It was like me representing the South against the North all over again, I was a rebel (with a cause) lol.

Ever since we were 8 years old, the day after school was out me and my sister were put on a train in Chicago, called the Hummingbird Express; it went from Chicago to New Orleans. Mom would pack our bags for me and sister Norma and carry us to the train station where she would meet with the conductor of the train and put him in charge of us until we got off in Montgomery Alabama; there we were met by Granddaddy and Grandmother to spend 3 months on the Rutledge Loop.

My roots were here; I loved it here. The loop was a dirt road all the way around. My cousins Marsha Hall Senn and Charles Hall and family were just up the road; my other cousins, Jeannette Hall and aunts were all here plus aunts and cousins in Industry Alabama. Just a few miles up the road maybe 24 miles, (another story); our whole summer was here. I hated Indiana - I didn’t want to leave ‘bama.

Anyhow, back in Hammond, we had moved uptown in the upstairs apartment. We had a small back yard and some friends next door also from the Alabama Tribe lol so I dint have to fight the War Between the States all the time. More tomorrow.

Chapter 4

Hostess Twinkles for $.10.

I remember once in that upstairs apartment I had found a dollar! Now a dollar then was like 10 now, a pack of Hostess Twinkies was 2 in a pack for 10 cents, so being a connoisseur of great sweets and about 10 years old I bought 10 packs of Twinkies (yes just in case there was an apocalypse).

Well as I was on my third Twinkie, my dear sister asks if she could have one. I, hoarding my Twinkies, knowing the world could end before I could get anymore, said no. Now it was a possibility that on my last cake she could have half; suddenly Dad heard the racket, came in and my sister acted as if she was crying because I wouldn’t share my world of Twinkies.

Well it was on then! You don’t share, its death by stuffing. Yes! Pop said, here’s a dollar, go to the store and by 10 more packs! Yea Pop’s gonna give sister some and mom and more for me. (Wrong) When I got back, he sat me down and said EAT! Do you realize how sick 20 packs of Twinkies can make you? Yes till this very day lol... More tomorrow.

Chapter 5

We moved into a brand new house in a new suburb.

We moved from the upstairs apartment in Hammond to Hessville, Indiana, right next to Gary. We moved into a brand new house in a new suburb; we had went from a 1 room shack on a mountain to a new 3 bedroom home in a nice neighborhood.

I was on the track team; I was a pole vaulter in 7th grade. Things were looking up: I had girlfriends, a new Schwinn bike, but I still spent every summer in Bama - all 3 months of it . After that summer, I went back to school. I think I was 12 when Mom and Dad got a divorce!

Sometimes money changes things not always for the best. After the break up the house was sold. I had a choice to make. One day after I turned 13 years old, I told my mom I was going to Alabama. Her life was tough; she had no skills, a single mother with 4 kids, two below 4 years old and a daughter 15 and me! She didn’t want me to go but it would only help with one less to feed.

I hitchhiked from Indiana to Luverne Alabama, when I was 13. I was a tough kid; I was street wise, no innocent. I had been exposed to drugs, homosexuals, and alcohol; kids up there learned early back then.

A week went by on the road and I was in Bama. That year I started school in Luverne, met and made friends, but it was right back to fighting the war between the states again; this time I was the Yankee (I didn’t want to be) My uncle Joe Hall nicknamed me Yank; the kids at school called me Daygo. I had long black hair combed into a duck tail hairdo that made me look like a hood. I had to fight all 3 of the Bolling boys in school; just felt like a new gun fighter in town - everybody wanted to try me.

More tomorrow.

Chapter 6

Going back to Alabama to live with Grandparents.

My cousin Charles Hall is a workaholic; even when we were kids, he would rather be working when I had plans for us to be getting into something useless and shady. He went out for football in Luverne High School and made the team; I went out for the team and Coach Daniels told me I was trouble and had the wrong outlook on life.

I did smoke and drink but so did 80% of the football team. They just didn’t get caught! I didn’t care who knew as long as my Uncle Joe and grandmother didn’t find out! They would have beat me ‘til I liked it.

I did notice I was getting a better education here than up north. After junior high, they don’t care up north if you show up or not. Most kids drop out, especially back then when the steel mills were hiring and going strong; big money, union benefits .

The next summer I went up north again to work with my Dad. I was 15; things didn’t work out, so I went live with mom again. About the time school started, she was living in east Chicago in a very very bad place. I was a minority there, 1 white to 10 black and Puerto Rican and Mexican. If you were not in a gang, you were fair game to get whumped every day going to or leaving school or any other place in that town.

If I made it home from school in one piece I would do my homework in a hurry and catch a bus to a hamburger place in the next town over, and work till 11:00 pm then catch a bus home in time to shower and get some sleep.

I had a girlfriend; she was Puerto Rican. It lasted a couple months until her ex-boyfriend’s gang caught me going home one day. I survived, but it was time to leave again, so I told mom I was going back to Alabama to live with my grandparents. So I quit school and started hitchhiking again - 15 and free. Went back to school in Luverne. More tomorrow.

Chapter 7

I'm 15 and back in school in Luverne.

I’m 15, back in school in Luverne; I live with my grandparents on the Rutledge loop. My first memories of the Rutledge loop when I was a little boy: it was dirt all the way around. We lived, or when I was here with my grandparents, on the old Bentley farm or S J Morris farm.

Mr. Morris pretty much owned half the loop and Mr. Thardard the rest, with a hand full of folks scattered in between. We were across the road from the double ponds I think Danny Mount owns now. Just below us was the Broadway’s house. Granddaddy had a field rented just east of Mr. Broadway’s house. You kinda had