Mardi Gras 1974 - Goin' Home

Mardi Gras 1974 continued... goin' home. We tried to get a good night sleep before leaving but of course that was impossible as the partying at the stadium continued even though the mantle of Lent descended on New Orleans. 

We left the city and traveled on through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland and back into Pennsylvania. The gas crisis

was still going on and again it took us an extra day of travel because of the gas shortages and long lines when available. We were exhausted to and shared the driving. Fortunately I had a shoe box full of cassette tapes of music because those southern radio stations really sucked. 

When we finally entered into Pennsylvania from western Maryland we needed to get more gas but then realized that because we had PA plates we were now subject to the odd/even days for getting gas and it was the wrong

day. We had to drop back into Maryland and travel east looking for gas. We eventually were able to fill the tank and then drive back into PA and on to Philadelphia. 

When we got home I think we slept for a couple of days. I couldn't find a job at the time and went on unemployment. There was a recession, the war in Vietnam had ended (sort of) but returning veterans were not finding jobs. I took some classes at Temple University and went full time in the fall semester that year. I had bought the house in our old neighborhood that my great-grandparents had owned and raised my grandmother and her sisters and brother. I spent a lot of time working on that 1876 home. A couple of years later Becky would move in there with me and we would start our life together.