9 June 65 : Vultures and hungry cattle : Montgomery, Alabama

Wednesday 9^th June 1965

Dear Family,

Well, unfortunately our plans changed at the last moment and our trip to the West has been cancelled and we shall not now be going. Instead we are staying in the Alabama area and backtracking and doing some of the jobs that we couldn’t do on our way down.

We are at present back in Montgomery and the weather is very poor. It is been very cloudy for a few days now, and the temperature has dropped to the low 70’s and honestly it has been just as if it’s winter. A drop of 20 is quite a lot, and the difference is very noticeable – although to you probably 70’s sounds high – but to us it is now quite cold.

We drove a long way from New Orleans last Sunday to a place called Laurel in Mississippi, and when we went to do the job on Monday, the fellow didn’t want the job done.

This was our last job on our list and we didn’t know where we had to go next, so we just had to sit and wait for a phone call. We waited nearly two days, but unfortunately it rained heavily for most of this time, so it was a bit of a bore. Eventually the call came, and we had to drive 200 miles to Montgomery where we are now.

On the way we saw an amazing sight. A cow, which had been killed on the road, was lying at the side of the road and there were about a dozen vultures tearing at the carcass.

We were told that they would pick it clean, and also that these birds are protected by law as they are scavengers.

Also, the other day we were driving through the country and we saw a cattle auction, and we stopped and went in. It was in a roughly built wooden arena and there were lots of real cowboy looking types in Stetson hats and cowboy boots.

It was quite interesting and we were quite surprised as to how cheap the cattle went for, although they were mostly skin and bones. There seems to be little regard for animals here (as in Spain) and we have seen many starving animals.

To be continued… 

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