At the afternoon rest stop, a young man pulled off the road to talk with us. He had read about us in the paper and come out specially. Just this week he had been discharged from the navy because his father had a stroke and he was needed at home. He told us he had been aboard a submarine. Every day for three years, he had lived in fear that he would be asked to push the button that would start the nuclear war.

    January 18, Gautier to Moss Point
Today was beautiful with temperatures once more into the 60s. We were joined by a few people from St. Mary's Catholic Church. So far about 300 people have walked with us.

We arrived at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Moss Point around noon and had the rest of the afternoon off. It was my turn to wash clothes, which took almost all afternoon but gave me the opportunity to have long conversations with Father Jim Taylor, owner of the washing machine.

Since we had gotten a lot of donations recently (including $105 from the children's second "peace" bake sale), Morishita asked me to be the group's treasurer. There was to be strict bookkeeping, showing the source of each donation and the amount of each expenditure, including postage stamps. Money spent on our personal needs came out of our own pockets while legitimate expenses for the walk came out of group funds.

Many people attended the prayer service tonight and treated treated us like celebrities. After the service most of the children asked for our autographs. It was difficult to get adjusted to this role and to being always watched.

After the service we noticed that Julia, Neils, and Carster were gone. We suspected that they had gone out to drink a few beers. They returned around midnight, waking everyone including Father Taylor.

   January 19, Moss Point to five miles past the Alabama line
Carster and Julia did not walk today, but 25 other people joined us, mostly to walk to the state line. The majority were junior and senior high school students. The editor of the high school paper was diligently interviewing people all morning.

A young black man was standing by the road at one point trying to hitch a ride to Mobile. He had been to Biloxi looking for work, without success. After talking with Neils for a while, he decided to walk with us the rest of the day. Our support vehicle gave him a ride home at the end. He said he had never thought much about the threat of nuclear war before, but talking with Neils convinced him that the threat was real.

Sister Mary Richards and others from Kiln were waiting at the state line to say goodbye to us. The walkers from Gautier and Moss Point also had to leave us at the state line. But waiting to greet us were our Mobile coordinators, Diane and Jeannette. They brought mail. A letter from Pamela, our overall coordinator, provided me with the names and addresses of state coordinators so that we could have mail forwarded there. She also gave us instructions on how to rest during breaks, e.g., lie down.

We were picked up fourteen miles outside Mobile and driven into the city to stay in a former convent, now used as the office of a Catholic social service agency downstairs and for short-term housing upstairs. There were bunk beds in each room and we would be spending three nights there.

Morishita, Mercury, and I had taped a 45-minute interview with the student radio station of Spring Hill College, a Roman Catholic school with about a thousand students where we were to speak in two days. The interviewers warned us that the college was very conservative, that few people would come to hear us and fewer would support us.

Later Carster and Morishita got into a loud argument because Carster had not walked today. Carster said his feet hurt. Morishita believed it was because he was out late last night.

   January 20, from near the state line to Mobile
Today was another beautiful sunny day. We walked eighteen miles to arrive officially in Mobile. We had very good media coverage in the Mobile area: yesterday three newspapers and today two TV stations. The coverage was sympathetic.

   January 21, Rest day in Mobile
We had a program tonight at Spring Hill College. This was our first that was not either a prayer vigil or an interfaith service. The program had been arranged only two days ago, but it was well publicized on the campus. Our group went to the student cafeteria for supper and got into lively conversations with the students, almost before we sat down. One asked me pointedly, "I mean, what do you all do besides demonstrate? Do you just walk up and down the road, demonstrating?"

Our program was at eight. Morishita read a statement from the address of the Most Venerable Fuji, who initiated the World Peace March, and gave background information on the walk. Using the notes I had prepared for the radio interview in Baton Rouge, I presented a history of the arms race and the effects of weapons. Then Neils followed with a discussion of the European disarmament movement, including an anti-nuclear poem he had written. For a first program it was excellent. The room was completely filled with almost 100 people. This represented about ten percent of the students at this "conservative" college. More than ninety people signed our petition. Only a few people asked hostile questions about "Communist aggression in Central America" and the like.

The program was over at ten, but Neils and Carster stayed behind to talk with some of the students. They came back at 2 a.m., really drunk, and woke us all up banging on the locked door.go to page 11