We had to walk 19 miles today, so we got an early start. The same students who greeted us outside the school yesterday were there again to tell us goodbye. The prayer circle encompassed the whole of the large parking lot.

As we left, we were followed by a man driving an old Ford. He was a free-lance photographer, he said, and certainly he took a lot of pictures. He would stop his car, take a few pictures and a nip from his bottle, then race toward us. The pattern was repeated many times and sometimes he came very close to hitting people. Even when a walker asked him not to drive so close, he persisted until the police asked him to leave.

Between Levittown and Princeton, we walked through mostly rural areas uneventfully. A young Black police officer waited at the bridge into Trenton. As we approached, he got out of his car and came over to welcome us to Trenton. He shook everyone's hand as we walked past him, and then served as our escort through town. Then it was on through more of the "garden state" to Princeton, where we were to stay at the Episcopal Church.

   June 4, Princeton to New Brunswick
We walked 18 miles today. The tendons in my ankles hurt from walking in gravel all day yesterday._ At 4 o'clock we arrived for a prayer vigil at the Army Recruiting Center, in the same building as E. F. Hutton. Yoshida was speaking when a recruiting officer walked past. Yoshida told us that in Japan for twenty years after WW II, Military men were too ashamed to wear their uniforms in public. The military was a dishonored profession because the people had seen what militarism could do to a country. But now, Yoshida said, Japan has forgotten the lessons of the war. To some extent this is also true in the US. What will it take to keep that lesson in our minds always?

About fifteen local people joined us for the vigil. I talked with a woman from the Peace Center. She asked, "How long does it take to walk from New Orleans? A month?"

At supper we were joined by thirty people who called themselves the Peace Pilgrims. They had taken two weeks to drive from California to the Special Session in a bus that looked like Bob's. They also stopped at military bases and weapon factories to hold vigils. The people who had prepared our supper had not expected so many walkers. Supper consisted of a spoonful of beans and a spoonful of macaroni.

   June 5, New Brunswick to Elizabeth
When I woke up, the first thing that entered my mind was that we would be in NYC tomorrow. This would be our next to last day of walking. And it rained constantly as we walked from one small town to another.

   June 6, Elizabeth, NJ to New York City
This day I would walk the final nineteen miles of a 1,895 mile journey. I started out with a sore throat and a cold. The heavy rain of yesterday had ended, but it was still misty with temperatures in the 50s, much like the weather as we left New Orleans on New Year's Day. I started out this morning with a sore throat and a cold. Since New Year's Day I had lost more than twenty pounds and could be said to be just skin and bones. My joints ached and my feet were bruised.

It was Sunday, and in Brooklyn many people were drawn out of their houses into the streets by the sound of the prayer drums. First we walked through the Puerto Rican section and were well received. Next we walked through the Italian section, where we were less than enthusiastically received. Some of the street gangs walked beside us, shouting their threats. But I loved walking through Brooklyn: it was like no other place that we had been before.

We were welcomed to New York with a few short speeches when we reached the YWCA where we were to spend the night. I was sick and tired and not in much of a mood to celebrate, even if there had been a celebration. go to page51