January 2, Kenner to La Place
Our spirits were even higher today than they were yesterday. The weather was still warm, with a little more rain than yesterday. There were only about twenty walkers left, including six preteens. We all helped their parents keep them out of the traffic. Our walk was more disciplined today as we walked two by two with less of the idle talk of yesterday. Several more of us have now picked up the chant.

This day (I shall sometimes, as was seen above, copy from my diary and write "Today", "tomorrow", "yesterday", etc.) was the first day that the long-distance walkers began to get really acquainted. The three monks were Morishita, Nagase, and Sakamaki. The two Danish reporters, Neils and Carster, worked for an anarchist youth newspaper. Carole was a former teacher from Quebec. Mercury was from the Federal Republic of Germany. Clearly he was German, but he told others he was from Canada. He explained that he was tired of people asking him about Hitler. Two Americans finished the group: Julia, most recently from The Farm in Tennessee, and I.

During the day six people, mainly vacationers, pulled off the road to offer their support. There were also a few hecklers who threw firecrackers at us from their cars. Many people knew who we were from of the broadcast on TV last night and the article in the New Orleans Times newspaper. The TV news actually gave better coverage to the YAFers than to us. The newspaper gave front-page coverage, but the article made us look like a bunch of college students on Christmas vacation, following cult leaders. It said almost nothing about disarmament or the United Nations. Clearly we had to improve our skills in relating to the media.

Audrey, a college sophomore, met us at La Place and took us to her parents' home for supper. Neils and Carster stayed the night there to exchange news with the Danish-born grandfather and family. The rest of us spent the night in a vacant apartment, courtesy of Audrey's realtor mother.

   January 3, 1982, La Place to Gramercy
Today's distance was only ten miles, but it was difficult because of the weather. A heavy rain last night continued through most of today. Yesterday we walked 17 miles. Most of us were not used to walking such long distances. My feet and legs ached so much that I had to sleep all night with my feet elevated. Today our feet sank in soft mud up to our ankles. Three of us were limping noticeably.

The Center for Disarmament Education (CDE) had been unable to find housing for us in Gramercy, so we were transported to Baton Rouge for the night. We were grateful not to be sleeping in the mud of the roadside, but it was a little discouraging to make the hour trip knowing that early next morning the same church activity bus would return us to Gramercy to begin a two-day walk over the same distance. We were skiers riding the chair-lift down as well as up the hill.

   January 4, 1982, Gramercy to Gonzales
Thankfully, the weather cleared and the temperatures were once again in the 70s. A family from Baton Rouge joined us for the rest of the walk through Louisiana. Jack and Mary Jane Smith, both anti-war activists in the sixties, brought their children -- ten-year-old Penny and six-month-old Natt -- with them. This assured that the number of walkers for the next week would be at least 17.

   January 5, 1982, Gonzales to Baton Rouge
We woke up to a heavy frost with ice on the windshield. For the first time we wore coats, hats, and gloves as we started out -- all except the monks, that is. They took off their coats when we began to walk, explaining that it is the mind that gets cold, not the body. They walked in temperatures as low as five degrees with no outer clothing but their robes. Sometimes during breaks you could hear their teeth chattering. It was then I began to understand that the monks viewed the peace march as a prayer for peace, characterized by rituals that must be observed.

When we arrived in Baton Rouge, just in time for our first official press conference, we met our state coordinator, Loris Wimberly, and a few of our other hosts. Brad Ott, the New Orleans facilitator, and I were to stay with Charles Briggs, a philosophy professor at Louisiana State University.

The Center for Disarmament Education had arranged two talk programs for us tomorrow: one on TV at 6:00 a.m., the other on radio at 3:00 p.m. Neils agreed to do the early morning program, as we thought that people would be interested in hearing about the European disarmament movement. Carole and Mercury were asked if they would like to do one of the programs. Carole said she would go, but that she would talk about something "positive" like meditation or vegetarian diets. She would not talk about nuclear weapons because this would create "negative energy" in the universe and thus help to bring on a nuclear war. Loris looked at me, and I volunteered to do the afternoon program.go to page7