When the new arrivals arrived north and west of Starling, Gladney and Foster, the welcome was not warm. Wilkerson says that often when immigrants from southern states came to the north or west, most of the time people would shut the door on them and not want to help them. It took them a long time to find their place in the big cities of the North and West, but the southerners who remained eventually found their way using elements of the old culture with the new opportunities of the north. Additionally, traveling to the new states was not easy for African Americans. They usually travel by train, boat or bus. And it was very dangerous to travel because of the gas station where you could stop and even stop to get food. Also the long trips ahead. You would never know what problems would lead you to the journey. Typically, once black citizens arrived in the state, it was difficult to settle down and find employment due to a skills shortage. Like Ida Mae, her husband, George, ended up carrying ice cream up and down stairs in cold Chicago, and Ida Mae did domestic work before finding a decent job. Wilkerson also says it took them a long time to actually settle into an affordable home on Chicago's South Side. Then the trip south wasn't cheap to get that far, so many African Americans figured that having money before they left would be the best solution.