- 7/4/2025
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00:00Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:30As the drover runs the cattle trail
00:41And the sailor follows billowed sail
00:44So the hobo tames the iron trail
00:46And longs for places far
00:49The open road becomes his home
00:51He can't subdue his urge to roam
00:54The headlight and the whistle's moan
00:57Become his guiding star
00:59Who works and wanders
01:02Also learns and in his heart
01:04He always yearns to see beyond the river's turns
01:08The view from rolling cars
01:12All around the water tank
01:24Waiting for a train
01:27A thousand miles away from home
01:32Sleeping in the rain
01:35I walked up to a brakeman
01:39To give him time to talk
01:43He says, you've got money
01:47I'll see that you don't walk
01:51I haven't got a nickel
01:55Not a penny can I show
01:59Get off, get off
02:01You're a railroad bum
02:03You know, when we were kids
02:14We used to walk the railroad tracks
02:17To see how far he could walk
02:19Make bets among ourselves, you know
02:22Oh boy, look at this
02:23Look how far he's going
02:24And occasionally you see a train pass by
02:29And you see a hobo up there
02:32And you wave at him
02:33They'd wave back
02:36You wondered where these people were going
02:40It was a fascinating adventure in our little lives
02:46To look at these fellas
02:49And realize that they were going somewhere
02:53And on a train
02:55I was a real hobo
03:00I did not have a stable home
03:03So I was always willing to
03:06Head out for a new adventure
03:11I listened to a lot of those old Jimmy Rogers songs
03:13And he talked about riding freight trains
03:17And made it sound so enticing
03:18That I just couldn't stay off of them
03:20I like the lifestyle
03:21I like the people I associate with
03:23And of course it's a free ride
03:25It's like being on a time machine
03:26Where you ride along
03:28And you see so many historical elements of this country
03:32I've always been intrigued with travel
03:34And adventure
03:37It's like kind of recharging your batteries
03:40I'm out here seeing things I missed when I was a kid
03:43It's an experience that in a lot of ways
03:46Just escapes an explanation
03:49You really have to do it to understand what it's like
03:52I think it's the adventure and the thrill
03:54And sometimes just the peace
03:56To watch the country go by
03:57And I always call it National Geographic Life
04:00Self-survival, you know
04:03Eat when you want to eat
04:06Sleep when you want to sleep
04:07You don't have to worry about the IRS
04:11It's in the blood, I guess
04:14Once you do it, it's in you
04:18You can't quit
04:18You call your own shots
04:20As you see fit for yourself
04:24I don't own a car right now
04:26I don't like riding Greyhound buses, man
04:29Because I always get lucky, man
04:30I always draw the wild card
04:31I get some big old gal sitting next to me
04:33Who wants to fall asleep with her head in my lap
04:35And I can't smoke a cigarette or drink a beer
04:37And I can do this in a boxcar
04:38I rode freight trains all my life
04:40Because I just love to do it
04:42Ah, the rhythm of the rails is an enticing song
04:47To those who long to be far away
04:49Like the Pied Piper, wandering souls have followed the tracks
04:54Stitched like seams across the country since the Civil War
04:58Legend has it that Erie Crip and Philly Pop
05:03Two discharged Union soldiers were the founding members
05:06Of the fraternity of freight-hopping hobos
05:09The two men, accustomed to the open-air military lifestyle
05:13Hitched a ride on a passing freight
05:15And rambled over the horizon
05:17Other Civil War veterans followed suit
05:20And hopped on trains to get back home
05:23While the less fortunate soldiers
05:24Left homeless by the devastating war
05:27Rode the rails in search of a new beginning
05:29A great number of these early wanderers
05:32Sought jobs as migrant farm workers
05:35And carried hoes along with them
05:37Therefore, it is thought the nickname hobo
05:42Is derived from being called homeward-bound soldiers
05:46Or ho-boys
05:48Both shortened to hobo
05:51As the nation expanded westward
05:54The railroads needed laborers to set ties and lay tracks
05:57And the hobos played a vital role in these activities
06:00To feed a growing nation
06:02The hobos became the harvesters
06:05Who reaped the crops in mid-America
06:07Often working a route
06:08That took them from the Texas panhandle
06:10To the Canadian border each season
06:13During the prime age of dam construction
06:15The hobos formed the nucleus of the hardy traveling workforces
06:19Who built these massive structures
06:22Often in remote areas
06:24Whose only real access was by freight train
06:27These restless men
06:29Continued to follow the developing railroads
06:32Through the Rocky Mountains
06:33And became the lumberjacks
06:35Of the northwest woods
06:37And merchant seamen
06:39Of the Pacific Ocean
06:40This land is your land
06:42This land is my land
06:44From California
06:46To the New York island
06:49From the Redwood Falls
06:51The Great Depression of the 30s
06:53Prompted factories to lay off laborers
06:55Businesses to foreclose
06:57And farms to fall into ruin
06:59Banks went broke
07:01And millions of people
07:02Lost their life savings
07:03It was a nightmare
07:04And created a new surge of hobos
07:07Who took to the rails
07:08In search of work
07:09In 1934
07:11The U.S. Bureau of Transient Affairs
07:14Estimated there were
07:15One and a half million men and women
07:19Riding America's freight trains
07:21You could taste the depression
07:24These were bad years, you know
07:27Thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two
07:31Everything was lean and mean
07:35No jobs
07:36You had to start with
07:38Trying to get everything
07:40From a day's work
07:42To whatever you can get
07:43Back then
07:45Everybody had a relative
07:46A brother
07:47A son
07:48A father
07:49An uncle
07:49Who was riding the trains
07:51Looking for work
07:53Ah, that lonesome whistle
07:55Continues to recruit new visionaries
07:58Offering passage to where dreams are found
08:01I hopped my first freight train
08:04Back in 1966
08:07In Athens, Alabama
08:09A couple of buddies and I
08:11Wanted to go up to Nashville
08:13And we didn't know how to get there
08:15Except take the bus
08:18And so we were sitting down the weeds
08:20By the college there
08:21And this freight train came by
08:24And it was going real slow
08:26So we said, let's do it
08:27Next thing you know
08:28We're on our way to Nashville
08:30Well I started riding freight trains
08:32As a kind of a recreational
08:34Boyish adventure
08:35When I was about fifteen
08:37And I rode pretty hard
08:38For several years
08:39Finally coming to rest
08:41At about twenty-one or twenty-two
08:43Well the first freight train I rode
08:45I was a kid about fifteen years old
08:48And I wanted to get home
08:49From Minnesota down into Iowa
08:51And I didn't want to wait for my father
08:53To come up there to get me
08:54So I rode a freight train
08:56The first true hobo trip I ever took
08:59Was when my brother Hopalong Chet
09:02And I were going back to our grandfather's
09:05Ninetyth reunion
09:06And we rode from Barstow, California
09:09To the east coast to Boston
09:11And it took us eight days
09:12And thirteen different train connections
09:15And from that moment on we were hooked
09:17I decided to make a documentary film
09:20And it was mostly
09:22The film started out as an excuse for me
09:24To figure out how to get on a freight train
09:26So when I finally took my first ride
09:30It was everything that I had imagined it might be
09:35And it was pretty much an immediate addiction
09:39I've been doing this since the age of thirteen years old
09:43I'm telling you the real McCoy
09:46A friend of mine used to work for Canadian National
09:49Up in Montreal
09:50And he knew I liked trains a lot
09:52I'd always like trains going way back to when I was a little kid
09:55And he said, you know, you might think about
09:59Jumping on trains to get around
10:01I mean you like to travel around a lot
10:03And you like trains
10:04And that was sort of the beginning of it
10:06And I took it from there
10:08I think the first time was an old oil spur up there
10:11Where I used to live in Oildale
10:13But the first long trip I took was from Bakersfield to Fresno
10:18In the old SP
10:19At the age of twelve or thirteen
10:24I was living near Philadelphia
10:27And with a partner a year older
10:32We bombed our way
10:35All the way to the Canadian border
10:39And all the way south to Florida
10:43Every year at a different location alongside a mainline railroad
10:53Our National Hobo Association sponsors the Hobo Poetry and Music Festival
10:58This year's site is Charming Marquette, Iowa
11:02On the banks of the mighty Mississippi River
11:04Playing the guitar and singing the melody
11:06Oh, and music has always been a central component of hobo life
11:10They'd sing of their old homes, their old loves, their work, and their trains
11:15They'd play guitars, mandolins, and banjos
11:19And simpler instruments like gin whistles, harmonicas, and Jews' hearts
11:24The boss set me a-driving spikes
11:44The sweat was enough to blind me
11:47The boss, he didn't like my pace
11:49So I left my job behind me
11:52I climbed aboard an old freight train
11:55Round the country traveled
11:57The mysteries of a hobo's life to me were soon unraveled
12:02Yes, and the Jungle Telegraph goes out to hobos and hobos at heart
12:07In every corner of America
12:09And they come from all nooks and crannies
12:12They arrive by various modes of conveyance
12:14Many by car, truck, or motorhome
12:17Or motorhome
12:18And, heck, of course, the freight train
12:22Oh, the big rock candy mountain
12:25There's a land so fair and bright
12:27Where the boxcars all are empty
12:29And you sleep out every night
12:31Where the handouts grow on bushes
12:33And the sun shines every day
12:35On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
12:37And the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
12:39In the big rock candy mountain
12:41This fun-filled event brings out the free spirit of the hobo that lives within us all
13:03And everyone is encouraged to partake in the wide variety of family activities
13:10This retired hobo is being hounded by his alter ego
13:19To return to the rails
13:21We could hop an extra west and head out toward the coast
13:24Or maybe take the valley route with the river as our host
13:27How it's like the scenery on the Colorado run
13:29Or the smell of hay as the boxcars weighed in the autumn Kansas sun
13:33He said, we never rode the Chesapeake or the seaboard or the Sioux
13:37And what about the cotton belt?
13:38That promise came from you
13:40You said we'd ride the Lehigh in the Wabash Cannonball
13:42And you absolutely promised we'd ride New England in the fall
13:46How long can I resist the call?
13:48I really couldn't say
13:49But the inner hobo's argument gets stronger every day
13:52Now I'm not one for idle talk
13:54But I want the world to know
13:56That if I hear that whistle one more time
13:58I just might up and go
14:00Early in the morning and it looked like rain
14:06Around the bend coming past the train
14:08Under the camp was Casey Jones
14:10A good engineer but he dead ain't gone
14:12Dead ain't gone, the dead ain't gone
14:14A good engineer but he dead ain't gone
14:16Well Casey Jones was a brave engineer
14:22He told his fireman not to fear
14:24All he needed was water and coal
14:26Put your head out the window and see the drivers roll
14:28Trains are marvelous contraptions under any circumstance
14:42They are unreal shimmering steel creatures that are almost alive
14:47Fire-breathing monsters with intense undulating tails
14:52So what is it that lures a hobo to mount these beasts again and again?
14:57And being that I like to play music you know
15:00There's nothing finer than sort of like the rhythm you know
15:02You're in tune with the rhythm not only the rails
15:05But I get in tune with the rhythm of waters that the trains go by
15:08The speed, the power of the train
15:12All those really, they really turn me on
15:15The freedom, not getting away from everything
15:18Getting away from everything
15:20Not feeling like I've got to be responsible about anything
15:24Being punctual, being somewhere at an exact time
15:27Being able to just hang out and go with the train
15:29Get somewhere for free
15:31I'm getting from point A to point B and I don't have to drive
15:34I don't have to deal with inner city traffic
15:37Or anybody who's not going to let me get in my lane
15:41A nice day, a good ride
15:44I like to get into a terminal too that I haven't seen before
15:47And poke around, I like to do that
15:54You also go through parts of the country
15:56Unlike the interstate system that has virtually no signs of any commercial activity
16:02No billboards, no exit signs, no neon
16:06Seeing America from a boxcar, you see the wild horses
16:10You see the ghost towns
16:12You see everything about America that's wonderful
16:18To be out in the open prairie where there's nothing but beautiful land around me
16:21And I have all that solitude and all that time to think things out and get creative
16:25Seeing different parts of the country
16:27A new piece of scenery every day
16:31There are places like Idaho and Montana and Wyoming
16:36All those western places I love
16:38Those mountains are beautiful
16:40The sheer excitement of getting to new places and new experiences
16:46Just to see what I call priceless wonders
16:49Those things that drift by when you're riding a train
16:52And the adventure doesn't end when the ride's over
16:56Breathtaking landscapes give way to the colorful characters
17:00Who pass through the train yards
17:04The friends you meet along the way
17:07That's what keeps me going back I think more than anything
17:10They're not a 9 to 5 office kind of person
17:13And we can sit and tell tall tales and relate to each other
17:16I really enjoy those kind of folks
17:18We're not caught up in that hustle-bustle
17:20Credit card, plastic money, car payments, concrete, highways
17:24And going from the office to the club to make the scene in other words
17:28I used the hobo as a medium for my poetry
17:32And found that everybody I've met so far has a story
17:35And that helps me tremendously with my feelings
17:39The friendship of the young fellow who took me to Canada
17:45And to Florida was precious
17:48When I started out I had my own preconceptions about
17:53Who was out riding freight trains
17:56And I thought that it was a fairly homogenous group
18:00And I think one of the things I've really learned
18:02Is that there are many different personalities
18:05That are out riding the freights
18:07And those different personalities
18:09Rarely devolves their family names
18:12Adopting unique aliases instead
18:15Everybody's road name
18:18Kind of gives in a nutshell who they are
18:21And what they represent
18:22So I can introduce myself as Jet Set John
18:24And that kind of tells a little bit of the other side of me
18:27Rather than just being a hobo
18:30Some guys that walk along the track
18:32They might call him Track Man, you know
18:34And Sidecar Sam
18:36He was riding Sidecar on a tanker
18:39With his feet dangling down alongside the tank
18:42That's why I named him Sidecar Sam
18:46Then Low Line Larry
18:48He rides from Florida all the way up to Utah
18:50And he rides that Low Line
18:51So I gave him the name of Low Line
18:53Everybody has a road name
19:00I was a stranger passing through your town
19:07I was a stranger passing through your town
19:14When I ask you a favor
19:17Good girl, you turn me down
19:22Most of the time I'm alone because I have my own destination
19:33I have my own reason for going somewhere
19:35I love solitude
19:36I was lonely before I started riding
19:38I never get lonely anywhere
19:40I told my wife I was going on an 18 day trip
19:42She hopefully was sorry to see me go
19:46My sister and everybody, they get a kick out of telling her friends what I do
19:49My brother has been with me one time
19:51But he doesn't want to do it again
19:53But he kind of likes the concept, you know what I mean?
19:56My mother looks a little bit askance at it, you know
20:00Like it's not the greatest thing
20:01But she understands that I enjoy it and have a good time doing it
20:05My family, I don't really tell them anymore
20:07Because you get a lot of shaking heads and shrugged shoulders
20:11And they don't really understand why I do it
20:13Since I'm a senior citizen, it's kind of frowned on
20:18A lot of them think it's really neat
20:20But then there's some that just think I'm totally out of my mind
20:23Most of my friends think it sounds like fun, sounds entertaining
20:28They don't do it
20:29My friends, they're a little more understanding
20:32They tell me, it's happened more than a few times
20:36They tell me they want to come out on a ride with me
20:38And as soon as I pack up my gear and I'm ready to head out the door
20:41They seem to disappear
20:43My mother spent a lot of worrisome years, I'm sure
20:46When I got to Dunsmeyer on that trip there, I called her
20:50And it just so happened I had a check coming from a job
20:53That I'd worked before I left a couple months before
20:55And she sent it to me by Western Union
20:58I got my butt on a goddamn Greyhound
21:00Quitted that whole boy
21:03Outside the rain was falling on the lonely boxcar door
21:14But the little farm of Hobo Bill
21:18They did upon the floor
21:35While the train sped through the darkness
21:39With the raging storm outside
21:43No one knew that Hobo Bill
21:47Was taking his last ride
21:51He-ho-ho-bo-bo-bill
22:01It was always cold and stuff was always blowing in your face
22:04And I think the coldest ride I had was from Eugene, Oregon to Klamath Falls, Oregon
22:17And then on into Dunsmeyer
22:20But we rode over the top of the mountain there in a snowstorm
22:23And a couple of other bows and myself were in the ice compartment
22:28Back in those old 40-foot reefers
22:31If they didn't have any fruit they were carrying
22:35They'd leave those reefer tops open sometime
22:37And it was an excellent place to get
22:39If you couldn't get inside of a boxcar somewhere
22:41And that's where we were on that mountain in that snowstorm
22:44Sometimes it's just too hot
22:46You get stuck in the back end of a well car
22:49There's no way to get out of the sun and you broil to death
22:52The worst part about it would be in situations where you've run out of water
22:56And you know that it's going to be a long time before you can find any
22:59Finding a place to take a shower
23:00Being hungry
23:01Lonesome towns
23:02Waiting, waiting, waiting
23:04What you're waiting for is when you finally catch out again
23:06And you start moving and you have that, ah, this is what I was waiting for
23:10But when you wait a long time for that
23:12I sometimes sit there and go, is this really worth it just to get on that train?
23:17This is really a pain
23:18But in the end it is always worth it
23:21Well the worst thing that I used to think was getting a flat wheel
23:25And you're lying there trying to sleep and you're bouncing off the floor every time that wheel goes around
23:30The railroad bull running you out of the yards or the town clown
23:35Putting a run on you from his town
23:40And telling you to move on
23:43I get sick and tired of the bugs sometimes
23:45Some of the places I wait slapping the bugs
23:47All of a sudden in the middle of the night, man, they'll break air
23:50And they'll leave me out in the middle of nowhere in the desert
23:52That's kind of, that's kind of hard
23:54The worst thing that could possibly happen for some of us, ah, would be if they made it legal
24:00I'd like to make a little disclaimer here, ah, just for our, ah, lawyers sake, ah, no bail
24:07Came down to make sure we're all in line
24:10By no means does the National Hobo Association encourage anybody to go get on a freight train
24:15It's illegal and it's dangerous
24:20During the depression
24:22Hundreds of trespassers invaded yards like this and risked the wrath of the railroad bull
24:28Today it's a misdemeanor in most places
24:31The law's main concern being vandalism of railroad property
24:36But a pesky hobo could surely wind up in jail if the bull's warning goes unheeded
24:43Had to run alongside and follow the advice of the older men
24:49Hook a ride and get in
24:52And the railroad police
24:55Couldn't stop you from doing that
24:58Because it was just as risky for them as it was for us
25:02But they could
25:04Masterfully
25:06Keep you out of the railroad yards
25:09And that's where
25:11We, ah
25:13Tangled with them
25:15Back in the old days, you're gonna go to the chain gang for 30 days, you know
25:19Especially down south
25:21They were
25:23Mean
25:24And
25:25Bad
25:26Well, in the old days, they used to
25:30Hit you with them at Brickman's Club
25:32Today, they're not too bad, I guess
25:35They didn't, ah
25:38Stop us from
25:39Getting aboard the train
25:42Slow moving
25:44And we were very agile
25:46And we had done it many times
25:48Once we broke through their lines
25:51We were
25:52On our way to
25:53Peoria
25:55They walked the train with the deputy sheriffs
25:57Pulled us off of there
25:58But it was kind of nice
25:59Sort of like Aunt B bringing us dinner and everything
26:01You know, it was kind of fun
26:02They wrote us a ticket for trespassing on railroad property
26:03We had to spend the night in the jail
26:04And they told us to get out of town the next morning
26:05Because the D.A. wasn't going to prosecute it
26:07The city was too small
26:08I was never badly treated by them
26:12They saw that I was younger
26:14They were, in a sense, protective
26:18But they did not want me aboard their free trains
26:28I got into a boxcar with about eight other hobos
26:32And I was hungry
26:33And I went down and broke the seal on one of them refrigerator cars
26:36And did the unmancipal
26:38And took a whole case of green beans out of there
26:41And I threw it up in that boxcar
26:43And those hobos went to screaming at me
26:45And said, man, we'll get 50 years in jail
26:47What are you doing breaking the seal on that boxcar?
26:49He said, they'll throw us all off this train
26:51I said, well, at least we'll be hungry
26:54Won't be hungry
26:55And one old hobo way back in the corner of the boxcar
27:00He threw over a can opener and a spoon
27:03He said, I'll join you, young man
27:05Don't pull on it yet
27:07When you're out on the room
27:09Come on down and down
27:10Thank you, appreciate it
27:15Hobo camps, also known as jungles
27:17Grew up near the train yards, water tanks, crew change points
27:21Anywhere locomotives stopped
27:23Sooner or later
27:26You did fall into one of the camps
27:30And very imaginative men ran them
27:34They were congenial places
27:37You didn't want to leave
27:39You made friends
27:41You heard great stories
27:43Well, I remember going into a hobo jungle
27:47One time in Barstow
27:50They had really a large hobo camp there
27:54I participated in some community stew
27:57A couple times in my life
28:03Fit for a king, hobo stew
28:06The famous mulligan that's been made in spike cans
28:08And paint buckets under bridges
28:10And on the edge of the railroad yard since the Civil War
28:14The stew pot gurgled over the fire for days on end
28:17They just kept adding ingredients as the level went down
28:21Those jungles, they were clean
28:23They had an order
28:25They didn't throw garbage around
28:29Usually if a guy come into jungles
28:32He came there with his loaf of bread
28:36And his bologna and cheese
28:38And maybe he wanted to make a pot of coffee
28:44And wait for a train and catch out
28:48The townspeople that complain
28:52They complain to the police
28:53The police complain to the railroad bulls
28:55And the railroad bulls run them out
28:57If they keep the place clean
28:59You know, and pick up all their trash and stuff
29:02I don't think they'd even be bothered
29:05The jungles are being wiped out with caterpillar tractors
29:08So that there would be no place for the riders to hide
29:11There's very few jungles nowadays
29:14Go to sleep you weary hobo
29:21Let the town strip slowly by
29:27Can't you hear the steel rail humming?
29:33That's a hobo lullaby
29:40Though your clothes are torn ragged
29:46Though your hair is turning grey
29:52Though you've spent a lifetime searching
29:58You'll find happiness someday
30:01You'll find happiness someday
30:03So go to sleep you weary hobo
30:08Let the town strip slowly by
30:15Can't you hear the steel rail humming?
30:21That's a hobo's lullaby
30:31Hobos communicate through the National Hobo Association
30:35Founded in 1987 by Santa Fe Bow
30:39Who's been a trained barnacle since the 70s
30:42His two goals were uniting others
30:44Who shared a love of the open road
30:46And preserving the history of the hobo
30:49During his travels, Santa Fe came across an old copy
30:53Of the now defunct Hobo News
30:55A publication that dated back to 1908
30:59Consequently, he created the Hobo Times
31:02America's Journal of Wanderlust
31:05And began distributing it to kindred spirits
31:09In 1990, Buzz Potter came on board
31:12And together they upgraded the Times
31:14To the only magazine in America
31:16That features a blend of railroad adventure stories
31:20Poetry, nostalgia
31:22And the current news of life on the hobo trail
31:25A letter that we got from a 96 year old
31:28Former hobo
31:30Who rode back in the depression
31:32And he found out about us
31:34And he sent us a letter
31:35And it said very simply
31:36Dear National Hobo Association
31:38Please don't let the hobo die
31:41It grew slowly over the years
31:43But steadily
31:45And today we have thousands of members
31:47Nationwide
31:48That span the demographic spectrum
31:52From lawyers to laborers
31:54Professional people
31:55Corporate people
31:57They're from all walks of life
31:58And they've been where I've got to go yet
32:00And I learned from their experiences
32:03It's amazing how many people
32:05Don't realize they're hobos
32:06Until they come and see us
32:07And they realize that they're on the same wavelength with us
32:11With their kindred spirits
32:12They have the wanderlust
32:13The sense of romance
32:15And the sense of nostalgia
32:17All of a sudden we understood
32:19That there were other people like ourselves
32:21And we found out how to get a hold of them
32:23It provides a forum for us to get together
32:25And tell our tales
32:27Rather than just maybe running into one or two people
32:29In the jungle and telling your individual experiences
32:31And to get together occasionally
32:33And share the fellowship
32:35That was forged in early days
32:37Around campfires
32:38And remote places throughout the country
32:40Now we're a little more respectable I guess
32:43And we get together with much better stew
32:45And much better clothes
32:46And much warmer fires perhaps
32:48But the fellowship hasn't changed
32:50We enjoy brotherhood, camaraderie
32:52We sing songs
32:53We trade photographs and addresses
32:55And we sort of get together
32:57This to me is my family
32:58We have younger people now
33:00Some of the x-generation people
33:02Who are looking for themselves
33:04Trying to find themselves I guess
33:05And part of that is seeing America
33:09And we're trying to educate our children
33:11And our younger folk
33:13Who might not know what a steam locomotive is
33:15And what a hobo jungle was
33:16And a mulligan stew and a pot
33:18And a frisco circle and stuff like that
33:20Terms that were used back in the 20s and 30s and 40s
33:23Many NHA members are devoted collectors
33:28Of hobo memorabilia
33:30George Horton has acquired hobo artifacts
33:33Such as these antique carvings
33:36Each whittled from a single piece of wood
33:39These whistles and chains
33:41Were formed in a similar fashion
33:43Enterprising hobos
33:45Even chiseled peach pits
33:47Into monkey trinkets
33:49Del Romines wrote a book on hobo nickels
33:53Explaining how bows
33:55Tooled Indian head coins
33:57To match the profiles of their paying customers
34:01They'd even reshape the buffalo image
34:03On the reverse side
34:05Drummond Manfield's art
34:07Reflects earlier days
34:09When it was pretty much a man's world
34:11Out on the road
34:13But nowadays women are prominent members
34:16Of the hobo community
34:18We have a lot of fun together
34:21And it becomes like your extended family
34:23Your brothers your sisters
34:25And you make friends for life
34:26So I love them
34:28Hoboings definitely in Connecticut Shorty's blood
34:33Her father was a hobo for 40 years
34:35And by no means a bum
34:38You see real hobos bristle
34:41At the intimation that they shunned work
34:43In fact they discreetly marked their own hieroglyphics
34:47Around train yards
34:49To alert each other about town prospects
34:52An oft-repeated axiom sums up the men on the road
34:59A hobo is a traveling worker
35:02A tramp is a traveling non-worker
35:06A bum is a non-traveling non-worker
35:10You gotta do work in order to keep yourself independent
35:15Traveling money
35:17Take any kind of a job
35:21Whether it's two hours or two days or two months
35:24Get a road stake
35:27The western farmers
35:30Had a deal with the railroads
35:33Whereby they would ship their cattle
35:37From the ranch
35:39To the slaughterhouse in Chicago
35:42They had to have somebody aboard the train
35:45So that at every 12 hour interval
35:51You stopped
35:53Unloaded the cattle
35:56Exercised them
35:58Watered them
35:59Fed them
36:00Got back aboard the train
36:03And went on to Chicago
36:04You got no money for this
36:07But you did get transportation
36:10We used to hay
36:12That have two cuttings of hay a year
36:15And you're good for a week to two weeks of haying
36:21We went and caught a freight out of Denver
36:24And went west
36:26And we wound up in Yakima, Washington
36:29And he had an ant there that had an apple orchard
36:35And he thought, well, we could find that place
36:37And maybe we could pick some apples
36:39We never found the place
36:41We had the great state of Washington State
36:44That's the real apple-knocking country
36:49And we were
36:51Everybody was a hobo back then
36:54Roadhog washed all the windows in my house
36:56Inside and out
36:57Side door had scrubbed my kitchen floor immaculate
37:00And they raked all the leaves in my yard
37:03It was fall, late September
37:04And that was to pay me back for the ride
37:07And the little bedroom I gave them
37:11Separate from mine, of course
37:13I've dug irrigation ditches
37:16Broke horses
37:18Hode watermelon in the fields
37:21I've done just about every kind of work you can think of
37:26I worked in a produce packing house
37:29Loading lettuce and bananas
37:33Stuff like that
37:34Primarily I play guitar
37:36I do a lot of folk festivals around the country
37:38I play veterans hospitals
37:40I do children's hospitals
37:41I try to bring a few hundred dollars along with me
37:44On the freights when I take a trip
37:46And if I run out
37:48Or if I happen to follow the job
37:50I'll take it
37:51I do anything from painting
37:52Carpentry
37:53Concrete work
37:54Trimming trees
37:55And when I'm broke in between guitar gigs
37:57I go to day labor and push a wheelbarrow
37:59Dig a ditch
38:00Just anything I can
38:01You know to get by
38:02You know
38:03The average hobo isn't going to last long at any job
38:11Ah, today there's a new class of unticketed passengers
38:14Who vary from the old time hobos
38:17They aren't chasing down jobs
38:19They're running from them
38:21And have come to be known as yuppie
38:23Or recreational hobos
38:25Yuppie hobos
38:26Yuppie hobos
38:27Yuppie hobos
38:28They're
38:29They're pretty good group
38:30A lot of those guys really do more than their share
38:34I approve of them
38:36I'd like to see everybody see America
38:38It's a beautiful country
38:39And there's so much that the people don't really see
38:43Well, you know, everybody deserves a vacation
38:45These guys work hard, you know
38:47And they put all the big money together
38:48I mean, if I could have a BMW and ride the rails
38:50And have the better of two equals
38:51I'd have a great life too
38:52I'd have a great life, too.
38:54They're not as generous as our old school were and has been.
39:00They're a different breed of bulls.
39:04I'm out there just like them, just riding the rails,
39:06seeing the country.
39:07And that's really what the real hobos are all about.
39:10I had somebody send me $50 a month.
39:12That was the deal.
39:13Couldn't send me more than $50 a month
39:15unless I came back to Minneapolis and re-signed the papers.
39:19Because I figured the less I'd spend,
39:21the more I'd experience.
39:23And so I would go that last week where I'd burn all my money.
39:29And then I wouldn't have any money for a week.
39:32I always found that the third week of the month, I had more fun.
39:35As a professional pilot, there is a courtesy among airline pilots
39:39that if you present your ID card,
39:41they'll let you ride up in the cockpit.
39:43And since the name of the game is Traveling for Free,
39:46it's a little faster way of getting somewhere
39:48if you don't have quite the time.
39:50Coming here, I rode up in the cockpit of a 747-400 where they offered me their bunk room
39:55to sleep, which is just like a Pullman car.
39:59So it's really a high-class hobo way of traveling.
40:04I don't really think I qualify as a yuppie.
40:06I mean, I'm not really young, and I'm not trying to be upwardly mobile.
40:10I'm sort of a professional now doing nursing work, but I don't really think anybody that knows me
40:16would characterize me as a yuppie.
40:18I don't really think I am.
40:20I got no complaints about other people having a different approach to it somewhat.
40:24I think most people would sort of call me like a recreational rider, I guess.
40:29So I got into riding freight trains at a necessity, but after I eventually got back
40:34on my feet and got to working and got a place to live and all that,
40:38then I became somewhat of a recreational rider because I just couldn't get away from it.
40:41I just had that wanderlust in my blood.
40:44But we all have one thing in common.
40:46We like to steal rides.
40:48Besides traveling for free, the ever-frugal hobo has learned to survive on Mother Nature's
40:56free lunches.
40:58Most people think that hobos went to houses for meals or work and try and pay for them,
41:05but a lot of meals were taken from right around here, right along trackside.
41:12Here we have plantain, which no doubt was definitely part of the hobo diet.
41:20I know a lot of stories I've read, hobos and other people would always just pick up a little
41:26bit, chew on it, taste good with other plants, and between plantain with a little bit of lemon
41:34clover flavor, you can eat a great meal.
41:38When I finally broke free of money and realized that I could live off the blackberries, you know,
41:46and I know where they are and the raspberries are where they are and the other things that
41:49are around the yards, you can eat right off the land or the dumpsters or whatever else.
41:55A quick-witted hobo has traditionally added humor to his social commentary.
42:03A quick-witted hobo is in the trash, eat your pheasant while it's under glass, get into your
42:10garbage, you have no cash, little dinner I'll be gone in a flash, won't you hold them pickles,
42:14hold that lettuce, special orders they don't upset us, just as long as they would let us dive
42:20it our way.
42:21Yeah, we're gonna go dumpster diving, I'm surviving, my kitty cats are driving today.
42:33Just open the lid, have a little look, it's all prepared, there's no need to cook.
42:39We're gonna dumpster diving, whoa, whoa, hooray.
42:46I told you can't wait, you can't, I saw it.
42:51Fetching rides on freight trains is notoriously dangerous.
42:54Even the most seasoned hobo will caution against novices trying to jump on board a moving train,
43:00telling horror stories of accidents they've witnessed, resulting in agonizing dismemberments or gruesome deaths.
43:08One wrong move, and you've ended your days.
43:12There were extended couplings, probably 10 or 15 feet across, and the trains were moving, and there were the two of us.
43:19One guy would stand here and shine the light at the couplings, and after he safely got across,
43:25we'd leave the light on, and this was at night, and the train maybe going 50 or 60 miles an hour.
43:29We'd toss the flashlight to the other guy, and of course it was up to him to make sure he caught it.
43:34And then in turn, he would shine the light as the second guy would go across the railings,
43:39and we had to do this for about four or five cars.
43:41And I think back, it's probably the most foolish thing I ever did.
43:45I'd never do it again.
43:46I still get goose bumps when I think about it.
43:49There's dangers out there, and there's no way you can avoid them,
43:51and even the most experienced veterans cannot avoid the dangers of riding trains.
43:56I mean, I just really never travel with somebody I don't know.
44:00You just, you just, it's just too chancy. It's too chancy.
44:05People who wish you harm and want to take you and rob you, that's the biggest danger today.
44:15It's not from the bulls, and it's not from falling off the trains.
44:18Back in the old days, there was nothing for 10, 15 guys and a side door pullman, which is a boxcar, to ride in the same car.
44:28Nowadays, you wouldn't dare to ride with strange hobos or anyone you didn't know.
44:36You ride by yourself.
44:38I was learning how to fight from a friend of mine on a boxcar one time.
44:42He showed me how to take a knife away from a guy and flip him and all that stuff.
44:47He learned it in the Marine Corps, I think.
44:48We practiced that in a boxcar moving about 80 miles an hour one time.
44:52When it comes to train riding, you have to give that train all of your respect, but the train will never, won't give you any.
44:59See, you can't rely upon the train to get you where you're going or to be a smooth ride or a safe one.
45:05I have a great concern about equipment failure.
45:08I have a concern about human error with regard to rail operations, and these kinds of things I have no control over.
45:14And you never know whenever you're going to be on a train that has a crew that's gone to sleep at the throttle,
45:20and next thing you know, you're in a big pileup at the bottom of a hill.
45:24I rode the rods from Iowa to Illinois, and a more hellish experience no young fellow ever had.
45:43It was horrible.
45:47You set up a little protection there to keep the soot out of your face, and you bounced along.
45:58And you felt the ride would never end.
46:02It was a descent into hell, and how these men could do it again and again and again bewildered me.
46:13No matter how long it may take us.
46:16Life-threatening challenges took our new dimensions on December the 7th, 1941, the day many believed the hobo died.
46:25Will win through to absolute victory.
46:29No longer did Bose jungle up in Frisco, Spookolo, or Mini Hopeless.
46:35Now it was Anzio, Normandy, and Iwo Jima.
46:40And when they were welcomed back home, there were jobs for everyone.
46:44New automobiles and even diesel locomotives.
46:47Life on the hobo trail would indeed never be the same.
46:52What will become of the hobo whenever his time comes to die?
47:03I wouldn't trade my experiences out here on the road for anybody's college education.
47:10And though I never really accomplished anything by all this travel, it satisfied something in me.
47:20I don't know whether I was born with it, but it started very young.
47:29And I never stopped.
47:33I got stopped.
47:36But I would look right now to be in one of those hobo camps.
47:45Will they tell us that we cannot ride?
47:51Will the hobo come with the rich man?
47:56Will the hobo survive?
47:58Or will he go the way of the steam train?
48:02We wonder.
48:04If you think about how many lifestyles or how many businesses or whatever have lasted 150 years,
48:16there's not very damn many of them.
48:18And yet the hobo continues to be with us.
48:21The day is coming when we won't be able to ride freight trains.
48:24This is not the 30s or the 40s anymore.
48:26But that doesn't mean that it still isn't an alluring prospect for people of adventurous souls.
48:31As long as there's trains, there's going to be people riding them.
48:33I can guarantee you that.
48:35With the strong railroad industry, you're going to have plenty of trains
48:38and you're going to have more people riding them.
48:40I had a dream about a train that was completely hobo-proof.
48:44There was no possible way you could jump on it.
48:47In fact, it was just so slick, there was no grab irons, there was nothing.
48:50I don't know if the rail industry is going to go that far and design cars exclusively to keep people off of them.
48:56It's really getting a lot tougher.
48:58A lot of railroad corporations are merging together.
49:01Security is tightening up a lot because there's a few idiots out there derailing trains.
49:05It might get harder getting to hop freights.
49:07It might get easier, but it will always be here.
49:11There's not going to be too much of it in the future, I'm afraid,
49:14because, well, they seem to get pretty tough on the hobos now.
49:20There's just more and more poor people.
49:22I'm sorry to say, I think there's going to be more and more poor people.
49:26They may be back on the trains again going around looking for odd jobs.
49:30I think maybe the hobo is pretty much gone in the east, but in the west,
49:36he will live.
49:37The old hobos now are too old to travel.
49:41They're becoming homeboys now.
49:43They just stay in one location.
49:45They don't travel no more.
49:47I think we'll always have heavy-duty rail riders, people that want to ride freights
49:51and go for the adventure, but the old Bridger steam train hobo, they're pretty much gone.
49:56We're losing a few more every year.
49:59And my era of hobos, they're vastly dying out.
50:09The real hobo is a dying breed.
50:11A guy out there who's trying to get by, going from town to town, looking for work.
50:16A real gentleman, honest fellow is a hobo.
50:18I have a sinking feeling in my heart that the day of the hobo is about over.
50:25I think it's a fading game.
50:27There's a legacy that will always live on, and it will change with the different groups
50:32who are out there, but as long as there's a rail to ride, I think someone will be riding it.
50:37The future could be pretty bright, actually.
50:40If a young man should want a hobo in this country, it might be the way to go.
50:45I think there will always be young men like me who are a little bit a thwart civilization.
51:01I've been a loner, I've been my own man, fiercely so.
51:11Hey, now come now of all you ramblers, all of you travelers on the road.
51:19Well, the time has come to remember what's just on.
51:26Like, where do you come from, and where do you think you're going?
51:47I don't know how any of the bows ride the trains these days.
51:50For the simple reason, they got all the ladders cut off.
51:53And you say to yourself, well, how do they get up there, you know?
51:58But they do, and they make their way, and they're still hobo and all around the country.
52:04God bless them.
52:08See you down the road.
52:09All around the water tanks, waiting for a train.
52:21A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain.
52:28I walked up to a brakeman to give him my talk.
52:37He says, if you've got money, I'll see that you don't walk.
52:44I haven't got a nickel, not a penny can I show.
52:51Get off, get off, you railroad bum.
52:56And he slammed that boxcar door.
52:59Though my pocketbook is empty, and my heart is full of pain.
53:12I'm a thousand miles away from home, waiting for a train.
53:21You're delayed, oh, delayed, oh, delayed.
53:27You're delayed, oh, waited another one.
53:34Yeah, all right.
53:36I need you to train.
53:38I need you to train and there's noолот mont PLAN por裡.
53:41Come get those things.
53:42I need you to train.
53:43You're jingle Opinion.
53:45I need you guys to train.
53:47I need you, every night.
Recommended
53:35
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