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The American Hobo -Sd
Transcript
00:00The End
00:30As the drover runs the cattle trail, and the sailor follows billowed sail, so the hobo
00:45tames the iron trail and longs for places far.
00:49The open road becomes his home, he can't subdue his urge to roam.
00:54The headlight and the whistle's moan become his guiding star, who works and wanders, also
01:03learns and in his heart he always yearns to see beyond the river's turns, the view from
01:10rolling cars.
01:12All around the water tanks waiting for a train, a thousand miles away from home sleeping
01:33in the rain, I walked up to a brakeman to give him time to talk.
01:44He says, you've got money, I'll see that you don't walk.
01:51You know, when we were kids, we used to walk the railroad tracks to see how far we could
02:18walk, make bets among ourselves, you know, oh boy, look at this, look how far he's gone.
02:24And occasionally you see a train pass by, and you see a hobo up there, and you wave at him.
02:33They'd wave back.
02:36You wonder where these people were going.
02:40It was a fascinating adventure in our little lives, and to look at these fellas and realize
02:50that they were going somewhere, and on a train.
02:55I was a real hobo.
03:01I did not have a stable home, so I was always willing to head out for a new adventure.
03:11I listened to a lot of those old Jimmy Rogers songs, and he talked about riding freight
03:16trains and made it sound so enticing that I just couldn't stay off of them.
03:20I like the lifestyle, I like the people I associate with, and of course it's a free ride.
03:25It's like being on a time machine, where you ride along and you see so many historical elements
03:31of this country.
03:32I've always been intrigued with travel and adventure.
03:38It's like kind of recharging your batteries.
03:41I'm out here seeing things I missed when I was a kid.
03:44It's an experience that, in a lot of ways, just escapes an explanation.
03:49We really have to do it to understand what it's like.
03:52I think it's the adventure, and the thrill, and sometimes just the peace to watch the country
03:57go by, and I always call it National Geographic Life.
04:02Self-survival, you know.
04:05Eat when you want to eat, sleep when you want to sleep.
04:10You don't have to worry about the IRS.
04:12It's in the blood, I guess.
04:14Once you do it, it's in you, you can't quit.
04:19You call your own shots as you see fit for yourself.
04:24I don't own a car right now.
04:26I don't like riding Greyhound buses, man, because I always get lucky, man.
04:30I always draw the wild card.
04:31I get some big old gal sitting next to me who wants to fall asleep with her head in my lap,
04:35and I can't smoke a cigarette or drink a beer, and I can do this in a boxcar.
04:38I rode freight trains all my life because I just love to do it.
04:42Ah, the rhythm of the rails is an enticing song to those who long to be far away.
04:49Like the Pied Piper, wandering souls have followed the tracks, stitched like seams across the
04:56country since the Civil War.
04:59Legend has it that Erie Crip and Philly Pop, two discharged Union soldiers, were the founding
05:05members of the fraternity of freight-hopping hobos.
05:09The two men, accustomed to the open-air military lifestyle, hitched a ride on a passing freight
05:15and rambled over the horizon.
05:19Other Civil War veterans followed suit and hopped on trains to get back home while the
05:23less fortunate soldiers, left homeless by the devastating war, rode the rails in search
05:29of a new beginning.
05:30A great number of these early wanderers sought jobs as migrant farm workers and carried hoes
05:37along with them.
05:38Therefore, it is thought the nickname hobo is derived from being called homeward-bound soldiers
05:46or ho-boys, both shortened to hobo.
05:52As the nation expanded westward, the railroads needed laborers to set ties and lay tracks and
05:58the hobos played a vital role in these activities.
06:01To feed a growing nation, the hobos became the harvesters who reaped the crops in mid-America,
06:06often working a route that took them from the Texas Panhandle to the Canadian border each
06:12season.
06:13During the prime age of dam construction, the hobos formed the nucleus of the hardy traveling
06:19workforces who built these massive structures, often in remote areas whose only real access
06:26was by freight train.
06:27These restless men continued to follow the developing railroads through the Rocky Mountains and became
06:34the lumberjacks of the Northwest woods and merchant seamen of the Pacific Ocean.
06:40The Great Depression of the 30s prompted factories to lay off laborers, businesses to foreclose,
06:57and farms to fall into ruin.
07:00Banks went broke and millions of people lost their life savings.
07:03It was a nightmare and created a new surge of hobos who took to the rails in search of
07:09work.
07:10In 1934, the U.S. Bureau of Transient Affairs estimated there were one and a half million
07:17men and women riding America's freight trains.
07:21You could taste the depression.
07:24These were bad years, you know.
07:2830, 31, 32.
07:32Everything was lean and mean.
07:35No jobs.
07:36You had to start with trying to get everything from a day's work to whatever you can get.
07:43Back then, everybody had a relative, a brother, a son, a father, an uncle who was riding
07:50the trains looking for work.
07:53Ah, that lonesome whistle continues to recruit new visionaries, offering passage to where dreams
08:00are found.
08:01I hopped my first freight train back in 1966 in Athens, Alabama.
08:09A couple of buddies and I wanted to go up to Nashville, and we didn't know how to get
08:14there except take the bus.
08:17So we were sitting down the weeds by the college there, and this freight train came by and
08:23was going real slow.
08:24So we said, let's do it.
08:26Next thing you know, we're on our way to Nashville.
08:28Well, I started riding freight trains as a kind of a recreational boyish adventure when
08:34I was about 15, and I rode pretty hard for several years, finally coming to rest at about 21 or 22.
08:42Well, the first freight train I rode, I was a kid about 15 years old, and I wanted to get
08:47home from Minnesota down into Iowa.
08:50And I didn't want to wait for my father to come up there to get me, so I rode a freight train.
08:55The first true hobo trip I ever took was when my brother Hopalong Chet and I were going back
09:04to our grandfather's 90th reunion, and we rode from Barstow, California to the East Coast
09:10to Boston.
09:11It took us eight days and 13 different train connections, and from that moment on we were
09:16hooked.
09:17I decided to make a documentary film, and it was mostly the film started out as an excuse
09:23for me to figure out how to get on a freight train.
09:26So, when I finally took my first ride, it was everything that I had imagined it might
09:34be, and it was pretty much an immediate addiction.
09:39I've been doing this since the age of 13 years old.
09:42That's, I'm telling you, the real McCoy.
09:45A friend of mine used to work for Canadian National up in Montreal, and he knew I liked trains
09:51a lot.
09:52I'd always like trains going way back to when I was a little kid, and he said, you know,
09:57you might think about jumping on trains to get around.
10:00I mean, you like to travel around a lot, and you like trains, and that was sort of the beginning
10:05of it, and I took it from there.
10:07I think the first time was an old oil spur up there where I used to live in Oildale,
10:12but the first long trip I took was from Bakersfield to Fresno in the old SP.
10:19At the age of 12 or 13, I was living near Philadelphia, and with a partner a year older, we bummed our
10:34way all the way to the Canadian border and all the way south to Florida.
10:47Every year, at a different location alongside a mainline railroad, the National Hobo Association
10:54sponsors the Hobo Poetry and Music Festival.
10:57This year's site is charming Marquette, Iowa, on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River.
11:05Oh, 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, and simpler instruments like gin whistles, harmonicas,
11:22and Jews' hearts.
11:40The boss set me a-driving spikes. The sweat was enough to blind me.
11:46The boss, he didn't like my pace, so I left my job behind me.
11:52I climbed aboard an old freight train, round 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 in every corner of America.
12:09And they come from all nooks and crannies.
12:11They arrive by various modes of conveyance, many by car, truck, or motorhome, and, of course, the freight train.
12:21Oh, the big rock candy mountain. There's a land so fair and bright,
12:26where the boxcars all are empty and you sleep out every night,
12:30where the handouts grow on bushes and the sun shines every day,
12:34on the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees and the lemonade springs,
12:37where the bluebird sings in the big rock candy mountain.
12:41This fun-filled event brings out the free spirit of the hobo that lives within us all.
13:02And everyone is encouraged to partake in the wide variety of family activities.
13:13This retired hobo is being hounded by his alter ego to return to the rails.
13:19We could hop an extra west and head out toward the coast,
13:22or maybe take the valley route with the river as our host.
13:25You always liked the scenery on the Colorado run,
13:28or the smell of hay as the boxcars weighed in the autumn Kansas sun.
13:32He said we never rode the Chesapeake or the seaboard or the Sioux,
13:35and what about the cotton belt? That promise came from you.
13:38You said we'd ride the Lehigh in the Wabash Cannonball,
13:41and you absolutely promised we'd ride New England in the fall.
13:45How long can I resist the call? I really couldn't say.
13:49But the inner hobo's argument gets stronger every day.
13:52Now, I'm not one for idle talk, but I want the world to know
13:55that if I hear that whistle one more time, I just might up and go.
14:04Early 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 a daddy ain't gone.
14:12Daddy ain't gone, a daddy ain't gone.
14:14A good engineer, but a daddy ain't gone.
14:20Well, Casey Jones was a brave engineer.
14:22He told his fireman not to fear.
14:24All he needed was a water and coal.
14:26Put your head out to wind to see the drivers roll.
14:28Hey, yeah, the drivers roll.
14:30Put your head out to wind to see the drivers roll.
14:32The trains are marvelous contraptions under any circumstance.
14:40They are unreal, shimmering steel, creatures that are almost alive.
14:46Fire-breathing monsters with intense, undulating tails.
14:50So what is it that lures a hobo to mount these beasts again and again?
14:56And being that I like to play music, you know, there's nothing finer than sort of like the rhythm, you know.
15:02You're in tune with the rhythm, not only the rails, but I get in tune with the rhythm of waters that the trains go by.
15:08The speed, the power of the train, all those really, they really turn me on.
15:14The freedom, not getting away from everything, getting away from everything, not feeling like I've got to be responsible about anything.
15:23Being punctual, being somewhere at an exact time, being able to just hang out and go with the train, get somewhere for free.
15:29I'm getting from point A to point B and I don't have to drive.
15:33I don't have to deal with inner city traffic or anybody who's not going to let me get in my lane.
15:40A nice day, a good ride.
15:43I like to get into a terminal, too, that I haven't seen before and poke around.
15:47I like to do that.
15:53You also go through parts of the country, unlike the interstate system,
15:57that has virtually no signs of any commercial activity.
16:01No billboards, no exit signs, no neon.
16:05Seeing America from a boxcar, you see the wild horses, you see the ghost towns,
16:11you see, you know, you see everything about America that's wonderful.
16:17To be out in the open prairie where there's nothing but beautiful land around me
16:20and I have all that solitude and all that time to think things out and get creative.
16:24See in different parts of the country.
16:27A new piece of scenery every day.
16:30There are places like Idaho and Montana and Wyoming, all those western places I love.
16:37Those mountains are beautiful.
16:39The sheer excitement of getting to new places and new experiences.
16:45Just to see what I call priceless wonders.
16:48Those things that drift by when you're riding a train.
16:51And the adventure doesn't end when the ride's over.
16:55Breathtaking landscapes give way to the colorful characters who pass through the train yards.
17:02The friends you meet along the way, that's what keeps me going back, I think, more than anything.
17:08They're not a nine-to-five office kind of person and we can sit and tell tall tales and relate to each other.
17:15I really enjoy those kind of folks.
17:17We're not caught up in that hustle-buzzle credit card, plastic money, car payments, concrete highways
17:23and going from the office to the club to make the scene, in other words.
17:27I use the hobo as a medium for my poetry and found that everybody I've met so far has a story
17:34and that helps me tremendously with my feelings.
17:38The friendship of the young fellow who took me to Canada and to Florida was precious.
17:48When I started out, I had my own preconceptions about who was out riding freight trains
17:55and I thought that it was a fairly homogenous group.
17:59And I think one of the things I've really learned is that there are many different personalities
18:04that are out riding the freight.
18:06And those different personalities rarely devolves their family names, adopting unique aliases instead.
18:14Everybody's road name kind of gives in a nutshell who they are and what they represent.
18:21So I can introduce myself as Jet Set John and that kind of tells a little bit of the other side of me
18:26rather than just being a hobo.
18:29Some guys that walk along the track, they might call him Track Man, you know.
18:34And Sidecar Sam, he was riding Sidecar on a tanker with his feet dangling down alongside the tank.
18:42That's why I named him Sidecar Sam.
18:45Then Low Line Larry, he rides from Florida all the way up to Utah and he rides that Low Line.
18:51So I gave him the name of Low Line. Everybody has a road name.
18:55I was a stranger passing through your town.
19:05I was a stranger passing through your town.
19:12When I ask you a favor, good girl, you turn me down.
19:22The old lady can't tell him about me.
19:28Most of the time I'm alone because I have my own destination and I have my own reason for going somewhere.
19:34I love solitude.
19:36I was lonely before I started riding.
19:38I never got lonely anywhere.
19:39I told my wife I was going on an 18-day trip.
19:41She, uh, hopefully was sorry to see me go.
19:45My sister and everybody, they get a kick out of telling her friends what I do.
19:48My brother has been with me one time, but he wouldn't, he doesn't want to do it again, but he kind of likes the concept, you know what I mean?
19:56My mother looks a little bit askance at it, you know, like it's not the greatest thing, but she understands that I enjoy it and have a good time doing it, so.
20:04My family, I don't really tell them anymore because you get a lot of, a lot of shaking heads and shrugged shoulders and they don't really understand why I do it.
20:13Since I'm a senior citizen, it's kind of frowned on.
20:17A lot of them think it's really neat, but then there's some that just think I'm totally out of my mind.
20:23Most of my friends think it's, uh, it sounds like fun, sounds entertaining, they don't do it.
20:29My friends, they're, uh, they're a little more understanding.
20:32They, they, uh, they tell me, it's happened more than a few times that they tell me they want to come out on a ride with me,
20:37and as soon as I pack up my gear and I'm ready to head out the door, they, uh, they seem to disappear.
20:43My mother spent a lot of worrisome years, I'm sure.
20:46She, uh, when I got to Dunsmire on that trip there, I called her and it just so happened I had a check coming from a job that I'd worked before I left,
20:54a couple months before, and she sent it to me by Western Union.
20:57I got my butt on a goddamn Greyhound.
20:59Quitted, quitted that whole boy.
21:02I don't know.
21:03I got my butt on a lot.
21:05I want to see.
21:06I don't know.
21:07I want to see my neck back on you, but I want to see you around.
21:10I'm going to see you around the corner now, and I'm just gonna.
21:13Outside the rain was falling on the lonely boxcar door
21:26But the little form of hobo bill lay dead upon the floor
21:35While the train sped through the darkness with a raging storm outside
21:43No one knew that hobo bill was taking his last ride
21:51Yee-ho-ho-bo-bo-bill
21:58It was always cold and stuff was always blowing in your face
22:05And 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 if 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
22:55And you know that it's going to be a long time before you can find any
22:58Finding 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
23:28Every time that wheel goes around
23:30The railroad bull running you out of the yards
23:32Or the town clown
23:35Putting a run on you
23:37From his town
23:40And telling you to move on
23:43I get sick and tired of the bugs sometimes
23:45Some of the places, highways, slapping the bugs
23:47All of a sudden in the middle of the night, man
23:49They'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
23:57Would be if they made it legal
24:00I'd like to make a little disclaimer here
24:03Just for our lawyers sake, no bail
24:07Came down to make sure we're all in line
24:09By no means does the National Hobo Association
24:12Encourage anybody to go get on a freight train
24:15It's illegal and it's dangerous
24:20During the depression
24:22Hundreds of trespassers
24:24Invaded yards like this
24:25And risked the wrath of the railroad bull
24:28Today it's a misdemeanor in most places
24:31The law's main concern being
24:33Vandalism of railroad property
24:36But a pesky hobo
24:38Could surely wind up in jail
24:39If the bull's warning goes unheeded
24:42Had to run alongside
24:45And 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
24:57Because it was just as risky for them as it was for us
25:01But they could masterfully keep you out of the railroad yards
25:08And that's where we tangled with them
25:14Back in the old days you were going to go to the chain gang for 30 days
25:18You know, especially down south
25:21They were mean and bad
25:28Well in the old days they used to hit you with them breakman's club
25:32Today they're not too bad I guess
25:35They didn't stop us from getting aboard the train slow moving
25:43And we were very agile
25:45And we had done it many times
25:48Once we broke through their lines
25:51We were on our way to Peoria
25:54They 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 Bee bringing us dinner and everything
26:01You know, it was kind of fun
26:02They wrote us a ticket for trespassing on railroad property
26:05We had to spend the night in the jail
26:06And they told us to get out of town the next morning
26:08Because the D.A. wasn't going to prosecute it
26:10The city was too small
26:11I was never badly treated by them
26:16They saw that I was younger
26:19They were, in a sense, protective
26:24But they did not want me aboard their freight 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?
26:49I said, they'll throw us all off this train
26:51I said, well, at least we'll be hungry
26:53Won't be hungry
26:55And one old hobo way back in the corner of the boxcar
26:59He threw over a can opener and a spoon
27:02He said, I'll join you, young man
27:04I said, I'll join you, young man
27:14Hobo camps, also known as jungles
27:16Grew up near the train yards, water tanks, crew change points
27:20Anywhere locomotives stopped
27:22Sooner or later, you did fall into one of the camps
27:27And 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 one time in Barstow
27:50They had a really a large hobo camp there
27:54I participated in some community stew a couple times in my life
28:04Fit for a king, hobo stew
28:06The famous mulligan that's been made in spike cans and 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
28:48It's the townspeople that complain
28:51They 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
29:20Let the town strip slowly by
29:26Can't you hear the steel rail humming
29:32That's a hobo lullaby
29:39Though your clothes are torn ragged
29:45Though your hair is turning grey
29:51Though you've spent a lifetime searching
29:57You'll find happiness someday
30:00You'll find happiness someday
30:03So go to sleep you weary hobo
30:08Let the town strip slowly by
30:14Can't you hear the steel rail humming
30:20That's a hobo's lullaby
30:30Hobos communicate through the National Hobo Association
30:35Founded in 1987 by Santa Fe Bowen
30:39Who's been a trained barnacle since the 70s
30:42His two goals were uniting others who 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 of 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 to 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
31:39Please don't let the hobo die
31:42It grew slowly over the years
31:43But steadily
31:45And today we have thousands of members nationwide
31:48That span the demographic spectrum
31:53From lawyers to laborers, professional people, corporate people
31:57They're from all walks of life
31:59And they've been where I've got to go yet
32:01And I learned from their experiences
32:04It's amazing how many people don't realize they're hobos
32:07Until they come and see us
32:08And 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 and tell our tales
32:27Rather than just maybe running into one or two people in the jungle
32:30And telling your individual experiences
32:32And to get together occasionally
32:34And share the fellowship that was forged in early days
32:37Around campfires in 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
33:25Many NHA members are devoted collectors of 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 were formed in a similar fashion
33:43Enterprising hobos even chiseled peach pits into monkey trinkets
33:49Del Romines wrote a book on hobo nickels
33:53Explaining how bows tooled Indian head coins
33:57To match the profiles of their paying customers
34:00They'd even reshape the buffalo image on the reverse side
34:05Drummond Manfield's art reflects earlier days
34:09When it was pretty much a man's world out on the road
34:12But nowadays women are prominent members of the hobo community
34:17We have a lot of fun together
34:20And 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 around train yards
34:49To alert each other about town prospects
34:56An 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
35:20Whether 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
35:50You stopped
35:52Unloaded the cattle
35:55Exercised them
35:58Watered them
35:59Fed them
36:00Got back aboard the train
36:02And 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
36:23And went west
36:25And we wound up in Yakima, Washington
36:28And he had an ant there that had an apple orchard
36:34And 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
36:45That's the real apple-knocking country
36:50And we were... everybody 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
36:59Immaculate
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, you know, the little bedroom I gave them
37:11Separate from mine, of course
37:13Well, I've dug irrigation ditches
37:16Broke horses
37:18Hoed watermelon in the fields
37:21And I've done just about every kind of work
37:25You 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
37:44With me on 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
37:55Trimming trees
37:56And when I'm broke in between guitar gigs
37:58I go to day labor
37:59And push a wheelbarrow
38:00Dig a ditch
38:01Just anything I can, you know
38:02To get by, you know
38:05The average hobo isn't gonna last long
38:07At any job
38:11Ah, today there's a new class
38:13Of unticketed passengers
38:14Who vary from the old time hobos
38:17They aren't chasing down jobs
38:19They're running from them
38:20And have come to be known as
38:22Yuppie
38:23Or recreational hobos
38:25Yuppie hobos
38:27They're a pretty good group
38:29A lot of those guys really do more than their share
38:33I approve of them
38:35I'd like to see everybody see America
38:37It's a beautiful country
38:38And 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
38:47They put all the big money together
38:48I mean, if I could have a BMW
38:49And ride the rails
38:50And have the better of two equals
38:51I'd have a great life too
38:52They're not as generous as our old school
38:56Were and has been
38:58They're a different breed of bulls
39:03I'm out there just like them
39:05Just 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
39:17And re-signed the papers
39:19Because I figured the less I'd spend
39:20The more I'd experience
39:22And so I would go that last week
39:26You know, where I'd burn all my money
39:28And then I wouldn't have any money for a week
39:31I always found that the third week of the month
39:34I had more fun
39:35As a professional pilot
39:37There 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
39:49Coming here I rode up in the cockpit of a 747-400
39:53Where they offered me their bunk room to sleep
39:56Which is just like a Pullman car
39:59So it's really a high-class hobo way of traveling
40:03I don't really think I qualify as a yuppie
40:06I mean, I'm not really young
40:08And I'm not trying to be upwardly mobile
40:10I'm sort of a professional now doing nursing work
40:13But I don't really think anybody that knows me
40:15Would characterize me as a yuppie
40:17I don't really think I am
40:19I got no complaints about other people
40:22Having a different approach to it somewhat
40:24I think most people would sort of call me
40:26Like a recreational rider, I guess
40:28So I got into riding freight trains at a necessity
40:32But after I eventually got back on my feet
40:34And got to work and got a place to live and all that
40:37Then I became somewhat of a recreational rider
40:39Because I just couldn't get away from it
40:41I just had that wanderlust in my blood
40:43But we all have one thing in common
40:45We like to steal rides
40:47Besides traveling for free
40:51The ever frugal hobo has learned to survive
40:54When mother nature's free lunches
40:57Most people think that hobos went to houses for meals
41:01Or work and try and pay for them
41:04But a lot of meals were taken from right around here
41:08Right along trackside
41:10Here we have plantain which no doubt
41:15Was definitely part of the hobo diet
41:19I know a lot of stories I've read
41:23Hobos and other people
41:25Would always just pick up a little bit
41:27Chew on it
41:28Tastes good with other plants
41:30And between plantain
41:33With a little bit of lemon clover flavor
41:36You can eat a great meal
41:38When I finally broke free of money
41:40And realized that I could live off the
41:43I could live off the blackberries
41:45You know that
41:46And I know where they are
41:47And the raspberries are where they are
41:48And the other things that are around the yards
41:50You can eat right off the land
41:52Or the dumpsters or whatever else
41:55A quick-witted hobo has traditionally added humor
42:00To his social commentary
42:02Put your lobsters in the trash
42:04Eat your pheasant while it's under glass
42:07Get into your garbage
42:08I have no cash
42:09Little dinner I'll be gone in a flash
42:12Won't you hold them pickles
42:13Hold that lettuce
42:15Special orders they don't upset us
42:17Just as long as they would let us
42:20Dive it our way
42:22Yeah we're gonna go dumpster diving
42:26I'm surviving
42:28My kitty cats are thriving today
42:32Just open the lid
42:35Have a little look
42:36It's all prepared
42:38There's no need to cook
42:39We're going dumpster diving
42:41Whoa, whoa, hooray
42:43I told you get away
42:46Yeah I saw
42:47Catching rides on freight trains is notoriously dangerous
42:54Even the most seasoned hobo will caution against novices
42:57Trying to jump on board a moving train
43:00Telling horror stories of accidents they've witnessed
43:03Resulting in agonizing dismemberments
43:06Or gruesome deaths
43:08One wrong move
43:10And you've ended your days
43:12There were extended couplings
43:14Probably 10 or 15 feet across
43:16And the trains were moving
43:18And there were the two of us
43:20One guy would stand here
43:21And shine the light at the couplings
43:23And after he safely got across
43:25We'd leave the light on
43:26And this was at night
43:27And the train maybe going 50 or 60 miles an hour
43:29We'd toss the flashlight to the other guy
43:31And of course it was up to him to make sure he caught it
43:34And then in turn
43:35He would shine the light
43:37As 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
43:42It's probably the most foolish thing I ever did
43:45I'd never do it again
43:46I'd still get goosebumps when I think about it
43:49There's dangers out there
43:50And there's no way you can avoid them
43:52And even the most experienced veterans
43:54Cannot avoid the dangers of riding trains
43:56I mean I just really never travel with somebody I don't know
43:59You just
44:01You just
44:02It's just too chancy
44:03It's too chancy
44:04People
44:07Who
44:08Who
44:09Will wish you harm
44:10And
44:11Want to
44:12Want to
44:13Take you
44:14And rob you
44:15That's the biggest danger today
44:16It's not from the bulls
44:17And it's not from falling off the trains
44:18Back in the old days
44:20It was nothing for
44:2110, 15 guys
44:23And a
44:24Side door pullman
44:25Which is a boxcar
44:26To ride in the same car
44:28Nowadays
44:29You wouldn't
44:30Dare
44:31To ride with
44:32Strange
44:33Hobos
44:34Or anyone
44:35You didn't know
44:36You ride by yourself
44:38I was learning how to fight
44:40From a friend of mine
44:41On a boxcar one time
44:42He showed me how to
44:43Take a knife away from a guy
44:44And flip him
44:45And all that stuff
44:47He learned it in the Marine Corps
44:48I think
44:49We practiced that
44:50In a boxcar
44:51Moving about 80 miles an hour
44:52One time
44:53When it comes to train riding
44:54You have to give that train
44:56All of your respect
44:57But the train will never
44:58Will give you any
44:59See
45:00You can't
45:01Rely upon
45:02The train to get you
45:03Where you're going
45:04Or to be a smooth ride
45:05Or a safe one
45:06I have a great concern
45:07About equipment failure
45:08I have a concern
45:09About human error
45:10With regard to rail operations
45:12And these kinds of things
45:13I have no control over
45:14And you never know
45:15Whenever you're going
45:16To be on a train
45:17That has a crew
45:18That's gone to sleep
45:19At the throttle
45:20And next thing you know
45:21You're in a big pileup
45:22At the bottom of a hill
45:27I rode the rods
45:29From Iowa to Illinois
45:33And a more hellish experience
45:38No young fellow ever had
45:41It was horrible
45:45You set up
45:48A little protection there
45:51To keep the soot out of your face
45:56And you bounced along
45:58And you felt the ride would never end
46:02It was a descent into hell
46:06And how these men could do it
46:09Again and again and again bewildered me
46:13No matter how long it may take us
46:16Life-threatening challenges
46:18Took our new dimensions
46:19On December the 7th, 1941
46:22The day many believed the hobo died
46:25Will win through to absolute victory
46:29No longer did Bo's jungle up in Frisco
46:32Spookolo or many hopeless
46:35Now it was Anzio, Normandy, and Iwo Jima
46:39And when they were welcomed back home
46:42There were jobs for everyone
46:44New automobiles
46:45And even diesel locomotives
46:47Life on the hobo trail
46:49Would indeed never be the same
46:52What will become of the hobo
46:57Whenever his time comes to die
47:03I wouldn't trade my experiences
47:06Experiences out here on the road
47:08For anybody's college education
47:11And though I never really accomplished anything
47:15By all this travel
47:17It satisfied something in me
47:20I don't know whether I was born with it
47:25But it started very young
47:29And I never stopped
47:33I got stopped
47:36But I would
47:40Look right now to be in one of those hobo camps
47:45Will they tell us
47:47That we cannot ride
47:51Will the hobo
47:53Come with the rich man
47:56Will the hobo survive
47:58Or will he go the way of the steam train
48:01We wonder
48:03If you think about how many
48:08Lifestyles or how many
48:12Businesses or whatever
48:14Have lasted 150 years
48:16There's not very damn many of them
48:18And yet hobo continues to be with us
48:20The day is coming when we won't be able to ride freight trains
48:23This is not the 30s or the 40s anymore
48:26But that doesn't mean that it still isn't an alluring prospect
48:29For people of adventurous souls
48:31As long as there's trains
48:32There's going to be people riding them
48:33I can guarantee you that
48:34With a strong railroad industry
48:36You're going to have plenty of trains
48:38And you're going to have more people riding them
48:40I had a dream
48:41About a train that was completely hobo proof
48:44There was no possible way you could jump on it
48:46In fact it was just so slick
48:48There was no grab irons
48:49There was nothing
48:50I don't know if the rail industry is going to go that far
48:53And 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
49:03Because there's a few idiots out there derailing trains
49:05It might get harder again to hop freights
49:08It might get easier
49:09But it will always be here
49:11There's not going to be too much of it in the future
49:14I'm afraid
49:15Because
49:16Well they're seeming to get pretty tough on the hobos now
49:20There's just more and more poor people
49:22I'm sorry to say
49:23I think there's going to be more and more poor people
49:26They may be back on the trains again
49:28Going around looking for odd jobs
49:30I think maybe the hobo is pretty much gone in the east
49:35But in the west he will live
49:37The old hobos now are too old to travel
49:42They're becoming homeboys now
49:44They just stay in one location
49:46They don't travel no more
49:47I think we'll always have heavy duty rail riders
49:50People that want to ride freights and go for the adventure
49:53But the old bridge or steam train hobo
49:56They're pretty much gone
49:57We're losing a few more every year
49:59And my era of hobos
50:03They're vastly dying out
50:08The real hobo is a dying breed
50:12A guy out there who's trying to get by
50:14Going from town to town
50:16Looking for work
50:17A real gentleman honest fellow is a hobo
50:19I have a sinking feeling in my heart
50:21That the day of the hobo is about over
50:24I think it's a fading game
50:27There's a legacy that will always live on
50:30And it will change with the different groups
50:32Who are out there
50:33But as long as there's a rail to ride
50:35I 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
50:43It might be the way to go
50:45I think there will always be
50:48Young men like me
50:52Who are a little bit
50:56A thwart civilization
51:02I've been a loner
51:04I've been my own man
51:07Fiercely so
51:10Hey, now come the high of all you ramblers
51:15All of you travelers on the road
51:19Well, the time has come
51:22To remember what you're going
51:26Like where do you come from
51:30And where do you think you're going
51:34I 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
51:55Well, how do they get up there?
51:57You know
51:59But they do
52:00And they make their way
52:01And they're still hobo
52:03And all around the country
52:04God bless them
52:05See you down the road
52:09All around the water tanks
52:15Waiting for a train
52:17Waiting for a train
52:21A thousand miles away from home
52:25Sleeping in the rain
52:27I walked up to a brakeman
52:29I walked up to a brakeman
52:33To give him my talk
52:35He says
52:37If you've got money
52:39I'll see that you don't walk
52:43I haven't got a nickel
52:45I haven't got a nickel
52:47Not a penny can I show
52:51Get off, get off
52:53You railroad bum
52:55And he slammed that boxcar door
52:59Though my pocketbook is empty
53:09And my heart is full of pain
53:13I'm a thousand miles away from home
53:17Waiting for a train
53:21You're the Leo
53:23You're the Leo
53:25Leo
53:27Leo
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