Connecticut Shorty ’s father is bury in theNational Hobo Cemeteryin Britt , Iowa . When a tramp dies , they say he ’s “ caught the Westbound . ” Shorty ’s beginner , Connecticut Slim , rode the rail for 44 years before catch the Westbound in 1990 to the tramp jungle in the skies . Shorty did n’t fully understand the sweetener of the hobo lifestyle until she start hop-skip trains herself in 1993 .
Shorty was in her mid-40s when she catch out on her firsttrainfrom Dunsmuir , California to the fabled Roseville runway thou outdoors of Sacramento . A veteran tramp called Road Hog USA showed her the ropes — where to hide from the “ bulls ” ( train railway yard bull ) , where the railroad train stop or slows enough to hop-skip on , what character of train cars to look for , and what to fetch in your coterie .
“ I ’ve never been afraid , ” says Shorty . “ It ’s always been such a tremendous adventure for me . My foresighted stumble was from Staples , Minnesota to Whitefish , Montana over the Rocky Mountains and back . ”
By the clip she take the Rocky Mountain drive , Shorty was already in her late 50s . She and her traveling fellow traveller — a fellow discover Frog — hop an intermodal container train . Those are the vast trains carrying double - stacked shipping containers , hardly the tiresome rolling boxcars of past . Shorty and Frog hinge on in the “ well ” or “ porch ” behind the shipping containers , exposed to the wind and rubble and noise , but partly shade from sun and rainwater .
“ It ’s not easy ! ” Shorty laughs . “ Nothing ’s well-off . You ’re sleeping on metal floor , after all . But it gets you where you ’re going . You cross the country , you ’re out there with nature , you go through Indian reservation , over mountains — it ’s a wonderful adventure , and you ’re discover America for gratuitous . ”
For Shorty and her white - haired hobo friends , hop train is one of the last groovy trip adventures . Shorty ’s not destitute or desperate . She has a household in Iowa and a wintertime asylum in Florida . For her , hoboing is a avocation and a agency to honor her late father . But Shorty is only one type of modern American hobo .
Hobo culture is alive and well in the United States , but it ’s a far watchword from the sanitized Halloween - costume version most of us are used to — the patched overalls , the charcoal whiskers and the red - bandana bindle ( that ’s a bundle on a stick ) . Today ’s tramp are gutter punks and anarchists , crustlike small fry and social dropouts prove to piece together an existence outside of polite society . And the best way to get there is to skip a train .
The Original Hobos
Very few multitude ride the rails full - clip today . In anABC News storyfrom 2000 , the president of the National Hobo Association put the image at 20 - 30 , allow that another 2,000 might ride part - sentence or for recreation .
That ’s a far yell from what it used to be . The very first American hobos were mold - offs from the American Civil War of the 1860s . When many soldiers returned home , job were scarce , so hordes of new human race took to the newly progress railway system to find their fortune elsewhere . The name hobo is believed to be a truncated var. of “ hoe boy . ” The original hobo traveled from town to town looking for odd jobs and menial farm work .
The compounding of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the 1930s squeeze millions of Americans to become migrant laborers . According to one estimate , the hobo ranks well to 4 million adult and 250,000 teenagers between 1929 and World War II . These steam - engine hobos crisscross the country calculate for paying work and a blistering meal , hitch illegal rides between , on top , underneath and occasionally inside gear cars .
It was during this bum efflorescence that the famoushobo codewas created . Since many hobos were illiterate , they developed a system of sign — scrawl on fence posts and train crossings — to pass on vital information to fellow traveller . A picture of a bird indicated a loose telephone set . A cross signified a free repast if you profess religious belief . There ’s some doubt whether or not the hobo codification was widespread ( or even real ) , but it ’s prove to be an irresistible bit of tramp folklore .
Shorty ’s Fatherhood Connecticut Slim was one of these steam - era hobos and stuck with the lifestyle even after the transition to fast diesel engines in the fifties . Hobo act dropped in the more comfortable post - war geological era , but rise again in the seventies and eighties with an influx of disillusioned Vietnam veterinary surgeon . Some of these vet take form the notoriousFreight Train Riders of America , a drug - fuel rail gang incriminate of beating and even murdering hobos that encroached on their turf .
Today ’s bum look very dissimilar than their Civil War forefathers or the Depression - earned run average migrants , but they also portion out some striking similarities . When you ’ve hit rock bottom , it seems , the best way out is on the back of a train .
Meet Dirty
That ’s not his real name , of course . All bum have nicknames , but we chose this one to protect Dirty ’s true individuality . dingy begin “ traveling ” when he was 19 and lived as a hardcore hobo for four age . You ’ve in all likelihood seen citizenry like him camped out in parks and panhandling outside bus Stations of the Cross . The look — overstuffed haversack , foul dreadlock , rend and piece dress , near dogs , unspeakable - looking piercings and tons of recreational tattoos . Yes , this is the face of the modern American tramp .
perchance you ’ve wondered , how did these minor get here ? Are they homeless ? Is this a lifestyle choice or is subsist on the streets their only option ?
All of the above , foul says . Some kidskin like him uprise up in a relatively stable halfway - class environment and decide one solar day that ’s it ’s all a scam , so they manoeuver out in search of something dissimilar . Other nestling are on and off the streets since childhood and have never know anything near . Even if the bum lifestyle get down as a choice , though , it does n’t always stay that way .
“ After a certain compass point , there ’s nothing to go back to , ” muddy explains . “ Even if the great unwashed did have a family that supported them , if you start tattoo your fount and smoking crack they ’re choke to start seem at you different . A lot of people have been press away from their family , but they ’ve found a band in common with their acquaintance out on the street . And that ’s their kin now . ”
Living on food cast and handout , sleeping in Rosa Parks , getting wasted on cheap spirits and street drug , and drifting from one city to the next , Dirty and his street phratry were draw to the gearing for the same cause all hobos are drawn to wagon train : they ’re complimentary .
“ There are different segments of the traveling culture , ” Dirty says . “ you may either be a ‘ rubber tramper ' — which mean you have your own railway car — a classic hitchhiker or a train groundball . Only the wagon train is completely loose . Even when you ’re hitchhike , it ’s still not costless . You have to entertain the person that ’s driving with stories and stuff . Plus you have to quell awake in case they ’re a weirdo . ”
When you ’re traveling by train , Dirty says , you have total independency — take over you get on the good train . Dirty and his hobo friend moved all over the country following a loose migration of crusty youngster on the track of medicine festivals and drugged - out blowouts . FromFolklife Festivalin Seattle to theRainbow Gatheringin Ocala , Florida to Halloween in New Orleans .
The freedom and independence of the rails come at a stiff price , though : serious physical danger . soiled has friends who have lost limbs to trains . Others have lost their lives . hop on a go train is voiceless enough , but even harder when you ’re drunk or high and hauling a huge packsack . The rule of pollex is to only hop a gear if you may understandably make out each bolt of lightning on its spinning wheels . If it ’s too blurry — from speed or drunkenness — catch the next one . Most modern train cars aresealed upanyway , so hobos now incline to hinge upon on the " porch " or spaces between containers , as Connecticut Shorty did .
Then there are dangers that have nothing to do with trains . Heroin overdoses , fight , mugging and even murder . furiousness between hobos is n’t the job , but when you exist on the streets beyond the protective bubble of gild , you ’re endanger to all type of people , the good and the ugly .
Still , muddied talks with pride about the “ bum codification , ” the exercise set of community standards that guides life on the rails and offers a class of group protection . Never break into a boxcar , for example . It shows disrespect for the people who work the trains and it motivate tight security department . Hobos will tell apart you there ’s a divergence between being a tramp and being a tramp : A hobo works and wanders , while a tramp only wanders .
tramp look out for one another , particularly for the women , and lay down street jurist on offenders .
“ If there was any kind of intimate violation , you ’d be lucky to get out alive , ” Dirty says . “ We take that kind of thing very seriously . ”
Dirty retired from the bum game when he sober up for a girlfriend , but he still stays in close tangency with his extended hobo community . tramp sleep together Facebook , it turn out . And they have their own hush-hush societal networks like the ( warning : not remotely dependable for study ) TumblrLook at this f***ing Oogle . In between the detestable photos and sottish displays are some devout pleas from fellow travelers . Have you see this guy ? We ’re worried about him . Call this number if you know where he is .
As much as he recognizes the depravity and risk of the bum lifestyle , foul values the friendship he mold in the street and on the gear . He describes his four eld as a hobo like a tour of tariff in the war machine .
“ We ’re all ‘ vets ' out there , ” Dirty says . “ And my skillful champion are the great unwashed who have been through the same experience . Those are bonds we can never founder . ”
Hobo Heaven
Every August , hundreds of tramp and hobo aficionado from across America gathering in Britt , Iowa for the National Hobo Convention . The normal has been held in this tiny whistle - stop since 1900 , when the township Father receive three Chicago hobo looking for a young home for their annual get - together . In addition to the yearly pattern , the town celebratesBritt Hobo Clarence Day , a long weekend of parades , concerts , fair rides and fried food attended by more than 20,000 visitors .
Connecticut Shorty has n’t missed a National Hobo Convention in 25 year . She proudly cite that she was elected National Hobo Queen in 1992 ( her sister , New York Maggie , won the honor in 1994 ) . bum start arrive in Britt a calendar week a few years before the convention begins . They get along in motor homes and on motorcycles , and some still ride the string , hopping off at nearby Mason City and hitchhiking to Britt . They set up a “ hobo jungle , ” a tramp cantonment in a urban center park , and light a ceremonial fire that burns steady through the whole weekend .
There are n’t many genuine hobo at the National Hobo Convention . This is more about preserve history than passing the baton to the next generation . Shorty gives tours of the National Hobo Cemetery and shares the account of steam - era hobos like her father , men who consume to the runway out of necessity and found an odd mother wit of home and community in that stray humanity .
The hobo life-style is a curious thing to celebrate , but it speaks to something quintessentially American — a spirit of disaffected independence , hardscrabble survival and the hope of something better a little further down the line . As gloomy and desperate as the lifestyle can be , as long as there are trains , there will probably be hobos .
