To me, thats what its all about, and Ive formed some great relationships with several of them now. Though little-remembered now, Livingston was part of a fleeting moment in American historya time when the country was getting the first real glimpse of itself as an interconnected nation, and when someone who lived by wandering could be the stuff of folklore. His given name is Leon Ray Livingstonand he was born in 1872 and he was a lifelong wanderer. As an editorial matter, know that I spoke to these folks and they spoke to me, that my bosses know whats what and that these interviews were accurately recorded and transcribed, and that for the purposes of this story I respect every hobos right to anonymity. The Spooky hobo occupation "the Guy With Little Mouths Where His Eyes Should Be" refers to the character, The Hot hobo occupation "Who Is Hot Because He's Fly" refers to, The Hot hobo occupation "Who Is Hot, Hot, So Hot, Sticky Sweet" refers to. Go back to the American folk songs of the 1880s and 90s and youll hear the beginnings of what became the IWWs Little Red Songbook. 3. A martyr to corporate violence and the solidarity of labor, he remains Americas best-known hobo. Muir traveled to California and became associated with Yosemite Valley. Squaw Edna The Stove-Pounder Crateneck Cassandra Lanky Beer He is lean and windburned, red-cheeked and gray-bearded. Harry recalls his last conversation with Queen Liz. I'm a tramp, a bum, a hobo. Not every person out there riding now is a Dirty Kid traveling in a punk vest, dreadlocks, face tattoos and shitty stick and poke tats all over their body. Then he would sing one, and hed tell me one of his adventure stories. You aint free until your backpacks full and your pockets are empty, he says. The National Hobo Cemetery in Britt, Iowa, contains the cremated remains of numerous tramps, but many of the most influential are not there, as they were identified and claimed by their families, and buried in plots close to their surviving relatives. Kelsey Grammer camped at the back of a theatre behind his [8] It could also come from the words "homeless boy" or "homeless Bohemian". Whatever it is youre imagining it to be is no worse than whatever I might write about it actually being. No alcohol or drugs were involved in the creation of this list. By then there was plenty of social science writing about hobos too, the most famous being The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man by Nels Anderson, 1923. Maybe theres some grace to be won in the burdens you bear, or in your swiftness, but at moments like this it feels like the price of your freedom is an unimaginable loneliness. He even did a TV interview up in the boxcar this year. There's a kind of late summer Midwestern sunset, maybe youve seen one, so beautiful and so strange its dislocating. There are a great many more cool cowboy names on the fringes of this category that are worthy of resuscitation. A triangle with hands, signifying that the homeowner has a gun. More accurately the tramp, the hobo, and the bum represent three historical stages of American homelessness. Name me 2 famous female generals, 3 famous The abandoned bus he lived in is a now a shrine for drifters, bums, tramps and the like. So our kids are now grown and they come back to Britt with their kids. One of this countrys 20th-century greats, modernist composer Harry Partch, was a hobo. Here are somephotosfrom the early 20thcentury of the uniquely American individual known as the hobo. Long off the main line and set here years ago, it is a meeting place and a memorial, an antique keepsake and a hideout. The Dutchmans blue eyes are bright even in the half dark of the boxcar. Terms of Use Ishtar (Arabic origin) means Goddess of love. Every culture has its seekers and its pilgrims, its mystic beggars and holy wanderers, its ascetic prophets and barefoot madmen, its itinerant poets and singers. Which is OK, because theyre all throwing candy at you. Joe Hill. In addition to the problems of being itinerant, poor, and far from home and support, plus the hostility of many train crews, they faced the railroad police, nicknamed "bulls", who had a reputation of violence against trespassers. There is nothing more disgusting than a man staggering home from work dog-tiredgrabbing a hasty feverish supper; saying good-night to his family and rolling into bed half-washed, to repeat the same thing three hundred and twelve times per-year In 1940, while living in New York City, T Bone slipped off the docks near where he was staying at a boardinghouse for seamen and drowned. When jungling in town, respect handouts and do not wear them out; another hobo will be coming along who will need them as badly, if not worse than you. Tuck and his brother are huddled up on a couple of patio chairs near the pavilion. Were all here to say a ceremonial goodbye. Alexander Supertramp Christopher McCandless grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC and attended Atlantas prestigious Emory University. All Rights Reserved, Famous Hobos and their Sad Deaths, from Alexander Supertramp to T Bone Slim, Dealing with grief after an accidental death, Poor people not wanted in cemeteries says Illinois, an award-winning movie directed by Sean Penn. Decide your own life; don't let another person run or rule you. (Sadly, his lectures don't seem to have survived.). The Dutchman is a focused listener. In 1906, Professor Layal Shafee, after an exhaustive study, put the number of tramps in the United States at about 500,000 (about 0.6% of the US population at the time). Among these wandering folk figures was a man with a sense of showmanship and a keen eye for branding: Leon Ray Livingstona writer, lecturer, and transient who would go on to dub himself "King of the Hobos.". Ecce Hobo. You have an email address!? It was after his return trip to America that Livingston was christened with the nickname that would help him become something bigger than a lowly transient: A-No. WebThe Tramp clown is a distinctly American invention, although he is now popular in European circuses as well. The Cold hobo occupation "The Guy For Whom the Eskimos Have One Hundred Different Words" refers to the popular belief that eskimos have one hundred different words that mean 'snow'. Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible. Cause no problems with operating crew or host railroad. Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hgglund and also known as Joseph Hillstrm, was a He ran for U.S. Senate in Utah as a candidate with the Peace and Freedom Party and ran for president of the United States in 1976 as a candidate with the Do-Nothing Party. Now, I grew up with the hobos, they came to my house. Buddha and Moses and Jesus all went on the bum for a while too, dont forget. Oats. I know I missed a few years, but Im back, Ive got my kid this year. You have been a good lad while you have been with me, in fact been always 'A-No. His story today has been largely forgotten, but at one time he was famous nationwide for his exploits, even taking up with These time-tested popular names were taken from a universe that includes 177,238,032 male births and 172,053,794 female births. Flyers and hotshots and redballs are all fast freights. This is by the railroad tracks off Diagonal Street, just over from the cemetery and a couple of blocks down Main Avenue from the center of town. Or riding the porch of a grainer anywhere in between. He was always in dutch back then, and the name stuck. Hoboes often begged for food at a local farmhouse. The Hobo Code was written there in 1894, an outline of ethical hobo practice and communal etiquette. [14][15], According to Ted Conover in Rolling Nowhere (1984), at some unknown point in time, as many as 20,000 people were living a hobo life in North America. The origin of the term is unknown. Eventually that mobile surplus labor force became less necessary to the national economy. Indiana University Press, 1996. The little park is packed shoulder to shoulder. And as the hobo fades from the American sceneexcept as a visual or literary clichtheres more and more confusion on the matter. Years later, Livingston would famously brag that he traveled 500,000 miles while only spending $7.61 on fares. A horizontal zigzag signifying a barking dog. It makes me a different kind of person. Though newspapers in the early and peak days of hoboing (1870s through the Depression) printed photos and drawings of hoboes leaving these signs, these may have been staged in order to add color to the story. He was a member of the famous socialist group, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies and worked as a reporter for a radical Finnish newspaper in Duluth called the Industriallisti. Not all in idle wantonness do tramps carve their monicas, dates, and courses. And every story here begins as the same story. He observed a parade with floats, the coronation of the Hobo King and Queen, a Hobo Museum, a Hobo Auction and a Hobo Jungle, where hobos strummed their instruments on a grass stage. The list of people who rode the rails includes many later became famous It was easy to find work there in the slaughterhouses to make a buck before you caught out again; easy to go west and build a dam or go east and take a job in a new steel mill. Cookie Policy [citation needed] The town first hosted the Convention in 1900, but there followed a hiatus of thirty-three years. Then its time to elect a new king and queen. Im touched. Take no personal chances. First hobo probably rode through not long after. Folks come and go, talking. Borneo Prince (Sanskrit origin) means "water" from the 'Commando' comic. A man searching for his missing sister in New York realises the official police detective cant help him. She is 85. I did it all on my own. While drifters have always existed in human society, the term became common only after the broad adoption of railroads, a means of free travel for those willing, often out of financial constraints, to hop aboard train cars furtively in violation of the law. No two characters are the same: Some save the day by sniffing out crime (Dog Man! The series ran from 1954 to 1974 and featured a beautiful Rough Collie. An ethical code was created by Tourist Union #63 (a hobo union created in the mid-1800s to dodge anti-vagrancy laws, which did not apply to union members)[30] during its 1889 National Hobo Convention:[31], There are numerous hobo conventions throughout the United States each year. The Normal hobo occupation "of the Hill People" is a reference to the Saturday Night Live skit "Lothar of the Hill People". [Title] [First Name] ["Nickname"] [Last Name], [Occupation]. Ive never felt more welcomed or accepted than anywhere Ive ever been. Here are the most popular characters that parents and their kids love. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL! Alaskan natives said McCandless was foolish and unprepared. A celebration of the wanderers and vagabonds we all love. HIPPIE GIRL NAMES AND BOHO GIRL NAMES A Aelia Aelia is such a pretty Earthy girl name of Roman, Greek, and Latin origin meaning sunlight, sunshine or The Cold hobo occupation "The Cold Miser" is a reference to the Snow Miser, a character from the Rankin-Bass Christmas special, The Cold hobo occupation "The Temperature at Which Revenge Is Best Served" is a reference to the popular English, The Cold hobo occupation "The Iceman Who Cometh" is a reference to the, The Stench hobo nickname "Poo-Gas" is a reference to an episode of, The Spooky hobo title "Uncanny-Valley" is a reference to a. 1. And promptly the hobo to whom I gave the information lit out after his pal. 1" scribbled under bridges. 32. But the greatest of these, by far, is the parade. Blue (English origin) from the anime 'Blue'. Everything he owns fits in a knapsack. This man was christened "Smilin Jack Cisco, The Hobo Prince of Arizona.". 1' in everything you had to do, and, Kid, take my advice, if you have to be anything in life, even if a tramp, try to be 'A-No. What we know about Livingston's early life comes solely from the books he wrote, which often read like tall tales designed to help build his mystique. Posers in every generation of riding, who cares, itll always be around. 33. Im your brother.. There are events in Britt all week, beginning, ceremonially anyway, with the lighting of the jungle campfire, in which the hobos call down the blessings and benedictions of the Four Winds. I will, however, cop to stealing his shtick yet again, which I think has to do with the fact I listened to his Areas Of My Expertise audiobook a few weeks ago. Enter it here to subscribe to Famous Hobos and receive notifications of new posts by email. Along with the County Fair and the Draft Horse Show, the Hobo Convention is the biggest thing on the Britt calendar. Maybe 2,000 souls. Popular names for births in 1922-2021 Cautiously, he steps forward. WebFinding food was a constant problem. Because every hobo has a story and a dream.. They hold each other a long time. Youll see lists in books and online of famous hobos. Bailey: Bailey is a friendly and open name that can be used for both the genders. The number of hoboes increased greatly during the Great Depression era of the 1930s. I suspect plenty of the names reflect a long summers walk rather than a life on the rails, or a sentence fragment in a press release to help sell an album. Writers James Michener and Louis LAmour and Jack London, and billionaire oilman H.L. Local. Theres only what you carry on your back. The ephemeral ways of hobo conventions are mostly dependent on the resources of their hosts. | [16][pageneeded]. Published in 1910nearly 30 years after he left homethis book includes tales of his early life as a hobo, including one globe-trotting adventure in his first year that found him working aboard a British trade ship that set off from New Orleans for Belize, where he jumped ship and began working for a mahogany camp. I was in. Who was a No 1 hobo? These generally consisted simply of a road name (moniker), a date, and the direction the hobo was heading then. Every homeless, muttering, and slightly creepy denizen of Hobopolis has his own moniker, a name as irrational and bizarre as the hobo himself. Only one man can: the famous private consulting detective Shamrock Jolnes. A few, the ones trying to outrun something, wont even talk to me. "Bagdad, Hobo Detective," featured in the, Many animated cartoons depict hoboes as main or secondary characters, hobo-related activities such as traveling by train, with a, "Hobo's Meditation" by Jimmie Rodgers, recorded by, "Way Out There" by Bob Nolan, recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers, Johnson, L. Anderson. Digital Dying examined a few examples.. T Bone Slim T bone was perhaps the twentieth centurys most famous hobo writer. This page has been accessed 78,271 times. I had the honor of doing a directed writing course which I could choose the professor. Always broke but never broken, his struggles were everyones. You hear the old stories, everyones reminiscing. When hes not catching out, hes catching work as an electrician. In the 1970s and 1980s hobo numbers were augmented by returning Vietnam War veterans, many of whom were disillusioned with settled society. Do not cause problems in a train yard; another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through that yard. Almost from the beginning of the existence of hoboes, as early as the 1870s,[18] it was reported that they communicated with each other by way of a system of cryptic "hobo signs", which would be chalked in prominent or relevant places to clandestinely alert future hoboes about important local information. This would be written in a prominent location where other hoboes would see it. ), the Temperature at which Revenge is Best Served, the Guy Who Likes Corpses a Little Too Much, If You Know What I Mean, the Guy With Little Mouths Where His Eyes Should Be, Who Sings Nursery Rhymes in a High-Pitched Voice While Delicately Caressing a Straight Razor, Whose Clothes Are Made out of Suspiciously Pale Leather, the Guy Made Entirely Out of Onions Or At Least That's How He Smells, the Guy Who Chain-Smokes in a Poorly Ventilated Room, the Guy Who Eats Nothing But Limburger Cheese, the Hobo Who Doesn't Have the Sense to Disregard His Own Feces, the Man Who Should Probably Change His Socks, the Man Who Should Probably Change His Underwear, Like, Now, the Man Who Uses a Rotting Fish for Aftershave, the Smelliest Hobo In the World, Probably, Who Is Extremely Funky But Not In a Good Way, the Guy Who Casually Brushes Up Against You Way Too Often for It to Be a Coincidence, the Guy Who Does Not Have a Pencil in His Pocket, the Guy Who Was Kicked Out of the Frat House for Misogynistic Behavior, the Guy Who Works the Ferris Wheel at the County Fair, the Guy Your Parents Were Specifically Referring To When They Said Not To Talk To Strangers, the Ubiquitous Music that Grates on your Ears after Two Minutes, Who Is As Frightful As the Weather Outside, Many of these names are based on the 700 hobo names featured in, The Spooky hobo nickname "gives you the jibblies" is a reference to. Privacy Statement Utah Phillips Utah was a legendary hobo singer, avid train hopper and poet as well as a strong union supporter and member of the Wobblies. Hop a train to Iowa, where proud vagabonds gather every summer to crown the new king and queen of the rails, By Jeff MacGregor; Photographs by Alyssa Schukar. Five thousand years of wandering and it turns out the real wilderness is inside us. Inanna (Sumerian origin) means Queen of heaven. But I wouldnt trade it for anything. The carnies are all parked in their campers over on East Center Street, just up the block from the Toilet Bowl Racesa timed, point-to-point-to-point event involving teams of three pushing toilet bowls on wheels, the rapid consumption of popular snacks, a great deal of toilet paper and many teeny-weeny toilet trophies. Especially the older hoppers. In his book, Livingston said the moniker was given to him by an older companion named Frenchy, who said: "Every tramp gives his kid a nickname, a name that will distinguish him from all other members of the craft. A lovely name for your princess. From the Hobo Code to the Hobo Code episode of Mad Men in about 113 years. The train tracks run east-west through Britt. Twenty-five minutes east is Clear Lake, where Buddy Hollys plane went down; 25 minutes west is Algona, where the motels areand the McDonalds and the Hormel pepperoni plant and the factory where they make Snap-on tool boxes; 10 minutes north is the Crystal Lake Wind Farm and its long horizon of bright white turbines, and 15 minutes past that is the Winnebago factory over in Forest City. The boxcar is a fixture in the Britt jungle, permanent. Its dusk in farm country, coming up on twilight, but theres something of eternity in it. Since 1934 the convention has been held annually in Britt, on the second weekend in August.[32]. You wont see em after two years. Hobo Name Generator. Turns out the hobo convention is a reunion for the whole town. We built fires and cooked up chow right in the middle of the rail yards. Mainly freight lines, carrying mostly grain. My two sisters Connecticut Shorty and New York Maggie were queens of the Hobo. The Grotesque Whiteface, similar to the Straight Whiteface in color and cheer, but zanier, with exaggerated features and clothes. It seemed that a serial killer was murdering hobos who rode the rails and Today we would merely refer to such folks as homeless. They were talking in a bar about riding out to see Evel Knievel jump the Snake River Canyon, and I started to listening to it, and I worked seasonal and stuff. I know that a lot of people wish they could do the same. Boho chic has done pretty well. WebWho was the most famous hobo? WebLeon Ray Livingston (1872 - 1944) Leon Ray Livingston was a famous hobo and author, traveling under the name "A-No.1" and often referred to as "The Rambler." Everything Ive owned, and everything I want in life, fits in this house [points to his knapsack], right in my pack. or a syllabic abbreviation of "homeward bound". We just got on the train in the dark. Thats pretty much everyone in Britt.
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