BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAINS - Harry Mac McClintock - 1928
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovKk_kPmAk4
HALLELUJAH! I’M A BUM - Harry MAC McClintock - 1928
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uKbIkYGsIg
Interesting, wonder how many followed it?
Seemed to generally work until the mental homes were emptied
Every welfare recipient should be held to this standard!
Interesting. Too bad bums don’t act this way today.
In the 50,s, Grandpa used to take one of us Grandkids for a walk every evening. There was a blueberry bush by the railroad tracks and we went to pick berries in season. Since it was by railroad tracks, hobos used to sit there. Grandpa would have me wait while he asked the hobos to vacate the area for awhile. They always did and remained out of sight until I had a few berries.
Etymology[edit]
The origin of the term is unknown. According to etymologist Anatoly Liberman, the only certain detail about its origin is the word was first noticed in American English circa 1890.[1] Liberman points out that many folk etymologies fail to answer the question: “Why did the word become widely known in California (just there) by the early Nineties (just then)?”[1] Author Todd DePastino has suggested it may be derived from the term hoe-boy meaning “farmhand”, or a greeting such as Ho, boy![3] Bill Bryson suggests in Made in America (1998) that it could either come from the railroad greeting, “Ho, beau!” or a syllabic abbreviation of “homeward bound”.[4] It could also come from the words “homeless boy”. H. L. Mencken, in his The American Language (4th ed., 1937), wrote:
Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but see themselves as sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but soon or late he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police.
Source: Wikipedia
which was not followed by
How did they pack all of their belongings in a handkerchief tied to a stick?
Hobos marked rocks or trees near homes along the railroad tracks, as an aid to other hobos looking for handouts. Thusly:
Hobo lingo in use up to the 1940s (from Wikipedia):
* Accommodation car – The caboose of a train
* Angellina – young inexperienced kid
* Bad Road – A train line rendered useless by some hobo’s bad action
* Banjo – (1) A small portable frying pan. (2) A short, “D†handled shovel
* Barnacle – a person who sticks to one job a year or more
* Beachcomber – a hobo that hangs around docks or seaports
* Big House – Prison
* Bindle stick – Collection of belongings wrapped in cloth and tied around a stick
* Bindlestiff – A hobo who steals from other hobos.
* Blowed-in-the-glass – a genuine, trustworthy individual
* “‘Bo†– the common way one hobo referred to another: “I met that ‘Bo on the way to Bangor last springâ€.
* Boil Up – Specifically, to boil one’s clothes to kill lice and their eggs. Generally, to get oneself as clean as possible
* Bone polisher – A mean dog
* Bone orchard – a graveyard
* Bull – A railroad officer
* Bullets – Beans
* Buck – a Catholic priest good for a dollar
* C, H, and D – indicates an individual is Cold, Hungry, and Dry (thirsty)
* California Blankets – Newspapers, intended to be used for bedding
* Calling In – Using another’s campfire to warm up or cook
* Cannonball – A fast train
* Carrying the Banner – Keeping in constant motion so as to avoid being picked up for loitering or to keep from freezing
* Catch the Westbound – to die
* Chuck a dummy – Pretend to faint
* Cover with the moon – Sleep out in the open
* Cow crate – A railroad stock car
* Crumbs – Lice
* Doggin’ it – Traveling by bus, especially on the Greyhound bus line
* Easy mark – A hobo sign or mark that identifies a person or place where one can get food and a place to stay overnight
* Elevated – under the influence of drugs or alcohol
* Flip – to board a moving train
* Flop – a place to sleep, by extension: “Flophouseâ€, a cheap hotel.
* Glad Rags – One’s best clothes
* Graybacks – Lice
* Grease the Track – to be run over by a train
* Gump – a scrap of meat
* Honey dipping – Working with a shovel in the sewer
* Hot – (1) A fugitive hobo. (2) A decent meal: “I could use three hots and a flop.â€
* Hot Shot – train with priority freight, stops rarely, goes faster. synonym for “Cannonballâ€
* Jungle – An area off a railroad where hobos camp and congregate
* Jungle Buzzard – a hobo or tramp that preys on their own
* Knowledge bus – A school bus used for shelter
* Main Drag – the busiest road in a town
* Moniker / Monica – A nickname
* Mulligan – a type of community stew, created by several hobos combining whatever food they have or can collect
* Nickel note – five-dollar bill
* On The Fly – jumping a moving train
* Padding the hoof – to travel by foot
* Possum Belly – to ride on the roof of a passenger car. One must lay flat, on his/her stomach, to not be blown off
* Pullman – a rail car
* Punk – any young kid
* Reefer – A compression of “refrigerator carâ€.
* Road kid – A young hobo who apprentices himself to an older hobo in order to learn the ways of the road
* Road stake – the small amount of money a hobo may have in case of an emergency
* Rum dum – A drunkard
* Sky pilot – a preacher or minister
* Soup bowl- A place to get soup, bread and drinks
* Snipes – Cigarette butts “sniped†(eg. in ashtrays)
* Spear biscuits – Looking for food in garbage cans
* Stemming – panhandling or mooching along the streets
* Tokay Blanket – drinking alcohol to stay warm
* Yegg – A traveling professional thief
More markings:
Hobo ethics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxcar_Willie
Boxcar Willie
Boxcar Willie, born as Lecil Travis Martin (September 1, 1931 – April 12, 1999) was an American country music singer, who sang in the “old-time hobo” music style, complete with dirty face, overalls, and a floppy hat.[2] “Boxcar Willie” was originally a character in a ballad he wrote, but he later adopted it as his own stage name.
Martin was born in Sterrett, Texas in 1931. He joined the United States Air Force in 1949, and served as a flight engineer for the B-29 Super Fortress during the Korean War in the early 1950s. In Lincoln, Nebraska, Martin was once sitting at a railroad crossing and a fellow that closely resembled his chief boom operator, Willie Wilson, passed by sitting in a boxcar. He said, “There goes Willie.” He pulled over and wrote a song entitled “Boxcar Willie”.[citation needed] It eventually stuck and became Martin’s nickname.
Death of the American Hobo (Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWHh9W5IeBo
