Posted on 08/30/2015 6:02:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway
This week hobos from all over the country are meeting in a north Iowa community. For 115 years, Britt has hosted the National Hobo Convention and believe it or not, along with those hobos comes a lot of money for area businesses.
“I only have one word, explosive!” This is how Mary Jo Hughes describes Hobo Days. For two decades, she has served hundreds of hobos who come through the doors of her restaurant, Mary Jo’s Hobo House. “They love food, they live from meal to meal I’ll tell you that,” says Hughes.
She says it takes some planning. Over the years she’s learned to ditch the regular menu. “When the hobos come to town they eat everything, I mean it doesn’t matter,” she says.
For the occasion, she prepares a daily special. “Oh I make a mean sloppy joe, so every year we’ve always done the sloppy joe sandwich and then we do a chicken salad sandwich,” she says.
Of course she needs more hands on deck to prepare for the hungry hobos, but sometimes they just help themselves. “My nieces, nephews, brothers and sister-in-law’s all help out and then some of the hobos will even come in and bus tables or wash dishes. They’ve always been very good to me,” says Hughes.
“Her hobo hash browns are famous in the hobo community,” says NY Maggie and Connecticut Shorty. These two would know, they have been attending the hobo convention for 26 years. “Seeing our friends that we haven’t seen all year is our favorite part. Many of them come in from all over the country. For the hobo community, it’s a chance to meet friends and catch up on news,” says Shorty.
Business owners, like Hughes are happy they come back year-after-year, because more people means more money. “It’s a good thing for Britt and the surrounding communities. They have to eat like everyone else and some of them come in with vehicles now so they buy gas in town and pay to go into the museum so they dump a lot of money into the economy,” says Shorty and Maggie.
“A lot of the hobos still like to come up town to eat and enjoy the company of the locals,” says Hughes.
Organizers have a lot planned for the remainder of the week and weekend. Musicians will be playing, the traditional mulligan stew will be made and Friday morning there is the traditional memorial service at the cemetery honoring hobos who have died. Saturday morning there will also be a parade and 5k run. For a full listing visit their website: http://www.brittiowa.com/hobo/.
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