Posted on 11/25/2006 1:31:41 PM PST by Silly
Steam Train Maury, who started life as Maurice W. Graham until a train whistle’s timeless lament compelled him to hop a freight to freedom and, much later, fame, as the first and only Grand Patriarch of the Hobos, died on Nov. 18 in Napoleon, Ohio, near Toledo.
Mr. Graham was 89 and chief caretaker of the hobo myth, a cornerstone of which is the hobos’ term for death: “taking the westbound.” In his case, that last westbound freight left the yard when he suffered the last of several strokes and slipped into a coma, Phyllis Foos, manager of Walter Funeral Home in Toledo, said.
Mr. Graham wrote a book about his life on “the iron road,” was a founding member of the Hobo Foundation and helped establish the Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa. At the National Hobo Convention in Britt, he was crowned king five times — in 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1981 — and, in 2004, was anointed grand patriarch.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maury takes the westbound...
(Hmmmm... That may be the wrong phrase.)
May he rest in peace as he rides that final train into the sky...
Given the enormous mass inherent in the average locomotive, its restricted accelerative capacity, and its total lack of lift-generating horizontal appendages, the odds of one attaining sufficient airspeed velocity to carry said deceased indigent vagabond anywhere beyond the confines of it's designated trackway, let alone upon an upward trajectory, are slim indeed.
Well, thanks for bursting my bubble, Mr Rain-On-Your-Parade! I bet you tell little kids that reindeer couldn't possibly fly and pull a sleigh full of toys through the air, too.
This is news??
Just because the dude had a hard life doesn't necessarily make him a bad person who couldn't rise to higher levels.
Britt officials offered Local 63 their town for its annual convention in 1900 and were shocked when big-city reporters showed up and did not treat the event as the joke it was intended to be.
Nah, it's a joke.
>>>This is news??
It was when it happened a week ago.
Another story: http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2006/11/20/latest_news/doc456269fa3623a103631774.txt
Made you look...
(me too)
Not if there is a deficit of Christmas Cheer, and the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear.
Golly, I bet you're a lot of fun around the house, pal! ;)
During the depression and just out of high school, my dad hitched a ride on a Freight Train out of Fremont, Michigan...He travelled the country on the trains looking for work...
Oh, here it comes
Well, train, train, take me on out of this town
Train, train, Lord, take me on out of this town
Well, that woman I'm in love with, Lord, she's Memphis bound
Well, leavin' here, I'm just a raggedy hobo
Lord, I'm leaving here, I'm just a raggedy hobo
Well, that woman I'm in love with, Lord, she's got to go
Well, goodbye pretty mama, get yourself a money man
Goodbye, pretty mama, Lord, get yourself a money man
You take that midnight train to Memphis
Lord, leave me if you can
Oh, take that midnight train to Memphis
Lord, leave me if you can
Oh, take that train, baby
I'm guessing he smoked, drank on occasion, ate fatty foods and still lived to 89. God bless him on his trip to Heaven.
According to William Safire, mixed metaphors are a pain in the ass and should be thrown out the window.
There used to be a hobo college in Chicago.
There used to be a hobo college in Chicago.
There's a ho college in Vegas...I've been told...
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