I found the Smithsonian article online:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/last-great-american-hobos-180971913/
If I understand “RV” correctly, in Brit that would be Campervan/Camper Van (or just Camper). A caravan is something that you pull with a tow bar.
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Other measures like that apex of technology called a “padlock”. Something I will never understand about riding the rails in the days of yore is , why the hell didn’t the railroads lock the doors?
A couple of years ago, there were stories about people hopping on trains in motion in Los Angeles County, breaking into the freight cars and going through the boxes of merchandise from Amazon, UPS and so forth. Here’s a CNN story.
My understanding is they did have padlocks, as I’ve seen old railroad padlocks for sale and kept as souvenirs, but they were keyed with common keys rather than fairly unique ones. Someone in Oakland would have to be able to open a boxcar locked in Chicago, with neither someone necessarily working for the same company (shipper’s clerk locked railcar, recipient’s dockworker unlocks it).
Very interesting. Thanks! Apparently they were breaking into Union Pacific trains when they were immobilized in or near LA, so there’s a weak point in security. This article says the thieves used bolt cutters to cut the padlocks, so there’s another weak point. And UP complains that though the thieves have been arrested, they’re back on the streets within 24 hours.
Of course, these thieves aren’t riding the rails, but it still shows where security needs to be tightened. I’d much rather have tramps and hoboes riding the freight trains than have thieves breaking into them and hurling boxes and unwanted items onto the ground. That photo in that CNN article is eye-opening!
That is part of it, but many of them worked on farms before they came here, thus they have the skills. And picking strawberries ect is a skilled job, if you want to do it fast and right.
have you spent much time in LA–it’s certainly common on street corners .
sounds like Gypsies/Roma
There’s also Industrial Temp places that pay by the day at minimum wages
Plano, Texas had a day labor center they opened in 1994. This was a place where laborers seeking work could hang around until some dude drove by in a pickup truck to see who wanted to work that day. You typically pay these folks in cash and I don’t imagine the laborers pay taxes. The day labor center was supposed to be a place where laborers would congregate instead of hanging around other areas looking for work.
Sometimes they did. As one song put, referring to freight trains, “Going east they’re loaded, and going west sealed tight, I reckon I’ll have to ride aboard the fast express tonight.” And why seal an empty boxcar? Hoboes would also ride on top of boxcars, underneath on the rods, and on the spaces between cars.
I saw this in Houston everyday for probably two decades when I lived closer to downtown. Spanish speaking and all that. Pretty reliable workforce.
I also saw it in Santiago, except they were Peruvians standing around waiting to work for Chileans.
I stand corrected.
I listen to a lot of folk punk, riding the rails is still a thing. Not as much as in the past, but it exists. They’re not usually travelling for work, but because this lifestyle calls to them, and they might support by busking and similar.
Maybe to keep animals out of them?
This made me snigger, thanks.
As a previously homeless white guy, although different country. Glad “quality” is important in your choice of hobo!
May I present myself? Impeccable credentials! Read my CV!
Tongue in cheek, of course, in response to a typo
The quality of white hobos is not strained….
Now I need to know;
Hitchhiking across the country, (no real grand destination, more of a wander), while stopping here and there to work for a few weeks, maybe at a carnival/fair.
Tramping?
Like the song “Big Rock Candy Mountain” …“There ain’t no short-handled shovels, no axes saws or picks, Oh I’m bound to go where there ain’t no snow, the wind don’t blow in the big rock candy mountain”