Here�s a site you can waste hours clicking through: Hobo.com. It�s no joke (like, say, the World Rock Papers Scissors Society), but rather a functional and educational gathering point for all things hobo. For instance, there�s an essay attempting to define just what is a hobo, a list of hobo kings and queens, and (my favorite), the 1894 Hobo Code of the Open Road. From the latter:
1.-Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you.
2.-When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.
4.-Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.
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Chris Howell|6.24.03 @ 1:03AM|#
On a related note:
Skilled craftsmen have been turing regular Indian Head nickles into "hobo nickles" for years.
check this out:
http://community-2.webtv.net/Coinjockey/PICTUREGALLERY/
Keith|6.24.03 @ 1:28AM|#
Reminds me of John Sebastian and the J-Band's Aint Nowhere to Hobo Anymore.
|6.24.03 @ 1:33AM|#
Rules 1,2 & 4
Hokey-smokes! I'm a hobo!
Scott Harris|6.24.03 @ 1:42AM|#
Okay. So I'm not really a hobo... but I have a great memory of summers at my grandmother's when I ws a kid. If a traveling man came walking down the tracks I got sent out with a big mason jar of cold well water or tea. That was pretty cool.
Geotech|6.24.03 @ 10:48AM|#
This is by far the best link I've seen on Hit and Run. When I was in Kindergarten we had a "Hobo fieldtrip", where we hung our lunches in bindles from broomsticks and wore shabby clothes and walked around the neigborhood with our teacher. I wore one of my dad's old welding caps too.
fyodor|6.24.03 @ 12:34PM|#
Don't #'s 2 and 4 contradict #1? Doesn't even having a code contradict #1? Unless, of course, following the code and the local law and your temporary boss are what YOU DECIDE to do of your own free volition -- but then, doesn't that make #1 rather meaningless?
Sigh, maybe if I didn't think of such things I could relax and just be a happy hobo....