Hobos_1930's

= Hobos In The 1930's =

My name is Wayne Gretzki. I am a hobo from the 1920’s. To me, a hobo is a person without a home, little to no money and are also workers who wonder. We are not hobos because we are lazy, or we want to be. Most of us don’t have any other options.Most hobos are soldiers looking to get home and end up having to train hop with the rest of us. I live a very tough life. I travel on freight trains hoping to find work on the American frontier and jobs are extremely hard to come by in the 1930’s. I wasn't the only one either, there were more like me and we all stuck together when it came to staying alive. We communicated in our own little lingo. This way, we knew if a certain area of the city was safe to stay in or if it was dangerous. The reason why we are around is because of the fact with the stock market crash and the great depression a lot of people, mainly men who lost their jobs.

I remember waking up every morning feeling groggy, maybe it was because of the fact i was sleeping at one of the worst flops in chicago, i definitely didn't recommend this for any other bo i met. I have to admit, sleeping here at the flop was a lot better than sleeping in the accommodation car. Today wasn't any different from any other day, savaging for food, desperately looking for a job, and just flat out staying alive. In the morning i made sure i boiled up my clothes real good so i don't get no infection due to those darn lice. After that i was spearing biscuits for breakfast, ever since the crash and with it leaving me without a job, food was scarce. Even if you lived by the Main drag, it made no real difference when you wanted to eat. I stop by the soup bowl to gather a few items of food to last me a good week, so for lunch i popped some bullets on the ol' banjo and that lasted me till dinner as well. The days i would be looking for work would be the worst days, walking past dozens of bone polishers, and bone orchards along my way was unbearable. This was my life, this was my way of living, and this is who i am because of the great depression.

At the start of the great depression there were over 300,000 people, mainly men homeless, and jobless. The hobo culture reached the exceeded levels of composure, meaning they were at their highest level of influence on American culture. Contact with these hobos was a common experience and they influenced the American Language with a wave of new lingo that they used and it is still used today. Along with the new language they created, hobos created symbols to go along with most of their new words. These symbols would be drawn or scripted onto gates and signs when entering a new area of the city. This is how hobos communicated with each other during the great depression and this is how they lived. Now there are still hobos around today, but obviously not as much. But some still ride trains and ride the rails as well. Modern day hobos consists of a mix of sub-cultures consisting of "gutter punks", illegal immigrants, the homeless, and even some graffiti artists. And finally below is the commonly known lingo that hobos during the great depression used.

Here Are some Hobo lingo that they used to use during the great depression.


 * **Hobo term** || **Explanation** ||
 * 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 who 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 carries a bindle. ||
 * 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 spring". ||
 * 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 ||
 * Buger || today's lunch ||
 * 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: "Flophouse", 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 <span class="wiki_link_ext">fugitive hobo. (2) a decent meal: "I could use three hots and a flop." ||
 * Hot Shot || train with priority freight, stops rarely, goes faster; synonym for "Cannonball" ||
 * Jungle || an area off a railroad where hobos camp and congregate ||
 * Jungle Buzzard || a hobo or <span class="wiki_link_ext">tramp who preys on their own ||
 * Knowledge bus || a <span class="wiki_link_ext">school bus used for shelter ||
 * Main Drag || the busiest road in a town ||
 * Moniker / Monica || a <span class="wiki_link_ext">nickname ||
 * Mulligan || a type of <span class="wiki_link_ext">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 <span class="wiki_link_ext">passenger car . One must lie flat, on his/her stomach, to not be blown off ||
 * Pullman || a railroad sleeper car. Most were made by George Pullman company. ||
 * Punk || any young kid ||
 * Reefer || a compression of "<span class="wiki_link_ext">refrigerator car ". ||
 * 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, or burglar ||