![]() The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. What is the hobo sign for “Please don’t ring the bell while I’m in the bathroom.”įor more information about Lake Chapala visit: file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. And who knows? I might be gaining a little karma for the day when I have “caught the westbound.” I just wish that, back when we were camped with the hobos, I had known to ask Fry Pan Jack one question. In the broad scheme of things, I won’t miss a few pesos here and there. Title: Examples of hobo signs Description: Drawing, with text Interpretation: Hoboes communicated through a basic system of markings, a code through which. The diabetics show you their prescriptions. Each of these people seems to have a cradle-to-grave supply of notes. Then, their mother died and needs a funeral. The next, their child needs school uniforms. The whole idea was more or less made up by Leon (A1) Livingston as part of the promotion of his books. As appealing as the concept is, it just wasn't actually a thing. The beggars have all got hand-scrawled notes in misspelled English. Recent detailed research by the Historic Grafitti Society has found that the whole idea of 'hobo codes' or 'hobo signs' is a myth. We’re the lucky ones.Īnd don’t bother trying to get rid of them by pretending you don’t speak Spanish. I never see them knocking on our neighbors’ doors. The old man with the gangrenous leg, the lady with no leg at all, the woman with four kids and no husband, the one-man band playing his trumpet, drum, and cymbal. I suspect that tradition has found its way down here to Mexico. Grandma’s gate, he said, bore the hobo sign for “kind lady.” Where you might get work, or where you might get shot. Where there was good water, or a bad dog. They had signs telling each other where there was a safe campsite, or a mean sheriff. He explained that hobos used to carve special markings on trees and fence posts. Whether or not she had any chores for them, she always gave them a sandwich or piece of pie.įry Pan Jack nodded and said her house was probably marked with a hobo sign. They would offer to chop wood or paint the shed. My wife told the gathering she remembered her grandmother’s stories about hobos coming to her farmhouse back during the Great Depression. Unlike 'tramps'who work only when they are forced to- and 'bums' who do not work at all, 'hobos' are itinerant workers. The term originated in the Western (probably Northwestern) United States around 1890. The night we were in the hobo camp, we all drank a toast to those who had, in hobo parlance, “caught the westbound.” A hobo is a migratory worker or homeless vagabondespecially one who is penniless. In fact, the town of Britt had actually set aside a few cemetery plots near the tracks just for hobos who needed a final resting place. Some of the old-timers were shuttled in from local veteran’s hospitals and county rest homes. Not all of these guys were still hopping freights. And listened to the tall tales of grizzled men with monikers like Steamtrain Maury, Fry Pan Jack, Virginia Slim, and Mountain Dew. also hobo bag A large, crescent-shaped handbag with a single shoulder strap and usually a zippered top. We camped out with the hobos, sang songs around the campfire. One who wanders from place to place without a permanent home or a means of livelihood. My wife and I actually attended the convention back in the 1970s. For more than 100 years, the hobos have gathered there to elect the King of the Hobos. The National Hobo Convention is held every August in the small town of Britt, Iowa. ![]() Most people don’t know that Iowa hosts another convention of people seeking election. Hobo signs a compilation of signs for those who may one day find them useful Gaunerzinken : eine Zusammenstellung von Gaunerzinken für jene, die sie eines Tages nützlich finden könnten by Terry Fox. The only thing politicians have in common with Iowans is a mutual interest in pork. They show up once every four years and bloviate about how much they have in common with Iowans. What could I say? Kansas City is where Iowan’s go when they are looking for a good time. ![]() ![]() He complained that there wasn’t much to do there in the evening. The closest anybody got was when my brother was sent on a business trip to Kansas City, Missouri. The official monument marking the highest point in the state is actually in the middle of a hog feedlot.ĭuring the decade I lived there, not one of my relatives ever came to visit. Iowa is not what you would call a tourist destination. Even the Iowans used to say Iowa was a great place to be from-the sooner the better. I moved there from Chicago back in the ‘70s and lived there for about ten years.
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