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Hobos
During the Depression in the 1930s, many people were out of work. Without money to pay for tickets, men hopped onto trains and "rode the rails", looking for jobs. This was, and still is, illegal and very dangerous. Some hobos laid boards across the brake rods under passenger railway cars. They could ride on these boards and be hidden from view -- a very dangerous, noisy and uncomfortable ride. Most hobos rode inside or on top of boxcars on freight trains. Many hobos were killed or seriously injured.
Retired high-school teacher Gordon McLean from Tribune, Saskatchewan was 15 when he became a hobo, riding the Canadian railroad in search of work and adventure. Like many others who couldn't find work, Gordon hitched free rides on freight and passenger trains in search of work on farms, harvesting and threshing.
Hobos were forced to beg for food or, as Gordon did, they knocked on back doors and asked for food in exchange for splitting firewood.
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Gordon, riding on top of a boxcar, in the goggles he wore to keep out coal dust and cinders. The "best-equipped hobo on the road", his essential hobo equipment included a strong canvas pack, warm sleeping bag, frying pan, tea pail, lighter and water
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"I still dream of riding freight trains. I can still smell trains, still feel the jouncing and swaying, still hear the thunderous rumbling from the wheels that penetrates an empty boxcar and the different types of rattling echoes…"
Riding on Top: Memoirs of a Modest Master Hobo, by Gordon MacLean. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford, ©1999, p. 1
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Hobo songs
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"Waiting for a Train", performed by Wilf Carter (running time: 2 min, 57 s)
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"The Hobo's Blues", performed by Wilf Carter (running time: 3 min, 5 s)
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"I Ain't Gonna Be a Hobo No More", performed by Wilf Carter (running time: 2 min, 47 s)
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"The Hobo's Song to the Mounties", performed by Wilf Carter (running time: 3 min, 5 s)
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Ellen: Hobo Jungle, by Dorothy Joan Harris. Toronto: Penguin Books, ©2002. 72 p. Ages 8 to 12
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