Searching for Hobos by a Modern Day Railroad

    Here's a group of pictures I took all in the same area near the railroad.

    I use to think it would be fun to be a 1930's style hobo. The way I imagined hobo lifestyle is that you get to jump aboard a moving train and let it take you wherever it might go. It would be a grand adventure full of exciting surprises. While on the train, there's lot a wanderer can do. You can stare off through the open train door and day dream while the scenery passes you. You can make songs using flimsy but beautiful old guitars and banjos with your other hobo friends. If I were a hobo, I'd want to travel with a dog companion. The dog companion would be a fellow traveler who I met while train hopping. Of course, the real, non-romanticized hobo lifestyle was probably quite different. It would definitely be full of adventure, but it would also be scary, stressful and dangerous. It is more fun to think of living in the romanticized version of any historical era. Think about the medieval era! The romanticized version of castles, dragons and unicorns is way more exciting then having to worry about the plague and not living in a place with plumbing. 

  I remember hearing a long time ago that the word 'hobo' was short for hoe boy, because hobos would carry hoes around with them while looking for work. On Wikipedia, it says that the word also may have derived from a greeting of "Ho Beau" which was a railroad greeting. Another theory is it could be an abbreviation of homeward bound. Whatever it's origins, it is a fun word to say: ho-bo...it has a nice bouncing beat to it.