Thursday, May 28, 2009

What Ever Happened to Hobos?

Ok, this is totally random, but the other day I was thinking about how I dressed up as a hobo for Halloween when I was a kid. I wore a tweed cap, an old blazer of my dad's which I think I was allowed to tear up a little, and his old, raggedy boots. I also smeared eye shadow on my face to look like beard stubble, and carried a bandanna on a stick, which I used to stash the candy I collected. If you look at the Wikipedia entry for hobo, you'll see exactly the look I was going for. Except I also wore a pair of large plastic ears, I guess just to increase the pathos!

Now, a hobo is not exactly just a poor, homeless person. The term has slightly more romantic connotations, as hobos were known for riding railroad cars all over the country, and they had all these cool slang words and code symbols to help each other out. But still... hobos are poor and homeless.

So do kids still think it's fun to play hobo, or to dress up as one on Halloween? But certainly no kid ever says "hey, I think I'll be a grungy homeless person for Halloween," right? Nowadays it seems like they all want to be something far more glamorous, and the life of a poor, itinerant person is no longer romanticized. But I don't have kids, so I may be wrong... what do you think?

7 comments:

1001 Petals said...

I think people are more aware of being politically correct these days.

There are still hobos! I saw a documentary on them a few years ago. They're just pretty different from the old stereotype. They no longer carry a bundle tied to a stick as you describe :) and a lot of them are punk-types.

Anonymous said...

Well, we in Malaysia seem to be doing well we have high growth and high inflation. An example of inflation would be the local desert "cendol" bought about a month ago at the price of $1.20 in local currency would now sell for $ 1.80 in local currency. Job growth is also strong as we have 2 jobs for every worker and Malaysia imports in foreign labour to do jobs that local workers do not want to do. Hence our problem in Malaysia is now high inflation and good news, high growth.. We do not understand why the Western Media keeps on saying we are in a Recession. Yes our economy slowed down in March 2009 but after that period our economy is now experiencing high growth and high inflation thanks to China's strong buying of Malaysian goods and services, thank you China ! So please do not say Malaysia is in a Recession when it is not, only the US is in a Recession, the rest of the World is booming thanks to China !

Austin said...

Petals is right...I used to work with a hobo punk at a bar here in MT. He was from SC but had literally been EVERYWHERE in America, had a wealth of stories, very entertaining guy.

Did you guys ever read "Wayside School is Falling Down?" One of the girls brings a hobo in for show and tell...too funny...

Anonymous said...

There's a fantastic blog by a "professional hobo" hereThe blog posts are about halfway down the page. Very interesting stuff.

AJC @ 7million7years said...

Oh, hobos are still around ... it's just that now they are called "Investment Bankers" :)

Sicilian said...

I had forgotten about Hobos too until you mentioned it. . . . Hobos in my mind were the first cheap travelers moving all over via the rail system and picking up work to make it to the next stop . . . . homeless people are very different. . . . they are in a survival mode. . . I don't think they look at their life as a adventure.
Ciao

DD said...

They've moved to South Dakota:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_Day

GO STATE!!!