Are you a hobo?

August 11, 2006 11:31 PM

What is a hobo?Hoboes is a name coined for men and women, but almost exclusive men that travel as migrant workers or left their friends and family in the depression or after wars when there was no work for them in their home cities. What do hoboes do nowadays? Apparently, they travel. And blog about it.
posted by owhydididoit (18 comments total)

If you like maps/charts, check out his beaches page, although some of the content is surreal.
posted by owhydididoit at 11:36 PM on August 11, 2006

When will somebody care about us noboes?
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:46 PM on August 11, 2006

Please don't push your hobosexual agenda here.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:09 AM on August 12, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Haven't read the links yet. Just wanted to give the poster props on their user name.
posted by sourwookie at 12:23 AM on August 12, 2006

And here I was calling homeless people hobos! My bad.
posted by liquorice at 12:41 AM on August 12, 2006

With a travel budget like that, it's pretty hard to imagine he has to stoop so low as to actually look for jobs while he's jet-setting around the globe.
posted by Clamwacker at 12:53 AM on August 12, 2006

700 hobo names by John Hodgman

Drawings of 700 hoboes
posted by Hat Maui at 2:02 AM on August 12, 2006

Hobo signs & symbols
posted by mkhall at 7:50 AM on August 12, 2006

Hobo Nickels

posted by caddis at 8:31 AM on August 12, 2006

Just passing through....
posted by hobocode at 9:43 AM on August 12, 2006

Excellent inspirational links, thanks for turning me on to this guy ohwhydididoit.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:17 AM on August 12, 2006

thanks y'all!
posted by owhydididoit at 10:29 AM on August 12, 2006

owhydididoit, Wonderful post! Definitely a fav. Ever since I was a little rascal the idea of hobos and their lives interested me. I used to play a game, making a bindle (using my baby sister's clean diaper), with a picnic in it and go out on an afternoon adventure with my younger brother. Always loved trains, Jack Kerouac's On The Road, singing Rock Candy Mountain and am drawn by the allure of that lifestyle, as hard as it must be.

Andy the Hobo's site is excellent. Great photographs and tons of them taken as a visual log. And useful travelling info too.

I think his best beaches idea is also good. Wish he'd publish his findings. Landlocked countries can have beaches on the shores of big lakes. Even Afghanistan.

Enjoyed the additional links in this thread too.
posted by nickyskye at 11:00 AM on August 12, 2006

wonderful stuff, but it's not really hobo-ing if you have money or can make 4k on a webpage, is it? It kinda cheapens the name and legend of hoboes, no?
posted by amberglow at 11:46 AM on August 12, 2006

One definition of a hobo: VAGABOND: A person without a permanent home who moves from place to place; wanderer.

Andy the "hobo traveler" says the Hobo is penniless and poor, and lives by his or her wits from a day to day existence and the future is not important because they have to normally make the cheap choice, and not the best choice. They are pragmatic and accept the reality that they are not rich and they must accept the way they must travel from place to place.

He also says about himself and other hoboes: I am just a traveler without a home. I appreciate their free spirit, but also understand the loneliness, and possibly the life of a Hobo with no future. There are lot of Hoboes in the world that neither can return to their homes, do not remember how to return home, and when they do return, find they must leave for the road calls, and they only feel complete when they are traveling.
posted by nickyskye at 12:54 PM on August 12, 2006

posted by owhydididoit Hoboes is a name coined for men and women, but almost exclusive men that travel as migrant workers or left their friends and family in the depression or after wars when there was no work for them in their home cities.

I think "Hobo" origininated as a term for farm workers who migrated from job to job, carrying their belongings in a knapsack attached to the end of their garden tool--a hoe; and so these young men were called "Hoe Boys," which was subsequently shortened to "Hobo".
posted by fandango_matt at 10:32 PM on August 12, 2006

Landlocked countries can have beaches on the shores of big lakes. Good point.
posted by owhydididoit at 10:12 AM on August 13, 2006

Remember "warchalking?" they used a lot of the hobo symbols.

I've never actually seen hobo symbols, even along railroad lines.
posted by drstein at 10:07 AM on August 14, 2006