Making Your Own Gear

I really enjoy making my own stuff. Obviously, there are some things that are just a lot cheaper to buy (in fact, if you include the time you invested, Wal Mart can supply just about everything on earth cheaper than you can make it.) I don't really think that cost or expense is the real issue. The thing thay really makes home-built stuff more enjoyable to me is the fact that I did it myself. It's a liberating feeling, because then you come to know , in a way that only proficiency and experience can teach you, that you really are able to live and survive "outside the system," to a great degree. As I have said before, I don't think that anyone who still has a normal life can ever live completely outside the system of dependence and interdependence.

Who is closer to being free of the system--the tramp, who buys his beer or wine at a convenience store every day, or a guy who home-brews his own beer and wine? Who is more free--the guy who owns a bicycle, and knows how to maintain and repair it, or the guy sitting in his $20,000 Japanese car in a traffic jam every day? The guy who owns a Gulf view condo, or the guy anchored out in the bay, living on a 60-man lifeboat? Each lifestyle has things to recommend it, and also things that can only be viewed as detriments.

There are some things that are sort of compromises between the two extremes, too. I've known a number of people who lived in trucks, buses or vans. I've known several people who lived on board various kinds of boats--sailboats, houseboats, floating houses that were basically on a raft built on 55-gallon drums. These people are known as "Anchor-outs", and the rich people who own the bayside or beachfront property really hate them. They are enjoying the beauty of the bay without being wealthy. When I lived in San Francisco, I knew people who "squatted" in vacant buildings. Squatting is different from just crashing there, as tramps or homeless folks might do. Squatters aspire to living a good life , but without participating in the usual workaday-9-to-5-career-path. They turn on the lights, they want hot water showers and serviceable furniture. No 5-gallon buckets and gunboats for the urban squatters crowd.

I lived in communes and "collectives" back in the late '60s and '70s. It was okay, but there is always the drawback of having to be part of a group, and be limited by the group's decisions. I lived in a commune once that published an "underground" newspaper, as a way of making a living. Some months we did okay, other months we nearly starved and wound up eating a lot of rice and beans. Another guy there, John, and I wanted to form a commune-owned construction company. We were going to start out by hanging gyp board and roofing houses, both of which are construction sub-contracting activities that pay okay and cost virtually nothing to get into. Both of us had done roofing and gyp before. But the commune was against it, and basically told us if we started up a company, we would be asked to leave. They didn't have to ask me, I just went ahead and packed my shit. I don't like being dependant on somebody else's permission to live my life the way I want to. I'd rather be "on the bum" than controlled by somebody else. That was when I realized that socialism cannot work, and is a waste of effort.

I have built black-powder rifles and revolvers from a kit. I have taken old beat-up military surplus rifles I bought at garage sales and cleaned them up and repaired them and made them shootable. I know how to distill water using an old pressure-cooker and a copper coil I silver-soldered to the steam vent. I've never actually distilled my own whiskey (that would be a felony) but it could certainly be done. I re-built the engine in my 1953 International (back in the '60s) and spliced the transmission in my '61 Chevrolet Apache pick-up with a '58 GMC 1/2 ton transmission. I cobble together bicycles out of junk pieces all the time. It's a really fun hobby. I have rebuilt the engine in my Harley and I've been working on restoring it, a little at a time, for years and years.

Before I did this stuff, I had never done it before. I didn't do these things because it was cheaper or easier, but because I wanted to know how.

Recently, I made a knife. I couldn't find a sheath knife like I wanted for less than $35, that was legal to carry in Texas. (In Texas, knives cannot have a blade of over 5-1/2" inches long, or be a "bowie knife", or a "poinard" or "dagger." That means "sharp on both edges.") I went down to the local chain store, and found good, serviceable butcher knives with carbon steel blades that sold for $4.95, but they are 8" long. That's illegal to carry. Stainless steel blades do not take an edge well, plus stainless is hard to work. If a stainless blade will attract a magnet, it's better. Anyway, I bought one of these carbon steel butcher knives, and ground the blade down to 5-3/8". Then I honed it and ground it, and honed and ground it until I had just the shape and edge on it that I wanted. My next project is getting some leather and making a sheath for it. I can't find a sheath like I want. Too expensive and they are all the wrong design. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

you bring up so many valid points and ideas. your creativity amazes me.would it be alright to ask you about supplies and living off oof tramps style goods i guess. at a later date?

T.T. Boy---I can't think of too many reasons to wait. If you got a question, fire away. I'll answer to the best of my ability.

A lot of what I'm talking about is just being aware of ways you can use stuff that is already around. For instance, we already talked about using cardboard and Thousand-Miler Paper (on a different thread) for insulation, etc. I find big pieces of thick plastic sheeting sometimes around rail yards or warehouse districts close to yards. The stuff makes a great rain poncho or even a tent. There's also a type of black, woven, plastic tarp called railroad plastic that people use to make ponchos and stuff out of, too. In the wintertime, I sometimes see guys wearing an Army blanket with a slot just big enough for your head to poke through as a poncho, like a winter coat. Swallow-tail military parkas with a hood, knit watchcaps and insulated winter gloves are pretty much a necessity, up north as well.

Once in a while you'll find winter coveralls for sale in thrift shops. They are insulated and usually have a zipper and buttons up the front. Since most full-time tramps are outdoors 24/7, they make a point of getting some clothes that will do the job, either used or new. A lot of people up north wear insulated, camouflage hunting coveralls if they are trainhopping. In snow country, people wear insulated rubber sno-pak boots, too, like you would wear working outdoors on a farm, or for hunting. I have no idea where people stash all this stuff when the weather warms up. Down here in Texas, it almost never gets cold enough for all that cold weather gear.

Obviously, buying weather-appropriate gear is a far cry from making your own gear, but just knowing that such gear exists is a big help. You can find a lot of this kind of stuff in thrift shops or military surplus stores or in the hunting/camping section of big chain stores like WalMart. I also find good stuff in home and building supply stores, like Home Depot or Lowe's. For instance, you can buy dog chain by the foot, or you can just buy a pre-packaged 15' dog chain with a hook on each end, and cut it into three 5' pieces. Either give the extra to your pals, or sell or trade it to another tramp.

Dumpster diving is a great way to find good stuff, too. A lot of stores like Academy Surplus or REI will throw away defective items that have been returned, straight into the dumpster. Maybe a stuff sack that ripped or a propane stove that won't work right is junk to Danny DINK, but it can (and frequently will be) salvaged and repaired by a resourceful tramp.

One guy I know found a great winter coat with a ripped zipper, but the thing was BRIGHT INTERNATIONAL ORANGE, like something you'd wear to flag down a Coast Guard rescue chopper. He sewed it up and bought a can of olive drab spray paint. It was still pretty orangey, but a lot less brilliant of a shade.

There's nothing wrong with just buying stuff, if you've got the money, but I get a certain satisfaction in scrounging cool stuff. One time a biker buddy of mine and I salvaged several computers out of the dumpster behind where his wife worked, in a driving rain storm. We got several CPU's, a couple of keyboards and some old monochrome monitors. Took them home, let them dry out for a week---three out of four fired right up and ran great. They were older machines, but they ran good. We used the bad one for a parts machine.

well i dont really have an direct questions per say, more of some advice that you could offer i guess. i plan to do some traveling in the near future and alot of which may be, well, not scheduled i guess, i mean, ill be pretty much wandering around from place to place and may have to set up camps quickly and for one night only type deal. yourself being quite experianced in this type of thing, i was wondering if you had any advice on seting up and seting down, where abouts should i make camps, what will i need that is easily ready, like things i wont have to lug around for my trip. just more of one time uses kind of deals. i dunno, like say i have to find a spot to sleep in a city rather than a hobo jungle, do you have any advice on whereabout would be a good safe place? im not sure exactly directly what im asking, more of a general overview ould be nice. ive read your posts on gunboats and such, which is most likley going to help alot, i was just wondering if you had any other tips you could offer, and some advice on the questions i had above. thanks for reading this and taking time to respond.

Places to Crash

T.T. Boy---A lot of my tramping experience (like long hopping trips) is pretty old, and some of the places I went to and places I stayed are all totally different now. But I can speak to this question in general. First of all, a lot depends upon your age and whether or not you are big enough to defend yourself. If you are a big-ass 17-year old football player or rodeo cowboy, that's a lot different than if you are a 15-year old who spends all his time playing video games and eating pizza. If you are an adult, it makeslife a LOT easier in terms of hassles with the police.

First of all, do everything you can to avoid attracting attention to yourself. When I see some kid who is obviously school-aged sauntering down the street whacking trash cans and light poles with a stick, dressed in black, torn clothes and a Marilyn Manson t-shirt, a bunch of piercings and green spiked hair, I automatically figure a.) he's ditching school, b.) he's probably fucked up on something, and c.) he's probably carrying a weapon or two. This isn't "fair" but that's the way it is. Life is NOT FUCKING FAIR. Get used to it.

What you need to do is dress and behave as "normal" as possible and still try to fit in with your surroundings. For instance, if you are in Casper, Wyoming, a cowboy hat will not draw the slightest attention. But if you're in Queens, New York City, everybody is going to think you are some kind of wierdo. The green-spiked-hair-Marilyn-Manson bit will blend you right in in a few places, but most of America is way more conservative than that, and you'll draw the heat quickly. Think of conservative, "normal" clothes and behavior as good camouflage.

I hate to leave my ruck and bindle anywhere, but I'm an adult and I look pretty road-worn, so people don't think twice if they see me humping my ruck around. One glance, and they think "tramp," "alcoholic" "homeless loser." Then they dismiss me, which is fine with me. If I was 16 years old, they'd think "runaway," "looking for trouble" and call up the cops to turn me in. So how you present yourself is EVERYTHING. It's not easy. You want to look tough enough to deter predators, but not so threatening that you freak out passers-by.

Even urban areas have places where you could camp out, but you have to be careful that you're not setting yourself up for some kind of attack. In general, I try to stay away from areas where down-and-out people congregate. The cops frequently check these folks out. They drink too much, and they get into arguments and fights, and they bum money, food, cigarettes and anything else you'll give them. They are used to getting what they need by bugging other people, who then give them something (a cigarette, whatever) to get rid of them. I hate this sort of shit. It has no dignity. I have stayed in shelters a few times, but they are notorious for being a good place to get robbed, ripped off or catch lice. No thanks.

If you have money, of course, you could rent a cheap room. Even a POS hooker hotel room costs $25 a night or so. Once out west I rented a motel room in Idaho and it cost $7. I thought that was pretty funny. Usually it's a lot more, no matter where you are.

I usually try to locate a good camping spot pretty close to the rail yard or junction where I detrained. If you are in a wooded area, just pick a direction and walk thirty or forty yards off into the brush. Be careful you're not camping in somebody's back yard. One time in California I did this (in the desert) and the next morning I woke up and needed to take a dump. So I started walking a little ways from my camp and it turned out I was next to somebody's house, swimming pool and garage.

I look for areas that are high enough so that if it rains, my camp doesn't flood. I look for areas with good brush coverage. Sometimes you can find a tree that has branches that sort of "canopy". This makes a sort of natural arbor effect and you can set up camp underneath the canopy. I like this set up because it makes it easy to rig a tarp, tent or mosquito net. I also look for good "hammock trees," and places pretty close to restaurants and stores. The absolutely best set-up is to find a place with a source of clean, fresh water. In Montana, Rufe and I used a jungle right next to a stock yard that had a great water faucet to water the cattle from. I never gave anthrax a thought, but all things considered, I don't think I would camp next to a stock yard today. For one thing, they stink pretty bad.

One thing you want to avoid is building a fire or breaking anything or dragging up a lot of junk if you are in a populated area. There is a jungle here in Houston where the tramps throw all their garbage and shit on the ground, that is less than 100 yards from the back yard fences of a very exclusive residential area. This is bad karma. The tramps have a good attitude about it ("We leave them alone, and they leave us alone.") but how long before that closest home owner gets freaked out at all the misbehavior? Keep a clean camp. Never leave a fire unattended. Don't shit where you eat.

If you take care of business, things will work out a lot better. If you act like someone who doesn't have good sense, you'll flunk the attitude test, and the cops will nail you for something.

If you haven't read them yet, check my two threads on the next couple of pages, "Slack Action," and "Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums." Good luck.

thank you.

THE LAW wrote a half hour reply dealing with URBAN CAMPING but it got deleted. the grains of knowledge contained: sleep on rooftops, dress well and you can get into almost any building, and avoid sleeping out of doors when it's raining. it's a great way to get sick.

perhaps at a later date, THE LAW will write his message again. it was kinda helpful.

Originally posted by THE LAW

THE LAW wrote a half hour reply dealing with URBAN CAMPING but it got deleted. the grains of knowledge contained: sleep on rooftops, dress well and you can get into almost any building, and avoid sleeping out of doors when it's raining. it's a great way to get sick.

 

 

perhaps at a later date, THE LAW will write his message again. it was kinda helpful.

Well, now im just angry that THE LAWS post didnt make it to the thread, as urban camping is just what im wondering about. THE LAW should try and repost the said article. Thank you in advance.

Once back in 1969 when I was 18, I got picked up hitch-hiking by a guy from Buffalo, New York who was driving a Yellow Cab. It was pretty funny, because I thought the guy was a L.A. cab driver trying to pick me up for a fare, and I went up to the window and said, "Sorry, dude, I don't have any money." and he said, "That's okay, this taxi isn't licensed in California anyway. Get in."

His Dad owned a taxi company in Buffalo, and he was on vacation. I guess his Dad just said, "What the hell. Take 2340, it's got a full tank of gas." Anyway, the guy was an interesting person. He wanted to make some money working as a research subject, and I was game, so we went to UCLA and signed up for psychology experiments. It paid $30 a day, good money back in those days. (I later took a job that paid $2.34 an hour, to put it in perspective. And it was a pretty good job.) Anyway, the test was to decide whether or not you could pull a switch that would send electricity to another "volunteer," who was actually a Theatre Arts student on loan from the Drama Dept. pretending to get shocked every time the red light went on. Each time they told you "Push button one to earn a dollar," it supposedly shocked the other guy. I immediately told the guy on the headphones (we wore head phones and a mike to communicate with the tester) "Hey, this is bullshit. This test is rigged." They were pretty cool about it. I still got my $30.

After the test, the Taxi Driver asked one of the students if he knew of anyplace to crash, and the guy said yeah, try Psi Delta Theta Gamma Blamma fraternity. They rent rooms in the summer to help pay the rent. We went over there and it was the night of their big Red Mountain party. (Red Mountain is a type of paisano wine sold real cheap in California, or at least it used to be.) For $3 (the cost of a room) we got totally shitfaced. There was a band, and college girls and townies all over the place. I woke up sleeping on the couch at a SORORITY HOUSE about five blocks away, the next morning. I have absolutely no idea how I got there, other than I remember getting pushed down the street in a shopping cart by somebody. The girls were very cool. They fed me breakfast, all wearing robes, hair curlers and fuzzy bunny slippers. I was hung over for a couple of days. My pal in the taxi came and picked me up. The next night we got blasted again, and slept on the roof of the fraternity house. I woke up in my sleeping bag the next morning, drunker than Hooter Brown, like three feet from the edge of a flat roof--- a two story drop onto concrete. It scared the shit out of me and I never did anything like that again.

We later drove the taxi to Boulder, CO, and crashed a college newspaper editors' summer conference being held at the university there. We slept in an empty room, ate free at the brunch table and pretended to be college newspaper editors, more or less.

I never met a guy with as much brass as this taxi guy. He was something else for straight-up lying to cops, college dorm people and anybody and everybody in authority. We drove that taxi all over the place, smoking dope, drinking, and just generally trying to get over without paying. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and we split up and I went and hitch-hiked back to Texas. I thought I was a wild and crazy kind of guy, but this guy was way beyond me. And he dressed like a total straight arrow--ties, slacks, button-down shirts, lace-up dress shoes. The college girls just LOVED the guy. I was more of a long-haired hippie with a beard, boots, Army field jacket and worn-out blue jeans. Just goes to show you, you can get a lot farther if you look like somebody who is law-abiding and responsible, and can talk like an educated person.

i havent done a whole lot of sleeping outside, but i spent a few months living in a car, and ive traveled enough to know that things can pretty much be summed up with common sense.

where you can sleep, very much depends on the kind of area your in. if your in a big city, find a nice little building (bank, parking garage etc) and cozy up in a corner someplace. like the law said, sleep on roof tops if you can. for one, your alot less likely to get messed with, so its safer, plus you wont have to worry as much about your stuff getting jacked. if your in a smaller town sort of area, you should be able to find some sort of wooded area, park, etc... someplace like that to sleep. try to sleep someplace as inconspicuous as possible. if you do get questioned by the cops, just be honest. be intelligent, and you probably wont have too much trouble. like kaber said, you will be treated in the manner that people react to you. if you look like a decent guy, you'll get treated like one. if you explain to people what your doing, more than likely they'll be almost envious. everyone secretly wishes they could be jack kerouac in 'on the road'

take only the stuff you think you'll need, and dont take anything you cant live with losing. if you dont have anything that someone wants, thheyre probably not going to fuck with you. plus, part of the alure of traveling like this, is that its survival at its most basic. now, i love my palm pilot, but it rarely helps me eat, so it stays at home. plus, carrying even light shit for hours, gets heavy. a small first aid sort of kit is a good idea, as is a light jacket (even in summer) a good pair of work gloves, matches, toilet paper etc.

i get the idea that your planning to travel to areas where you know people, and so sleeping outside is only a 'last resort' sort of scenario. this is alot different, than if you were planning to cross the country, sleeping outside every night. if its only once every week or so, you can get away without a sleeping bag or blankets or anything.

another important thing, is your ability to deal with the people your going to encounter. have you spent any amount of time around homeless people? poor people? minorities? this might sound silly, but it has alot to do with how you'll handle possible situations. if your a white kid from some rural farm land, and you get into some situation where your dealing with people that handle things alot differently than you do, a bad situation can arise out of nothing. being a good talker and a quick thinker is more important than being a big guy...

sorry, this is so scattered... im really tired. and understand that most of my experience with this shit, was in detroit, which, ive found is a completely different world. ive also spent some time sleeping outside in NYC, which is pretty simple all things considered....

id like to see the laws comments as well, as im sure he knows a bunch of shit i either got wrong, or missed....

oh, another thing... whatever sort of backpack your taking, make sure it has little locks on the zippers, and try to come up with a way that you can sleep on it, with the straps wrapped around you in some sort of manner so that it cant just be taken away while you sleep. if someone knows that robbing you will lead to a confrontation, they'll be alot less likely to try it. also, its worth it to try an find a comfortable way to sleep with it, leaning up against it, as a pillow, whatever. being comfortable makes sleeping alot more comfortable.

Once again, thank you for giving me more knowledge to soak in..I love this guys' threads....something meaningful...is always good to read.

damn, keep it coming, the info helps alot. id rather listen than talk. but so you know, im really just joe regular guy, i dont stick out at all, not a suspect id say. and i know how to deal with alot of different people. junkies, winos, hobos, i talk to people, well i try to anyways. thanks guuys. if you can help more, please do.

Good Cheap Rucks and Equipment

Some time ago, we had a big long discussion about streamliners. Streamliners are people who are on the bum, but they don't have any equipment or the means to provide for themselves. It's a negative term, an insult, to the older tramps. In their view, if you don't carry your own stuff and take care of your own business, there's only a couple of other ways to get by. The most obvious way is stealing, and the most obvious target is other tramps. That's why straight-up tramps hate streamliners. Among the younger trainriders, especially the so-called "yo-bos, or "yuppie hobos" (young people who have a job and a house, but ride trains for a kick) the idea of traveling lightweight, with no heavy gear, foodstuffs or any large amount of water is appealing. They cannot imagine themselves in a tight spot, where they will have to depend upon whatever they have with them. They carry cell phones and pagers and have credit cards. To a degree, they are being naive. Things happen. You can't buy your way out of every situation.

Good rucks can be had cheaply from military surplus stores. Personally, I have an old M1952 U.S. Army mountain rucksack that I prefer, but a medium Alice pack rigged without the frame or a military ruck from some other country is okay too. Swiss, German and East German gear is all cheap and readily available right now. Spanish Army and French Army gear is around too, but I find it less desirable.

You can buy a lot of gear online. There are scores of military surplus dealers. One of the best in Texas (or anywhere, for that matter) is Colonel Bubbie's in Galveston http://www.colbubbie.com. Another really good one is Major Surplus and Survival in Gardena, CA. www.MajorsurplusNSurvival.com Another one is Sportsmans Guide in South St. Paul, MN. They have a new deal out of that company, called "HQ--Government Surplus Headquarters" www.sportsmansguide.com If you can't find it for a price you like from these three guys, you probably ain't gonna find it.

I use empty 2-liter plastic Coke bottles for water. I make gunboats out of a 2-lb. coffee can and a wire coat hanger, and use a piece of lightweight "wire" dog chain and a 16d nail bent into an "s-hook" to suspend the gunboat over a fire. I always carry some food, like cans of pork and beans, or Spaghettios, or vienna sausages, or sardines and crackers. I ALWAYS carry a roll of toilet paper. I carry instant coffee and sugar and salt and pepper and Louisiana Tabasco Sauce. I carry rice and a couple of boxes macaroni and cheese. If you are traveling with a buddy, you can split the load. I carry a plastic coffee cup or two (never know, you might meet up with a stranger who needs a cup of coffee) and a fork and a spoon. I carry a pocket knife, and I will be carrying the tramp knife I made. I carry matches and a Bic lighter, and some newspaper and a few envelopes and some writing paper and a pencil or two. I carry good maps, with the rail lines highlighted with a yellow marker and reinforced at the fold lines with clear vinyl packing tape. I carry a pair of 7x50 binoculars, and a Uniden scanner. I carry two blankets rolled into a bindle, with a strap I made myself from a piece of nylon strap I found on the tracks. I carry a deadman 2x4 26" long in my bindle. I carry an Army rain poncho, rolled up in the top of my ruck. I carry an Army field jacket with liner, folded up inside my ruck, against my back. I carry a knit winter watch cap. I always carry a pair of leather trucker's gloves, and in the winter, I carry leather insulated work gloves. I wear my ratty old baseball cap, and I always, always wear a pair of good sturdy boots. In my case, military boots, but any decent pair of boots will do.

Is all this shit necessary? No, not really. But if I'm carrying my gear, COME WHAT MAY, I am prepared to deal with it. I like that.

Those army surplus sites are very helpfull, i might just buy a winter jacket from them.

holly shit dude.

you must get a lot of enjoyment out of typing.

i think im gonna coppy that shit for my next english assignment

Typing

Frosty---Brother, you are welcome to the information, but be cautious--the idea of a high-school kid who knows a lot about how to "disappear" into the world of trainhopping and hoboing and going "on the bum" scares the crap out of adults--especially teachers and parents. Careful how you use the info, you don't want to wind up on some kind of "runaway watch" or something like that.

It's not typing that I enjoy, but writing. I admit, I do enjoy writing.

When I can't take the time to catch out, I just go hang out at my local jungle or two. Sometimes I hike from jungle to jungle. I've got several that are about five miles apart now, along well-traveled rail lines here in Houston. If I had to "go to ground" for some reason, it wouldn't be difficult.

not to sound like a little bitch, but ive got a question.

what is a deadman, and what is a jungle?

thanks in advance

lovin this post

Deadman That Door

Big Bruno-- Farther up the stack somewhere (in "Slack Action") I was talking about the danger of an rbox door sliding shut and trapping a trainhopper inside a boxcar from the powerful forces of slack action. A "deadman" is a piece of wood, like a 2x4, that you jam in the boxcar door track to prevent the door from sliding all the way shut. I suggested that one use an oak or ash 2x4 (they could be obtained from a sturdy shipping pallet) but a pine 2x4 would probably work okay for anything short of a mainline meet.

A jungle, or course, refers to a "Hobo jungle" i.e. a semi-secluded, field expedient, campground for hobos, tramps and homeless bums, usually pretty close to a rail yard or a major rail junction.

If you hop a freight train, ALWAYS TAKE PLENTY OF WATER--AT LEAST A GALLON OR TWO, and ALWAYS DEADMAN THE DOOR.

Always means always. No exceptions.

yeah i should have read all your other posts before i asked my question. but i think that you have actually impacted my life in a way that no one has done before, with your wisdom and your stories of a life that i dream of everyday. thanks

It ain't that romantic

Big Bruno---Brother, you just made the best argument I ever heard for being damn careful about what ideas one chooses to put on this Internet. If I thought for one second that my posts would lead to something like a teenaged member of this online community deciding that he had had a belly full of teachers, parents and rule makers, and deciding to go on the bum, I'd never post another word.

Besides the fact that you and everybody else on this board needs an education, there are the practical realities of the Law. Yes, I chose to range pretty far afield when I was a kid. It was a result of my Dad, who was then 41 years old, making some really selfish decisions. Looking back on age 41 ( I am 51) all I can say is that he let his peter do his thinking for him. Unfortunately, it left four kids ands a loyal wife adrift. Don't imagine that what you do, or what you say, or the decisions you make day-to-day don't have importance. Believe me, they do, especially to your family.

My Dad fell in love with a younger woman and divorced my Mom, when I was 16. I was so angry that I became an opponent of everything and everybody in authority, including school, cops and parents. My poor Mom was trying to pay the bills, work two jobs and go to college at age 40, all at the same time, with four kids at home. She was trying to contend with at least two kids who went completely haywire (my younger sister and me) and two younger ones who never really recovered from the divorce and the disruption it caused. My Dad is now 77 years old. He has long since divorced the woman he left my Mom for. She was an alcoholic jerk, which he found out, once he was married to her. He is real sorry for the stupid decisions he made. But you know what? The damage was done, over thirty years ago. Yes, we "got over it," eventually. But it created a disasterous situation, one that led to my sisters and me drinking and drugging and running away from home. I took off when I was sixteen, and hitch-hiked and bummed around all over the West Coast. I spent a lot of years "on the bum" that I should have spent in college. Some of my sisters have been married several times. None of us thinks we had a happy home life.

You get to make the decisions in your life, you get to decide what you want to do, you get to decide what you want to accomplish. If what you want to do is to bum around, I say "More power to ya." I did it. It didn't kill me. I had a good time, and I still love tramp life to this day. But don't burn any bridges behind you. For every year you are employed AFTER you get a four-year college degree, you will be paid at least $10,000 more than if you only have a high-school diploma. EVERY YEAR. It took me 18 years after I graduated high-school (thank God and my relentless Mother that I graduated from high-school at all) to get around to going to college. WHAT A MISTAKE. I could really use that $180,000 today, Big Bruno. You know what I mean? The year I graduated from college and went to work as a professional, I TRIPLED my income. TRIPLED. I still could have enjoyed myself. I still could have gone surfing, and mountain-climbing and riding my motorcycle, and train-hopping. But I would have been doing it with $10,000 more per year in my pocket. If you make good decisions, you get good consequences. If you make poor decisions, Life will educate you the hard way. And that is absolutely no bullshit, bro. Don't make any bad decisions. THINK BEFORE YOU ACT. And start investing your money as young as you possibly can. At least, that's my opinion.

AMEN

...

kabar,

i totally agree with what you are saying. ive had friends that just got fed up and took off and it got them nothing except for drug addictions, and they seem to be way behind in life right now. as for myself, i am in college right now taking graphic design, and i will graduate in april 2003. and i know that all i have to do is stick to it and in about 16 months i can do whatever i want. i will be able to move wherever i want. and when i am making money and can do whatever i want i will be able to take side trips on the trains. i have chosen to take my time and collect as much information as i can (as soon as i have some free time i intend to go find those books that you were talking about) so that i dont decide to do it and be totally unprepared. but i want to thank you again for the wealth of information that i have gained from you. its really rare that you find somebody to take time out of their day to teach you something really interesting for free. thank you.

big bruno

Cool

Big Bruno---I'm glad to hear that this is the case. I had a young friend that we rode Harleys with, who was also in art school, and he decided to get into tattoos as a way of making a few bucks so he wouldn't have to work regular hours. He made so much money at it that he ditched art school, LOL. Gotta be careful what decisions you make. He made great money the first ten years or so, especially during the big "tattoo/ piercing craze" that was so hot during the late '80s and 90's. But now he's ten years older, and has a bunch of tattoos. He sort of wishes he had stuck with it. Going back to school is possible but he just wishes he had done it when he was twenty-two. Now he's in his 30's. Life is no longer easy, fun and uncomplicated. If a person is really determined, they can go to school any time. In fact, the modern world sort of dictates that we constantly be re-training and re-educating ourselves to stay economically viable. But college is a lot easier when you are 19-23 than when you are 45. Believe me, LOL. Go check out some books on basic financial stuff. you need to thoroughly understand THE TIME VALUE OF MONEY. If I had started investing $50 a week when I was 22 years old, I'd be a millionaire several times over right now. Money ain't everything, but it sure helps.

k you said something about distilling wiskey. does that mean that you would make it like 100% alcahol. im interested in how you would do this. naw im not gonna try it out, that would kill me but im curious

Originally posted by KaBar

Just goes to show you, you can get a lot farther if you look like somebody who is law-abiding and responsible, and can talk like an educated person.

Ive been saying that for years.

Moonshine

Frosty---First of all, let me be absolutely CRYSTAL CLEAR that I do not distill whiskey, nor would I. It is a Federal felony worth five years in the penitentiary for each offense. Possession of untaxed distilled liquor is a felony. Possession of an untaxed STILL is a felony. Manufactuiring it, transporting it, and buying it are all felonies. These laws are enforced by a division of the Treasury Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The same people who made the original raid on the Branch Davidians in 1993. So. That having been said, let me say that I do know HOW it is done, though.

Back in the old days the rednecks and hillbillies used to distill their own whiskey. It's really pretty much a thing of the past. Today, those same families grow marijuana or brew up speed. It's a dirty business, but profitable.

Whiskey starts out as water, sugar and yeast. You can use regular old bread yeast (that's what they use in the joint to make pruno) but brewer's yeast, like one uses for wine and beer works a lot better and it doesn't have "wild yeasts" in it like some baker's yeast. But I have seen bikers use regular old bread yeast and it does work. "Red Star" is a common brand down here in Texas. If you live in a big city, look up "home brewing" in the phone book, and they will have everything you need to make wine or beer. You can legally make 250 gallons PER ADULT, PER YEAR of both wine and beer. Lord, if I brewed that much beer I'd never draw another sober breath as long as I lived.

Distilled whiskey is a different matter. You cannot legally distill even a single drop, unless you pay the BATF a tax on the still and on each gallon of whiskey you make, and you have to pay it BEFORE you distill it. It IS possible to buy a legal still made of solid copper, and produce legal whiskey, but not too many people bother when you can buy liquor on every corner in America.

You start off with a plastic garbage can, a clean plastic trash bag liner, 25 gallons of clean tap water (some people use distilled,) and a whole bunch of bad fruit, potato peelings or chopped up potatoes, corn, wheat or whatever grains or fruit you happen to have. A lot of people up in Washington and Oregon use apples--there's a lot of them, and they are easy and cheap to get. Chop whatever fruit, etc. you have up real fine, then add about five pounds or so of sugar and a couple of packets of brewer's yeast. Put a lid on it and wait. It will stink, so you probably don't want to do this in an apartment, LOL. Wait several weeks. The "beer" (as it's called) will bubble as the yeast converts the sugar and fruit, etc. into alcohol. Basically, alcohol is yeast shit. When the beer stops bubbling, add more sugar. This is called "booting the batch." It will work a couple of times. When the alcohol content reaches 19% by volume, the yeast all die, and it stops bubbling. It smells NASTY. Skim off any scum on the top every couple of days with a spoon or a strainer. Keep the beer covered up, you don't want any wild yeasts sneaking into your batch. If you could stand it, you could strain it and drink it just like this, and it would get you as drunk as wine does. But it would taste like shit.

Take a regular old pressure cooker like your Mom used to cook pot roasts in. You can buy them at any store that sells pots, pans and household appliances. You can sometimes find them at garage sales, or at thrift stores. I own a pretty big one with which we "can" vegetables and fruits and jam/jelly. The bigger, the better, for cooking shine. Pressure cookers have a little steam vent pipe and a vent weight goes on top of that. When the pressure inside the cooker rises above the PSI necessary to "wobble" the steam vent weight, it leaks some pressure. You don't need the vent weight, but if it comes with a pressure gauge, leave it on the cooker. That way, if the pressure cooker sucks some trash up into the vent, and the pressure begins to rise, you'll be able to tell before it blows up. Go buy some copper tubing big enough to fit snuggly over the steam vent pipe. 3/8" ought to work about right. Buy a hand tool designed to bend copper tubing. It costs about $5 at Sears. You bend a "J" on one end to go over the steam vent pipe, then roll a series of uniform loops with a diameter of about 10". The whole copper tubing rig should be about 10 feet long to start, and after you've rolled in the coil, about 4-1/2 or 5 feet long. Take a wrench and unscrew the steam vent pipe. SILVER SOLDER the pipe into the pure copper tubing end with the "J". DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT use any kind of solder, brazing or anything else except silver solder. Silver solder is what plumber's use on copper water pipe. It, and ONLY IT, is safe to make stills out of. ANYTHING ELSE WILL KILL YOU. I say again, ANYTHING ELSE WILL KILL YOU. Your still will now be made of a.) a clean food preparation pressure cooker, b.) PURE COPPER TUBING and c.) SILVER SOLDER LIKE PLUMBERS USE. If you use anything else, YOU ARE FUCKED. ( I bet somebody tries something not on this list. Adios, unfortunate person.)

Siphon the liquid (not the solids) into the pressure cooker. Put the lid on tight. Put a bag of ice inside the coil. Turn the stove on "medium." Put a clean jar under the end of the copper tubing. Wait. Steam will be produced in the cooker. The alcohol will evaporate, along with some water. When it gets to the coil, the ice will condense it. It will drip into the jar. Pretty soon you will have several jars full. When all the liquid has been evaporated, stop the still and dump the nasty remains of the beer down the toilet. SCRUB THE PRESSURE COOKER REAL CLEAN. Then distill the first run. Decent whiskey MUST be triple distilled. If you drink the first run, it tastes like shit and isn't very potent, but the triple is clean and has a serious kick, usually about 90 proof or better, depending on how much alcohol was in the beer. The triple should have a very, very light yellow color. You could probably get it clear if you kept distilling, but it gets to be a matter of diminishing returns after the third run.

NEVER LEAVE A PRESSURE COOKER WORKING WITHOUT YOU BEING RIGHT THERE WATCHING IT. If it starts to develop rising pressure, something is wrong, probably the vent pipe to the coil is blocked. The pressure should not rise hardly at all if you are distilling (because the pressure is continuously vented to the outside atmosphere.) There really should not BE any solids hardly in the pressure cooker to start with, but you know, things happen.

If you try this, and get caught distilling whiskey, you are very likely going to get a big ass fine, and maybe a trip to Federal Prison. Don't be an asshole. Just buy your booze already taxed.

Firearms

We live in a world today where young people, even kids, seem to have ready access to guns of all types. This was not really true when I was a kid. Well, it was true, but nobody that I had ever met would even consider carrying a gun, or even a knife, to use in the average sort of high-school argument and fight. I knew a lot of guys at school who owned deer rifles or shotguns. If you suggested that perhaps they might be tempted to shoot somebody who "dissed" them (nobody used that word back then), they would have been furious at you. "What do you think, that I'm some kind of coward? I don't need any gun to defend myself! I'll be glad to kick your ass right now without one!" Nobody carried guns back then except extreme losers (juvenile delinquents, they were called--today they would be gang bangers) and the few 1%er motorcycle club members , prospects or wannabes that I knew. I had a high-school surfing buddy who joined the Bandidos MC in 1970. He was a great guy, but once he put on their patch, he started acting like a thug, and carrying a revolver.

I knew people who experimented with making guns, though, just for the hell of it. It's illegal, of course, but teenagers didn't really care much about that back then any more than they do now.

Home made guns are called "zip guns." I saw a several of them that were produced in our high-school metal shop. One was a .22 single-shot and the other was a .38 single-shot, and a few guys made 12-gauge shotguns. The guys that made them used cap pistol parts to get the design and dimensions of the trigger, hammer, etc. and they used springs that came out of ball point pens, carburetors and things like that. We test-fired them in a big, open field near one guy's house. The builder would tape the pistol to a tree with black electrician's tape, then he'd load it, cock it, tie a string to the trigger, back off about twenty feet and set it off by pulling the string. Once it had been fired ten or twelve times like that, we felt that it was safe to hold it in your hand.

The barrels were always made from the hollow hydraulic valve pushrods from a Chevrolet 283 engine. If you just sawed or ground the end off the pushrod, a .22 cartridge would fit perfectly. There was no rifling, so they weren't very accurate. The .38 caliber barrel was turned on a lathe by a senior machine shop student, and chambered. The chamber was a little tight, so to eject the spent cartridge, you had to poke it out of the barrel with a piece of wire coat hanger.

They made 12-gauge barrels out of 3/4" black water pipe. When you fired them, the muzzle blast was awful. I did it once and it was so scarey I decided once was plenty.

Once some older guy about twenty brought a real sawed-off, double-barrelled shotgun out there to shoot. All I could think about was that if we got caught, he would probably go to Federal prison, because possession of a shotgun with barrels shorter than 18" or an over-all length of 26" is a Federal felony violation of the National Firearms Act. This is the law that requires short-barrelled shotguns, short-barrelled rifles (shorter barrels than 16") and machineguns to be taxed. The tax is $200 on most machineguns, but something like a sawed-off shotgun can be classified as an "Any Other Weapon" (AOW) and the tax is only $5. Imagine that--risking five years in prison to avoid paying $5. Crazy.

Once I got old enough to really start thinking about consequences, I stopped doing stupid shit like this. Plus just about everybody I knew started smoking dope, and we were too busy getting stoned to fool around with home-made zip guns. It was "kid stuff." And illegal. When I started getting high, my grades hit rock bottom. It was a stupid thing to do, but what can I say? I was a stupid kid, I guess. I barely graduated.

you write too much