26SidedCube Posted November 16, 2003 Share Posted November 16, 2003 Goddamn KaBar.... village elder. :king: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beethoven Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 that Hobo Terminology on page 9 was amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelACKson Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 the hobo lifestyle is one of the most beautiful things about america and i love talking to hobos and tramps about their trips what their plans are but it seems that the majority of people ive met who are hopping trains are morons. Im fortunate to be in contact with a true hobo. this dude never steals or begs for money, hes just a homeless guy who loves to travel and works for what he has. as of today he's the only "traveler" ive met like that. The reason i bring this up is because last night a dirty dude with a backpack came into to the restraunt i work at and i helped him out with a little change so he could get something to eat. i asked him what he was doing in town and he said he'd come from up north on freight trains so we started talking and i tried to help him out with good places for him and his friends to sleep and good spots to catch out. anyhow, as the night progressed he sat in a booth and got drunker and a little beligerent toward a girl i work with. then he asked if i knew where he could get heroin and when i told him that i didnt (and the girl i was working with told him he was going to die) he said "fuck you" and left. ....anyhow, thats just one of about 4 or 5 stories i have of running into morons who ride trains. it bothers me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 nelACKson Of course there are plenty of idiots riding trains, as well as some good people. It's not all hearts and flowers--there are some really fucked up individuals out there, people who generally try to get their needs met at everybody else's expense and who have no sense of honor, no sense of personal responsibility, and no dignity. Because they do not have these things in themselves, they see absolutely no reason to extend an honorable, responsible or dignified attitude or behavior towards anybody else. If you read the stack, you'll see where I mentioned all this way back at the start of the thread (I think). It's a good idea to develop some street smarts about these types of people. You certainly cannot assume that because someone hops trains that he is an okay person. But, you also should not assume that he is a scumbag, either. It's not always easy to tell who is fucked up from who is not. Unfortunately, the fucked up predator types do their best to seem innoccuous. I try to be friendly to everyone, but at the first sign of treachery, I'm either leaving with all my shit, or kicking somebody's ass into next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctRECK Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 danm, whenever i am bored (no offense) i come to this thread because it is always so interesting because i know absoloutely nothing about this, i wasnt even aware that this was going on and it is always cool to listen to what kabar has to say, but the thing i have been thinking the whole time i read this thread is, dont you run into some really dangerouse people (not just potentially but i mean the person tries to kill you and shit) does anyone have any stories about that? how about kabar? i love the fact of how this is kept so underground and how the whole thig is so conected, how you either have to be on 12oz or be hoping trains to find out about this stuff. this is a good thread bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D3N53one Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 kabar for president, bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meateater Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY! gday KaBar cheers for all this info i find this all VERY interesting. but i still, have much more reading to catch up on ive only got through to the end of page 3 i think. this may have already have been asked but as i say im only up to page 3. here is the question: you here saying that you have a family now and that you own your own property and that you still accasionaly hop trains, what does your family think about this when u accasionaly hop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted December 3, 2003 Share Posted December 3, 2003 Family When I was just a kid, age 16, my mother agreed to let me go to California with some older friends of mine, to surf. We drove out there in a 1961 Chevy panel truck, owned by one of the other guys. She made me promise to return for school in September, and gave me $100, which was a lot of money in 1967. To put it in perspective, my first real job, in 1969, paid $1.60 an hour. She wasn't happy about me hopping trains, or hitch-hiking, either, but I was going to go, and she couldn't talk me out of it, so she just accepted it. Her way of trying to control it was to cut a deal with me. I travelled all over when I was a teenager, but I always came back for school in September. Most of the time when I was catching out, I didn't have a "steady" girlfriend. I'd meet girls when we were travelling, and "hole up" for a couple of days, or a week, or two weeks, and then something would happen--we'd get into an argument, or she would try to convince me to stop riding trains, or try to get me a job at her Dad's business or something like that, and I'd take off. They always seemed to want to change me, and I was young and immature, and I didn't want to stop bumming around yet. My first wife was a Houston girl (a "north side" redneck girl) that I met in a hippie commune. She took off with me, and we hitch-hiked and rode trains for quite a while, and eventually returned to Houston and settled down. After a while, we got married, but it was an unhappy relationship. We divorced, I went into the Marines, and married again. That girl was later murdered by her landlady's ex-convict son. He's in prison. My present wife isn't too happy with the idea of me riding trains, but she has accepted it. She wasn't too happy with the idea of me riding with a motorcycle club, either, but the bikers we met turned out to be some of the best friends we ever had. I'm really what's called a "rec rider" now, or a "yuppie hobo," because I have a job and a home and responsibilities, but I still am attracted to tramp life. I no longer just catch out and "go," without any concern about where I'm headed or when I'll be back. These days, I ride for fun, and I have to carefully plan my catching out so I can be back home to work. The rest of my family is pretty much dead set opposed to me riding trains, but I'm too old to get grounded, LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meateater Posted December 3, 2003 Share Posted December 3, 2003 cheers for the feedback shit hey! mad'' cheers for the feedback! well you may of heard this before but man, i would consider on writeing a book its sounds to me that you have many many interesting things to say and tell people about your life so far so why not write abook i know that id be keen to read it, and i have never brought a book or letalone read any. plus u would be getting paid for it! n who knows u could become quite famous. ....also where would you travel to and from like all around the u.s.a? and did u ever come across any danger in your travels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctRECK Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 i second that, write a book kabar! that would be great, i would buy it for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASN Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Originally posted by nelACKson a buddy of mine had a copy of a copy of a copy etc of "new york slim's guide to north american crew change points". that shit was amazing. it gave directions to the layup and schedules for the small town im from. its truly an amazing piece of documentation. its very important that its kept fairly secretive though. it bothers me that at the time i was carrying it, i had never been told to "protect it" and was not instructed to until a year later. Does it have directions for just your city, or other places too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASN Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 And if you dont feel like spewing the info to whoever wants to read this, shoot me and email at mmc1512@aol.com any other books like that would be appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Shotgun Wills I heard from Preacher Steve and Half Track that Shotgun Wills died a few days ago. He went east to visit with his family for the holidays, and passed away while there. I guess that's better than dying in a sleeping bag in some hobo jungle. As regards this CCG from New York Slim---You guys do what you need to do, but the RULE and CUSTOM says "Never put a CCG on the internet," and "Never give or sell a CCG to anyone that you do not PERSONALLY KNOW, and can be sure is trustworthy and who will protect it." The rule is "Either he raises his right hand and swears to protect it, or you don't give it to him." Do not take a casual, cynical, "don't-give-a-fuck" attitude about riding trains, tramp life and the CCG. A long time ago, Bob Dylan wrote a song that contained the line "To live outside the Law, you must be honest." This is absolutely true. The only penalty that exists for being careless with a CCG is that the information will be rendered useless if it falls into the possession of the authorities, both to you, and everybody else. KEEP A CLEAN CAMP. Take care of business. Don't shit where you eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASN Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 Yea i figured it wasnt soemthing people would put info on the internet, thanks anyways though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted December 25, 2003 Share Posted December 25, 2003 Merry Christmas Hope you guys all have a good Christmas, those of you that celebrate Christmas, and a happy holiday if you celebrate something else. Holidays are both a bad time for people on the road, because they are usually far from home and family (sometimes deliberately so) and wind up celebrating Christmas in the jungle with a bottle of brandy, or eating turkey and all that in some mission or some "feed the homeless" program. If you see a tramp flying a sign at Christmas, give him a buck. It's a good time, economically, because all the citizens that ignore tramps and bums the rest of the year are motivated to give them a buck or two during Christmas, so the coldest part of the year often finds the hobo community with a few dollars to carry them to spring. My tramp buddies are holed up in East Cleveland at Collinwood Kid's house. Hope they're having a very Merry. You guys too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Heard from Stretch and Burlington Dog My buddy Stretch is over in Mississippi working for Loco Larry scraping his house, in preparation for re-painting. Larry has a good job and he hires tramps to do work for him as a way of supporting the hobo community. Since it doesn't get too cold in Mississippi in the winter, people travel down to the South during the winter and one of their stops is Loco Larry's place, in Amory, Mississippi. Once Stretch is done there, he's heading to Houston, so I guess I'll have some more Stretch-and-Burlington stories to tell! Winter riding is pretty harsh. Northern tramps usually carry a whole lot of gear--called a "Montana bindle." Enough stuff to survive in freezing cold Montana winters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasoeDSF Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 good day to you Kabar...went to the library today and picked up the video Ridin' Free. Great documentary except the dramatization part where a man in a suit leaves his car at a crossing and catches out. Other than that I did enjoy it. Took place '91 had the Hobo Day in Britt the king and queen was Minneapolis Jewel and Ohio Ned. I recommend this video to anyone interested in hopping trains.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Trainhopping videos There are some very good "amateur" independent videos about trainhopping out there. Two of the absolute best I've found are "Free Ride," shot on VHS-c by runaway 17-year-old David Murphy, a number of years ago (not sure exactly what year--might have been 2000) and "A Personal Documentary" shot on Hi-8 (I think) by David Eberhardt, who at that time was in his mid-20s. Both these films are excellent, and, given the difficult conditions under which they were shot, very well done. Murphy apparently ran away from home and took a video camera with him. My only complaint is that he fell in love with a young female trainhopper, and a large amount of the film is him focusing the camera on her with scenery rolling by trackside behind her, but it was still pretty damned good. A lot of the shots are "aftershots", like he goes to an anarchist festival, but for some reason doesn't shoot any footage of the festival itself, but just shoots tape of somebody elses' still shots, with the still photographer's voice-over to explain what the audience is looking at. Kind of odd. I mean, if you go to an anarchist festival and the cops beat people up, then what you want is TAPE of it, LOL. Still pretty good. Eberhardt has some great footage of interviews with tramps, including a great interview with New York Red as he is passing through a rail yard in Houston, the VERY SAME rail yard where he was arrested "bundling marijuana on the freight train" several years before. (Edit:3/05/04--Stretch and I walked the tracks in the near/north Downtown area, and this video was shot as Eberhardt and Red were rolling throughHouston's Hardy Yards and the westbound throat that crosses over Buffalo Bayou.) "So Red, have you ever been arrested?" "Oh, yeah." What for?" "Bundling marijuana on the freight train." "Where at?" "Right here in this yard." "No shit. How long did you get?" "Five years--served two and a half and got out for good behavior." "So I guess you love Texas, huh?" "Oh, yeaah--it's a state I dearly love." No idea where you could get copies. Stretch made me a copy of a bunch of Collinwood Kid's collection of trainhopping videos, but it's clear that it's a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy and the quality is getting worse each time it gets duplicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Spent the weekend down in the jungle with Stretch Got a call Friday that Stretch and Burlington had arrived in the Houston area and were up in Humble (a town just north of Houston.) I drove up there where he was supposed to be, and drove all over Hell's Half Acre looking for them. No Stretch. I couldn't find him and I ran out of time and had to go to work. When he called, he told me he was near FM 1960 and Interstate-45. "Oops!" Turns out he was at FM 1960 and Interstate-59, about five miles to the east. He left me a voice mail, correcting the error, and told me they were camped out behind a closed Dairy Queen. I went up there when I got off work and picked them up about 0230 in the morning, and took them to the jungle. Saturday, we spent the day re-building the hooch. Some idiot had stayed in the jungle and tore the hooch down and scattered the stuff all over the place, left all the newspaper out to get soaked in the rain, drank up the water and never re-filled the jugs, etc. Dumbass. It took us a couple of hours to re-build the hooch. Then we went dumpster-diving and found a great pallet--very long, about 6 feet long--and scrounged six plastic 5-gallon buckets that are the same height, and built Stretch a bunk. We set the pallet on the buckets. The ground is a little soggy, so they sank into the soft earth a little, making it even more stable. This way, even if it rains hard enough to flood the jungle, Stretch and his stuff won't get wet. Today we just kicked back and enjoyed the day. It stopped raining, the sun came out and there was a good breeze, so the jungle is drying up fast. We walked down to the beer store, bought a couple of cold beverages, and cooked up macaroni-and-Ramen-and-chicken-mushroom-soup for lunch. It was a really laid-back, relaxing day. No stress, no hassle, no "schedule." Wish I could spend all my time like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
test pattern Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 so do i Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
test pattern Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 so do i Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 UP "Challenger" is in town Stretch was sitting in the jungle with Burl drinking a beer and the Union Pacific 3895 "Challenger" steam locomotive rolled through the wye, en route downtown to the Super Bowl festivities. She was pulling a few old vintage passenger cars loaded with big shots going to the Super Bowl. This weekend promises to be one big ass party in Houston. The downtown area has been transformed by the new rail line (Metro-car collision #10 happened a few days ago--it's like "YO, WAKE THE FUCK UP THERE'S A FUCKING TRAIN RUNNING ON FANNIN STREET YOU CLUELESS IDIOTS!") and all the new restaurants and bars. Thousands of football fans are in town for the SB, the joint is jumpin'. Y'all come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ODS-1 Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Originally posted by scallawag the reason why most of them are as fucked up as they are is because of liver poisoning...it takes about half a tallboy to fuck these homeless people up because their liver is so bad, the alcohol takes a completely different effect, thus the stumbling arund, limp arms/legs, talking to themselves, etc...therefore just as you should blame the system, you should blame alcohol as well. As much as it sucks for bums and homeless peeps, beware. You don't want to get poked by some hepatitus knife that he poked himself with the night before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micro Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 large companies dont give a rats ass about us. to them we are NOT artists...we ARE street scum. i could care less if they lose money because of the paint i rack or what i write on their walls or trains or whatever it is im working with. them losing money gets me the paint i need to get people to realize that what we do IS art. writing has become my life. i have become addicted to it. people sometimes steal to support their addictions. i support MY addiction and OUR culture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasoeDSF Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Good point.....wrong topic.:confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBar2 Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Micro You can try to justify stealing all you want. I don't agree, and I don't really care whether the person getting robbed is rich or poor. Basically, if you rip somebody off for their property without compensating them for what you took you are wrong. Wal-Mart is a giant bloodsucking corporation. I dislike them and their policies, especially their attitude about full-time employment (or rather, the lack thereof) and the low wages they pay, and their lack of benefits. However, the way for me to deal with them is to refuse to work for them and to not shop there. Stealing from some corporation like Wal-Mart is almost certain to land you in prison eventually. An acquaintence I knew years ago was busted shoplifting record albums (this was a long time ago) and got FIVE YEARS in the penitentiary--one for each record he stole. (And this was not in Texas, it was in Michigan.) No way in this world is racking shit worth five years of my life. You want to steal? Be my guest. But if someone tries to steal from me, he better hope to Christ I don't catch him. I don't have much, but it BELONGS TO ME, and anybody that tries to rip me off for it had best be ready for a serious ass fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SterOne Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Originally posted by ASER1NE HOLY SHIT KABAR YOU GOT HELLA GOOD IDEAS/POINTS , YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK OR SOMETHINGS THANX FOR THE INFO... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaro Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 h Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaRMFuL Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 bums, hobos..stealing... hhhmm DCH(deschutes county hobo)who always writes Bend Over OR. has hella ups! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaRMFuL Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 http://harmfulart.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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