Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums

[KaBar]

Horman and Terruggi

 

Wow, talk about your co-incidences. The day after I published this key players in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's Socialist government of Chile were sued by some of the families involved. I heard Horman's wife is suing. I wonder if Frank Teruggi's (sp) family will sue, as well? How wierd, that there should be an article in the paper about it the very next day. The CIA was playing for keeps. They aren't supposed to operate here in the U.S. but ask anybody---the sonsabitches do as they please, believe it. We ran into them once in State College, Pennsylvania. Imagine this: a bunch of IWW college pukes trying to organize a pathetic strike against fast food restaurants, because McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken , etc. were the biggest employers of college students outside of the university itself. Lo and behold, one of the organizers turns out to have a new girlfriend that was a CIA asset, developed while she was at the Sorbonne during her junior year. They had approached her and asked her to infiltrate the IWW organizing effort. She did, but she fell in love with her target and told us everything. Up until the appearance of the CIA, we were all pretty spiritless. When that happened, it was like "WHAT THE FUCK is so important about KFC that the CIA would bother to get involved?"

I know a lot of the shit I post on here sounds pretty far-fetched, but if you don't believe it, check it out for yourself.

Eventually, the girl wound up in psychiatric treatment and the organizing campaign fizzled out. But for a while there we were playing James Bond with the CIA. Man, how crazy is that? After a while you get to thinking any crazy ass shit is possible.

[russianwrote]

thanks!

 

Kabar,

thanks for the great post-just came across it now, and quite a read!

[vinyl junkie]

Re: dont let em get ya down.

 

Originally posted by hava_nagila

graffiti writers are convinced its cool to piss people off for no reason , that is, until theyre face to face with someone whos willing to fight

this has been bothering me for a few days now... was this directed at me? because i was being totally serious about the peeing on your feet thing- it'll really get rid of boot rot...

if it wasn't directed at me, then i apoligize for being paranoid, it's just that it was right under my post...

[KaBar]

Not this post, but there is another one

 

Don't be paranoid--this one wasn't directed at you, at least , not in regards to using urine as a anti-fungal. But there is another one, somewhere else in the site that addresses Foot Fungus directly that said something like "I can't believe you guys would advocate pissing on your feet before using Lotrimin" or something like that. Even if it was directed at you, it's nothing to get exercised about. Probably in some Third World country they might actually try using urine or some tree bark tea treatment. But WTF, you can get Lotrimin or Tinactin for four bucks.

[vinyl junkie]

when you're stuck in the woods for a week, with no ride out (like i was when i got boot rot) then that tough actin' tinactin is a distant luxury...:)

[KaBar]

Kabar Slacker Pics

 

I posted some digital pics that Southern shot while we were down in a jungle I frequent, getting some trains video. He was kind enough to help me figure out how to post them, as I am not exactly adept at computers. Anyway, if you wanta see what the Old Man looks like, go to the Benches, then to Metal Heads. It's under "Kabar Slacker Pics," and I want to give Southern the credit--he's a good photographer. It was a good day, although hot, humid and FULL of skeeters, the little bastids.

[TEE_rase_war]

kabar...i had about the same image in my mind as well (of you)

 

do you have more of you in the army or doing something crazy

 

ps do you stil work???

[KaBar]

Tee_Rase--I'll have to look around and see if I've got anything worth putting up on 12 oz. Yeah, I still work. Boy, does it ever SUCK. I hate working. I've always been a worthless slacker at heart, but for the last eighteen years I've been working my ass off. What does that tell you?

[Guest im not witty]

IWW? CIA? just when i think you couldn't possibly blow my mind anymore kabar, you always manage to make my jaw drop in pure awe.

whens that book due out? ;)

[KaBar]

The Grass is Always Greener

 

I'm Not Witty---You know, when you're actually involved in something like a IWW strike, it never seems like it's at all important, and in truth, it's pretty small potatoes. I was involved in several, and it always seemed like we were doomed to failure. In the modern labor environment, the business unions have all the cards. An outfit like the IWW is just sucking hind tit all the way.

Part of the problem back then was our own foolish ignorance. Labor relations is big business, and we almost never had our shit together. Even our own members, who should have known better, had nothing but contempt for an offer during the IWW Long Beach Strike, to work on the docks one day a week with the Longshoremen's Union (IBLWU) to enable our guys to continue to hold out against the International Wood Products company. I thought it was a great idea, but our crazy-ass members voted it down. I never understood that. We had the company all but shut down, when a hothead got sixteen picketers arrested all on the same day, by attacking a line-crossing tractor-trailer rig. They smashed up the truck big time, but the Long Beach cops arrested everybody in sight. The judge was so pissed. He said "In twenty-four years on this bench, I have never seen a labor dispute this violent." He gave our guys fourteen days apiece for disorderly conduct. We had to man the picket line with IWW organizers from Chicago and volunteers from a local collective with a radical SDS background. There is a picture, in a book of IWW history, of a very attractive blonde SDS volunteer carrying an IWW picket sign during that strike, in 1972. The Chicago volunteers took turns staying at an anarchist collective in Los Angeles to get a shower and a decent night's sleep. We kept a picket up at the company 24 hours a day, to warn us if they tried to bring in supplies at night. We got threatening phone calls at night. The straw boss tried to sell our picketing strikers dope (the idiots were going to buy it, too.) Everybody was packing guns, it was extremely weird.

Eventually, we lost the certification vote, but it was close. We only lost by three votes, and that was a full year after the strike was called. Many of our original members had moved on, so a lot of the strike-breakers voted for the union. But we still lost.

If you're interested in this, you can find a fairly accurate account of the IWW Long Beach strike of 1972 in "The I.W.W.: It's First Seventy Years, 1905-1975" by Fred W. Thompson and Patrick Murfin. Murf was the GST back then, and Fred Thompson was a life-long, old-time I.W.W. stalwart who went to jail for the Wobblies back in the Twenties. I did some of the art work on the cover of the book.

The IWW picked up a lot of SDSers when SDS self-disintegrated in 1968 and '69. The groups that were left within SDS--Progressive Labor, Revolutionary Youth Movement and the Weathermen--virtually tore SDS to pieces with their sectarianism. What was awful for SDS was a boon to IWW. IWW gained a large number of college-educated, experienced war protestors. It changed the face of IWW considerably.

[TEE_rase_war]

well im sitting on here, this computer staring me in the face, the weather is beautiful outside, and i will be out there shortly. Things keep popping up into my mind, some times very easy to address, but other times the issues that i bring up (inside my mind) are not so easy to figure out or work on by myself. I randomly think to myself and as of late i believe I have had my mid-life-crisis or whatever you call that. I was happy to go through that transition, from adolecent, to adult if you will.

I see many people sitting around wasting the time that they are given, wasting the time that stares them in the face. I wonder if others have gone through what i have gone through....the struggles that exist are a gift, i beileve, they teach you valuable life lessons that will stand out in your mind more than anything in the world.

Some people believe and do very crazy things...oddities, and just last year i would have thought this absurd...as we grow the people around us grow as well, i think that is something that we have to accept.

the growth of humans will leave us in the dark or something like that

 

 

 

 

ramblings. . .. . . very bored

[KaBar]

Tee_Rase---Well put. I am reminded immediately of how much greater this feeling becomes, and how much more pressing becomes the need to "do something worthwhile and valuable" with my life, when one becomes a parent. It's there when you're single, and it's a little stronger when one marries or forms a long-term partnership with another person. But if you have kids, suddenly it becomes unbearably critical. FOR THE KIDS TO HAVE A CHANCE AT SUCCESS, ONE MUST PREPARE THE WAY, STARTING EVEN BEFORE THEY ARE BORN. I have been working, going to school, saving money, investing, etc., etc., for eighteen years so that my daughter would have a decent chance at attending a first-rate, four-year university. I am not by nature an ambitious person, nor am I usually very good at reverse planning (a skill I learned in the Marine Corps), but when my daughter was born, I started changing my life from a suits-me-just-fine, self indulgent one, to a college-educated professional, prepares-for-the-future one.

 

When she finally graduates and is on her own, I'll go back to just kickin' it and riding trains and doing as I please. I hope.

[TEE_rase_war]

Rock on!!!

 

I was going to write another something or other, but i think that instead i would just encourage you to do whatever you feel/hope is right...after thought I believe that the ONLY WAY is one that you create/and live by in your mind.

 

mind/body/spirit

 

essentials

 

care to digress?

[Guest Canadiano]

this thread should be sticky in my opinion.

[phoniks]

this thread is dope

 

kabar, i think you should write a book. all of the info you have is so interesting. you have given me a new out look on freight life . your writeing is full of so much imagery. im really feelin it man, keep it up!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

[KaBar]

Maybe I Should

 

Everybody keeps saying that I ought to. Do you suppose I'd find a publisher? It's a lot harder than you'd think. Thanks for the compliment, and I guess there's little chance of me stopping, 'cause I find it too rewarding, LOL. "Be careful out there--Safety First."

[TEE_rase_war]

Re: Maybe I Should

 

Originally posted by KaBar

Everybody keeps saying that I ought to. Do you suppose I'd find a publisher? It's a lot harder than you'd think. Thanks for the compliment, and I guess there's little chance of me stopping, 'cause I find it too rewarding, LOL. "Be careful out there--Safety First."

 

look into a small publishing place....you should be able to get a publisher very easy

[vinyl junkie]

this is something AKPress would probably be into...

[Guest im not witty]

Originally posted by vinyl junkie

this is something AKPress would probably be into...

 

this is true, although they publish only a few books a year, they have huge distro. i dont know im talking out of my ass cause im drunk. ignore me. write a book. goodnight.

[T.T Boy]

one of the things i enjoy about this thread is reading kabars writing, it seems that the more time he spends on here, the more slang he tends to pick up. i think its cool, but kind of humorus in a way, im not sure how to say it really, im not sure if im the only one picking it up. i guess maybe were rubbing off on him in a way.

[KaBar]

T.T. Boy---This is absolutely true, LOL. It's bleeding over into my spoken vocabulary, as well, which has led to some pretty dumfounded looks from people with whom I work. Do you suppose this deal cuts both ways? I kind of hope so.

[T.T Boy]

yes, i do think so. hahah, well we should hope so as well. i could imagine someone hearing you speak this way and being totally amazed.

[KaBar]

I just try to act like a civilized person on 12 oz. Inside of every old guy, there's a irresponsible teenager trying to get out and make the old geezer look like an idiot. You've probably heard it a million times "Oh, when I look in the mirror, I just wonder who that OLD PERSON is looking back at me. Inside, I feel just like I did at eighteen." That's a lot of BS, of course, but there is an element of truth to it. The problem is, the 18-year-old inside still wants to listen to Jefferson Airplane and drive around in a painted-up VW microbus. He's pretty out of it, for an 18-year-old. "Peace, man." "Out of sight." "Groovy." Or, if something was really, really good, it would be a "stone groove." Is that idiotic, or what? I can't believe we were so stupid in 1967.

[Guest -MOE LESTER-]

this is a tight thread...but one thing totally baffles me......what did you train hoppers do to sexually satisfy yourselfs??? id kno if i was woman walking near some train hoppers i would scared as shit from rape....were any of your fellow train hoppers rapers and shit?

[KaBar]

Well, I guess that's a valid question. I was pretty young when I did most of my hopping. It was the '70s, and "footloose" people weren't considered to be all that threatening by most young people. I met girls from time-to-time, and would "go homeguard" for a while, and see them for a while. I also went hopping with a woman I met in a commune, who I later married. We got divorced before I went into the Marine Corps. That was some pretty scarey shit. I don't recommend hopping with a woman, unless you are hopping with a pretty tight crew willing to fight to defend itself.

Realistically, most tramps probably rely on solo masturbation. Their chances to meet women are rare, and very few women are attracted to hopping or tramps.

 

Some tramps are homosexuals. A lot of people riding trains have been in prison, and they are pretty slack about fucking boys or other men. In fact, a young guy riding trains solo needs to be pretty clear that he is almost at as much risk as a girl would be. There are definately some asshole bandits out there. And they travel in pairs or small groups, so be careful.

 

There's always prostitutes, but in my opinion, nobody would have sex with a prostitute except someone with a death wish. Their AIDS rate runs about 15%. You're taking your life in your hands so to speak.

 

Some people just put sex on the back burner, I guess. The older guys, in particular, are not obsessed with sex. The average female tramp

isn't anybody you'd have wet dreams about. Think "homeless women," "needs a bath," "needs to wash clothes," "hasn't seen a dentist in five years," "never washes her hair." Understand? Living outdoors 24-7 is hard. It is a hard fucking life. Very few people are interested in it.

[Guest -MOE LESTER-]

yea dude thats pretty harsh, you gotta be really into the lifestyle, because its obvious many personal sacrifices have to be made

[Guest amorphic]

kabar-

i don't really know anything about trainhopping but out of shear curiousity, how exactly do you compose yourself inside the car? do you

just sit on the floor paneling in the middle, against the wall, or do you stand up, etc.

thanks

[KaBar]

Positioning for Safety

 

Amorphic---If you give this a little thought, it will sort of come to you. First of all, on any rail car, you want to be concealed. You don't want anybody to be able to see you, preferably, not at all. But if it's a situation where you cannot conceal yourself 100% (like riding a piggyback behind the axles and wheels of the embarked trailers) you want to conceal yourself as best you can. On a grainer, you want to be either inside the grainer hole, or at least laying low on the porch. If you get a choice, choose a grainer with an apron or skirt around the porch, so you can flatten out and lay low going through grade crossings or rural yards. (These are called "Cadillac" or "Canadian" grainers.) NEVER SKYLINE YOURSELF. HIDE.

Second, you want to be sure that you are not going to fall, be knocked down or slide any appreciable distance. In a gondola, you ride up close to the forward bulkhead. Gondolas are good for swinging a hammock inside, and very secure from the bull standpoint unless you enter a yard with a hump tower, where a supervisor or bull might spot you from above. NEVER, EVER RIDE A LOADED GONDOLA CAR. Only empties.

Inside of a boxcar (if you can find an old style boxcar these days--they're getting kind of scarce) you ride with your back against the forward bulkhead as much as possible, especially if the train is highballing. Slack action can cause you to be knocked off your feet, so it's not a good idea to stand up much. If you do stand up, hold on to something tightly. A good practice is to carry a frameless ruck or pack, and to sit on top of your pack with your back against the forward bulkhead. If the engineer puts it into "emergency" or a brake hose parts, you damned sure don't want to be standing up taking a piss or something. You'd go ass over teakettle straight into the forward bulkhead. Don't make a practice of sleeping out in the middle of the deck. If you need to sleep, sleep with your feet against the forward bulkhead, head towards the FRED. Or, alternatively, sleep on your side with your back against the forward bulkhead, so if there's a crash, you are already as far forward as you can get, and won't be sliding down the deck and smashing into the bulkhead.

A lot of people sleep on cardboard or wadded up Thousand Miler Paper. Somebody on this website described some sort of thick, corrugated cardboard a couple of inches thick that is used to pack cargo in, but I've never seen it personally. It's supposed to make a good mattress, and it sounds sort of like it would. I have tried rigging a hammock inside a boxcar with limited success, but if you could figure out a way to do it, it would be cool.

I've seen people riding on grainer porches that had carabinered themselves to a stanchion or a pipe, but I've never done that. You definately want to be as secure as possible.

I don't think flatcars are safe. If something goes wrong, you could go off the side or be thrown off the end, into the wheels of the car following you. A bulkhead flatcar or a spine car designed to carry lumber is okay.

Probably the ride I like the best, barring boxcars, is a container well car. The Trailer Train Corp. manufactures "well cars" designed to hold several shipping containers like Sea-Land, or Cosco or K-Line containers, what we used to call "con-ex" boxes in the Marines. The TTX 48 is the Cadillac of container well cars. It has a steel deck floor. If they load a 40 foot container in it, you get 8 feet of riding space. Never board a TTX 48 in front of a container, ONLY BEHIND IT. In fact, NEVER RIDE IN FRONT OF CARGO, EVER. If the train derails or hits something, you'll be crushed like a bug.

Never ride a tank car, not one foot. They carry all kinds of noxious shit, and I prefer to stay way away from tankers. They are handy for crossing over the string, though.

Some people say they like riding auto racks. Empty would be okay. If you get popped inside a auto rack car being transported to the dealer, you will probably get jail time. They don't like it one bit.

 

I hope that's a little clearer. Like old Rufe used to say, "Be careful, god dammit. This ain't no fucking hobby!"

[Guest amorphic]

Kabar- Thanks for the info its much appreciated.

[wutangbanger]

hey kabar if u dont mind what do u working for now