Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums

[KaBar]

Nope. That would be "assault with a deadly weapon with intent to cause great bodily harm," a felony. If convicted, a person could get fifteen years in the penitentiary. I wouldn't like it there, so I avoid committing felonies, especially aggravated felonies, and especially in Texas. Annoying bums I just tell to go away, and they usually do after they process my request. It takes a little time to process thoughts if your brain is pickled in alcohol.

[KaBar]

Ka-bump

 

Bump bump

[test pattern]

Someone sticky this..

KaBar is spouting off alot

of wisdom.

[KaBar]

One of My Orignial Threads

 

I think this is one of my original threads. I have been bumping it myself once in a while because it represents quite a bit of effort and time, and in the hopes that some new guy with questions about hopping might hit it and learn something. However, I'm considering letting it scroll off unless some of you guys disagree. Unlike some other threads I've participated in, most of the stuff on this one is pretty uncontroversial, but pretty informative.

 

Opinions?

[russianwrote]

KaBar, what about keeping the thread bumped with some of those great excerpts that you originally posted in the Iowa Blackie thread, kill two birds with one stone. plus it seems to fit into the atmosphere of this thread.

 

anybody read the new book "poets on the peaks: gary snyder, philip whalen and jack kerouac in the north cascades" by john suiter? i just finished it, a good read! poets on the peaks

[KaBar]

I'm easy either way. I enjoy writing all this shit, but I have to admit it, I get a lot of satisfaction from the attention it receives from 12 oz. readers. What does that say? I guess I'm an attention junkie, just like everybody else.

[FR8HOUND]

KABAR, GUESS WHO I RAN INTO TODAY ON THE NS MAINLINE ? GIVE YOU A CLUE, ONE HANDSOME DOG????????? STRETCH, AND BURLINGTON DOG..MISSED HIM AT THE PENNSBURG GATHERING, I WAS SICK, AND DIDN'T GO, HE REMEMBERED ME FROM LAST YEAR, WE HUNG OUT FOR THE DAY, I BROUGHT HIM BACK SOME CORNED BEEF, PACKS OF RAMEN NOODLES, AND SOME BEEF JERKY FOR BURLINGTON...HE'LL BE CATCHING OUT TONIGHT, AND IS HEADED TO THE NEXT GATHERING[ YOU KNOW WHERE THAT ONE IS I'M SURE], AND EVENTUALLY HEADING DOWN YOUR WAY IN A FEW WEEKS...MISSED THE PENNSBURG GATHERING THIS YEAR, BUT I'LL MAKE IT NEXT YEAR, WHETHER I'M SICK OR NOT...HOPE TO MEET YOU THERE SOME DAY...FR8HOUND.

[KaBar]

See? You gotta love the Internet, no shit.

[FR8HOUND]

http://www.fototime.com/{EB5DA676-663E-40EB-8667-8BBF7FBD795A}/picture.JPG'>

STRETCH WAS STILL THERE TODAY, HE NEVER CATCHED OUT LASTNIGHT, TOO MANY BEERS, HEHEEE..BUT HE SAID HE WAS PRETTY DEFINITE HE'D BE GONE TONIGHT SOMETIME..AND YEAH, I TOOK BURLINGTON DOG, SOME MORE BEEF JERKY TODAY...

[KaBar]

Texas Mad Man and Pennsburg

 

I heard from Tex, he said there were more than 70 tramps (edit: 9/25/02--latest figures say "over 100") in the jungle at Pennsburg, including a lot of young, "Flintstone" riders. Redbird Express, King of Hobos, was the organizer and the Perkiomen School in Pennsburg was the host. Pennsburg is a very odd event--a national gathering of tramps, hobos and homeless drifters hosted by a prestigious prep school. Red Bird talked them into it eleven years ago, and it has just been a resounding success since then.

 

Rik Palieri sent a note detailing playing his banjo and singing songs with the Flintstone Kids up in the Boxcar Hotel, and says everybody enjoyed it, although apparently there was a fight that was quickly broken up. In my opinion, one shouldn't let something like a little tipsy fisticuffs mar an otherwise peaceful event. I mean, after all, five days of 70 tramps and only one fight? Sounds like exemplary behavior to me.

 

Rik said he learned a new song written by the Flintstone Kids called "Up On The High Line", but that it's not the sort of song you sing for your mother.

 

There was a wedding, too. Tramp Printer and his fiancee got married at Pennsburg.

 

You guys near Pennsylvania ought to make plans to go next year. Rubber tramps and old timers in RV's are just as welcome as guys who ride in, and the Flintstones tattoos-and-piercings crowd. I'm definately going to try to make it.

[effyoo]

Re: One of My Orignial Threads

 

Originally posted by KaBar

I think this is one of my original threads. I have been bumping it myself once in a while because it represents quite a bit of effort and time, and in the hopes that some new guy with questions about hopping might hit it and learn something. However, I'm considering letting it scroll off unless some of you guys disagree. Unlike some other threads I've participated in, most of the stuff on this one is pretty uncontroversial, but pretty informative.

 

Opinions?

 

Originally posted by test pattern

Someone sticky this..

KaBar is spouting off alot

of wisdom.

 

even though I realistically never see myself hopping, I very much enjoy the well thought out and interesting posts, Kabar. You are letting people see a side of life that otherwise they would not see and making people more aware of their actions by stressing the ways you believe things should be done.

 

Now a question. If you could change one decision in your life that you made, what would it be? I was going ask what the best decision you ever made was, but that seems like the answer would be obvious. Ok, anyhow, thatnks for the great posts..... keep them coming.

[FR8HOUND]

YEAH, ALOT OF FLINTSTONE KIDS WERE THERE I HEARD THAT FROM STRETCH..I WENT IN 2001, BUT DIDN'T MAKE IT THIS YEAR, CAUSE I WAS SICK...BY THE WAY, STRETCH CATCHED OUT LAST NIGHT SOMETIME, GOING TO DAREY GATHERING, BACK TO CLEVELAND, THEN DOWN TO SEE YOU..WELL, HOPE TO SEE KABAR THERE NEXT YEAR IN PENNSBURG, HEARD A RUMOR, THAT MIGHT BE THE LAST ONE?????? HOPEFULLY NOT...TAKE CARE KABAR.

[KaBar]

Hard To Say

 

The decisions we make in our lives, good and bad, all work to form the person we are today. There are a number of decisions I might have done either way, though.

 

I wish I had gone to college directly from high school, like all my friends did, except--

 

if I had done that I wouldn't have gone hitch hiking and hopping when I did, and I would have been young and immature in college, instead of older and more focused.

 

I wish I hadn't been so dead set against the Draft, except--

 

if I hadn't been a conscientious objector, I wouldn't have been sent to work in a rehabilitation hospital, and I never would have met the attractive, dedicated young nurse that inspired me to become a nurse myself. (Priscilla Andersen, wherever you are--I never forgot the things you told me, and I have tried to live up to the high standards that you demonstrated for us that night the boy came in from Odessa. You proved to everyone that night that one nurse can make the difference between life and death for a patient. I know that kid will never forget you, and neither will I. I've told myself many times--Fight Like Andersen Did--Never give up.) I doubt I'll ever be a nurse as good as Priscilla Andersen is, but it won't be because I haven't tried.)

 

The things I've done that I truly wish I could un-do are the (thankfully, relatively few things) things I did where I hurt other people thoughtlessly. There are a couple of women out there somewhere who have probably despised me my entire life because I was thoughtless and cruel and uncaring. I wish I could go back and re-do those occasions. I broke up with girls without a thought for their feelings. I hurt some accidentally. And I wish I hadn't.

 

Most of my decisions, even the lousy ones, have turned out to have a silver lining. I'm pretty grateful for that.

[effyoo]

Things just have a way of working out, don't they? Thanks for the reply, Kabar. The part about Priscilla Andersen will strike a chord with my girl (she recently returned to school to take nursing).

[KaBar]

Effyoo

 

I know it sounds stupid, and I've never done this, but I used to dream about writing huge messages about Miss Andersen on boxcars and tankers:

 

"Priscilla Andersen, R.N.--Fight Like Her!"

 

I always saw her as being "much older" than me, although she was only a few years older. I was 18, so she was probably about 24 or so, and today, probably about 57 years old. She was very tall, for a woman, and had a slim, athletic build, brown hair (back then) and brown eyes, as I recall (it's been thirty-three years) and very attractive.

Back in those days, RN's wore white uniforms, white hose and shoes, and always wore the nursing cap of their school. She graduated from a nursing school up north, with a distinctive cap that looked sort of like a coffee filter (I know this sounds funny) with a band of black velvet running around the bottom edge. She always wore her hair "up" in a French twist. When the weather was cool, she wore a waist-length, blue wool cape, lined with red, clasped at her throat (this used to be common with nurses--the cape dates from the early days of nursing, Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, two of the pioneers of nursing, who wore capes like this on the battlefields where they cared for the wounded.) Today, of course, we have no time for this sort of thing, and most female nurses are glad to be rid of those "antiquated" relics of nursing, especially the white uniform. Nurses, and nursing, were different back then.

 

I was only 18, and I had never seen anything like the hospital where I worked. I was assigned as a nursing "orderly" (back in those days, nurses didn't do heavy lifting, they had a staff of orderlies and "nurse's aides" to assist with the routine nursing tasks like turning patients, baths, etc.) on a unit of twenty-eight paralyzed men and teenaged boys. Since it was "total care" (the patients were paralyzed) every bite of food, every drink of water, etc., was provided by the staff. Baths were either bed baths, performed right before changing the bed linen, or "assembly line baths" on 3-11 shift, in which the patients were placed on gurney stretchers (with wheels) and rolled into large, open shower rooms, and bathed by orderlies wearing rubber boots and rain suits.

 

I worked 11-7 (the "graveyard" shift) and Miss Andersen was my supervisor. She led the nursing team on Unit Three. She was a no-nonsense, strictly business kind of person, and always addressed the staff as "Mr. KaBar,", "Mr. Jones," Mrs. Washington" and so forth. We performed all manner of routine nursing tasks, mainly turning patients from one side to the other every thirty minutes so that they would not develop decubitus ulcers (bed sores). Paralyzed patients have no bladder control (or bowel control, either), so they usually had what is called an "in-dwelling Foley catheter" hooked up to a "bedside urine collection bag." One of the things I did was empty these bags into a bucket and make sure that the patient was producing enough urine, by visually observing the contents of the bag. (Less than 30cc of urine/hour could mean a kidney shutdown.)

 

One night we got a kid about 18 in from West Texas, who had been paralyzed in a car wreck several months before. He was a very troublesome kid, cursed the staff at the nursing home where he had been sent, threw stuff. His thuggy friends brought him beer and grass and he just drank and stayed stoned all day, and sat up in a wheelchair watching TV. Consequently, since he didn't take care of himself, he developed these huge, deep, infected decubitus ulcers--big as a coffee mug, clear to the pelvic bone. He was shipped to us via ambulance and nobody wanted to deal with him, so he had not been prepped for the trip, and had evacuated his bowels all over everything.

 

Andersen came to me and told me what supplies to go get, and then she said, "Mr. KaBar, this is going to be unpleasant. No matter what happens, you are not to show any sign that it is disgusting or repulsive. Do you understand?" I said, "Yes, ma'am."

When she whipped the sheet back, I wanted to vomit. He was laying on his stomach. Both holes were contaminated with shit, it was everywhere and smelled awful. I could smell the infection, too. We donned gloves, but no masks, and began cleaning him up. The whole time Miss Andersen was scooping shit out of these two gaping wounds in this kid, she was carrying on a conversation as though there was absolutely nothing wrong, asking about where he went to school, his family, and so on. I could tell the kid was mortally embarrassed. He couldn't feel anything, but he knew and he was just deeply ashamed to be in this condition.

She treated him with such compassion and kindness, it really made it easier for everybody. After we finished cleaning him up and washing out the decubitus ulcers with Normal Saline and 4x4's, we packed them, bandaged the kid good enough to get him to daylight, and Andersen talked to him til he feel asleep.

 

I was completely grossed out. All I wanted to do was leave that hospital and never come back. It was so---horrible. The kid was about my age. His life was ruined. He was paralyzed, he had these huge, gaping holes in his butt, the shit, the stench, the open wounds---it was just too fucking horrible.

 

She came out of the kid's room, stripping off her gloves (we almost never wore gloves back then, although everybody wanted to, it was considered to be "too expensive") and looked at me sitting there. She had tears in her eyes. She came over and said to me, "Mr. KaBar, you performed admirably. That poor boy, I can't imagine the hell he has been through." and then she looked at me and said, "Our patients always come first. Their health, their best interests, and their dignity. We did more than just clean him up. We gave him back a little bit of his dignity." Then she patted me on the shoulder, and went to the nursing station to chart.

 

I think I sort of fell in love with Andersen, right there. She was a fine nurse, and an excellent leader, and a decent, kind woman. We worked together a few more weeks, and then she transferred somewhere else, to a different job, but the last night we worked together, as she was leaving (putting on her blue cape, LOL) she shook my hand and told me, "Mr. KaBar, you should go to college. You are an intelligent man, and I think you have potential." I would have followed that nurse right down the barrel of a cannon. Working there was never the same after she left. There aren't many people in the world like Priscilla Andersen, and I'm glad I got to know her.

[Guest duh-rye-won]

what a story. you should write a book, seriously. you have more interesting stories and info than anyone i ever met. thanks for sharing everything.

[fatrednecks]

:confused: i dont know????????

[vinyl junkie]

Re: Texas Mad Man and Pennsburg

 

Originally posted by KaBar

I heard from Tex, he said there were more than 70 tramps (edit: 9/25/02--latest figures say "over 100") in the jungle at Pennsburg, including a lot of young, "Flintstone" riders. Redbird Express, King of Hobos, was the organizer and the Perkiomen School in Pennsburg was the host. Pennsburg is a very odd event--a national gathering of tramps, hobos and homeless drifters hosted by a prestigious prep school. Red Bird talked them into it eleven years ago, and it has just been a resounding success since then.

 

Rik Palieri sent a note detailing playing his banjo and singing songs with the Flintstone Kids up in the Boxcar Hotel, and says everybody enjoyed it, although apparently there was a fight that was quickly broken up. In my opinion, one shouldn't let something like a little tipsy fisticuffs mar an otherwise peaceful event. I mean, after all, five days of 70 tramps and only one fight? Sounds like exemplary behavior to me.

 

Rik said he learned a new song written by the Flintstone Kids called "Up On The High Line", but that it's not the sort of song you sing for your mother.

 

There was a wedding, too. Tramp Printer and his fiancee got married at Pennsburg.

 

You guys near Pennsylvania ought to make plans to go next year. Rubber tramps and old timers in RV's are just as welcome as guys who ride in, and the Flintstones tattoos-and-piercings crowd. I'm definately going to try to make it.

hey kabar... any way i could get some info on next year's one of these? even just a town and a date?

[KaBar]

Vinyl Junkie

 

Email me with a Hotmail address or something.

 

Rsaxon50@hotmail.com It's bogus, of course. (My name's not Saxon.)

[Guest SMUGGLER RSH]

Bump because of the info......

[KaBar]

Grrr!!! Links won't Work, dammit.

 

http://home.talkcity.com/route66/stretch122

 

I don't know why, but I can't get any of my links to Stretch's sites to work. VERY FRUSTRATING. I'll ask him when I see him.

[KaBar]

Binoculars

 

I carry a pair of 7x50 binoculars in my ruck to watch for trains and also to surveil an area before I move from brush to the open. For instance, if I'm preparing to cross an open area within 100 yards of buildings and people, I'll lay in the weeds for a while, watching activity on the other side to see if there are any police cars or railroad bull vehicles on the other side.

 

It occurs to me, as I write this, that with a recent occurance of a sniper shooting people from a tree line, and the FBI deciding that railroads are now a terrorist target, that I may ought to take a vacation from tramping/ hopping/ and surveilling stuff with binoculars. On the other hand, who better to be watching the railroads than railroad employees, hobos and tramps and graff artists? I often go for five or six hours hiking around near lay-ups, rail yards and junctions without seeing a single other person. Except for me, there are no human eyes watching these areas, or at least, it seems that way to me.

 

Sometimes I mourn the change of American lifestyles, where people are so separated from the basics of life that they think of railroads sort of the same way we think of sewer plants or drainage ditches. We are developing a national attitude where if you aren't headed to the Mall or the grocery store, or to work, you really have no business being out of your house. It's kind of creepy. People on foot are almost considered to be a threat, simply because they aren't in a car. It's as though society has been divided into "those that ride in cars" and "those that don't." Watch people's reactions to panhandlers at a light and you'll see what I mean.

 

If you have a cell phone, program in the number of the local police and the local railroad special agents. If you see anybody harming railroad property or acting like a terrorist (whatever that means) DROP A DIME ON HIM. If somebody had turned in Muhammad and Malvo, nine people might still be alive. I'm not suggesting you should rat off anybody who's just there, only people who are apparently up to no good.

[zen]

yeah that point about those who walk is true. Its that old "A place for every thing and every thing in its place" syndrome I suppose. Walking to observe just isnt done.

 

You also notice that people dont look aroudn themselves any more? I remember one time we found an abonbdoned wharehouse smack bang in the middle of my central buisness district (still standing for various reasons). Any way we were painting inside and generally exploring and taking pictures. When we thought of the great idea to write on the write our tags backwards on the windows. (This was the reason of the subsequent closure of the wharehouse, but thats another story) any way the point is that when we did this writing on the windows, for a good ten minutes, not one person looked up at these windows, not one person glanced outside their office windows to see us write 5 foot high letters on these windows. Humans are all about assumptions i guess. but im guilty of this too.

 

wasnt this thread about bums?

[effyoo]

Re: Binoculars

 

Originally posted by KaBar

We are developing a national attitude where if you aren't headed to the Mall or the grocery store, or to work, you really have no business being out of your house. It's kind of creepy. People on foot are almost considered to be a threat, simply because they aren't in a car. It's as though society has been divided into "those that ride in cars" and "those that don't." Watch people's reactions to panhandlers at a light and you'll see what I mean.

 

 

I agree, I bought a car for the first time a few months ago because before I never had any use. I always have lived in a neighbourhood where things were within a short walk.

 

But now that I live in the suburbs, just walking to the store comes with a stare from every yuppie in their suv wondering who that guy is, and why is he wandering around my neighbourhood.

 

The only time you will see someone walking around is ... wait halloween just passed, thats the busiest i've seen the neighbourhood in a year.

 

People even drive to take their dog for a walk. To go to the store. To get their mail.

 

Point is, you can't walk around without being suspect nowadays.

That is all.

[russianwrote]

iowa blackie calender

 

last week got the 2003 calender from iowa blackie,

funny guy-little messages all on the envelope and

calender cover, date time and place sent from wrote

in on inside of sticky envelope flap. looks like a good

read, and can't wait for 2003 to start using it.

[KaBar]

Yeah, He's Different, all right

 

Blackie is crazier than a shithouse mouse, but he is a cool guy anyway. There's a good photograph of him taken in 1984 on North Bank Fred's website http://www.snowcrest.net/bndlstif/britt_84.html These photographs are from the local Britt newspaper. Blackie's photo is in the Part Two Section. He took off most of his clothes in front of a zillion tourists.

[Prismacillor]

kabar, i have a question, im in the process of reading this thread, so if this was already answered, im sorry, but ive been thinking of doing some traveling soon, but say i got off a train, and im walking into another city or something like that, and im stopped and a cop asks me where im coming from, i mean im sure i can think of something, but it would be pretty difficult when im not familiar with the area and where exactly im even going, and im sure not going to say yeah i just got off a train, and especially when its late, whats my business around where i am? its just something i was thinking about, cause i dont get stopped around where i am, but if im in a little town or something, its definitely a possiblity. thanx

[KaBar]

Prismacillor

 

It's not illegal to be "just passing through." Personally, I never volunteer information to a police officer. If he asks me directly "Did you just get off that freight train?" I would say, "I really can't speak to that." If you say "Yeah," he can arrest you for tresspassing.

 

The idea is to NOT BE SEEN. You lowline into the yard, hit a train, ride out of sight, and lowline out of the yard.

 

"Leave no trace, do no damage, make no disturbance."

 

BE A SNAKE EATER.

[Prismacillor]

kabar

 

thanks , i understand the yard situation, but i was just saying, sometimes cops do roll up on you, hidden themselves, ive stayed a step ahead of em so far, but i also usually have a reason to be out too, work, or a couple of other excuses, but thats just cause i know my city, so if i was at another place, i wouldnt have as many excuses, but i guess ill deal with it when it happens......

[Poop Man Bob]

Wonderful story from 9-29, KaBar. Thanks for sharing it ..