Daily Create Hobohemia

Daily Create

#ds106 @ds106dc   #tdc3817  #myFest22 Remembering Hobohemia

This one is pretty special to me because my father once hopped the rails to find work in the 30s until he found work with the Civil Conservation Corps.

So let me share a few resources about hobos:

• Source Image: Flickr CC0
• Smithsonian: Last Great American Hobos
• Infoplease: Hobo Convention
• Yes, there is a hobo convention every year: Britt, Iowa
• Hobo Symbols [which are probably more myth than reality]: NSA.gov: Cryptologic Heritage Hobo Signs
• Wikipedia, which includes the Hobo Creed: Hobo

So my Daily Create includes the source photo behind a window of a brick building with etched hobo drawings and a note with a translation and the suggestions that these men are following The fifth entry on the hobo creed which says: “When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.” 

Translation:

Stay here. Town leaves hobos alone. Fresh drinking water and safe to camp.
Free telephone and OK for a handout.

Under window: Gentleman lives here.

They are crafting
lights for dark nights to sell,
following hobo code 5:

“When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.”

~ 1889 Tourist Union #63 hobo union

Two tweets, since I revised the post to include the crafting– hobos looked for work, work that allowed them to travel whenever they felt the need to leave:

“two hours of pushin’ broom buys an eight by twelve four-bit room…
Third boxcar, midnight train; destination Bangor, Maine.”

Roger Miller

#ds106 @ds106dc #tdc3817 #myFest22 Remembering Hobohemia

They are crafting
lights for dark nights to sell,
following hobo code 5:
“When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.”https://t.co/hAnegILxOV

— Sheri Edwards (@grammasheri) June 25, 2022