Hoboes and Cold Weather! [1930s Travel Tips! ]

Good job buddy

As a retired hobo with 50 years of the rail. Again you are spot on. Here's some other tips for cold weather that were common in the 1930s. You often wore 2 full sets of clothes. This had a duel propose, warmth, and when you hopped off took the outer layer off. The inner layer was cleaner and made work hunting easier. Tossed newspaper were pure gold. You wrapped your feet with it, put socks over it, and then your shoes. As often your shoes were second hand and a size or so too big, and this would prevent frostbite. Tucking your pant legs in your socks and filling your pants with crumpled newspaper helped a whole bunch to stay warm. Many freight yards had a sand house. Steam engines would carry a small load of sand to drop on slick track in case the wheels started spinning for traction. The sand house was heated as cold sand would clump badly with a little moisture and cold weather. If you were quiet you could sleep overnight on that warm sand and dream of a topical beach.

😢As a young boy, I was visiting my grandparents in upstate New York helping my grandmother outside. I looked up at one point and saw a man coming toward us. His clothing was worn, he was wearing suit jacket and slacks. "Oh look grandma, a bum" I said. Grandma looked at him, and popped me on the back. She said "Daniel! He's not a bum. He's hobo". She saw my confused look, and explained: "A bum wants something for nothing; a hobo offers to work for what he needs". And so I learned a lesson once upon a time in the early 1960's...

I'm 57 years old and about 10 years ago I found out my Grandfather on my Mothers side was a Hobo, he was an acoholic and would catch a train out of Guin Alabama and stay gone for months, come back with just enough money sometimes to pay the bills until the next trip. I also found out he was tramping down to Florida and working as a laborer for AT&T installing telephone lines to rural areas.

I remember my grandmother telling me that her mother would build a fire outside and have a big pot of hot water boiling. People would jump off the train and come up to their house to get hot water, broth or tea which ever she had. This was in Canada during the winter. She said other farmers would do the same and it was known with people frequenting the trains.

I used to live near Cynthiana, Ohio. At the end of our road was a very nice large red brick house[not a mansion]. The original owner built it in the 20s and had $3 million dollars in the bank and several thousand acres. One day in the 30s, after an argument with his family he disappeared. After seven years, he suddenly appeared in time to prevent his family from declaring him dead. He had been hoboing to see America.

My grandpa and his brother had to hobo their way from Oklahoma to Grand Coulee in WA state for work on the Roosevelt project. Somewhere along the way they hopped on the wrong train and ended up in Montana. They nearly froze to death. But they eventually made it to Grand Coulee and found out they were no longer hiring so they became ranchers instead. Oddly, neither of them said anything about this until they were old. My mother (his daughter) thinks he was probably afraid his sons (who were a bit wild) would try to copy him and take off.

In the late 1970s I actually did the hobo scene on the west coast. Picking fruit while making my way to Washington state. Met a real life hobo named Jack Fry who showed me how to make hobo stew with only the finest remnants of food in opened cans. One thing I noticed was alcoholism was very prevalent in their lives. All the travelers I met seemed keen on it choosing wine over everything else, including food. Eventually I made it to Alaska working on a fishing boat. Things got lonely though. All in all it was a good experience.

I love this hobo series. I would love to see a video on what a hobo resupply looks like once he gets to a town and can shop for goods.

Wool is a wonderful material Provides warmth even when wet, fast drying, abrasion and fire resistant

A few years back a German bushcraft channel (I think it was Waldhandwerk) did a thing where the guy wore a thirftstore wool overcoat wild camping. He said it was warm, well made, inexpensive, and environmentally conscious. That convinced me and I have been doing that ever since. With a wool blanket, you have an extra layer, and, if you're wearing your coat, your arms don't get as cold if they stick out the blanket. I really enjoy your hobo series!

Here in Finland there wasn't a big hobo culture as such but there were plenty of outdoors workers and also some migrant workers, especially during depression. Lumberjacks, railroad builders, farmworkers, etc. And we do have quite a cold climate. One common affordable aid to stay warm was old newspapers. One could use them as an extra layer between one's clothing, or shred them and stuff them into boots, line hat with them etc. They were cheap and plentiful.

I hoboed in the early 70's when they were transitioning to all metal boxcars, but sometimes you could find an older and warmer wooden floored type boxcar during a cold day.

My grandpa worked on the railroad and he told me about a wealthy hobo who lived in a cave most of the time. He would come down once a month and make everyone in the train yard hobo stew. My grandpa said the hobo just liked living free.

The wonderful thing available was the army wool coat or the sailors pea coat. They wore like iron and lasted for years. By the time of the Depresion there was surplus available. My dad had his to use from WW2 into the 1970s when he passed away. I don't know what happened to it afterwards. They had wool sweaters which were fairly common as was wool underwear. If you get a chance read Louis L'Amour's Education of a Wandering Man. Some of his other short stories are also about living lean so to speak espeacially waiting for a job on a ship.

Six months on the Appalachian Trail taught me the importance of wool. Even when it's damp, it's still warm. Synthetics and down are great, but have their limitations. I enjoy your videos immensely. Thank you..

I'm currently testing My lifestyle in central michigan it is −5° right now. I think we've got about 10 inches of snow I'm gonna do it all year. I started in July. Of course, it's in my yard. But I'm in a pop-up camper. So far, so good. Thanks for the tips.

Wool sure was an important material.

Hi James! When I was a little feller, I enjoyed coming up with my own homemade costumes to dress like people I admired from TV, movies, or real life. That was a lot of fun. Whenever I see one of these style videos, I detect the fun you are having and suspect some of that same spirit is in you. Blessings to you!

One of my favorite movies with hoboes was the 1973 movie Emperor Of The North with Lee Marvin playing a hobo called A Number 1 trying to ride a train with Ernest Borgnine playing the role of a psychopathic conductor named Shack who hated hoboes.