mister anchovy's: More on Riding the Rails

Thursday, February 09, 2006

"At the height of the Great Depression, more than 250,000 teenagers were living on the road in America"

greatwhitebear said...: it is amazing the impact that "riding the rails" had on my parents generation. Almost everyone who came of age in the thirties had a friend or family member who had been a hobo for at least a time.

When I was fifteen, I tried to run away from home by jumping a Grand Trunk freight I thought was headed to Chicago. I made it from the Pontiac plant on the north side of Pontiac, to the GMC Truck and Coach plant on the southside, where the train stopped, and I was promptly greeted by the Pontiac police. The first thing my dad asked was, "weren't you afraid of the the railroad detectives?" Now, this was 1967, and I doubt if there had been rail dicks in existance for 20 years at that point, but my dad was still amazed I wasn't scared, because of the brutality the dicks had a reputation for.; 2:16 p.m.

Thursday, February 09, 2006