Hobo Jungle

[Tramp]

Talk about a COLD fire.

It snowed 8 inches in the Vermont mountains last night. According to my mother who lives there.

[San Diegan]

Tramp,

Now on the subject of a COLD fire. You know, when you're on the move and riding the rails, it's not lonely, even if you're by yourself. That's because your're going somewhere. But here in this camp, when the fire's out and nobody's around, the lonesomeness cuts to the bone.

San

[Bindle Stiff]

Don' worry 'bout Melvin hafin' the recipee fer Idyhoo Gol' [TM]. Duffy gif me th' only copy uv it an' I swallered it to be shore it were kept a seecret! I prob'ly shud uv memerized it 'fore I swallered it, but least I kept it frum fallin' in to bad han's.

I used my last dab uv Gol' [TM] mixed wif a dab uv Ripple to build a mothers' day tos'. But it looked so gud a already drank it.

Stiff

[P&R Pete]

San, you ain't just a-whistlin'. Some nights, when the fire's out and the stew-pot's empty and the jug of Gold(tm)'s run dry, seems like you're the last hobo on the face of the planet.

But speaking of Gold(tm), if Tramp's Mom is going to show up for Mother's Day, we're going to be needing that jug of Gold(tm) to be up to the rim, and more! Stiff, we're going to be needing that recipe, so here's a gallon of some white milky stuff to chug down.
(We'll have that recipe back in no time, boys).

Dufus and the new missus are STILL in that boxcar. What'ya suppose is going on in there?

Man, I did something so whacked today, I can't even talk about it.

[Tramp]

Did someone throw a stick on the coals? Fan the ash with an damp piece of cardboard? Polish the mouth of a bottle that might still have one burning sip? Whisper the beginning of a poem? Notice the buds parting fur and thinking of opening? The grass finding its ultimate green?

Peter, talk about it. It's just us bos. We won't remember a thing in the matter of minutes.

[Tramp]

Dennis.
I thought you'd shrunk and moved into your perfect world. What you been up to?

[Tramp]

Can you tell? Just to us hobos?

Dennis, can you post your web site so I might see the existing line?

[Jackie Blue]

Who needs a fire tonight? The moon is full, lusty, and the color of Duf's magic juice. Maybe we can coax him out for a round before he has to get back to his duty.

[P&R Pete]

Is that a "Sow-er's Moon", JB? Man, there's tractors rumbling all over the farmlands around here.

(Hobo shuffles down the dirt lane, wondering why in tarnation he's got himself involved with ANOTHER redhead, when ONE sometime seem like one too many. Takes another pull off'n his flask of Gold(tm), kicks along a stone, singin' to himself...

"I'm Alabama bound
I'm Alabama bound
And if the train don't turn around
I'm Alabama bound

Oh, don't you leave me here
Oh, don't you leave me here
But if you must go anyhow
Just leave a dime for beer

Oh don't you be like me
Oh don't you be like me
Drink your good sweet cherry wine
And let that whiskey be"

[Tramp]

Pete, Irish setter?


"Get off the table, Mable,
The two dollars is for beer."

[Jackie Blue]

No Pete, this is Buddha's moon. Very auspicious! Prince Siddhartha Gotama, who, after enlightenment, became the Buddha – is said to have been born, reached enlightenment and died on a full moon in May, spread over his life of eighty years.

And a very good reason to celebrate!

[P&R Pete]

Well, I'll raise one to Buddha's sublime May moon, and any other reason to drown my spinning head.

No Tramp, good guess, ol' bud, but that I were getting off so cheaply. *sigh* As it is, my new Redhead will be arriving tomorrow at the crack of nine AM.

JB, I know nada about Buddha. Shame on me?

[San Diegan]

This camp's brightening. Dufus came out of the boxcar before you all arrived and left me with this 55 gal. drum of Idaho Gold (TM). He's attentive to his new wife, but hasn't forgotten his old hobo buddies. I don't know where he finds time to brew this stuff and suspect he's got a tank car on a spur down the line that's full of it. The taps open and the Gold (TM) is pouring.

Now I have some chickens I liberated from one of those Melvinist's coop (left some paraphenalia of equal value to pay for it. Illegal if he is caugt with it, yes, but valuable, just the same), onions, carrots, peppers, and celery. I figure we can grill it all now that the fire is burning bright again and eat like kings.

Maybe on a full stomach, Petey will fess up. I wish Willie was here. He would draw this latest corrundum out of him. I hope that "redhead" is a '67 Camero with headers.

San

[P&R Pete]

Yeah, baby! These 'constarnations' leave me hungry.
(Mr. Melvin with a doobie. Just Imagine!)

San, good guess! Oh, that it were only so!
You're in the right direction. though, but just a tad more pedestrian.

Well, up the hill I go. Should be here any minute.

[Tramp]

It's probably a primer red Vega. Or maybe a Pinto (the barbecue that seats four).