Hobo Jungle

[Tramp]

San, since you're paying my bar tab, I wonder if you noticed this column. I thought you might enjoy it since it had a dram of Waterman in it.

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/opinion/st ... yID=150088

[Tranz4mr]

Kent:

Welcome to the forum and the prospect of having a basement for your trains. But just a small word about them moving out and you being alone. My wife and I raised 3 kids and one moved to Conn. One is with his SO. One married and has 3 kids and only lives about 10 miles away. My daughter has no one else to watch the kids so the wife and I got elected and have raised her 3 kids and are still raising one all week while she works ( is 2 and a half) and another that is 4 we watch her 2 days a week. Just a word to the wise. We thought we had raised our kids but we were wrong. We don't really mind but it would be nice to be alone sometimes. If we want to go away for a day or two my daughter has to take vacation so we can go. If we have to go to the store we have to take the little one with us. I know I sound like its a chore and it can be, but its still raising more kids.

Anyway welcome to the Jungle. Visited your web site but still could not get any train pictures.

Jim

Jim
I feel for ya! I pray it doesn't happen to me. My oldest is studying to be an Engineer so she should be OK. The youngest has a boyfriend whom my 76 yo Mom described as a Dufus . If your listening MTJ Dufus sorry. Hopefully sending her away to school will fix that problem.

[2railjon]

LOL, Hev!!!

[Del Mar]

Tramp,

I will continue to pay the tab at Gomer's for the duration. The only reasons are you are a friend and a hobo. I am flush right now, that might not always be so. Hobo's share.

The VillageSoup link was precious. I wish I could write of these experiences like you do. The "monstrous fake-wood-paneled wagon" had to be a Buick. Right? My father was a Buick man. I've seen an image of your father in a Porshe. There was a time when I wished I had a father who drove a Porshe.

Before the AF, marriage, and everything else, I met a friend. Jim Futterer. At CSUN, and later UCLA, Jim was a geography major. He specialized on hobo migration and geographic correlation and successfully wrote his thesis on that subject. I was a math major and encountered him in one of my math classes. Jim carried a Bowie knife, used it in restaurants to cut steak, and, once upon the archery range at school, demonstrated the use of it for other purposes. Deadly accurate. He was a big guy who feared nothing but very much a "Gentle Ben" personality type. The upshot of all of this is that Jim talked me into things that I would not have ever done. Like hopping freights in the LA yards (amid honest to john bulls), riding them out to Mojave, and jumping off at hobo camps. They all knew and respected him and knew he was studying them. Needless to say, this was all a stretch for me, but I can remember desert sunrises in the camps like they were yesterday. I wish that I could render them like you abstract such images in your art.

San

[Tramp]

San, there is something about riding a freight train that gets inside you. It's unlike any other form of travel, and you feel the landscape more intensely. I'm so glad I had those 11 years to ride freights (1974-1985). I wouldn't do it now with all the complications.

Great story about Jim. Are you guys still in touch?

Oddly enough, my column this week is partially about my father and Porsches. I'll post the link when it rises.

Thanks again for the beverages. Even a dog needs a bone at the end of the day.

[Del Mar]

Tramp,

I am still in touch with Jim. He lives in Wyoming and is somewhat of a maverick junior college professor. In statistics, of all things. He has the credentials. A PhD in Mathematics. Oddly enough, he also runs a metal fabricating business. His machines cut the aluminum sheeting for the teardrop trailer I built. I sent the specifications to him in CNC formats. He acquired the materials, cut them (aluminum and plywood), and everything arrived here like a model airplane kit. I just put it together.

He's a stand up guy.

He still rides trains once and a while.

San

[Tramp]

San, I wonder how he manages to ride with all the new rules. I rode through Wyoming once on an auto-rack. Couldn't find a boxcar. It was a very dusty ride.

Mitch, I might get a comment out of you on this column. It's about cars.

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/opinion/st ... yID=151912

[rogruth]

Tramp,

I agree that there are many very nice things about modern vehicles.I also agree that they lack "personality".

You could tell what a car was from a distance then.Each company had it's own style.Fords' Chryslers' and GMs' you could tell at a glance.I remember the 1963 De Soto as one of the ugliest cars ever.From the front it looked like a whale scooping plankton.But it had a recognition element that is lacking today.The first Ford Taurus was distinctive amongst the others as is a Hummer today.

Oh yes, you could do a lot of the maintenance yourself and they would go like crazy.

[AG]

DennisB
Thanks for the beer!
is Friday the cold beer day of the week.....
A.

[2railjon]

An email from Roger!!!!



Into a Belfast pub comes Paddy Murphy, looking like he'd just been run over by a train. His arm is in a sling, his nose is broken, his face is cut and bruised and he's walking with a limp.


"What happened to you?" asks Sean, the bartender.


"Jamie O'Conner and me had a fight," says Paddy.


"That little shit, O'Conner," says Sean, "He couldn't do that to you, he must have had something in his hand."


"That he did," says Paddy, "a shovel is what he had, and a terrible lickin' he gave me with it."


"Well," says Sean, "you should have defended yourself; didn't you have something in your hand?"


"That I did," said Paddy. "Mrs. O'Conner's breast, and a thing of beauty it was, but useless in
a fight."

[Mitch]

It's a good story, Tramp, but true only for those who have an investment in the past. Go down to your local Dodge Dealer and test drive an SRT8 Dodge Challenger. Fasten your belt, and from a rolling 10mph start, floor it.(and hang on). Listen to the sound of the 6.1L Hemi as it twists up to 6000rpm, then the electronically shifted automatic hits 2nd and slams you even deeper into the seat, 3, 4, and you look down and you're doin' a hundred right now, and there's plenty left. Huge 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS and Electronic Stability, and a style that still says 1970. But hey, what do I know. I had a '69 Roadrunner.

They don't build 'em like they used to, and it's a damned good thing!

[JIM2223]

Ah its Friday, no kids for two days. The grand daughters soccer game was canceled due to wet fields. It will be two weeks before they have their first game. Guess I can talk more on the board. I printed up the geese pictures for Aimee to day and she is putting them in the diaper bag to take home. She just loves to get on my lap at the computer and see her pictures and listen to her voice on the videos. trouble is she wants to see the pictures every time I come to the computer. I guess that's what kids are for to spoil huh?


Jim

[rogruth]

Dennis,
I'll be there shortly and get the fourth round.

[Del Mar]

It's late, Dennis. Damn late. Gomer's is still open, but I guess you barrowed off somewhere. Autocarrier I was riding came in late from Ojai. Here's to you, man. Good to hear from you.

San

[Dewey1]

A challenge to the really hot Dodge Challenger for a match up with my Dodge B1B '49 pickup in a freshly plowed field--the tortoise in granny gear and the hare imbeded!