From the Foreword by Gypsy Moon
"The ‘boes who have contributed to this collection have entrusted Oats with their precious memoirs and their most personal work. And he has, in turn, listened with a sensitive ear and an insightful heart, compiling a revealing book that speaks poignantly about their desire for freedom and about the risks, consequences, joys, and hardships that they endure along the way.
"If you have ever felt a spark of wanderlust in your heart, accept the invitation: Pull up a log, turn the page, and let the fire of the hobo community shine on your face."
Excerpts
Frog: "I got itchy feet. What keeps me going is the wanderlust."
New York Slim: "One of the reasons that most people ride trains, why most people hobo, is because they don’t fit in. I found the only place in my life that I ever fit is out here."
Dante Fuchwa: "There’s nothing out there that I want to do more than riding. That is the utmost freedom."
Shayla: "You get so sheltered when you stay in one place. . . . I want to live my life to the fullest."
New York Grizzly: "I don’t know what drives me. I have to keep moving. I feel compelled to do that, and I don’t know why."
Excerpt from "Softly by Tracks" by Buzz Potter
The train passes by and there’s mist in my eye
And it’s not from the soft falling rain
And I know I’ll be back to this place by the track
To watch freedom go by on the train
History of the book
Cliff Williams has been attending the annual National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, since 1990. When word got out among the hoboes that he was a college professor, Steamtrain Maury Graham, a patriarch of hobo culture, asked him if he would publish a booklet of hobo poetry. He agreed, founding The Hobo Press and publishing Around the Jungle Fire I in 1994 and Around the Jungle Fire II in 1997. Around the Jungle Fire III, which was published in 2000, contained life-stories of six current hoboes. Click here for information about these booklets.
Websites with links to other hobo websites
Hobos News
The Hobo Minstrel
Recent books on hoboes
Ted Conover, Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes (Vintage Books, 1981)
Eddy Joe Cotton, Hobo: A Young Man’s Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America (Harmony Books, 2002)
Duffy Littlejohn, Lonesome Whistle (Zephyr Rhoades Press, 2002)
Gypsy Moon, Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos (Indiana University Press, 1996)
Errol Lincoln Uys, Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression (TV Books, 1999)
Guitar Whitey, Ridin’ Free (Zephyr Rhoades Press, 2002)
Radio Interview with Cliff Williams
WILL AM June 9, 2004 The Afternoon Magazine
Hobo Convention Songs
At hobo conventions, hoboes tell stories of their travels, talk, and sing. Here are the words to two songs from 1900 and 1921.
Cliff Williams (Oats) teaches philosophy at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He has published a number of articles and book reviews in professional journals. One of his books, Free Will and Determinism: A Dialogue (Hackett Publishing Company, 1980), entered its ninth printing in 1999.
