by Forrest Whitman
Hobo News from Colorado Central County
Spring nights bring the low, long moan of a freight crawling up the ruling grade. That sound makes solid citizens roll over in their sleep and remember some hobo dreams. When the nights get warm some of our readers vow to “by golly go rail ridin’.”
Not many will actually go hoboing and some hobos do eventually get over spring fever and settle down. Wayne Iverson for instance. He rode the rails for twelve years, but now he’s settled down in Colorado Central country and written a book you can buy at the Book Haven. Hobo Bob, on the other hand is still catching out on freights and he’s got to be over sixty. Both of their stories are great.
Hobo Sapien
Wayne Iverson’s book Hobo Sapien is as unique as he is. After 12 years of rail riding Wayne went into a monastery (no kidding), then went back to part-time hoboing, and now lives with his wife in a caboose sized trailer in Salida. His 104 stories, plus appendices, are ideal bedside reading. They are full of detailed rail lore and hobo stories. If you’ve ever wondered about “set offs” or “midnight creeps” or maybe “rat hole tunnels,” or even how to “catch out” on the train you want, it’s all here. The stories are also funny. Just like life, things happen and all you can do is laugh. Like the time Wayne had to decide whether to ride with a non-stop preacher or with a murderer. What a choice!
There’s also a spiritual side to the tales. Wayne learned a lot in the monastery. He doesn’t claim he could meditate in the third unit of a big string of engines heading up the grade. But, he does demonstrate that he’s learned to meditate in a lot of places. Each of his tales has a spiritual tag. His motto is CHIT HAPPENS. It’s a nice joke because CHIT is Sanskrit for “pure consciousness.”
Wayne also includes some caveats. Riding is illegal and each year a few hobos are jailed. Some “cinder dicks” are easy with hobos and most train crews are too, but there’s no guarantee. Wayne lived a charmed life in that respect. Never in my years as a switch-man or brakeman did I ever see a cinder dick give a hobo a helpful auto ride, but it happened to Wayne. He warns that there are some really mean guys in the hobo jungle too. The knife wielding “freight train riders of America” may not have been a myth, though Wayne can’t confirm that. Just so, the act of freight -hopping itself can be dangerous especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Those dangers never stopped Wayne from catching out and he never had worries. I’m willing to bet no worries will keep Colorado Central readers from picking up Hobo Sapien for a great read.
Does Polygamous Warren Jeffs Want Hobo Bob?
My favorite hobo informant is Hobo Bob. I run into him in Rollinsville and LoDo and find him summering in the Salida hobo jungle. He always complains that he has to hitch hike more as rail lines disappear, but now he has a new complaint. He was caught by cinder dicks and was too drunk to run. He was put into a “Mormon Jail run by Warren Jeffs.” Jeffs, the famous Utah polygamous leader is actually in jail himself, but that didn’t stop Bob’s hypothesis. “I had to catch out fast because they were shipping us hobos out south to work in the woman camps of Warren Jeffs.” “Forrest, they make some of those hobos take on a half dozen wives.” Hobo Bob was horrified, more by the wives than the slave labor. I tried to tell him that Warren Jeffs sends me his newsletter every month (who knows why) and doesn’t seem interested in hobo slave labor, but Hobo Bob is staying away from Utah nevertheless.
