Anonymous hobos at Medicine Hat - Date/Photographer unknown.

6 August 2013

A Tale of Medicine Hat's
Modern Day Hobos

Medicine Hat Alberta - Go to sleep you weary hobo
 
Let the towns drift slowly by
 
Can't you hear the steel rails
 
hummin'
 
That's the hobo's lullaby
 
I know your clothes are torn and
 
ragged
 
And your hair is turning gray
 
Lift your head and smile at trouble
 
You'll find peace and rest someday
 
- excerpt from Hobo's Lullaby by Woody Guthrie.
 
It's hard to miss the esthetic of the hard tramping hobo come the summer months in Medicine Hat. Overstuffed backpack, punk-rock hairdo, heavy boots, stitched together clothes, guitar, and usually a dog or two in tow.
 
But while individual hobos may come and go, the lifestyle has been around the city as long as there has been a Medicine Hat which is to say, since there has been a railway through these parts.
 
Sitting near the rails downtown Monday afternoon, a group of the country's newest generation of rail riders grabbed some shelter from an afternoon rain shower.
 
"Stench," as he is affectionately known, said he couldn't remember what the reasoning was when he first caught a train in his northern B.C. hometown, "but I made it pretty far in a short time."
 
Since that time seven years ago Stench said he has been coast to coast twice and is now on his third go round.
 
"It's an easy way to travel and you meet a lot of like-minded people. You see parts of the country no one ever sees," he said.
 
Asked of what mind those who ride the rails share, Stench said, "people who aren't content staying in one spot. Or crazy and get in trouble with all the wrong people."
 
But he added, riding the rails can see you get in a whole different type of trouble, and not just from the rail police less affectionately known as bulls.
 
Being stuck on a siding in the middle of nowhere for days with little to no food and water, being tossed off the train by bulls three miles from the nearest road or, Stench added, "I've had friends who have lost limbs. It's a risk you take."
 
Whether it's busking, cleaning car windows in traffic, or panhandling, a few dollars are collected here or there along the way to the next town.
 
But Stench said while there are those who may look down on such a lifestyle, "at the same time, we look down on them for how they live."
 
"Jack Johnson," said he picked up and headed down the hobo trail because, "I was tired of being told what to do. The normal life never appealed to me."
 
And while he said getting his nose broken by a farmer whose field he was squatting in wasn't exactly a highlight, "it makes you stronger."
 
"It's freedom. It's just freedom," he said of the attraction of being a hobo.
 
"Juggalo," said he just met Jack Johnson and Stench on Monday prior to all catching some shelter from the afternoon rain but said, "we know a lot of the same people. It's a tight network and we are all connected."
 
He said one of the attractions of being a hobo is the social aspect and, "meeting new people in new towns."
 
Alex Mccuaig.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada