Hobo Symbology

I was a kid when I first heard of hobo symbols. Although they would be used most often on walls, fences, mail boxes etc. to give info about specific places I saw on the back of our towns city limit sign the circle with an X meaning a good place for a handout. I got curious about hobos after seeing some standing in a freight car as it passed slowly in front of our car while we waited at the crossing, I waved- they waved back. My mom told of them coming to her house because they knew she was an easy mark and would help them out although they would have had to do some weeding or other chores first- knowing mom. Was their house marked with hobo symbols?

Interestingly another strong memory from my childhood also involves the railroad although at the other end of the spectrum. Me and another boy were throwing snowballs at a train as it was stopping to unload grain at Cocanhauer Feed in Decatur. Suddenly the train stopped it then started backing up to unload but, we just knew it was because we were in trouble for throwing snowballs at the train. The engineer stepped out on the catwalk that runs along the engine while it was still in motion and called us back. We cautiously walked to the engine and he asked if we wanted to come up check out the engine. It was very loud outside the engine when we first climbed up and you could feel the power. Inside it was surprisingly quiet and very warm. They let us operate the controls- actually moving the train back and forth. It was an amazing, unforgettable experience. I wonder if those guys had any idea the impression those 20-30 minutes would leave on me?

How many other people could say at 10 years old they operated a 200 ton diesel locomotive?

Monday's Missives

• Few things in this world get on my nerves like anime` cartoons. This is so true that when I realised Speed Racer was anime` I considered hating it for a minute.




• I couldn't hate Speed Racer.




• It seems like the guys who like anime` tend to like it a lot and also have a thing for samurai swords and Japanese women. I knew a guy who was in to all of that and married a woman from Japan. She was way out of his league and I bet has wished for a do-over more than once.




• There is a type of autism that one of the components is an obsessive fascination with another culture. It also often involves a fascination with things like public transportation. I knew a guy once from a job I had who would travel to Europe to ride the trains of different countries. This wasn't to see the world by rail- it was to gather information about which system was the best to return to the US and try to kill coworkers by sheer boredom from stories about the superiority of Belgium's schedules over Luxembourg's.




• I've heard people finally resorted to just raising a hand up in front of his face anytime he got near and saying,"I don't care anything about the train service in Lichtenstein and I don't want to hear any retarded stories about it!"
• My thoughts regarding drilling here in the states got challenged a bit when a rig went up within 700 meters of my home. I was really tolerant of the noise, light pollution and the mud on the roads, what got me was the nearly new 700.00$ washing machine ruined by sediments kicked up in the well which my family now can't drink from. My neighbor had to replace a dishwasher and everyones water quality and pressure was affected around me. My ISP also had to replace my rooftop unit that picks up my internet signals because the oil company put a telemetry unit on that site that knocked my download speeds down to 1992 levels.
• It's official: I Hate Big Oil- whatever that is.
• I saw a video the other day done by a news crew in either NZ or Australia- I don't recall where they had a guy who had won the lottery scratch a ticket off to recreate the event. He did it, the color washed out of his face, he looked faint and began slumping over a bit an said, "I just won 250,000, oh my God..." He won another 250K. If it were me there'd be some way I'd owe the government money and the ticket would read, please send a cashiers check...
• Once when I was in college a group of us were lying around some studying, some half napping when the conversation got started, what would you do if you won the lottery? Everyone recounted strangely (I thought ) detailed plans for ginormous houses, boats and every kind of luxury car under the sun. I did not play the lottery and was one of those more or less napping so didn't think about it until I was asked directly to contribute. I said something like,"I don't know, well I guess I would help everyone in my family with their needs, pay for some struggling students college, put some up for my children, help homeless and hungry people and well, probably in general- ease a lot of peoples suffering every chance I got."
• They looked at me like I was crazy.