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Spokane Lawn Care 509-217-1697 [email protected]Power Raking & Aerating It’s Mowing Season! Prepare your lawn for strong summer growth. Senior Discounts 10% Discount for New Customers 20% OFF any service • Yard Cleanup • Shrub Care and Removal TIDBITS® THINKS LIKE A HOBO HOPPING THE RAILS by Patricia L. Cook Mail Box Center 9116 E. Sprague Avenue • Corner of Sprague & Argonne 924-5040 Single Key 99¢ 99¢ Specials Faxing 99¢ per page (sending or receivng) Wallet-Size Laminating 99¢ Black’s Painting 509-838-3342 • Fax 509-838-3368 2104 W. 13th, Spokane www.blackspainting.com [email protected]Residential & Commercial We Do “Green” Painting In Business Since 1969 Free Estimate Interior & Exterior Wood Refinishing Metal Refinishing Specialty Coatings Clean & Oil Roof Pool Repair & Coating Strip & Finish Decks Repair & Texture Drywall Clean & Seal Brick & Concrete I T ’ S H OME IMPROVEMENT TIME Reading Tidbits can help you SAVE !!! Authorized Rainbow Service. J & J’s Vacuum Center VACUUM’S STARTING AT $39.95 Bags • Belts • Filters • Full Service Rebuilt Rainbow Vacuums 5095320485 Open 7 Days a Week E. 2814 29th Ave., Spokane $10,000 Give Away! * Come in to Register to WIN! * (details inside the store) Tues-Sat: 10-6 • Sun: 10-4 3036 N. Monroe St. • 327-0427 Fine Art & 1st Class 2nd Hand Fine Art Use Books Furniture & Fashions Furniture, Books, Fashion, and More Jo Fyfe Trains have fascinated people since they started roll- ing on the rails many years ago. One group of people in particular, hobos, made trains a big part of their lives, even though they weren’t authorized to do so! • During the latter 19th century and early 20th cen- tury, many people could not find work. The worst time was during the Great Depression years, from 1929 to 1940, when more than 2 million men and around 8,000 women became hobos. • The word “hobo” is generally meant for an itinerant (wandering) person that’s willing to work. Some say the word was derived from “hoe-boy,” which meant someone looking for farm work, hence willing to hoe cotton or other crops. Another possible origination was from the intersection of Houston and Bowery Streets in Manhattan, New York, where “hobos” were known to congregate. There are other theories about the word as well, but it was a word that came into use when trains provided a way to move about the country. • Hobos found that the easiest way to get to a dif- ferent city or part of the country was to hitch a ride on a freight train. Even though this was illegal, rail- roads were kind to hobos and generally saw them as harmless people who just needed transportation. • As time passed and more people, mostly men, tried to hop rides on freight trains, problems devel- oped. Many hobos were dirty, some appeared to have mental health issues, and some just appeared to be lazy bums! Some hobos became radical and tried to characterize their way of life as a freedom that they deserved. Hence, railroads sought to stop the free rides. • Chicago was known as the hobo capital of the United States. Hobos gathered in groups for food and shelter. They developed a hobo code of ethics and even devised symbols as a way to spread infor- mation and warnings to their comrades. • The hobo life was not an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. When deciding to “hobo,” many would see it as an adventure, but the reality was that Phone: 509-922-2452 • Mobile: 509-370-0838 E-mail: [email protected]www.trugreen.com COMMERCIAL SERVICES 225 N Ella Rd., Spokane Valley, WA 99212 We cover it all: ✓ Full Landscape Services ✓ Single Source Vendor ✓ Local Expertise ✓ A Premier Team of Certified Professionals ✓ Both Residential & Commercial Landscape ✓ Spring Clean-Ups
Transcript
S u n r i s e P u b l i s h i n g 5 0 9 - 4 4 8 - 1 0 5 8 • k i m _ f e r r a ro @ ya h o o . c o m
Publish a Paper in Your AreaWANT TO RUN YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
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Warehouse Liquidators
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Finish Building
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444-0044HONESTY, INTEGRITY & PROFESSIONALISM
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Jo Fyfe
Trains have fascinated people since they started roll-ing on the rails many years ago. One group of people in particular, hobos, made trains a big part of their lives, even though they weren’t authorized to do so! • During the latter 19th century and early 20th cen-tury, many people could not fi nd work. The worst time was during the Great Depression years, from 1929 to 1940, when more than 2 million men and around 8,000 women became hobos. • The word “hobo” is generally meant for an itinerant (wandering) person that’s willing to work. Some say the word was derived from “hoe-boy,” which meant someone looking for farm work, hence willing to hoe cotton or other crops. Another possible origination was from the intersection of Houston and Bowery Streets in Manhattan, New York, where “hobos” were known to congregate. There are other theories about the word as well, but it was a word that came into use when trains provided a way to move about the country. • Hobos found that the easiest way to get to a dif-ferent city or part of the country was to hitch a ride on a freight train. Even though this was illegal, rail-roads were kind to hobos and generally saw them as harmless people who just needed transportation.• As time passed and more people, mostly men, tried to hop rides on freight trains, problems devel-oped. Many hobos were dirty, some appeared to have mental health issues, and some just appeared to be lazy bums! Some hobos became radical and tried to characterize their way of life as a freedom that they deserved. Hence, railroads sought to stop the free rides. • Chicago was known as the hobo capital of the United States. Hobos gathered in groups for food and shelter. They developed a hobo code of ethics and even devised symbols as a way to spread infor-mation and warnings to their comrades. • The hobo life was not an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. When deciding to “hobo,” many would see it as an adventure, but the reality was that
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Page 2HOPPING THE RAILS (CONTINUED):
it was hard to fi nd work. Money was hard to come by, which also meant food, clothing, hot baths and many other basic needs and wants were not met. Lastly, it was a dangerous way of life. • Reports from the Interstate Commerce Commis-sion show that from 1929-1939, 24,647 trespass-ers were killed and 27,171 were injured on railroad property. • Hobos were what some call the “original migrant workers.” They would follow harvests in the American West. Hay, corn, wheat, hops, fruit, vegetables and cotton harvests were all potential jobs that hobos would seek. They traveled from Chicago and other Eastern cities to California, to the Rocky Mountains, to the Pacifi c Northwest, the South, the Southwest and back to Southern California seeking the crops and weather that would provide work.• One of the fi rst acts signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1933 created the Civilian Con-servation Corps (CCC). By July, 250,000 young men were put to work in forest and park camps. Many of these young men had been hobos, jumping on trains looking for work wherever they could fi nd it. The CCC program helped to “encourage conserva-tion of our natural resources and the salvage of our young men.”• Starting in 1925 “brushless shaving cream” from Burma-Shave was advertised on small red and white signs using wit and wisdom. Over 7,000 Bur-ma-Shave signs dotted the roadsides across Amer-ica at the height of their popularity. There would be several signs in succession, with the punch line on the last one. The last new signs were made in 1963 and have now disappeared from our roadways. A series of signs in 1951 read: “The hobo lets his whis-kers sprout. It’s trains – not girls, that he takes out! Burma-Shave.” • Movies helped to romanticize railroads and hobos, and stories of hobos often made riding the rails look fun and easy to do. Operation Lifesaver is a program that started in Idaho with the Union Pacifi c Railroad in 1972. This program has more to do with the safety of highway traffi c at railroad crossings than it does hobos, however, a large function of the program is educating the public that railroads are private prop-
erty. Education, Enforcement and Engineering, the three E’s, have been used to reduce fatalities on rail-roads in the last 30-plus years. The program is now used all over the United States and Canada. • The Original Hobo Nickel Society (OHNS) is a club for collectors and carvers of nickels. The hobby of carving nickels started years ago with hobos. Some of the oldest carved nickels are worth thousands of dollars today.• The Hobo Railroad in Lincoln, New Hampshire, is a popular tourist train that is great for kids and adults, whether hobos or not. They offer a Hobo Pic-nic Lunch, which, of course, comes with a souvenir bindle stick. • Hobo Jim is a singer/songwriter who is an Alaska legend. Not a real hobo, he spent many years as a commercial fi sherman, logger and cowboy before being named “Alaska’s state balladeer” in 1994 by the state legislature and governor. • The 5th annual Rail Fest will be held September 16-18, 2011, in North Platte, Nebraska. Why is North Platte important in railroad history? The main line through the town is the busiest freight corridor in the world. More than 150 trains and 10,000 rail cars are processed at Union Pacifi c’s Bailey Yard every 24 hours. Bailey Yard is about eight miles long (12.9 km) and up to three miles wide (4.8 km). The festival has free tours of the massive freight yard as well as real and model train exhibits, a carnival and other activities — including a Hobo Contest. • Another annual gathering of hobos that has been held for two decades is the Pullman Hobo Fest in the historic Pullman area of Chicago. This festival occurs on the factory grounds of the defunct Pull-man Company, which manufactured passenger rail cars for 100 years. Free camping is allowed on the grounds, called the “hobo jungle,” which is what typi-cal hobo grounds are called.• There are 10 to 12 weekend gatherings across the United States every year that welcome old and new hobos as well as those curious to see the way hobos lived. • This is the end of this little “bit” about hobos. Since hobos never say goodbye, we’ll just end as a hobo would: “Down the road!”
The End
Social Security Scams
I got an email offering a service to help with a Social Security disabil-
ity claim. It sounded promising ... as all scams do until you take a closer look.The email listed all types of services it provides to help get benefi ts after someone has been turned down. But if you’re expecting personal service, it’s not likely to happen, and if you want your money back when it doesn’t do what it says it will, you’ll be out of luck. See, this company wasn’t even in the United States. Instead of hav-ing a .com at the end of the Internet address, it was a .co -- which means Columbia. No wonder the ad said it would make use of videoconferenc-ing for any claim hearings.That’s not the only scam going on. They’re all over the country.In one scam sent out email that looked as though it came from Social Security, offering to send a replacement card or statement of earnings. What the scammers are looking for is your name and Social Security number to start putting together an identity-theft package.In areas that have been hit by fl ooding disasters, scammers are calling people who had applied for food or services and told them that a Social Security number was needed to complete the fi le.In another area of the country, seniors received phone calls saying they had received too much money and had to pay some of it back. A “collec-tor” actually showed up at their door.If you need to deal with Social Security, call it directly at 1-800-772-1213 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Don’t use the In-ternet and don’t respond to email claiming to be from Social Security.
We’re losing some 1,000 World War II veterans per day due to advancing age. Sadly, many of them have
died without ever seeing the World War II memorial built in their honor in Washington, D.C.Honor Flights Network is a not-for-profi t all-volunteer grassroots effort started in 2005 to bring as many World War II veterans as possible to Washington, D.C. at no cost to the veteran. By the end of 2010, the group had fl own 63,000 veterans to see their memorial.To keep costs down, the trips are made one day, fl ying in and out and traveling on special buses. If you want to go, don’t let any medical condition, need for oxygen or wheelchair stop you. You can be ac-commodated if you want to make the trip. Check the website for scheduled trips. If there is no hub city near you, sign up anyway, as new hubs are opening all the time.Here’s how others can help:
• Gather contributions from your service group, friends, church and workplace. (Honor Flights won’t accept a dime if you’re a World War II veteran, how-ever.) Donations are tax deductible. Send to Honor Flight, Inc., Attn: Diane Gresse, 300 E. Auburn Ave., Springfi eld, OH 45505• Volunteer as a Guardian: an escort for up to three veterans. If you have a medical or EMT background, even better. Or volunteer to escort a veteran who doesn’t live near an air hub city. (See the Solo and Lone Eagle information on the website.)• Print out an application for a veteran who has no Internet access. Help him or her fi ll it out and send it in. Send email to veteran-application@honorfl ight.org, or call 937-521-2400 for more information.Given the age of these veterans, time is really run-ning out.
Write to Freddy Groves in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected].(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.
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Are Pets People? These Folks Say Yes
DEAR PAW’S CORNER: I just read your article about how people feel about their pets. I am one of the pet lovers who
believes that they are part of our family. My husband and I have two teenage daughters and a 14-year-old deaf and blind border collie named Logan. I am Mom to Logan, my husband is Dad and our daugh-ters are “Sissy” to her. We got her through a rescue league when she was about a year old.I am a big supporter of shelters and helped form Justice for Dogs with Amy Touchette in Wolcott, Vt. I’m happy to see that the trend is going in the right direction about how to treat animals. Many people have told me over the years that when they die, they want to come back as my dog. If you had all day, I could give you the list of reasons why. Thank you. -- Toni M., Hardwick, Vt.
DEAR PAW’S CORNER: I read your column and have to put my say in, as I absolutely adore ani-mals. They are great friends and are always there when people may not be. We had a cat about four years ago that had kittens and always killed the lit-ters -- until one day I got angry and saved the last kitten. As “Socks” grew attached he treated me as a mother, and to this day I feel he is my baby boy, even though I am just 18. I go so far as to give him a little birthday each November. -- Sign me, Socks’ Mom in Illinois
DEAR READERS: Wow, thanks for the great let-ters! I received quite a response to my question of pet owners. It’s clear that owners care deeply for their pets, and that’s positive news.
Send your questions, tips or comments to [email protected], or write to Paw’s Corner, c/o King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlan-do, FL 32853-6475.(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.
several happy wanderers, but none were wearing camoufl age.All season I have been pondering the fall-off. The more I watch, the more I read the mail and the more I talk to fans, the more I believe that a troubled econ-omy is a bit overrated. The fans who cite the price of gas are the ones who don’t go anyway. It is sort of their rationalization for not being there. A driver’s mo-tor coach can cost $1 million, easy. Most fans don’t pay $1 million. But, if a family can afford to drop, oh, $200,000 on transportation, how can a measly $400 stop them from using it to drive from home in, say, West Virginia to a race track in Concord? If anything is crazier than spending that kind of money, it’s leav-ing the investment sitting in the yard.On the other hand, people don’t like to admit that they can’t afford to do anything. Some of them claim they think the racing isn’t the same, it’s boring, etc., in part because they have to make an excuse other than “well, I can’t afford it.”I think most fans still like the races. It’s just hard to beat the comfort of home. The fan base is getting older. Each year the comfort of home seems a little more inviting and a lot less expensive. It’s not that they can’t afford it. A man who loved to “rough it” at 30 is starting to think a high-def TV -- not one as big as his house but one that looks large in his living room -- and grill on the patio is better than pitching tents a half mile from the track.The defi cit in the grandstands is almost complete-ly refl ective of the defi cit in the campgrounds. The
Home Is Where the Parties Are
CONCORD, N.C. -- It was Memorial Day weekend -- hot but not the 31st of July. The sun was out. The sky
was blue. There was a gigantic high-defi nition mes-sage to guard against hiding the view.Charlotte Motor Speedway offi cials said the Coca-Cola 600 crowd was better, which was what they said during the Sprint All-Star Race, but the tension is gone from attendance at this speedway and about every other one.It doesn’t matter where one goes on the Sprint Cup circuit these days. Good seats are available.I spent a good bit of this warm day among the fans. Each year a group of fans, united in their slightly ir-rational love of an obscure brand of beer, invites me to their prerace party. I don’t materially participate in the shrine, knowing full well that duty calls. I drink one beer, take part in a toast, share some NASCAR stories and play some songs. Payment this particu-larly Sunday was two bottles of Gatorade, a ham-burger and a hot dog. And, oh, yeah, some tortilla chips.Others stopped by. A year ago some of our troops, already on maneuver at the speedway, went forag-ing through the campgrounds in search of rations but mainly beer. This year my friends -- some from North Carolina, some from Tennessee, some from I don’t know exactly where -- provided hospitality to
people who drive back and forth to the track are the same. The ones who make a vacation of it are the ones deciding to make a vacation of something else.What NASCAR needs more than anything else is a young generation of rowdy fans to replace the ones getting a bit older and more willing to do their NAS-CAR partying in their backyards.
Monte Dutton covers motorsports for The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette. E-mail Monte at [email protected].(c) 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.
A mockup of Tow Mater from the ani-mated fl ick “Cars 2” lum-bers around the track prior to the start of the Coca -Co la 600. Note the empty seats visible in the background. (Scott Hunter/NASCAR photo)
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