Tramps

[swyn]

Just a thought. When I was a young boy in the late 60s and early 70s there were several tramps who used to pass through our local area. They were old (to me ) then. Some used to camp on the road edges and were a regular feature every year. I wonder what happened to them and all the skills that they had through living off the land. Are there any stories written,or people who still use that knowlege? Society in general frowned on them then, but they must have had a lot of skill to survive.
I wonder if you pushed the boundaries of bushcraft a lifestyle similar could evolve. The question then is. Would anyone be prepared to try it today? Would it be possible?

 

[Spacemonkey]

Maybe you should read 'Down and Out in Paris and London' by George Orwell. It's about his days when he was unemployed in the late 20's. He spent a month of that time as a tramp in England and it is a fascinating insight into the life of a tramp in 20's Britain. From what I read though, most did not live off the land, but survived by soup kitchens, church handouts (which came at a price of a religious service that most scorned) scavenging and from doing odd jobs where they could. A very good book, though.

 

[Fungi]

Is it just me, or have tramps, as such, disappeared?
I also remember seeing loads when I was younger. I haven't seen one for years.
It seems they have been replaced by people drinking Special Brew with small dogs on string!!!!!

 

[JonnyP]

Interesting question..... You don't see the tramps around like you used to, and come to think of it, they must of known a thing or two on how to survive, but I think for food they raided gardens and poached and the like, also I can remember seeing them raiding bins and not caring who saw them. I bet they all have some good stories to tell, if you were prepared to get within smelling distance of them. Anyone fancy writing a book..................
In answer to your questions.....No and yes.................Jon

 

[monkey_pork]

Sometimes I think about an old bloke that used to live in a kinda field entrance/gateway arrangement on the south-bound side of the A380, about 2/3rd of the way up 'Telegraph Hill'. "Smokey Joe" he was known as.

My old man used to be a haulage driver, and I'd often get to go out for a day trip in his lorry with him, and we'd often go through there. All the drivers we met in the transport cafe's knew of this bloke too, he was quite a well known individual by all accounts, and he used to survive off what I guess can best be called alms. Lots of the drivers used to chuck him something as they ground their loads up that hill at a walking pace - food, drink, clothing, 'baccy...

I related the story to my kids about six months ago as we drove through there, and they looked at me like I was making it all up.

 

[william#]

lovely storey and a far cry from the ones of petrol being poured on sleeping tramps

 

[British Red]

Sometimes I think about an old bloke that used to live in a kinda field entrance/gateway arrangement on the south-bound side of the A380, about 2/3rd of the way up 'Telegraph Hill'. "Smokey Joe" he was known as.

My old man used to be a haulage driver, and I'd often get to go out for a day trip in his lorry with him, and we'd often go through there. All the drivers we met in the transport cafe's knew of this bloke too, he was quite a well known individual by all accounts, and he used to survive off what I guess can best be called alms. Lots of the drivers used to chuck him something as they ground their loads up that hill at a walking pace - food, drink, clothing, 'baccy...

I related the story to my kids about six months ago as we drove through there, and they looked at me like I was making it all up.

Tell your kids Joe slept in a blue tent on the left hand side of the hill on the way down. He was particularly fond of KFC as I recall!

Red

 

[Infragreen]

Here in Denmark, they've become less common.

All I've heard of live like the rest of us in winter, but come spring, they go "a-waltzing".

I saw one last summer, pushing a pram (as the fashion goes here) containing the essentials.

One tramp, when interviewed for the national tv stated that whenever he could escape from "normal life", he'd hit the road, coming back to his wife when it got too cold.

Never saw one "act bushcraft'y". I suspect the knowhow goes more along the lines of urban caveman here.

 

[Tengu]

Damn (shuffles though shelves)

The Idlers companion by Ian Niall

I met a (young) guy who was like that. He traveled round, he didnt beg, people gave him stuff. He had been offered a flat but only stayed in it for a week, he couldnt stand it.

He made it sound wonderful and I often wonder about trying it for myself.

But I have a house, which I have been in for for 22 odd years, Im too rooted.

And at the moment Im on several courses with the end of being `employable`

(I hope to get an official diagnosis of my AS, which will mean I could get incapacity benifit...I dont know how that would affect things)

I have too many commitments

 

[pierre girard]

Is it just me, or have tramps, as such, disappeared?
I also remember seeing loads when I was younger. I haven't seen one for years.
It seems they have been replaced by people drinking Special Brew with small dogs on string!!!!!

We still have a few "tramps" going through our jurisdiction each year. They are a problem for us to deal with, as we have few amenities for such, and direct them towards Duluth, the nearest larger city. Some of them are indignent when they hear we will not put them up or provide meals. In Duluth, they have missions and such that give the kinds of handouts such sojourners expect.

Many of them are headed for Canada. We tell them the customs folks won't let them in, but they head north anyway, and we see them heading back a few days later, still upset that we won't feed them. Many do burglaries while in town. If we catch them, we seldom charge them as our (very liberal) judge has a tendency to put them on welfare and they become a permanent problem.

Tramps make marks on the signs coming into town. I happen to know a few of these marks, and when they wear off, I renew the ones which indicate "no shelter, no food, unfriendly town."


About 1972, a college buddy and I were working part time in the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle, and got to know a lot of "tramps." We got interested in the life style and decided to spend the summer hitching. We traveled down the coast to LA, east to Las Vegas, hiked the Sespe River, spent a week in the jail at Rock Springs, Wyoming, for vagrancy, hopped a freight train thinking we were going east and ended up in Ronan, Montana (north), road horses into the mountains with a friend from school, spent some time on the Shoshone Rez in Wyoming, hitched to Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Baltimore, back to Minneapolis, out to Seattle, and up the Alcan to Alaska, then back to Seattle in time for fall quarter at school.

It was an interesting summer. I saw a lot of places from an angle I never would have seen them from otherwise. It was an odd thing that it was most often the less fortunate, poorer folks who'd pick you up.

I have a lot of good memories of that summer, but I had a fit when I found out my older son was doing a lot of hitchhiking - influenced, no doubt, by my tales of that summer on the road.

PG

 

[Hoodoo]

I had a similar experience in the 70s and spent many months at a time living out of my pack. I thumbed a lot of miles across the US and I hopped a lot of freight trains in Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and spent many nights in "hobo jungles." Many tramps in those days lived on handouts and food stamps, myself included. Some were retired and lived on Social Security and just wanted to travel. There are all flavors of tramps. The ones who are no longer up to riding the rails often end up as the "homeless" in the big cities.

Many of the hobos were migrants and young people like myself who traveled for fun and for work. Lots of fruit pickers, myself included, rode the rails. Spent a lot of time in the Okanagan area picking fruit and doing orchard work, as well as up by Flathead Lake in Montana. Good living except when they sprayed the chemicals on the orchards.

There are some notorious gangs now that ride the rails, making it just a bit more dangerous than it used to be. But the experience is awesome. As Woodie Guthrie once said, once you've ****** out the side of a boxcar, your life will never be the same. There is nothing like waking up in the middle of the night while riding on an open flatbed car, the moon glistening off a pristine river while the train snakes its way through a vast wilderness of mountains and valleys. The clack, clack clack fo the wheels, the rush of the wind on your face and you tucked down in a nice warm sleeping bag. I had it good. Lots of hobos I've seen had nothing but cardboard to cover themselves. A tough lot.

 

[Woods Wanderer]

must be an amazing experiance i allways take the time to talk to the homless and elderly one lad in liester shown me the places he had been stabbed in his body i didnt believe how many times you can survive a stabbing but most are really friendly and glad to be agnoledged

 

[pierre girard]

But the experience is awesome. As Woodie Guthrie once said, once you've ****** out the side of a boxcar, your life will never be the same. There is nothing like waking up in the middle of the night while riding on an open flatbed car, the moon glistening off a pristine river while the train snakes its way through a vast wilderness of mountains and valleys. The clack, clack clack fo the wheels, the rush of the wind on your face and you tucked down in a nice warm sleeping bag. I had it good. Lots of hobos I've seen had nothing but cardboard to cover themselves. A tough lot.

Yes it is seductive, in a way. He he, always need a couple gallons of water, while riding the rails, cause you never know where the train will end up, or how long it will take to get there. I have a memory of going over some mountains where the drop, outside the open box car door, was a 1000 or so feet, straight down. Of doing the Gutherie thing, playing harpoon, while my friend was on the guitar.

Lonely, though, like I've never been lonely in the woods. I'd had quite enough of it after a few months.

PG

 

[william#]

must be an amazing experiance i allways take the time to talk to the homless and elderly one lad in liester shown me the places he had been stabbed in his body i didnt believe how many times you can survive a stabbing but most are really friendly and glad to be agnoledged

some chaps sleep with there sleeping bag unzipped so as to make a quick escape .
i really can not understand the mentality really i mean if your homeless its hard enough on every level

 

[swyn]

Thanks for the stories and comments. I recall a story of an unfortunate incident happening to the local tramp who was a regular sight some years ago. Sadly this probably was one of many such. It takes a lot of the romance out of the idea. I like the viewpoint of the amazing experience. In particular riding on freight trains. Also seeing places from a completely different angle. Swyn