Am I making this up? I feel like every time someone uses the word “hobo” to mean “homeless person,” somebody else has to climb waaay up on their high horse and don their semantics cap and start high-falutin’ all over town about how a “hobo” is someone who rides the rails in the Great Depression and is it 1934 right now? I don’t think so! And I can’t believe you don’t even know what words mean. How embarrassing. Have you heard of Wikipedia? Hhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Maybe I’m making all of this up, but if I’m not, I’d just like to say that that person is annoying and I am going to continue using the word “hobo” however I please (within reasonable bum-related limits, of course), thank you very much, and the way in which I please to use it is, “No thank you, hobo, I do not wish to go on a date with you.”

Also I will accept “transient.”

Lindy West was born an unremarkable female baby in Seattle, Washington. The former Stranger writer covered movies, movie stars, exclamation points, lady stuff, large frightening fish, and much, much more....

47 replies on “On Hobos”

  3. “Hobo” creates a nice distinction between the majority of people who wind up homeless, who usually find a new home pretty quickly, and the chronically homeless, who are usually the face of homelessness. “Hobo” of course applies to the latter.

  5. Exactly. Most homeless people are not alcoholic single men living rough on the street, although those are the ones you mostly see. “Hobo” describes them well enough for some purposes, but not others, and it doesn’t describe the mom living with her three kids in their car or on friend’s sofas at all. People who confuse the two groups tend to be unaware of the real issues of homelessness.

  6. Hmmm, I was always taught that it came from the Latin for “good man.” But I can’t find anything on the internet to back me up, which is a bad sign.

  9. I know my local fellas are hobos because they are sitting right next to the railroad tracks. The tracks with four Archer Daniels Midland cars that never move parked on them. So they’re not transients. Hobos.

  11. there used to be all sorts of distinctions: hobos, stewbums, winos…

    but no term works as well in the phrase “i’m on that like a hobo on a ham sandwich”. bcuz the alliteration.

  21. Better not tell the guys at the national hobo convention. These guys would be upset. They even built a hobo museum for you to learn the distinction. To be called a hobo, you have to adhere to the hobo code. Most of the drunken homeless in Seattle would not be considered hobos. The clearly don’t follow Rule #4,

    Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.

    or Rule #6,

    Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals treatment of other hobos.

    It’s a pretty fascinating read actually.

  23. I’m with you on the bindle, that’s the sure sign of a hobo. Maybe they use backpacks or plastic bags now? But a bindle is definitely hobo-ier.

  24. According to the movie ‘The American Hobo,’ a hobo is someone who works and travels, a tramp is someone who doesn’t work and travels, and a bum is someone who doesn’t work or travel. The movie is an informative documentary from 2003, available on Netflix and probably the library.

  28. @16:

    I think @23 is probably on-track with their observation, to which I would only add that along with backpacks and garbage bags, the ubiquity of shopping carts seems to have also replaced the need for bindles.

    @20:

    I think “urchin” should be reserved exclusively to describe minors.

  32. I have to agree with @22. John Hodgeman, with his similar writing/humor style as you has coined hobos as people from the dust bowl, and not the urban poor.

    I’m afraid it’s been done.

  35. I comment, therefore I am – a hobo that is. Or at least I was once upon a time, long, long ago. Read about me in Done and Been by Gypsy Moon and Hard Pieces by Dan Carpenter, both published by Indiana University Press. Snapshot, Grand Duke of Hobos.

  37. The etymology of “hobo” has been in contention for years. Regardless, it certainly doesn’t mean “any old homeless person.” It’s someone who goes from place to place. A drifter. Who’s homeless.

  43. they – all categories – are good sex …

    after the long hot shower with tons of scented soap and shampoo and some help with the cracks

    and breakfast after CAN be at Ihop

    I never thought Lindy was fat, just fleshy

  44. Hobos are clearly the upper discarded crust of society with urchin next followed by squatter, homeless, bum and of course my very very favorite the guttersnipe.

    I actually met a bonofied train ridin’ hitchhikin’ hobo (and a naturopath) at february’s art walk. Yeah, so he was nice enough to criticize my consumption of chocolate peanut butter (which is fucking amazing) on grounds that it takes 8-12 hours to digest. I assured him that my bowels work quite nicely. He then shared a nice microbrew beer with some of my friends, and when when he thought he had us lured into his charms he invited himself along to OURPLACE to have an orgy with us!!! WTF!!! Becuase all we artist are just going to jump at the chance of an orgy with creepy super beared naturopathic hobo that wears a red mushroom hat.

    I still offended about the peanut butter offence curtly inform him of our refusal of said offer with as much aloof passive aggressive venum that I could muster. Really though, what a bitch! Peanut butter is fucking delicious especially when freshly ground with chocolate chips to form chocolate peanutbutter. Its like a magical low carb fudge replacement! And to think he thought he could have an orgy with my friends and I after that!

  45. Here’s what the Missoulan has to say about things:

    “Sutherland and MJ explained that there is a social hierarchy around rail yards. On the bottom are the home guards, who don’t ride trains and just sit around drinking beer and living off handouts. Above them are tramps, who make ends meet however they can, from working odd jobs to panhandling. On top are the hobos, who travel the country working odd jobs and are self-sufficient.”

    http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/…

  47. Back in California (in the 80s), they were called Trolls, because they slept under bridges.

    Honestly, I’ve met a couple of actual Hobo type transients here, but most of what we have on Capitol Hill are garden variety bums.

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