‘Knights of road’ doomed by diesels
[ United Press International
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As with all the empires in
history, “King” Filer’s is doomed. Done in by diesels.
Gordon “Bud Filer of Altoona, Pa., as “king of the
hoboes,” has seen his constituency shrink from tens of
thousands to hundreds as the railroads in America went
out of business and the fast-moving diesels replaced the
steam locomotives.
The 69-year-old Emperor of the Knights of the Road,
Air and Seven Seas figures one of the easiest ways for a
man to get himself killed these days is to try to grab a
I free ride on a diesel-powered freight.
The great days of hoboing went out with steam
trains, explained Filer at the annual Hobo Convention
in Anchorage. "In those days it took the hogger (engi
neer) a mile or so to get up speed, and you could station
yourself outside the yard, lope along the train and
swing aboard without a problem. Today those diesels
are doing 50 miles an hour before they’re on to the high
iron (main track).
And as for riding the blinds (behind the tender of
the locomotive), forget it. There aren’t any tenders
anymore, nor is there any way of hoisting yourself
aboard.”
Filer bristled when asked if there was any difference
between a hobo and a tramp.
You re darn right there is, he exclaimed. "A hobo
is a wanderer in search of employment. A tramp is a
wanderer attempting to escape work.
The Knights of the Road, which he and 1,044,336
I other wanderers have joined in the past 70 years, was
I started by the late Jeff Davis in 1908. The Knights got
I royal recognition when the British Parliament al
legedly proclaimed Davis an emperor and King of the
Hobos. Filer became Emperor after Davis’ death.
sa *d there were only eight hoboes who at
tended the first convention at Miami during the
winter of 1908, but there were a hundred the next
year, and several hundred each year after that.
Hoboing reached its peak during the Depression
years, sa 'd John Frisco Jack Sopko, of Trafford, Pa.,
when there were hundreds of thousands out of work
and thousands riding the rails seeking jobs.
Bos in those days were a lot like the Masons and
Knights of Columbus, he said. “They’d try to help
each other, and it was pretty much a share and share
alike fraternity.
There was always a mulligan (stew) simmering in
every jungle (rendezvous spot outside a town) and
every Bo that wandered in would toss what he had into
the pot. We always carried something to eat along and
although few of the ingredients would pass any sanitary
inspection law, those mulligans were tasty and nourish
ing.”
Filer, who started his hoboing in 1925 and then quit
when he found he could get free train rides by working
for the railroads, said the two biggest jungles he ever
saw were just outside Fresno, Calif., and Des Plaines,
Ilf
Bos would come from all over the country to Fresno
when the fruit picking started,” Filer said. “But most of
the time things were orderly and quiet. Sure, there
were always some troublemakers, but hoboes would go
out of their way to avoid trouble. Life was tough
enough in those days.
wuisiue v>mcago was sort ot the change-
trains-here place, as Chicago always bragged that all
the railroads came into Chicago.”
Coffee was the mainstay of hoboes, and the brewing
ot the beans was done very simply.
You just took off one of your socks, put the coffee in
the sock and swished the sock around in the boiling-
water until you got the strength you wanted,” said John
Babiak of Jeannette, Pa.
Although Jeff Davis was acknowledged as king of the
hoboes, the legendary Knight of the Road was Leon
Ray Lwingston who left his “A-No.l” mark on hun
dreds of water towers, trestles, signal towers and
freight houses all over America.
Livingston, who died 40 years ago, claimed he hop
ped his first freight train when he was 11 years old and
spent more than 30 years wandering around the coun
try. During the last years of his life he was a loudly-
applauded speaker at church and civic groups where he
ectuied the teenagers on the evils of running away
from home.
All this year’s conventioners gave up hoboing long
ago and came to Alaska by plane. All have comfortable,
even prosperous, means, but all are proud of their
hoboing days.
But hoofing is finished, said Filer. “Now if you’re
broke you go on welfare. You don’t have to grab a
freight and move on to somewhere else where there
might be work. And if you do have the wanderlust, who
would want to travel in a box car when he can hitch a
ride on the highway and travel in an air-conditioned
car?
THE BATTALION Page 9D
MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1978
Time to consider
retirement is now
United Press International
NEW YORK — Some 1,180
Americans each day join the ranks of
the 23 million already retired and by
the end of the century one out of
eight Americans may be a retiree.
And, warns the Bowery Savings
Bank, those who quit work 20 years
or so from now are not likely to be
able to get by on Social Security or
pensions unless they are upper
echelon executives, civil servants or
military officers.
In a booklet designed to teach
persons how to prepare for retire
ment, the Bowery says the average
minimum income needed for a re
tired American couple has climbed
to $6,776 a year from $3,860 ten
years ago and may reach $24,416 by
1999.
The Bowery doesn’t pretend to be
able to read the future accurately
but the book contends that those
still some way from retirement —
young people especially — must not
leave the matter of retirement up to
Social Security or company or union
pension plan. They must do some
thing important for themselves.
The book goes into the basics of
Keogh plans, individual retirement
accounts and other relevant pro
grams a bank or a good investment
counselor can set up for the years
after the paychecks stop.
The booklet says there is a
psychological barrier to be over
come in workers’ reluctance to think
about retirement or even to ask
exactly what their pension benefits
under the company or union plan
will be and to make a decision on
the options in the plan.
The Bowery has collected a lot of
general information about retire
ment and the booklet contains this
information as well as details about
the plans it is selling.
For example, of the eight states
with the biggest retired population,
Hawaii is the most expensive in
which to live. A couple needs
$10,000 a year to live there. New
Mexico, at $5,800, is the cheapest
and Arizona at $6,900 is next.
Most people know by now that
the maximum a couple — one work
ing and one non-working spouse —
can collect from Social Security is
$690 a month. The minimum may
be as little as $172.
But the Bowery says these con
siderations are dwarfed by the prob
lem of where to retire. Many people
want to go to a warm climate but the
bank warns that terrible financial
and social mistakes can be made by
putting too much emphasis on this
consideration. It may be better to
stay right where you are in your re
tirement years although perhaps in
a smaller house or apartment.
iousewives form
? movement
%
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s, a net
The ai-
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Yera In-
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hlI Unit.*! Press International
Indianapolis — They work
■ hours a day and don’t earn a
Tiny, but they wouldn’t give up
fcirjobs for anything.
(its a job that has constant inter-
ptions and a high frustration level,
i challenging but sometimes bor-
1 and it can be isolated and de-
essing," says Mrs. Donna Ab-
Mrs. Abrams and hundreds of
men like her call themselves
omemakers.” They have come to-
fetlur in a movement intended to
■allenge their status as unem
ployed. It’s called the Martha
fovement.
| It was started two and a half
prsagoby a woman executive who
[ind herself put down by people
rshe quit her job and became a
-time mother,” Mrs. Abrams
•mis
B The group takes its name after the
Now Testament story in which Jesus
visited the home of two sisters
.named Martha and Mary. Mary
'chosetostay with Jesus and listen to
his stories while Martha prepared
i the meal and cleaned the house.
The movement has 6,()()() mem-
ers nationwide, she said, and “we
elieve a woman has a right to
loose whether she wants a career
itside the home or whether she
ants to be a homemaker. ”
Mrs. Abrams organized the In-
ianapolis chapter in May. Its 16
lembers and their children meet at
er house twice a month to socialize
oddiscuss problems they encount-
We don’t need an organized
>picbecause our needs just seem to
surface,” she said. “Recently we
talked about how women cope when
a husband is away from the home on
a business trip, and we discussed
our own feelings of safety or insecu
rity' as a woman alone in the house.
Although Mrs. Abrams said the
group does not oppose the aims and
beliefs of the women s liberation
movement, Martha members are
trying to reverse what they believe
is the gradual decay and deteriora
tion of the family structure.
“The sad thing is that young
women not only don’t think about
having a family today, but they’re
not encouraged either. The careers
they think of are outside the home.
“The nice thing is you can have a
career as a homemaker, and then
when the children are grown up,
you can go out and find a job.
"But it doesn’t work in the re
verse. If a woman gets a job and
stays with it until she’s 40, it will be
too late for her to safely begin a fam
ily.”
“We hope to be all things to all
homemakers,” Mrs. Abrams said,
“not only women who stay at home,
but women who work and men who
take care of the family as well.
Most important, however, group
members are attempting to demon
strate that being a homemaker is as
fulfilling and challenging as any
other job.
“When I fill in forms or tax rec
ords that ask for my profession I
write homemaker now,” she said.
“It’s kind of a retraining, but when
homemakers are asked, ‘Do you
work?,’ they should be proud to an
swer Yes.’”
JU,
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