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Here For Bindle StiffTramping With Robert Service
I recently attended the annual "Hobo Convention" in Britt Iowa. This year marked the 100 anniversary of this event which draws in 'boes from around the country. Each year in Britt a hobo jungle (camp) emerges on the edge of the rail in the shadow of massive grain elevators at the towns outskirts. Here free spirits of the highway and the rail meet and weave colorful stories of their travels. Here too music and poetry of the road can be heard.
My presence at Britt was more as an observer then as a participant. I am but a wageslave, my hitchhiking days a distant memory. But as I talked to those who have made the open road a lifestyle I remembered and yearned for those times to return, wandering America's byways and wondering where the days travel will end.
Most of those I talked to knew of Robert Service, and respected his work. Some openly quoted some of Services verse. They too, sensed the wanderlust that Robert Service portrayed in his ballads. During the nightly jungle entertainment, I recited a few of Services ballads. His stories blended well with the traveling songs of such troubadours as "Danville" Dan , "Grandpa" Dudley, and the Hobo Gospel Choir. I imagine that Robert Service's verse served as part of the entertainment around many a Jungle fire over the years.
I would like to dedicate the following Service Selections to a couple
of extraordinary men I met at Britt, who have made the open road their ally
throughout their lives.
"Steam Train" Maurey Grahm,
an 88 year old icon of the Britt gathering who through his words and deeds
has earned the title of "Hobo King" six times while at Britt's
conventions.
"Frisco" Jack Sopko who at age 90 is a reminder of the wealth
of information and experience our elders can provide. Frisco can and will
expound for hours on his extensive life on the road.
I hope in the future to be able to again listen to these free spirits tell
of their adventures and roads traveled .
The following is from Services book of health, Why Not Grow Young published in 1928. This selection is contained in the chapter In the Days of my Youth..
"In my boyish ambition was to be a sailor, my youthful one was to be a hobo. Queer, that! A lad brought up in sanctimonious Scotland aspiring to be an American bum. To starve and suffer cold, to beat my way on trains, to live adventure, to emerge with a wealth of rueful experience . . . I see now I was crazy for freedom, for colour; and besides, I always had a predilection for the disreputable. In any case I went."
Service did play the part of an American Hobo in the years to follow, changing jobs and locations through out the west coast of the United States and Canada. After his success as an author he lived a more settled existance but throughout his life a bit of the open road can be heard in his verse. One example is a later poem that talks of earlier tramps is entitled Bindle Stiff.
The following Service selections deal
with vagabondage. Enjoy!
Above left - Frisco Jack Sopko, age 90, expounds on adventures on the road. Jack was Hobo King from 1985-86.
Above right - Steam Train Mourey flanked by Short Stop or the left and Ohio Tom on the Right. Steamtrain has been crowned King of the Hobos six times.