Discover the fascinating world of hobo signs in our latest video, "Top 10 Hobo Signs!" Learn how these secret symbols guided hobos to find food, shelter, work, and safe havens during the 1930s and the Great Depression Era. Uncover the hidden messages that helped countless travelers navigate the hardships of their time and avoid potential dangers.
VIDEO HERE (12:09 minutes)
Thats good. Ive been putting man with a gun lives here and ill tempered man lives here symbols on the backside of a few street signs with a sharpie on our dirt road for a few years now. Cant seem to post a pic here or i would. Theres about 30.
ReplyDeleteKlaus
I recall older folks saying an eight sideways meant, a meal. Back in there day it was usually on a the picket fence along the sidewalk. However, it also meant go to the back door and knock. Old folks told me they had fed hobos and they were polite and thankful.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandmother would feed a hobo after a couple hours work. Then she'd run them off but tell them where a safe place to stay. My dad & twin brother were then given a pail & scrub brush to wash any signs they left, mostly on the curb. Dad and Uncle brother were number six and seven out of eight kids. There were plenty of chores to do.
ReplyDeleteJpaul
I have no familiarity with these signs in my life experience. But the show, Mad Men (great show btw) had something similar in the flashback to Don Draper’s childhood in I where the family took in a hobo. Turned out Don’s dad was a “dishonest man”. He refused to pay the hobo for a days work.
ReplyDeleteMy maternal grandfather was a RR engineer. He had stories... He knew quite a few hobos from his days on trains in the 1900s-1950s.
ReplyDeleteArthur Conan Doyle's short story The Adventure of the Norwood Builder uses hobo imagery in a typically fascinating Sherlock Holmes tale. Until now I thought it was a uniquely British thing.
ReplyDeleteWe had a hobo camp a mile or so up the road when we were kids. They somehow knew that our mom would feed them, I assume from hobo signs. They liked egg sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we would sometimes walk the tracks into a remote switching station, different times, and would come across hobos there often. We usually would give them whatever food we had with us
DeleteJD
Good stuff - Something that I wouldn't normally seek out. Thanks!
ReplyDelete