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{"id":8416,"date":"2017-05-01T18:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/?p=8416"},"modified":"2017-05-01T22:51:51","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T04:51:51","slug":"giving-homage-hobo-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/culture\/giving-homage-hobo-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving homage to the hobo culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hobo Museum celebrates a unique culture our society has been confused about for decades<\/span><\/h5>\n
Words by Claudia Williams
\nVideo by Jacob Enevold Jensen<\/em><\/p>\n
It was an average night in Britt, Iowa, and Rod Sykora was sitting with a few hobos around a fire in a \u201cjungle\u201d <\/span>\u2014<\/span> a term for a hobo camp. Sykora had always been fascinated with the hobo lifestyle, but it wasn\u2019t until this specific evening that he truly understood what hoboing was all about.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\u201cIt was just the hobos and myself,\u201d Sykora said. \u201cThe Pennsylvania Kid opened up his bib overalls and had a whole stack of letters in there. He then started handing them out to Slow-Motion Shortie, Lord Open Road, Frisco Jack and everyone else. He was a traveling mailbox, and if someone wanted to keep in touch or find a job, he would pass out letters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSykora is the interim manager at the country\u2019s only hobo museum in Britt, and has stories and memories so remarkable, they\u2019ll bring a smile to anyone’s face. No trip to the museum would be complete without a tour from Sykora.<\/span><\/p>\nThe museum first opened its doors in 1980 in an old theatre on Main Avenue, right in the center of town. The Hobo Foundation was able to purchase the building after a hobo passed away and willed them the money. It started with a single box of artifacts and has grown to fill the theatre from top to bottom. Inside, you will find a whole array of items from handmade art and clothing, to photographs and ancient artifacts. <\/span><\/p>\nCollecting artifacts for the museum has not been easy, and the foundation is still searching the United States to find authentic memorabilia from the hobo culture. \u201cI\u2019m afraid there aren\u2019t very many because they didn\u2019t leave much,\u201d Sykora said. \u201cIt was their nature just to travel and travel light and fast and not collect and not accumulate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBritt has always been a landing pad for hobos because it is at the crossroads of two major railroad tracks. To<\/span> celebrate the hobo culture, the town hosts the Hobo Days festival. <\/span><\/p>\nSykora said hobos from all walks of life attend the celebration,<\/span> along with <\/span>people who are also fascinated by their culture. \u201cWe all just jungle up for free down here by the railroad tracks and reminisce and sing around the fire and remember the hobos that have gone before us <\/span>\u2014<\/span> the ones that we didn\u2019t know,\u201d Sykora said. Activities at the festival include the crowning of the hobo king and queen, the lighting of the fire, memorial services, a parade, traditional hobo mulligan stew, music and more. <\/span><\/p>\nBill Eckels, a resident of Britt, has been going to the festival since he was young. His hobo moniker is \u201cBoxcar Billy,\u201d and he is now 71 years old. \u201cIt really tells their history, how they lived, what they stood for,\u201d Eckels said. \u201cIt helps people get a real understanding of them and dispels the myths and bad image that some associate with them. The festival isn\u2019t just a time for curious tourists to get to know the culture, but it is also a time for members of the community to come together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cOver the years it has become like a family reunion,\u201d Sykora said. \u201cYou\u2019ll get some real riders in here and you\u2019ll get the older generation who rode the rails.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHobos are affiliated with the railroads and freight trains because it is their sole mode of transportation. \u00a0Jim Rohret, Iowa resident, rode the rails all across the United States in 1960s. He first decided to hop freights when a friend went into a coma in San Diego, and he had no way of getting there. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe very day I made it out there to the naval hospital he came out of his coma,\u201d Rohret said.<\/span><\/p>\nBeing a young man on the rails wasn\u2019t always safe, and Rohret heavily relied on the trips and tricks hobos gave him. He once stumbled upon a jungle camp in Las Vegas and was given life-saving advice on where to find water on the rails. \u201cI was too young to really be scared but it was still risky,\u201d Rohret said. <\/span><\/p>\nOver the years, there have been a lot of misconceptions about who hobos are and what they stand for. \u201cHobos in the past were very willing to work for food and a place to stay,\u201d Eckels said. \u201cThey are not what you would consider bums or vagrants.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIt takes a lot of experience and strength to survive as a hobo, and the town of Britt is here to appreciate the people who dedicate their lives to this nomadic lifestyle. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hobo Museum celebrates a unique culture our society has been confused about for decades<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Giving homage to the hobo culture | Urban Plains<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/culture\/giving-homage-hobo-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giving homage to the hobo culture | Urban Plains\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hobo Museum celebrates a unique culture our society has been confused about for decades\" \/>\n<meta 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