Everything that happened to me while spending three nights with hoboes.
The town of Britt, Iowa, is known as the hobo capital of the world.
The 2,000-person town in northern Iowa has been hosting the National Hobo Convention for 112 years.
The Hobo Convention happens the 2nd weekend in August. The railroad runs right through town.
The coolest part about Britt is that it has 3 bars for 2,000 people!!
A hobo jungle is a place where hoboes camp.
Hobo jungles aren't really as big as they used to be back in their heyday (in the '70s).
At the Hobo Convention we camped in the hobo jungle. In this picture, some hoboes are sleeping under a railcar.
The difference between hoboes, tramps and bums. Hoboes are not bums!
I learned that...
Hoboes are people who travel to work.
Tramps are people who travel and don't work.
Bums are people who don't travel and don't work.
The guy in this picture is Iowegian Rick aka Uncle Weej. He is a tramp and very proud of it. Weej told me, "A hobo will shit in your paper. A tramp will read your paper and then shit in it."
There's a lot of pride in what you call yourself.
