I did tape it on a whim---and I'm glad I did. Will watch for it when it's on again.

Neo,

There used be a relatively safe romance connected to hoboing. In the older times it was folks looking for work. It was a way to get froim a place where there was no work to a place where there was. And then, one day, someone realized that it was a pretty good life gettin' away from pressure and suits and ties and bosses and conventions of the world. Someone else wrote some songs to sing around the jungle fires. Others carried those songs and sang 'em into the wind while looking out of an open boxcar door with the entire Grand Canyon or Mount Shasta of Pacific Coast sprawled in the sunshine (or rain) right in front of their eyes. What great tales---embellished and not---came from their adventures. The stories were so big and so grand that we feel the mesmerizing power of them today so that there are a whole bunch of guys and gals who call themselves recreational hobos out there riding the rails on the weekends now. On Monday they're back in the suit and tie at the gig for the ad agency.

BUT there is also the dark side ! When the heat got to be too much for the dregs of society to stay in that society --- while victimizing the "normal" people (whatever that is) --- they hit the long steel rails and are out there in force preying on their own numbers as well as anyone else who might come walking along the track---birdwatchers, hikers, ad executives, hobo wannabees, anyone---even Little Neofights. It's terribly sad. These losers have nearly ruined the great hobo gathering that happens at BRITT, IOWA every year. -------Just one more good situation contaminated by the rotten fruit in the barrel.

The National Hobo Association (NHA) and Buzz Potter, Santa Fe Bo & Luther the Jet & all are generally real fine folks. I know a bunch of 'em. I've sung for 'em in Brainerd, MN. They've had to diminish their doings because of all the sad doings from the other organization (gang), the FTRA. (don't know right now exactly what that stands for).

Anyhow, beware !! There are grunge punks and Flintstones galore out there now. They were not present just a few years ago and it was a better and more innocent (and less dangerous) time----for the hobo and for the railroad employees. There have been many murders out on the high iron lately. It really does make me sick to see the ethics of a lowlife street gang mentality take over. So what else is new. Why do we always sink to that lowest common denominator----as well as the lowly common dominator?

Art Thieme (The Prince Of Peru)