Letter from a Hobo on the Rails (1929)

"What an Incredible Adventure" - Berkeley N. Hackett from St. Petersburg, FL

Source: http://erroluys.com/BerkeleyHackett.htm

This document is a personal letter from Berkeley N. Hackett, who, like many other Americans facing financial instability and an uncertain economic future in the wake of the Great Depression, took to riding the rails- that is, illegally riding freight trains across the country. In this letter, he documents his entry into the railroad "jungle," describing his first trip on the railroad with his father in 1929. His experience traveling from Flint, Michigan to Kalamazoo inspired him to eventually drop out of school and explore the country on the rails, fully embracing the hobo lifestyle that has become a symbol of Americana.

I chose this letter because I am interested in a modern counterculture revolving around hopping freight trains which, it appears to me, strives to emulate the free-spirited and adventurous character of railroad travel in the 1930's and '40's. While I was staying in Boston during the summer, I encountered a group of individuals who had chosen to abandon their middle-class lifestyles in order to travel the country (albeit, illegally) via freight train. They hopped trains around the Midwest and Northeast during the warmer months, using squatting, panhandling, and other survival methods usually employed only by the most destitute, and sought refuge from the cold in California during the winter.

This letter highlights both the excitement that riding the rails fostered, as well as the difficulties that such a lifestyle entailed. Food was scarce, the travel risky; it forces me to ask why, then, did a youth such as Berkeley, who had access to education, choose to give it up for a day-to-day life fraught with peril? Additionally, this letter raises questions concerning the American hobo in cultural memory. Has this figure taken on symbolic significance like that of the frontier, as an emblem of America's rugged individualism, self-reliance, and adventurous spirit? How do letters like this shape modern perceptions of the hobo lifestyle, and do they promote the development of countercultural lifestyles like that of the freight-riders whom I recently encountered?