HOBO SOUP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent many an hour with my great-aunt Francis, she was born at the turn of the century. She was a unimposing woman, plump and short, she always wore an apron. I can still remember the shoes she wore and her knee-high stockings. We were a very poor family, yet I had no clue. Simple food was abundant, gardens and fruit trees, and rows and rows of black berry and raspberry bushes.

I still remember the pies and jams, everyone had a small apple orchard. Francis had to raise her family during the great depression, my great-uncle was a milk man, when I was a lad milk was still delivered to your home, or you went to the local dairy and purchased it.

I would sit with my great-aunt as she would tell me stories of the great depression, one in particular was “The Hobo Code” the traveling hobo’s knew they could stop at my great aunt’s house for a sandwich and a hot cup of coffee, they were never allowed into the home, they ate outside.

There was never a hint of fear, she shared what she could. The hobo’s would find my aunt’s place because the used the ” Hobo Code” to communicate.

http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm

My great-aunt would tell me how the hoboglyphs were on the telephone poles near her home.

Perhaps a more modern set of glyphs would be appropriate for the upcoming reindeer games. http://weburbanist.com/2010/06/03/hoboglyphs-secret-transient-symbols-modern-nomad-codes/

I have made no secret about it, or do I pretend to be something I am not…… I know jack about modern warfare, yes I was a Marine. I have tried to live as I was raised, I will remain in a rural area raising my family. The lessons and stories told to me as a young man still resonate with me as an adult.

We will need a means to communicate. Safe houses will be necessary, distribution of ammo and food. Warm clothes, medicine. We will not always have the luxury of computers and phones.

How will you know the difference of a hostile and a friendly?  I have had many family members ask me why I prep……. “Why Bill you can only shoot one gun at a time”, or “You will never use all of those items you have” ……. “What on earth are you ever going to do with 500 pounds of Salt” …… “What  the Hell are you going to do with all of that penicillin”

I suppose the freezer full of garden seed would become quite valuable. And it’s still cheap! I have had dozens of rural folks educate me that Prepping is a waste, yes sir they will simply go off into the woods and shoot deer and hogs.

The Great Depression was hard on Americans. But it was boom time for whitetails in the East, South and Midwest. As people flocked from the country to scrap out a living in cities, abandoned farms and home sites sprouted weeds, brush and saplings. Biologists and sportsmen began to realize that America’s changing habitat was good for growing numbers of deer. Once considered denizens of big, contiguous forests, whitetails would be forever known as “edge” animals.

I suppose in the upcoming reindeer games……… Folks will be leaving the cities and heading into more rural areas. So the logic would be?…………..

Warning dogs and children running amuck will be used for hobo stew.