Trains and Hobos: Behind the Scenes of the Great Depression Walter Ballard once said, “There was so many people on it, it looked like blackbirds,” when he was talking about a train as he was train hopping (Ganzel). Many people who had nothing and wanted to start over became hobos (Ganzel). Throughout the Great Depression, many hobos relied on trains, so they didn’t have to walk to other towns. During the Great Depression, trains were used for transportation and provided jobs to many people, but there was also a lot of racism on trains. Additionally, hobos had hard lives and some used trains as their last chance at starting over.
During the Great Depression, there was racism everywhere. In train stations, the African Americans had separate …show more content…
The first and most common job to talk about is the conductor. The conductor had many different jobs, one of them was to supervise over the other workers and make sure that they are doing what they are getting paid to do. For example, they might be watching over the engineer and talking to him making sure that he is reading the signals and speed restrictions going around curves or through populated areas. The conductor also had to watch out for the safety of all of the passengers on the train making sure that it was safe to leave the station and that there isn’t someone still waiting to get on the train or putting up luggage. The final main job of a conductor was to collect tickets or fares from the passengers and making sure they paid the correct …show more content…
Hobos would be called “Gaycats” or “Geycats.” This meant that they were amateurs or didn’t have much practice at doing hobo things like begging or digging in the dump. The experienced hobos were called “Dingbats.” Hobos would live in abandoned buildings if they were lucky enough to find one, or they would go close to the dumps in towns and find materials to build makeshift shacks. Some built a towns called Hooverville. It was called a Hooverville because Herbert Hoover was the president, and they believed that he didn’t try hard enough to help the economy or the homeless
During the Great Depression, there was racism everywhere. In train stations, the African Americans had separate …show more content…
The first and most common job to talk about is the conductor. The conductor had many different jobs, one of them was to supervise over the other workers and make sure that they are doing what they are getting paid to do. For example, they might be watching over the engineer and talking to him making sure that he is reading the signals and speed restrictions going around curves or through populated areas. The conductor also had to watch out for the safety of all of the passengers on the train making sure that it was safe to leave the station and that there isn’t someone still waiting to get on the train or putting up luggage. The final main job of a conductor was to collect tickets or fares from the passengers and making sure they paid the correct …show more content…
Hobos would be called “Gaycats” or “Geycats.” This meant that they were amateurs or didn’t have much practice at doing hobo things like begging or digging in the dump. The experienced hobos were called “Dingbats.” Hobos would live in abandoned buildings if they were lucky enough to find one, or they would go close to the dumps in towns and find materials to build makeshift shacks. Some built a towns called Hooverville. It was called a Hooverville because Herbert Hoover was the president, and they believed that he didn’t try hard enough to help the economy or the homeless