“Hobo” Dinner Planned For ‘All Aboard Ellwood’ Fundraiser

The Ellwood City McDonald’s along with the “All Aboard Ellwood” committee is holding a ‘hobo’ fundraising event on March 1, 2021.

A “HOBO MEAL” (Cheeseburger, small fries, small drink – $3.00) will be served on March 1, 2021 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m at the local McDonald’s. 20% of all proceeds will be donated by McDonald’s to help renovate the All Aboard Ellwood caboose recently brought into town and place on Fourth Street across from the former VFW building.

“The McDonald’s staff are playing the part, dressing as railroad conductors, complete with conductor hats and red bandanas,” said Dom Viccari.

DON’T CALL THEM BUMS:

The first and foremost thing to understand about Hoboes is that Hoboes were not “Bums”. The Hobo bounced from place to place, riding the rails, looking for work, riding the rails to where the jobs are.

From illegally jumping trains to stealing scraps from a farmers market, the Hobo community needed to create a secret language to warn or welcome fellow hoboes who were either new to the town or just passing through. It was called the “Hobo Code”. If you broke the Hobo Code of Ethics, you would be punished by other Hoboes.

Hoboes would communicate with fellow travelers by marking fence posts at farms, railway bridges and town welcome signs using secret codes made up of geometric shapes, stick figures and slashing lines. These symbols indicated how a hobo would be received at a home or in a town. These marks warned of danger, where you could work for food or sleep in a barn. Each symbol has a certain meaning so these hoboes would know where it was safe or not to knock on a certain door, they indicated whether the place had help for the sick, if the woman of the house would hand you some food. Woodie Guthrie, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, James Michener, Clark Gable and Winthrop Rockefellow (who later became a multi-millionare) told stories about their time on the rails, adding to the Legend.

Migratory farm workers were known as “Hoe Boys.” When soldiers were coming back from the Civil War they told people they were “Homeward Bound”. The term “Hobo” could have been shorthand for “Homeward Bound”.

After the Civil War, which laid the country to waste, soldiers on both sides found they had no home to go to, and no job. So they grabbed a hoe or a shovel and took off looking for work, riding the rails from place to place, earning just enough money to get to the next spot. That’s how the hobo way of life started.

Hoboes helped build the very railroads they traveled on, as well as sewer systems, water lines, roads, bridges and homes.

Hoboes went from house to house and would ask women if they could have carrots, beans or potatoes out of the garden in exchange for the work they would do for the women.

People lost everything they had during the depression, so they had to live the Hobo way of life to try to find work to survive.

DID YOU KNOW? The Hobo Convention was held in Pittsburgh in 1935.

TO DONATE: To make further donations to the renovations and the cause, make checks payable to ECCE and mail to All Aboard Ellwood City, c/o ECCE, 806 Lawrence Ave., Ellwood City, PA 16117. Donations are tax-exempt. For more information, call Nick Genova at 724-333-6623.