Ted Conover - Rolling Nowhere

Riding the Rails with Americas Hoboes

TED CONOVER

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 1981, 1984, 2001 Ted Conover

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Viking Penguin Inc., New York, in 1984.

A portion of this book appeared originally in Denver magazine.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

Don McLean Music: Excerpt from Homeless Brother, words and music by Don McLean and an excerpt from The Legend of Andrew McCrew, words and music by Don McLean. Published by Don McLean Music. Administered by Harry Fox (BMI).

Ludlow Music , Inc.: Excerpt from Hard Travelin, words and music by Woody Guthrie. TROCopyright 1959 (renewed), 1963 (renewed), and 1972 (renewed) by Ludlow Music, Inc., New York, NY. Reprinted by permission of Ludlow Music, Inc., The Richmond Organization.

Cover photo of author by Margo Conover. Cover design by Tatiana Villa.

Map by Paul J. Pugliese, copyright 1983 by Viking Penguin Inc. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

There is something clear-eyed, unaffected and all of a piece about his narrative and his character, which makes both of them likeable, and more than that, somehow worthy. One can imagine Rolling Nowhere becoming a minor classic. The Baltimore Sun

Fascinating ... in some ways a searing indictment of the way this country treats its poor, of how wasteful we are of our resources, both physical and spiritual... also a unique look at a seedier side of life ... an honest portrayal of life in the slow lane, where just getting by is an art in itself. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An excellent account.... The next time youre sitting dead in the roadway in rush hour traffic, read this book. The Dallas Morning News

Consistently interesting.... Our curiosity about tramps is part of a complicated fantasy concerning what we call freedom. The New York Times

Rolling Nowhere is a book that stays with you. Los Angeles Times

Conovers hard-luck odyssey ... produced a book which manages to be highly entertaining while illuminating one of societys dark recesses. Newsday

A riveting read. The Fresno Bee

His account of the weeks he spent crisscrossing America is a swiftly unfolding narrative of danger, violence, alienation, and sadness.... Realistic, perceptive. American Library Association

Rolling Nowhere succeeds in its ability to bring out this forgotten world of railyard hoboes. Conover... picks up on dozens of fascinating little insights into these men and their way of life. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lively and informative.... Conovers vivid, personal style makes this well-written and well-paced book a worthwhile choice for the general reader.... Highly recommended. Library Journal

A fascinating account of life in [a] dirty, shadowy, little-known and seldom understood world. Asbury Park Press

His style in Rolling Nowhere reflects wide-eyed wonder and unquenchable curiosity. On the subject of hoboes today, Ted Conover is the best weve got. This Week in Denver

Ted Conover was raised in Colorado and graduated from Amherst College. Rolling Nowhere, his first book, has been followed by four others including Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 and was a nominated finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in New York City. Further information about Ted Conover is available on his web site at http://www.tedconover.com .

BOOKS BY TED CONOVER

The Routes of Man: Travels in the Paved World

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

Whiteout: Lost in Aspen

Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders with America's Mexican Migrants

Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes

For

Ivie Brass, philosopher, seeker, witness, tramp,

and

Lane Sommer (1958-1981)

Thanks are gratefully given to: the LaTourettes of St. Louis, Missouri; Lara McIntosh and friends, Olympia, Washington; Jonathan Goldberg, Steve Rubin, and Robin Wright in Portland, Oregon; Mark Curby and Doug Dittman in San Francisco; Brad Segal and Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Bristow in Denver; Christine Evans, Ross McConnell, Peter Engel, and Ira Steven Levine, for manuscript suggestions; Prof. Alan Babb, for his cautious enthusiasm; Mr. Hal Irwin of St. Joseph, Missouri; railroad workers who help tramps in transit; and my parents and sisters.

By the time Rolling Nowhere came out, I had crossed the country on my bicycle, worked in a Spanish sausage factory, done community organizing as a VISTA volunteer in Dallas and, of course, spent four months on the rails with hoboes. I thought of myself as experienced and mature. Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned that my editor had appended to my chosen title, Rolling Nowhere, the line, A Young Mans Adventures Riding the Rails with Americas Hoboes.

A young mans? I asked her on the phone, feeling Id just been demoted by New York publishing.

Well, we thought that best described it, I recall her saying. Theres nothing wrong with ityou are a young man, you know. And clearly, I was; I was twenty-four.

With this edition, the subtitle has been improved. But I must admit, as I reread this first book of mine, that the description was accurate. These are a young mans adventures. Now that Im almost twenty years older and have seen more, done more, and written more, this younger man, despite his pretensions of experience, seems a bit callow. And so candid! Most of my first- person writing at the time had been for my journals and diaries, and I think I never really imagined that anyone would be able to take this book home from the store or library and read my deepest thoughts.

The world of the railroad hobo has changed considerably in the twenty years since Rolling Nowhere was first published. People have been proclaiming his death for years and years now; many were surprised, when my book came out, that there had been any hoboes left for me to travel with. At the time, I guessed there were several thousand railroad hoboes still out there. But now, it does seem there are practically none.

The hobos death, of course, has long been foretold. Back in 1974, Don McLean sang,

-

The ghosts of highway royalty have vanished in the night

The Whitman wanderer walking toward a glowing inner light

The children have grown older and the cops have gripped us tight

Theres no spot round the melting pot for free men in their flight.

-

He was premature, but not by much. A different term, homeless, was gaining currency around the time I wrote Rolling Nowhere; if hoboes werent going to die out on their own, it seemed, they were going to be subsumed into this new concept, which was purely about a social problem, with none of the romance of the railroad world. The wondrous thing about hoboes, who were spawned by the Great Depression, has always been the way we created something romantic out of the inevitable. Freedom of choicethe idea, real or not, that Id live this way even if I didnt have tois an essential part of the notion, and the reason I wanted to live that life myself.