True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Riding the Rails
I learned something I didn’t know. In addition to the millions of men who
became hobos during the Great Depression in the US, this disruption
also unleashed 250,000 teenagers onto the roads. These teenage hobos
were in many ways like the hippies who would follow them a generation
later. Almost on cue from some hidden silent signal, they left the farm
at age 16 and hopped a freight train to anywhere. They were dropping
out. Exploring. Seeing what was down the road. Looking for something.
On the rails they met thousands of others exactly like them with the
same idea. They were vigorously unwelcomed around the country; there
wasn’t enough work or food for the unemployed adults; as kids they were
“urged” to move on. Their time on the rails and in rail camp “jungles”
was harsh and sobering. In response to this tremendous social problem,
Roosevelt set up the CCC, a kind of boot camp that turned these restless
kids into an army that built many wilderness parks in the US. This brief
season of freight hopping youth didn’t last many years, but for the
quarter million kids who rode the rails then, it was the experience of their
life (until WWII came along). This documentary gives some idea of what
that young life on the rail road was like.
By Lexy Lovell, Michael
Uys
1998, 72 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
Then and now. As soon as a train pulled in, dozens of
boys would jump off and begin their quest for work.
142