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"I crouched quietly in the patch of tall weeds. Around me fell the shadow of the viaduct that carried a highway over the railroad yards. From the edge of the yards, I squinted as I watched the railroad cars being switched from track to track. Cars and trucks were rolling over the viaduct, but what occupied my attention was the dark, cool corridor underneath it, where I hoped to intercept my train."

Riding the rails, Ted Conover tasted the life of a tramp with companions like Pistol Pete, BB, and Sheba Sheila Sheils. From them he learned survival skills - how to "read" a freight train, scavenge for food and clothing, avoid the railroad "bulls." He was initiated into the customs of their unique, shadowy society - men and women bound together by a mutual bond of failure, camaraderie, and distrust.

Sixty-five freight trains, 12,000 miles, and fifteen states later, Conover chronicles his impressions of their lives in this fascinating piece of first-hand reporting that becomes a thoughtful story of self-discovery.

The tramp travels, and he works, Conover was told while riding the rails. "The hobo, he travels, but he don't work. Just likes drifting. The bum ain't gonna do nothing, work or travel." An anthropology major, Conover spent five dollars on thrift-shop clothes and jumped a freight. Before he was done, he'd jumped 65 of them, slept in hobo jungles, and been jailed for asking to see a policeman's badge number. He even worked in the fields and gave blood for money. That was more than twenty years ago, but there's a new preface, and Conover still sounds like himself, a keen observer with in-fectious innocence and a yen for social justice. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

 

Ted Conover is an investigative journalist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books Coyotes, Rolling Nowhere and Whiteout. His latest book, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, has been named by The New York Times Book Review as one of the Most Notable Books of 2000.