Consider the following response to “What was the most interesting Halloween costume you ever saw?” in “Speaking Out,” Peninsula Daily News, Oct. 29:
“A hobo. I did it many years in a row. I blackened my face and had a stick over my shoulder with a bundle of clothes.”
I grew up near Britt, Iowa, home of the National Hobo Convention, an event that continues to celebrate the hobo era. (Visit brittiowa.com).
In my youth during convention days, I ate with hobos in their “jungles” (their word for camps); listened to their stories, poetry and music; and learned aspects of their culture (e.g., major symbols used).
Two personal observations:
1. Although the vast majority of hobos were white, they welcomed brothers and sisters of other colors to their fold.
2. Hobos never begged. Bound by hobo norms, they would even avoid the fun Halloween practice of “trick or treat.”
Instead, they worked for money and food.
For instance, after cleaning barns, stacking hay bales or other farm work, my father paid them and my mother often fed them meals.
For more information about hobo history and behaviors in America, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo.
Finally, I am concerned that Peninsula Daily News did not choose to exclude this racially troubling, demeaning “Speaking Out” and hopefully present clear reasons to the respondent for doing so.
Eldon Baker,
Sequim