Friday, August 23, 2013

Hobos: When You Are Engulfed in Flames


by David Sedaris

David Sedaris has not only a knack for storytelling, but his behavior is so unique that the pairing is always entertaining. He explains that when he was a child, he often used to dress as a hobo for Halloween. He explains:

...from then on I was always a hobo. It's a word you don't often hear anymore. Along with “tramp,” it's been replaced by “homeless person,” which isn't the same thing. Unlike someone who was evicted or lost his house in a fire, the hobo roughed it by choice. Being at liberty, unencumbered by bills and mortgages better suited his drinking schedule, and so he found shelter wherever he could, never a bum, bu something much less threatening, a figure of merriment almost.

I enjoyed this passage for it's colorful and somewhat accurate depiction of a hobo but I really enjoyed it after I read this article in the Economist some weeks later.  

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