Interdisciplinary Blogging Activity
At the height of the Great Depression more than 250,000 teenagers became Hobos, living on the road. These children often faced the threat of starvation, physical and emotional isolation, and feelings of anger, alienation, and guilt. The objective of this exercise is for students to read first-hand accounts by Hobos and their plight and then create their own fictionalized account of a day (or longer) in the life of a Hobo.
A.. The links below can provide students with an understanding of the life of a Hobo and provide background on the Great Depression:
Riding the Rails (PBS)
Part of PBS's American Experience television series, this site focuses on the
plight of more than a quarter million teenagers living on the road in America.
There is a timeline, maps, "tales from the rails", Hobo songs, a teacher's
guide, recommended resources and more
Tales from the Rails
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/sfeature/tales.html
Weaver Dial: Battling the Bulls
Leslie E. Paul: I Was a Burden
Henry Koczu: Going to California
Norma Darrah: One Weary, Hungry Mile After Another
Gene Wadsworth: Losing a Brother
Berkeley Hackett: Feeling Like Tom Sawyer
New Deal Network
The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI), in collaboration with the
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Marist College, and IBM, launched
the New Deal Network (NDN). The site features 20,000 items: photographs, speeches,
letters, documents, and exercises from the New Deal era
Breadline:
1929-1939(PBS)
Part of PBS's People's Century television series, this site explores the massive
unemployment in America during the Depression and offers interviews, a timeline,
and a teacher's guide
Surviving the Dust Bowl
(PBS)
Part of PBS's American Experience television series, this site examines the
region in the Southwest renamed the "Dust Bowl" because of a catastrophic
eight-year drought. Included is a time line, maps, eyewitness accounts, New
Deal remedies, people and events from the era, and a teacher's guide.
B. A Day (or longer) in the Life of a Hobo
"In this assignment you are to write from the perspective of a Hobo who is "riding the rails." Use your knowledge of the period and your creativity to create a story (250-500 words) about a day in your life as a Hobo.
Here are some questions to help guide your story: How old are you? Where are you from and why have you left home? Are you traveling alone or with someone? Who? What possessions do you have? What are your plans? What are your concerns? How are you feeling, physically and emotionally? What happened to you today? How did it make you feel?"
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Students post their blog and read everyone's work. Students then comment on the posting and state what they liked about the story they read -- and what made it seem authentic.The blogs serve to provide a public form to present and share student work without undue stress on the student . There is no "right" answer, students are allowed to express themselves creatively, and each student receives positive feedback about their posting..
The following story written by a 10th grade student in response to this assignment:
There's no Aunt Sarah
"My stomach’s empty but it don't hurt and my back’s near broke
but it don't ache. Can’t feel nothin’ right now -not my tired feet
that won’t stop bleedin’ or the on’rous weight of the dust
in my lungs. The physical sufferin’ ain’t nothin ‘pared to
the hurt in my heart.
When you’ve gotta worry ‘bout starvin’ and freezin’
to death you forget to keep track of what day it is, but I’d estimate
today’s the 15th of December, year 1932. It took me near three weeks to
get here. “Here” is Lancaster, California. I left home in Kansas
when Dadi told me he’d got word from Aunt Sarah in California. “Aunt
Sarah’s got a place for you to stay with her and she’s found you
a good job in a shop downtown Lancaster,“ he said. “You go put your
things in the bag that I’ve left you upstairs and I’ll take you
to the train in the morning. ” I had never met Aunt Sarah, let alone heard
mention of her in our house before the day that Dadi told me I’d to go
live with her. Things were hard for us then. Not just hard for my family but
for all the farmin’ families in Kansas that depended on the crops. Ever
since the topsoil started blowin’ ‘way nothin’d wanted to
grow. No crops, just dust. It meant no money, empty stomachs, cold bodies.
At 14, I was the third oldest of Mama and Dadi’s kids. My brothers Jake,
16, and Tom, 15, left a few months before I did to find work and s’port
themselves on account of mama and dadi could hardly feed themselves. Before
Dadi’d told me I’d be leavin’ too I’d thought about
gettin’ myself a job. I felt awful guilty all the time ‘bout bein’
another mouth for Mama and Dadi to fill. It was almost relievin’ that
I’d be leavin’. My absence’d be improvin’ for Mama and
Dadi and my sisters. I kissed Anne-Marie, Sue, and Emily goodbye and went to
find mama to do the same but Dadi said, “Listen, Sarah, you don’t
say nothin’ to your mother. Good-bye will break her heart so you just
let her be.” It broke my heart not gettin’ to say bye to her but
I thought Dadi was right so I let her be like he said to. I put a pair of socks,
a blouse, skirt and my doll, Jenny, into the canvas bag that Dadi’d left
at the foot of my bed. The next mornin’ Dadi walked me to the train station.
He gave me 20 cents, told me which train to take, and left. I like to think
Mama cried when she found out what Dadi’d done the next mornin.
I made quick friends with a hobo ‘bout my age named Jim. He warned me
‘bout the railroad bulls and told me where the hobo camps that made the
best mulligan stew were on the way from Kansas to California. I didn’t
spend more than a day with Jim but he taught me things my life’d come
to rely on later.
I spent ‘near three weeks ridin’ the rails, walkin’ on route
66 to get from station to station and stoppin’ at hobo camps in between.
Pretty much ‘came a ‘bo myself. Today I arrived in Lancaster, California.
The prospect a’ my arrival here’s what kept me goin’ all the
time I was trav’lin’. Imagine my disapointment ‘pon findin’
there really wasn’t no Aunt Sarah. That there wasn’t no warm place
to stay, no good job like Dadi’d promised. I know now that I was a burden
that Dadi made up his mind to get rid of. If the poisnin’ mulligan stew
I’ve been livin’ off the past three weeks don’t kill me, this
feelin’ in my heart will."
Here is a comment posted by another student:
"I loved your story ! Your use of dialect seemed accurate and enhanced the diary-like tone of the story. I also liked how you conveyed the hobo's feelings of helplessness and sadness. You were able to get a lot of the things we had been talking about in class about hobo's in your story...the mulligan stew, the hunger, the dreams for a new job, etc. It's so suspensful, I really want to know what happens next...good job!