Short Stuff: Hobo Signs | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck what are you. going to do about it short. stuff uh yeah this is called uh outdated. names for people. Edition I guess so I love so a lot of. this came from the NSA the National. Security Agency yeah the one that's been. spying on Americans for decades now okay. um and they basically hid behind hobos.

when they were talking about Tramps and. bums which I assume is what you're. talking about but they're like according. to hobos this is what this means yeah. yeah these are old terms used back then. so just know we're not suggesting that. anyone uh call an unhoused person a bum. or a no but specifically the NSA. says that hobos say specifically that a. hobo is a traveling itinerant worker who. wants to work who also loves to travel.

and the way that they put it is uh a. hobo travels to work and works to travel. uh frequently they're working so they. can save up uh enough to tie them over. through the winter which they'll take. off and they'll get back on the road. they travel by train by car however they. can we talked about them in the. hitchhiking episode if I remember. correctly yeah and then according to the. NSA according to hobos the difference uh. between a and a hobo and a bum and. a hobo is that a is also a.

traveler but they don't like to work. they don't work and then a bum again. according to hobos according to the NSA. neither travels nor. works so there you. go thanks for putting that all on me. well I mean you're the one that put this. one together we got to talk about it. okay we have to you can't get around it. um hobos is what we're going to. concentrate on specifically as you'll. see in a minute here hobo signs but uh. the word hobo itself no one's uh really.

sure where that comes from there are a. bunch of ideas as always uh as to its. origin some you know as usual make more. sense than others uh for real one is uh. H OE hboy like if you were traveling. around working you might have some. Farming tools like a hoe so you might. have been a hob booy which could have. become hobo I I say that is maybe not so. great oh you're crazy that's my number. one oh yeah mhm all right well what's.

what okay what's your let me hear your. pick then what's the what's the where'. the word hobo come from well I mean if I. was picking just from this list I would. go with uh CU this did start after the. Civil War uh when there were soldiers. who either uh wanted to go home and. would hop a train or didn't want to go. home and would hop a train in the other. direction but uh Homeward Bound ho boo. makes a little more sense to me sure no. I I would p i put that one at second. that's number two.

we have to at least name check the other. one real quick okay so there's one that. says that it was basically a shortened. version of hello boy just a friendly. greeting and that that came to l. boy and then. Lobo and then hobo. yeah I I think that's a terrible idea as. well but it's hilarious to just say. those different words in progression. yeah I would also say it's probably not. a Latin thing in origin.

but there are some people who say it's. from the Latin homo bonus meaning a good. man I don't think it's that one yeah I. didn't so when somebody's saying like. bonus in the 90s they were saying like. good I guess it never occurred to me. that they were speaking. Latin sure I'm sure that's what was. going on so I well let's just set up. what we're really talking about here. today Chuck we're talking about hobo. signs as I believe you. said and so one thing that have in.

common is that they like to travel they. very frequently prefer Solitude um and. yet they have a a camaraderie with one. another so when you're traveling as. you're a hobo and you're going from like. town to town and you're saying like hey. where can I get work where can I get a. free meal or something like that you're. met varyingly with different kinds of. attitudes yeah and those attitudes are. probably going to stay roughly the same. over you know shorter span of time at.

least so because you care about other. hobos and because you don't really meet. up with them very frequently you would. leave a sign and this is what became. hobo signs there were signs that a hobo. left for another hobo basically saying. like this is a great place to get a free. meal stay away from this house because. this is where the local cop lives all. sorts of really useful information and. over time essentially a codified system. developed. fantastic what a great setup thank thank. you I appreciate that all right we'll.

take a break and we'll be right back to. talk about what was on these signs right. after. [Music]. this okay so we talked about hobo signs. and we're going to start talking about. that again beginning now uh yeah like. you mentioned you know uh hobos lived a. very uh or at least fairly solitary life.

I guess they would hook up with friends. every now and then but um the fact that. you're traveling around um and you're. not all congregating in a big group to. tell one another like hey this next town. you're coming upon X Y and Z you should. know they would leave these signs uh. they were temporary uh by um on purpose. basically they were like Char or. charcoal uh because like you said some. certain people might have certain. attitudes about someone coming through. town looking for work uh there are.

changes in attitudes uh oh no I'm not. going to do it thank you RP Jimmy. Buffett uh and the the person who lived. in that Farmhouse last year may have. been super helpful and uh need some help. but maybe a year later they didn't so. that sign would need to be changed so. that's just sort of a clumsy way of. saying hey let's not make these signs. permanent because they need to change to. convey the most recent information.

exactly um and so the signs some of the. signs that they developed just make. intuitive sense like a there's a top hat. that was the sign that a wealthy person. lived there yeah um a train engine would. be a good spot to Mark a train and this. one I'm I'm kind of puzzled by because. you wouldn't actually find out if it was. a good spot until you were successful or. not if you were unsuccessful you. wouldn't go back and leave that sign. that it was a good spot if you were. successful you wouldn't be there anymore. to leave the sign that it was a good. spot I I just find that a head scratcher.

but more often than not um oh there was. another one a cross said that if you if. you you know Jin up some religious talk. with the people who live here they'll. give you a free meal I love that one. more often than not though they um they. didn't really have any intuitive. connection to what they were conveying. the symbols yeah that cross one is. really great because at some point some. hobo was not having much luck uh with. with the the lady of the house and then. they started talking about Jesus and she.

was like would you like a slice of. pie right the guy's like oh okay I got. you apparently George Washington was. like that but with horses instead of. religious talk I'm not going to believe. anything you ever say anymore so that. one is true that's a story from Gilbert. Stewart the famous portraitist who. couldn't get him to become at all like. like to smile at all and apparently his. horse walked by and all of a sudden. George Washington just opened up started. beaming and talking about his horse and. horses in general so Gilbert Stewart.

knew that for the rest of the sitting he. would just bring up horses and George. Washington would just be up and chipper. yeah he said let me flash a smile let me. see those pearly. Brown. teeth so uh all right so you mentioned a. few things that made sense like the top. the top hat and stuff like that uh but. there were also a lot of symbols in this. code that uh you know it was sort of the. the symbol of the hobo um that if you. just look at it it's not intuitive uh.

for instance uh a picture of a a chicken. that someone has drawn you might think. hey this might be place where I can get. some chicken yeah no no no that means. you can use the telephone for. free right um a boxu is a a good camping. spot um some are just like where did you. get this the there a sideways cross so. cross on its side on a circle in one of. the quadrants the top quadrant and then. the circle has three dots inside and.

that means that there's a doctor that. lives there and he won't charge for. medical. attention I like where would you. possibly come up with that I don't know. I tried to make sense I'm sure you did. two of a lot of these and I wonder if. some of them did make sense to the. Creator or if it was just literally like. hey we need something yeah I get maybe. they just kept adding to it they were. like well this one will be a sideways. cross they're like no that already means. there's a Satanist that lives there okay. well what about a sideways top of the. circle that's a Satanist who loves to.

talk too much right what about one with. three dots they're like okay Doctor Who. doesn't charge for medal advice uh yeah. that's a good one that's a real one. right that yeah that was the one I was. oh the sideways cross right right right. okay so there's also a circle next to a. square uh each of them has a dot in the. middle and that means that uh uh the man. of the house has a bad. temper pretty steer clear other words. yeah a lot of these were like steer. clear or go here yeah but they just had.

like an extra little layer of. information too yeah the only one that. made any sense was the three. perpendicular diagonal lines oh that. made sense was unsafe I just thought it. might mean like three strikes is usually. a bad thing okay but I don't know that's. just a guess okay that made more sense. than any of the rest of them I think so. um the the where these signs came from. is just completely lost to history. although some people are like I can tell. you exactly where it came from um we. should probably say at this point there.

are some people who who don't believe. that there ever actually was a codified. roughly 50 signs that hobos use to leave. to one another there's a group called. the uh historical graffiti society that. um Atlas obscura profiled some years. back and these people search for those. things and they're like I wish I this. would I would be proven wrong because I. want to find them I've never found. anything like that they think that it's. possible that the whole thing was erated.

by early 20th Century Media fascination. with hobo and the hobo lifestyle oh that. is I mean I thought that reading of it. was right but they're just saying that. it was just a creation of of media yeah. so so they trace it back even further to. there was a famous hobo I can't remember. his name but he wrote a series of like. fantastic books that were really popular. and they think that that the signs were. introduced in there to me that doesn't. mean that the whole thing was made up. right right you know I think that that.

possibly it wasn't nearly as codified. but they're like we've never found a. single one and we found like they found. some in chalk that are 100 years old but. they don't bear a resemblance to this. instead it's usually um the first letter. of whatever Direction they were. traveling they nickname and then maybe. the year or the date that's a genuine. documented verified hobo signs hobos. definitely used those a 100 plus years. ago well speaking of nicknames we kind. of have to mention one thing right right.

yeah so yeah John Hodgman uh writer of. Books and and podcaster of the Judge. John hodman podcast uh very famously um. created uh 800 hobo names uh in one of. his books and I figured we could just go. through a couple of these do you have a. list by any chance great idea no I have. them all memorized. okay. um chili mix Wilma Benson.

that's not bad uh flee. stick that's a good one uh Tommy. lcom uh let me see let me do one more uh. how about uh prostate. Davey W so hutchman came up with 800. names that was uh I've never talked to. him about that I imagine that was um. arduous and I'm sure he never wanted to. do that again because I think he also. had people for years saying to create a. hobo name for them and stuff like that.

yeah for sure and you'd be like no I'm. not doing that yeah fun stuff though uh. just to wrap it up there was a an actual. like there there was documented hobo. signs that seemed to have generated. organically and that uh it was called. War chalking and essentially it came. about in a very specific period of time. uh in the early 2000s when Wi-Fi started. to become ubiquitous but free Wi-Fi was. very hard to find and so a hobo would.

find some place where somebody had like. a Wi-Fi router that didn't understand. how to add like a security key to it and. so it was just free Wi-Fi so they would. leave a little Mark for other hobos to. say like you can get free Wi-Fi here and. then as people started to get savier and. and um added security to their routers. that kind of went away but. simultaneously free Wi-Fi zones like in. some cities now are just completely. wired up with free WI by um like that.

that kind of grew in its place so the. whole premise of War chalking lives in a. very very small window of time I just. find that fascinating interesting I love. it I love it too Chuck and I love the. short stuff and the short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts my heart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows. [Music].