Hobo Final Chapter

After 3 years away I had been wondering how things were going at home. I was a little homesick. I gradually drifted back towards Cleveland. I didn’t go directly. First I went to Wakeman, Ohio. They had a river there and the farmer let us use the low lands next to the river to camp. There was one guy named Hank that we know. After I visited with him I went down by the campers and I went back to Cleveland with them.

Since I had been working with a sign painter Mmy Dad put me to work painting the house. I learned how to use linseed oil to treat the windows. I had a few ladders there and they were hard to handle but I did manage to get the house painted including up in the peaks. After the house was done, my Dad got me a job. One of the first jobs I had was doing finish work in a new house. My job was to put down the baseboard in all the rooms. I had to be careful when I used a hammer not to make hammer marks. Every time I would make a hammer mark my Dad would spot it.

When it came time for payday the contractor gave my
Dad the money that I had earned. Instead of turning over the money to me my Dad was going to give me an allowance and keep my money. At an earlier time when there were 9 kids to raise there was some reason for the older kids to kick in their money to help keep the household going. But by that time there weren’t nearly as many kids living at home. The necessity of this kind of arrangement no longer existed.

I was willing to pay room and board. Since I had been living on my own for around three years, I was used to making my own way. We locked horns and I packed my bags and left again.

For the next few years I drifted east and south. In order to support myself I was doing odd jobs. Some yard work, washing dishes, and doing a little carpenter work even though I didn’t have my own tools to do that. I went to New York City and then through some of the southern states. Usually I traveled on the trains and sometimes hitchhiking.