John Haisty wrote: > > Davie, I am sure that you are too young to remember this, but during > W W II, times were still hard. The depression following the crash of > the stock market made many people penniless. This continued into the > war years. I was born in Tillar which was on a main rail line through > the delta area of Arkansas. Many of these penniless/homeless men rode > the rails, looking for work, doing odd jobs - whatever they could to > obtain a meal. These men were not always bums; some seemed to be well > educated men down on their luck. They would get off the boxcars and > come around to the homes in Tillar looking for food. They always came > to the back door and were curteous and never caused trouble. Offering > to do odd jobs for a meal was their M. O. These sad men had a system, > known to all of them, which alerted others in their situation as to > which house from which they could expect to find nourishment. This > system was a mark made on a fence or tree, etc. They were called > tramps or hobos. In those days, there was no phrase "politically > correct"....just hard times for most Americans. Sugar and gasoline > were among the items rationed during the war. Ration stamps were > needed to obtain them. If you ran out of ration stamps, you did > without. New cars were extremely hard to come by. People had to put > their names on a waiting list to get a new car. I remember these > hobos and it is a part of my early childhood that I will never forget, > since I experienced their plight personally. > > Carolyn I can remember them coming to our house in the 30's when I was growing up. My mother never refused to feed them. She felt it was her Christian duty - "...as you have done to the least of these, so have you done to me..." (sic) Helen Leigh