A look at 'the other side of life'
Hobo gathering features stories, songs about riding the rails
Luther the Jet hasn't hopped a freight train in almost a decade.
It was 1999 when he and Connecticut Shorty sat over a meal in Chicago's Pullman Historic District, their wanderlust growing.
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She persuaded Luther to join her on a ride that started on the westbound Illinois Central Railroad to the Quad Cities. There they jumped on the storied Rock Island Line and headed farther west to Davenport before catching another train, this one moving south toward Kansas City.
"We had a beautiful ride," he said.
Luther the Jet was born Luther Gette, about the time the country was coming out of the Great Depression. He earned his nickname as a hobo, making him a part of the long history of an American subculture that still lingers.
Now his days of riding those rails are likely over.
"That's what I used to love to do, sit around in the winter and dream about going out in the spring. Then I would do it," said Gette, who lives in Madison, Wis. "Now I still sit around and think about it, but I don't actually do it. I'm 70 years old so I have an excuse -- I'm too old."
He may be retired, but Gette hasn't put his hobo days behind him. Far from it, actually. He's one of the organizers of this weekend's Hobo Gathering in Pullman, the once-annual event that returns for the first time since 2002.
"The 9/11 attacks took the wind out of our sails," said Tom Shepherd, a co-organizer who is active in preserving Pullman's historic status. "This year the folks at the Greenstone Church asked why don't those hobos come here anymore?"
The gathering begins Saturday with a dinner at Greenstone Church, 11211 S. St. Lawrence. Dinner will be followed by the Grand Hobo Concert, led by Gette. Sunday's activities include an open mike at the Pullman Stables, where hobos will share stories, poetry and songs. The gathering ends with a square dance/barn dance, also at the stables.
Hobos can camp Saturday night on the grounds of the old Pullman factory. Hobo crafts, exhibits and entertainers will be at nearby Arcade Park all weekend.
"It's a chance to meet people you wouldn't normally meet, to rub shoulders with the other side of life," said Acie Cargill, a Chicago musician whose band will play at the barn dance.
Today, hobos ride trains seeking freedom and adventure, but in earlier days, they were looking for work.
Estimates on the number of full-time hobos range from 200 to 1,000. Many of those coming to the Pullman gathering fall into the "hobo at heart" -- or recreational hobo -- category.
Hopping a train is against the law. It's dangerous, too, but that often gets glossed over in the romanticized version of hobos in folklore and music.
"It is a thrill to catch a freight train, but I do not recommend people to ride the rails," said Mama Jo Lecount, a retired social worker in Kansas City who considers herself a hobo at heart.
"The general perception is that hobos are disappearing," said Clifford Williams, a philosophy professor at Trinity International University in Deerfield and author of One More Train to Ride, a collection of hobo tales.
"Truth is they are nearly disappearing. But there are still some people out there that still live that hobo lifestyle."
That lifestyle still grips Luther the Jet. He says he no longer jumps on trains, but a return to Pullman this weekend might change that.
"Shorty's coming, so maybe she'll talk me into another one."
Paul LaTour is a local free-lance writer.