during the great depression almost one quarter of the ten states population was unemployed. this gave rise to an increasing number of migrant workers, commonly referred to as hoboes. jeffrey urban explains the origins of this term, and how the hoboes have been romanticized in culture. why >> there i'm speaking to

you from the roosevelt presidential library, and museum. i want to welcome you to another one of our talks today. today will be talking about hobos and hoovervilles. as i said i am the education director here and it is our pleasure to be presenting these programs to you. now hobos and hoovervilles, these are two things that came out of the great depression and a lot of people surround the term hope bow or throw around the term hoovervilles. but who are these people and what were these things actually? well we're going to talk a bit about that today. so it all goes back to the great depression of course, and when we learned about the great depression in school and we learn about the great depression it heard on october 29th 1929, when the stock market crashed. and there's not really accurate. certainly that is when most

people you know it got everybody's attention that the great depression was underway. but it actually had began for farmers almost ten years earlier. you know with the over planting of the crops out there, you know in the midwest and the southwest, and the farmers were really hitting on hard times with the drought conditions that were occurring. now why that's important is because 50% of the population were farmers at the time, and so if you got 50% of your population they're having that kind of an economic problem, it will have an impact on the rest of your economy. so yes, we can point to october 29th 1929, as an indicator of the great depression, but it had been going on for much longer than that. also we would like to talk about the great depression as if it was an economic problem, and it wasn't economic problem, i mean stock market crash, people were losing their, jobs and you were losing their homes, but it was really not just an

economic situation, with 25% of unemployment and 1000 banks closing each day in those start things, it was really a social problem as well. families tend to split up, if you had a 17 or 18-year-old boy at home, you might ask him to leave the house, because there wasn't enough money to feed him, and maybe a baby brother baby sister. if you had a grandma or grandpa living on their own they might move in with you, simply because you could pull resources together and it would work a little better. so the family dynamics changed a lot. sometimes the dads would go off looking for work as well, and it was left up to mom to hold the family unit together. so it was a social problem as well, and also it was an emotional problem. people had lost their jobs, and when you lose your job, yes you lose a paycheck, and there's an economic impact that.

but you also lose an important part of your identity. and you lose an important part of who you are, but because many of us identify asked by are ourselves by or job. not a banker bus driver or a teacher whatever it is. so if you lose that job, and you lose a occupation, you lose a big part of who you are and how you define yourself. so the great depression, was a terrible terrible time, sometimes people would leave their children at post offices, or assigned them into orphanages just because they couldn't feed them. that's how terrible things were. and so combining this idea that being an economic problem, and a social problem and an emotional problem, it gives you a better understanding i think of just how much of an impact this great depression had on people. so in fact, when the depression was over, some of those feelings and those motions, and those actions that people took stayed with them. those attitudes stayed with them for the rest of their lives. that's about how much of an

impact it had. let's talk a little bit about a group of people that originated in this time period, or are said to have originated and that would be hoboes. so hoboes, you know the idea of a whole bow it goes back probably to goes back to the american civil war. there were folks that traveled around, and such but the heyday of the whole bow, really was in the 1930s. and nobody really knows where the name hubble originated, some people say it came from the end of the civil war. where people were homeward bound, so homebound whole bow, and some people say it originated, from migrant workers who are going around and they would carry hose. they would knock on a farmer's door and say hey need any help on the farm. and these were whoa boys, they were going in a looking for work with their hull, so the

farmer would hire them. and other people say you know it was just a greeting, like whoa boy, you know so nobody really knows. so if you can come up with something that sounds legitimate, you know it would be as legitimate as any other origin for the name of horrible. so that the idea of a hot hobos it's somewhat romanticized, they think of them on the open road, and they're making their way around, and there was some truth to that, but we'll talk about that in just a minute, so how many hobos were there? you know the 1930s was the heyday of the hobos and it may have been as many as 20 million hobos going across the country looking for work. it's difficult to know the exact number because they are transient. it was hard to track them down. but before we go any further

let's define what hobos is. there is a big difference between a hobo a trap and a bomb. so a hobo was a marker tory labor. so basically a hobo with somebody who is looking for work, they were going from place to place to place, looking for some kind of work. hopefully some type of long term work, but if not they would take that they could get. sometimes it was a job for a few weeks, picking fruit at an orchard, or vineyard and sometimes it was a project that would last maybe a day or two. raking leaves a chopping wood. whatever work they could get, they would take. so the hobos were willing to travel, and they were willing to work. it was important to the hobo to put in a full day's work, for whatever compensation they got. and they would negotiate that with whoever they were working with. sometimes it was money, sometimes it was maybe a warm

safe place to sleep, other times maybe it was a meal or two. so really it dependent upon what the person that was offering the job had to give in exchange for the actual job. so a lot hobo is somebody who's willing to work, wanting to work, looking for work and moving around and doing that. so a tramp was somewhat different, a trump was a traveler. they would go from place to place, and they would work if they had to, but they would rather not. and they would rather go from place to place looking for adventure and excitement and such and it was probably the most famous one, is the charlie chaplain personification of the little tramp that. and that was somebody who would work if they had to, but wasn't necessarily looking to do that. if they can get a freebie and a hand out, they would be happy to do that just as well. and then we have the bombs.

the bombs are the lower level of this hierarchy and as a bum was somebody who didn't want to work. they were looking for a pure handout, and very often bum they had alcohol problems they were known for getting drunk drunk and creating problems and stuff and this was a problem for the hobos because of people were mixing up all of them together the hobos tramp anna bums and if a hobos came looking for work and they thought that they were tramp they were less likely to employee hobos, so you know isn't she they were looking for the hobos. the popular character of freddie the free loader, so he was a bum and we see that reflected in his actions. so why did people become the

hobos? the number one reason was because of economic necessity, they were searching for work they were searching for food, they were searching for shelter and sometimes they would get the stuff, and sometimes you don't be able to have a little extra and send it home, other times they were just able to maintain their own existence as they lit along. so for something about that is, that if you're able to maintain your own existence, at least you're not being a burden and bring that back to your family. you know economic necessity, and that is number one reason why people became hobos. and some of the became hobos for the adventure, freedom of the open road. call your own shots, coming though as you like. be year own boss. and that was the romanticized version that we have of the law hobos over the course of time. the third reason that people that did that was for escape. sometimes they were trying to escape from the law, sometimes

escape from abuse, sometimes they were trying to escape from a lack of opportunity which goes back to to the idea of economic necessity. so lots of reasons why people left, but primarily they were looking for a better life, in terms of economic ability. so now the hobos life is romantic and culture, but it was anything but romantic in real life. it was incredibly hard life, very hard life to live. you are traveling around constantly, you are exposed at the elements, you are hopping on freight trains, that might be moving it five or ten miles an hour. it was very dangerous, and the opportunity to lose life and limb, that was always with you when you're jumping on this giant piece of machinery. or jumping off of it. and the hobos would ride these cars, you know on train cars, going from city to city in town to town and that is basically

how most of them traveled. so writing freight trains was dangerous, sometimes you rode out in the open on a flat car, and there you were exposed to the sun, the rain, the snow the wind, and whatever exposure was going on. and also, you were on a flat car, so as things shifted and changed, if you are not careful you could be thrown off of that. you are also very vulnerable and visible, to what were called bulls. the bulls where the railroad police. and they took a job seriously, and they were brutal about the way they enforce their jobs, and their job was to protect railroad property. if you were a hobo traveling on that train, you are trespassing. they felt very within their rights, to beat you up, to hit you, sometimes you onsite, or

throw you off the moving train. you know you are supposed to be on their, and sorry you are supposed to be there and saw him for throwing you off what is your fault for being here. not my fault. so flat cars exposed due to a lot of different things. so you might try to travel in a boxcar, but a boxcar was great because it provided you with protection from the elements. and you are able to be inside. you got to sleep without falling off, you are less visible to the bulls, but however if you got locked in that boxcar, the chances of starvation or suffocation, that was very good. so if you are in a car that somehow got off to the side, and maybe did get moved for another three or four days, you know out there in the blistering sun in that exposed boss box, you know without any circulation of air and such so, sometimes you would ride on top of the box cars. which had its own set of dangers, you are exposed to the

bulls. there is a danger of underpasses. it's danger of passes, and a danger of falling off but riding the rails and writing on a car, one way or the other and most people need, you never write on a car with types because pipes tend to roland shift as the train is moving along and it was a very easy opportunity for you to get crushed. we also did intend to read between the cars because the cuff links would go back and forth, there was always some give to those and that was a dangerous place to ride as well. so you try to get on one of these things and you take your chances, whether you're in a flat, car boxcar, top of the car, however it was. there were also folks who maybe you've heard the expression, by writing the rods. and writing the rogers even more dangerous. and the rods where large steel, basically rods that were underneath the train and across section to give torque to the

car. and, they were underneath between the sets of wheels where these rods and they were easy to get on to when the train was stopped. so if the train was in the yard, you can easily get on the roads but now, so there was a loft boxcar anyone to be in a flat car, you get on the roads. the rods were incredibly dangerous because you're basically traveling under a train, hanging on to the steel rods, just inches from the grade going past as the train is moving along. she fell asleep in like, oh you would be killed. no doubt about it. so writing the rods was very dangerous. the bowls, they were hard to get you, if they had very little sympathy, they had jobs, their job was to protect the railroad property and so, they had very little sympathy for people who are moving through and were tossed them from the train. there were also some unsavory hoboes, there are people out

are writing the rails who were looking to get to take advantage of people. that's not the predominant number of hoboes. most hoboes were people looking for, work trying to work their way through -- will talk about horrible code in a minute. there was a code hoboes lid by. you who's always somebody looking to take advantage, or robber, still from you or to abuse you. so, you had to be careful with who you came into contact with while you are out there riding the rails. and there were also unsavory people. there were people who look down upon you, people said, no you're just a whole bow. so they didn't value you necessarily as a person, or they just took you for a bomb and, so they felt somehow justified in the ability to abuse you or treat you as less then who you are. so a lot of times, people will say to me, okay jeff, let's say

i wanted to be a, humble would i need? well, you would need to have some kind of economic necessity, you would need to have access to a train, where i can move from place to place and you would also have to have a certain amount of equipment that you would bring with you as well. just before talk about that, let's talk about how you find those trains. and the trains usually, there will be a train yard and just about a mile or so outside the train yard, that's where the hoboes were congregate. they wouldn't go into the yards because of course, the bulls were there. but, when the train is leaving the yard, or a train was entering the yard, the train would be slow enough that you could relatively safely jump-off or relatively safely hop on. so outside of these train yards, there will be these places that they called oboe jungles. these would be little basically villagers are camps that the hoboes would congregate in and they would wait for the trains to come in and out.

so what kind of equipment do you need? well, basically it would come down to two things. the number one would be if you are lucky enough to have a bad role and a bed rule would simply be a blanket, maybe you are lucky enough to have something as a pillow or you would probably just use an extra set of close wrapped up as a pillow. and you have your bed rule and you would tie that with a piece of rope at the top, piece of rope at the bottom and you drop it through and you were able to put that over your back and you, know pass along through that way. you could use that as a blanket, you could use it as in the cold, you can use it as a cozy place to sleep in the box car the flat car. so a bed was really important. the other thing that was really important is the iconic pindle stick and this is sort of the symbol of what's a humble would have. and there's quite a bit of, you know, utility to this. and number one is because you would have a small bundle, and you're mostly traveling with a

better role and a bundle of stuff because your hopping on and off trains, right? so you can't really travel with luggage, you can travel with a whole bunch of stuff. you, know you have to travel light and so, the lighter you travel, the easier was to hop on and off of these trains. so you would generally tie yourself up in a bundle like this, you have a stick and then with this allows you to do was even with very little pressure, you could have balance to this, right? depending on the length of the stick. so, you're walking long distances between trains and you're off the train and now you're walking into the village, this was an opportunity and a good way for you to can -- carry these bundles without tearing yourself down too much. you could also use it as a walking stick, you know if you're walking long distances, you can use this as sort of a walking stick it to work your way through and along. and you can also use it as a weapon, or a potential weapon. if you came across an unsavory person or such, and you can also use it as an opportunity

to hold on to a train or have you somebody pull you, on or possibly onto the train as a device helping you get on that way. so, the vandals steak had a lot of utility. sometimes at the end of the bundle stick, you have a key tied on here with a piece of string or twine or piece of leather. and the idea of the key was that you were a elbow, right? you had a home, he just learned able to make a living in your hometown. and, so a lot of hoboes would have the key to their front door and they would carry this with them as a symbol and a reminder that someday, i'm going back home. someday, i'm going to get back to where i came from. this is just a temporary thing, i'm not a humble for good, i'm a humble for the time being. so the key really important to remind them of that. let's take a look at where you might find in a hoboes vandal stake here. so they would tie this up in a handkerchief or piece of cloth

or an extra piece of clothing and in here you're going to find some items. let's take a look at where you're going to find. you might find something that looks like this. and this was a way for them to get water. it's nothing more than a campaign with a string tie to it with been pierced through here. and you would use this to get water. so, if you are going to go to, you know a pond or a stream or a lake, you try not to get wet, right? and once you got wet, especially in the fall or the early spring, you stay wet, right? the only way to dry out was through natural drying out. which in the, meantime it would get pretty cold. so, to keep your feet from getting, wet to keep your sleeves from getting, where you would drop this into a stream, hit the water pull it up, you know him do not like that, political ike that so be easier to do. and then you had access to some water. so you always had something

like this with you because you didn't want to dehydrate along the way. you also might have some matches. because you're going to light a fire when you get to the hubble village, to the jungle. to keep warm, to have some light maybe to cook some food. and so a way to start a fire was -- you also might have a carry with your deck of cards. and the cards would be used for recreational purposes, you wouldn't gamble with these because the last thing -- first of, all you don't have to much the gamble. with and the other thing, is you the last thing you want to do is get on the wrong side of somebody when you're out there, you know, kind of on your own and in the wild. so you would use these cards to play cards with other hoboes or maybe solitary with yourself. to pass the lonely hours of waiting for work to come by. you also might have a piece of fruit. so if you are working for someone, and they paid you with food, you would very rarely eat

the food all at once while you are right there because you never knew when you're next meal is coming. so if somebody paid you with food, someone paid you with food you eat a little and save a little for along the way. now this could come in very handy back at the whole bill john kal because the horrible jungle, each guy would feature what was called a mulligan stew. and so the hoboes who lived in this jungle, this village, and during the day, they would go out, they would find work hopefully and then they would come back and they would make this mulligan stew. and part of the hubble code there was that you could have access to this to a few contributed to this to. and you generally got one maybe two days of leeway, right? so if you are, now you can find any work and you came back and you didn't have anything to contribute to this, they still let you eat that day, maybe again the next day but if you want more than two days without bringing in, chances are you're going to be considered to be about. so whatever it was, you bring

it back and, you, know he'd wouldn't put a pair in this to but you might slice this up and share with some of the fellow hoboes as a desired or item. if you got, tomatoes eggs or anything like that, all that one into the hoboes to. we might also, you know, carry a little candle and just for some landing if you're in a boxcar, he big very careful with this because you want to set the car on fire. so you lose this as aside of last resort. you also might carry a bible with you. and the bible was carried by hoboes in part, you know, for what the bible intended to do which is give eu aspiration and positive thoughts and things. so you might use it for inspiration. you also might use it as a bit of a political proper so if you go looking for work and someone sees your bible reader and you're a man of the word, then they're probably going to be more likely to feel good about hiring you to do a little job

around the place, as the case may be. you also might carry a piece of coal, why would i carry coal? the coal would be carried with you because the idea was that a, a coal was very readily accessible. the trains running on coal. with this cool, you can make markings and that was where another part of the hubble code came in. so you could use this to scratch etchings and things on a sidewalk, on the side of a barn, we'll talk about that more in just a minute or two. you also would carry a pocket knife. and this tool was indispensable because it allowed you to have a knife blade that you can open cans wait, a loud you a little bit of protection, you can cut off your pair and shared with the other hoboes. you could whittle time away,

you know by a literally wiggling, you could use this knife blade to make markings in fence posts and things. and it offered you a little bit of protection. if somebody messed with, you realize you had a little blade that you can threaten ten them with. and then the other thing that hoboes would very often carry would be a can of beans. beans where the sort of go to meal for hoboes. and that was because they are small, they could fit in your bundle and you can open they can with a knife, you could open, it bend over the lip, you have a little handle, put it over your fire and you've got yourself a meal. and the can of beans always according to humble tradition, always had no more than 239 beans per can. and reason you only had 239 was because if you had went one more, it make you. , okay so you might also have a flask with you. and this would be for who arms

purposes. keep you warm on a cold night. or maybe a little bit of, you know pick-me-up here and there. you could also use it may be to sort of a painkiller kind of thing. if you had to take a splinter out or something like that. this was not a huge thing for hoboes because remember, hoboes word drugs, you are looking to work. you are not showing up at a potential jobs feeling like liquor. so would you would use this probably back in the jungle just as little nightcap for yourself so you can have some fun throughout the course of the day. so you put all the stuff together, and you've got yourself a pindle stick and you've got a place to go down to town and you've got a lot of things that you're going to need in order to survive. so, you need economic necessity, you need train and you need some of this whole bow equipment. now, a minute ago i mentioned

the hubble code. there were two types of hubble codes. one was an ethical code, and again, this speaks to the fact that these hoboes were people who were looking for work and so, the whole bow ethical code consisted of always doing a full day's work for a full days pay. whatever that might be. so, if you say you're going to sleep out barn, you sweep out the barn like nobody's business and you get the absolute best job that you can. you get this for two reasons. number one, because that's going to put you in could stand with whoever asterisk we've got that barn and you may get an extra hand out. and the other thing, is these hoboes understood that there were many of them out there at these villages in these jungles. and as they traveled across the country, they were literally maybe 2 million of these folks. and so the understood that they needed to do a good job wherever they worked because after they left, another humble would come through.

and, so if you cheated someone, if you take advantage of someone, the next elbow that came along would have a much harder time. so you always did the best job you could for what it was that you are getting your hand out for. you also when there is no employment available, then you would just sort of hang low. you didn't hang around in town, looking like a bomb, or making a nuisance of yourself. when you are in the jungle, the jungle community, you almost pitched in. you want to pull your own weight, you want to be a valuable member of that society. so when you are on the train, as much as possible you acted like a member of the crew. now the bulls were there to try to get you off, but to get you off the train and out of the way. and off the property of the train company. but the crew, they were often traveling with less than full

crews, so if you get on the train, and make yourself helpful, make yourself useful, the crew members of the train, would appreciate that extra helping hand, and they might step in for you, when the bulls are trying to get you off the train, or they are abusing you along the way. and you always help fellow hobos because they were people just like you, and they were in need, they were looking for a way to make a living, and a way to get home. you also always tried to keep yourself as clean as possible. and the hobos referred to this as boiling up. every chance you got a could boil yourself up, which meant you would take some water and clean yourself up. so you look presentable. you didn't look like a bum you look like somebody who might be employable. so the basic idea of the hobo code was to be kind.

you're out there you're looking for work, and you know it's a value for value, a win-win. you do the work, and the people get the work done for them, and you get some kind of a hand out. and my grandmother, had said that during the great depression, her mother ran a boarding house, just as out of new york, which was a big rail hub. and we're hobos constantly coming to the back door, looking for work to do. so my great grandmother, might give them an opportunity to cut some would, in exchange for a sandwich. or you know, beat the rugs in exchange for sleeping in the car port, or the barn that particular night. so looking for work, looking for something in exchange. that was the hobos code of ethics. but there is also another hobo code, and that's when the knife and the coal come in handy. but these hobos would do is they develop their own special

way of communicating with each other. they would leave messages for each other, as they traveled through channels. so the next hobo that came through, we look for these messages and symbols, and they would know that you know something about the town. you're traveling on the train, you're going to places you don't know anyone, you don't know anything that's going on in these towns, and you're you know coming in completely blank, so if you can come in and get some advice, from a hobo who had been there before that was really useful to you. so they created this entire code, and it was made up of symbols. so the symbol, looking like a banana with a plus sign on the end, this meant dishonest man. so if this was scratched on the sidewalk, or scratched in the fence posts, with a knife you knew that you are likely to be given a job, working with this person but you might not get the payoff. it was a dishonest person. it's like sure go and break up those leaves, then i will pay

you or give you a sandwich. but get the leaves done first. so if you saw this kind of symbol, you would want to make sure you have the sandwich first before you did the leaves, chances on are that this dishonest man would not pay you. a symbol like this, meant man with a gun. so if you saw this, you are on extra guard. an extra careful. so this meant good water. so if you saw this, carved in a tree, next to stream, you knew it was good water. and you could use your cup to get some water from there. and this meant it they would let you sleep in the barn, if you saw this by a farm, or near work shed, they would let you sleep in a bar if you saw the symbol. so this was a symbol for good for a handout. i have a feeling, that this symbol was probably carved somewhere near my great grandma's boarding home,

because she was always looking for folks to help out with some work, and they were all was coming from the jungles to do that. so good for a handout. that's good for this one here. and i want to show you one that it might be familiar, or more familiar to you, and hold on to just find it. okay here they are. so this is one, that you may have seen. this is kind of popular among popular countries culture now. this is kind hearted lady. this was another symbol, that was near my grandma's boarding house. and now you will see this in some of the magazines, that you send away for as a kitchen decoration or something, so if you think your mom or grandma is nice kind hearted lady, you might buy the symbol for them. but it's like a cat with two feet in the front and detail in the back end of the years. so kind hearted lady. that something you would look for. this one, that meant that the

person was wealthy. if you are going to do some work for this guy, chances are you're going to be paid money. not food or a place to stay or place to sleep. so this was an important thing to look out for as well. so that is the whole book code, and there were hundreds of symbols, in each area of the country, they had their kind of dialect as to what these codes might mean. generally speaking, hoboes were looking for work, and you found them a lot down in the south, and at the western part of the country, because the weather was better there. and so if you're going to find yourself without a place to live, you will want to be in a warmer climate. so who were some notable hobos well. i have some list of folks that started off as hobos. jack dempsey, woody guthrie, jack carroll whack. spent a little bit of time as a mobile. but the one that surprised me

the boasts the most, was art linked letter, who spent some time as a hobos during the great depression. you know the show he had kids say the darndest things, it might have been hobos say the darndest thinks. so you know there you are, so that is a little bit about the hobos culture, fascinating group of people and there are still some of them out there, if you get an opportunity to stop to talk with someone who is a hobos you can learn a lot of interesting things how to survive on the road, and how to be very resourceful. so the second part of our top, is about hoovervilles. and a hoovervilles were was a shantytown and hoover was the president during when the great depression sort of struck and

he happened to be wrong guy at the wrong time the wrong place. that is all these forces join together to create this great depression. and hoover happen to be president, and he was caught off guard. so even though he did the kind of things that he did, you know he tried to have some programs and things, you now to alleviate the suffering during the great depression, most of these things were too little and too late. so hoover historically has gotten the blame for the great depression. and the term hooverville was coined by charles mitchell listen. who was the publicity chief for the national committee, in chicago and first appeared in the new york times in 1930, to describe a little town of shaq's that had developed just outside of chicago. and there has always been homelessness, and there still is today was.

and these were the result of great depression and i would say popular but prominent during that time. so as people lost their homes, they could not afford to pay their mortgages, because they lost their jobs, so in cities all across the country, these little shantytowns would spring up. i want to share a couple pictures, and here by the way, here's a picture of a family hobo. so here is mom and dad and the two kids. mom looks a little embarrassed there. but here is a family that is riding the rails. and you could see the bed roll i was talking about, and over the shoulder it would go. so sometimes entire families would go searching for work as hobos. but in terms of hoovervilles it would look something like this. not especially happy looking places, but places we shacks

with the shack or you know a scrap of plywood or canvas or anything you could find that would get you a little bit out of the elements. you could find that in these one hoovervilles. and sometimes people look down at people who lived in hoovervilles. you know they have lost their homes they had to do something. and to show the dignity of some of the people who are in these towns, i want to show you this. this is a shack way and that's part of a wall hooverville, knew that for five people here, and this is christmas time in new york. this is 1938. so this is a hooverville that was in new york, and it's christmas time and look what they actually have outside their shack so they didn't pass by the holiday season, they actually had a christmas tree there as well. so these are people who still had feelings, so had motions, and still had a tie to some

sense of normalcy, they just had no place to live. now we there was a hooverville in central park, that consisted of dozens of shaq's, and that was right there in central park. and there was a place near the east river that was called hard looks phil and that was a large one you know consisting at one point it had over 80 shacks one. and there was a hooverville outside of seattle, and that lasted for ten years, from 1931 to 1941, and had about 1200 residents at the peak of its occupancy. in may of 1933, and in response to these multiple, the new deal created a program, the federal transient service. and they started to provide

shelters for people, provide food and clothing, and some very simple medical care, some training and education so they could get out of these shacks and into some kind of standardize housing. so they could work their way back into proper working society. that's as the jobs were recapping more available. so we hoovervilles had their own governments, there was often a mayor of one hooverville that was elected by the residents. they had their own counsel, so if they wanted to pass laws or rules about living in the gun hooverville and these councils would go ahead and do that, they were located primarily in the warmer weather areas, in the south and you know in the west. and california, had such a problem with hoovervilles that they actually in a los angeles had a thing that they called,

the bum blockade. and the idea was that the l.a. police chief, whose names was james toobin davis. and with the support of the railroad officials, and some state agencies, they set up road blocks at 16 major points of entry into southern california, for people who had no visible means of support. so if you are coming and looking for work, and you had no visible means of support, and you didn't have a cousin, or an uncle or somebody there that could vote for you, or give you a job. you were turned away. and this led to a great number of fat hoovervilles being built, just outside of these stopping points. so eventually, there began to be some public sympathy for these folks, because they were just down on their luck. they were folks looking for work. and as that began to happen, the public tenor began to

change, and you had this idea of the blockade, and it was overturned, and what these were hoovervilles distributed, and the folks entered into the federal transient service for help. so we're hoovervilles also spawned, their own type of languages. and their own words for things. so if you are sleeping on your hoover like it, that was nothing more than a newspaper. and you would use is to keep warm, and you could find them any place and that would give you a little bit of warmth, not as cozy as nice blanket would be, but it was better than sleeping out in the elements. so hoover blankets. and you might repair your house, with some hoover siding. which was nothing more than cardboard. and cardboard would keep the wind out, and repel the rain a little bit. if you had a hole in your shoe,

you might repair that whole with what was called hoover leather. again nothing more than cardboard , readily available, you can see boxes and things, at least you get some protection between your foot and the actual ground. if you saw a horse and cart being pulled along, that was called a hoover wagon because people couldn't afford cars anymore, they couldn't afford gas so you'd hookup an ox to a cart and be able to move along there in a wagon. and at the end of the day, whereas the hoboes will go back to the jungle for the mulligan stew, the folks of hooverville would go back to hooverville for hoover's to. and who's two was nothing more than a watered down soup or a watered down stew. and, so you know, you might put a small piece of, him plenty of water, maybe some cabbage or

whatever else you're able to get your hands on and that would become you're dinner for that night. hoover's two. so, when we try to do today is leave a little bit of a taste of what some people were going through during the great depression and the sort of little micro communities, and whether out of hooverville or hoover village or as hoboes. hoboes have become sort of romantic overtime and this idea over them running around but it was a hard life and these were just two reactions to the difficult conditions that the country found themselves in during the great depression. and, of course roosevelt's main objective was to create jobs for people, that would give them a a paycheck to help stimulate the economy and some still ability in their, life and be, give them a sense of purpose. so that people had a purpose to get up in the morning, appeal

lace to, go something to do. and these were hard times for folks in the 1930s and the great depression lasted for a long time and the horrible culture continued on into the 19 forties and fifties. in the 1960s, it was kind of replaced by the hitchhiker culture, sort of the same idea. some of that was based a little bit less on economic necessity and more in the sense of adventure, get away from the authority of your parents and such. just get out, there on the open road. but, those free spirits, those folks, you know, that found themselves hitchhiking to different places in the sixties can trace their routes back to the hoboes of the 1930s. if you'd like to learn more about the 1930s, the 1940s and the conditions that people lived in and the things that were going on at that time and the programs of the roosevelt administration to help the suffering of folks at that time, please visit us on our website

here at the roosevelt presidential library or when we open again, which hopefully won't be too much longer, come and visited us here at the library. there's a great number of things to learn about and see into experience here either virtually, as we are doing today, or by actually coming on site. and we look forward to seeing you either online, or in person, very soon. thanks, take care. >> american history tv on c-span 3.

welcome to at home with roosevelt, i'm directive the roosevelt presidential museum, i, am tom shorts -- with branch iowa. >> we are here today to talk about one of the most remarkable transitions in american history. hoover and roosevelt, their long relationship for after their presidencies. this was a period of incredible drama for united states during the great depression, but of