Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The National Hobo Convention

If anyone out there is interested in some good times, possum stew, and camping under the stars, the National Hobo Convention is this weekend in Britt, Iowa, a scant 260 miles from the home base of the Happy Sunshine Gang. That's just 4 hours by car, 79 hours on foot, and 22 hours 7 minutes if you manage to drag a bike out of the creek. Because there is no shortage of such things. It honestly makes one want to start throwing cabbages.

Visitors to the convention can participate in hobo sing alongs, buy hobo crafts, and eat genuine hobo food. For aspiring hobos, there is a prom-esque contest in order to be crowned king or queen of the hobos. I kid you not. For recently deceased hobos, you can even be interred in the one and only authentic hobo cemetery.

Some names of previous hobo royalty are as follows- Hobo Lump, Fishbones, El Paso Kid, Liberty Justice, Iowegian Rick, and Come On Pat. The entire convention comes complete with a website that looks as if it crawled out of the pit of hell that was the 90s. The website includes the history of hobos. (hoboists? Hoboites? hoboistory?) as well as the hobo code ( which contains such gems as #6-Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk.) and even an in to the hobo grapevine.

As he reads over my shoulder, my writing partner nearly swallowed a lemon seed out of his tea. He's okay now. It's okay, guys.

Scrolling through the pictures on the site, you can find such lovely pictures as hobos cooking over fires, hobos playing guitars, and hobos sitting around talking to each other. All in all, it seems like a good ole time out there in northeast Iowa. If such a thing can be found in northeast Iowa. Or Iowa. Or the Midwest. Yes, we're bitter. Live with it.

For our steadfast readers in Germany and Russia; one can only hope that this site translates into your languages. If you are trying to read this in English, I truly pity you. We use enough malapropisms and made up words to confuse native English speakers.

Hopefully we shall be posting more often.

For more information, check out this hideously crafted website. And they actually paid someone to design it. (This was Stalin's contribution.)

www.hobo.com

Cheers,

-Glinda, Witch of the North

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