Tape 1a -- Leaves Berlin
at 14
Tape 1b -- Begins railroad hobo trip west across U.S.
Tape 2a -- Gets to San Bernardino and Los Angeles
Tape 2b -- First stay in Santa Barbara, working at Ott's hardware
Tape 3a -- Back east in New York, Key West, then Georgia, Tennessee,
Oklahoma, Flint Michigan
Tape 3b -- Returns to Germany, Marries Mom, returns to U.S., builds
house in Sacramento
Tape 4 -- Gus, Otto and Harry born in Sacramento, buys
first car: 1919 Buick
Return to Old Pagels
Hub
Tape 1b (23 minutes) [Right click to download
the tape]
a.
Funny episode with girls. Trenton N.J., hops train west, hides in sewer pipe when cops
check train for bums.
b.
Trenton, PA, Chicago: hobo on southern rail route to
California (Rock Island line – now the Southern Pacific), shoveled coal
from coal car to boiler man. Stops to work as dishwasher, clean chickens;
meals were 25 cents for full dinner, salary $20/month Stops in Liberal,
Kansas from fall to next year (1911).
c.
Takes wrong track, winds up in El Paso, Texas, then on to Pancho
Villa’s camp in Chihuahua, Mexico, walking along the track. They gave him
frijoles and beans and escorted him in a railroad hand car pumped back to the border.
d.
Benton, AZ: chops wood for meals. Gets
kicked off trains.
e.
Tucson, AZ: dishwasher. Picked up by cops while bumming on
railroad cars, works on sewer line during 5 days in prison.
f.
Goes on to Phoenix, which was a cow town – dirt streets, no wood sidewalks.
Had been told he’d have a better chance of catching trains by going through Tucson
and Phoenix.
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