A Vagabond Heart

I'm always running behind the time
Just like this train
Shaking into town
With the brakes complaining

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose

And nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free

Now I'm transcontinental 3000 miles from my home
I'm on the California Zephyr watching America roll by

My route. Leaving from Union Station in Denver, Colorado. All aboard!!

Settle down into the clickety clack
With the clouds and the stars to read

I'm rocking away in a sleeping car

We all know Dylan's got a vagabond heart

My little brother, Jeff, probably singing a train song of his very own...

A mural on a side street wall in the dusty train town of Laramie, Wy

And these rocks and these cactus going by...

My other route, along the California coast, aboard the Coast Starlight

Steel rails, chasing sunshine round the bend

Winding through the trees, like a ribbon in the wind

Watch the PBS American Experience History series, Riding The Rails. My dad was one of these kids.
It presents the poignant and little-known story of teen hobos during the 1930's, a time of desperation and bitter hardship. These young itinerant Americans were all searching for a better life; what they found was a mixture of freedom, camaraderie, misery, and loneliness.

"One house had marks on it indicating that the people were generous with hoboes. We stopped, the lady gave us work to do, then served us food. We appreciated her good food and kindness so much that we pitched in and cleaned her yard including flower beds."

Speaking of kind lady's, when my dad was a small boy, his own mother had a sign in their yard indicating "a kind woman lives here." She'd make them sandwiches and while they ate, my dad would sit there asking them all kinds of questions. Right then and there, little Bobby knew just what he wanted to do...

The caboose on the wall mural in Laramie, Wy

There's prob'ly rich folks eatin'
In a fancy dining car
They're prob'ly drinkin' coffee
And smokin' big cigars

I don't mind not knowing what lies down the track

Cause I'm Looking out ahead, to keep my mind from turning back

My brother, Glenn, wrote a song about a train trip our parents had taken us on, a million years ago.

I was 7 years old. All the way from California to Maine. We've had train fever ever since. Listen....

https://vimeo.com/132893300

My father always said that the sound of a train whistle is in his blood.

He signs his book, Ridin' Free, like this.

 

See you all somewhere further down the line! ==================>>