0:02

This episode deals with some heavy content,

0:05

including substance abuse and sexual violence,

0:07

so please take care while listening. Okay,

0:17

I mean kitn here. That was fruit, but

0:20

I heard it fruit from heard that name. And

0:24

then there's the three amigoes. Who

0:27

are they? Randy Man, eight Ball,

0:29

and Serge all dead. Randy

0:32

Man he was murdered.

0:35

Eight Ball he died of malnutrition,

0:38

and Serge Agent Orange took

0:41

him. So he's a Vietnam vat CECI

0:43

writer who spent more than twenty years riding the

0:46

rails. Is looking through her photo albums,

0:49

there's Peter Billy on a gondola,

0:54

dustin the winds dead ghost is

0:56

dead Oswald,

0:59

he just disappeared off the face of the earth.

1:02

I kept asking every train writer I met what

1:04

it would take for my daughter Ruby to survive

1:06

on the rails, and some of the older

1:08

hobos told me I should find cc. She

1:11

knew more than anyone else what it was like for a

1:13

woman out there the

1:16

other shallow pop culture. Reason I'm excited

1:18

to meet her is her name. See

1:25

what you don't? She

1:28

must have earned it somehow, So

1:32

I've traveled out to have her Montana with Winner

1:34

coming on to learn what I can from

1:36

CC. I met some nice people

1:39

from the rails, but I also knew they were criminals

1:41

who rode the trains, and there were railroad

1:43

gangs who fought each other for territory. What

1:46

would it take for Ruby to survive out there?

1:48

What would hobo's expect of my daughter, a newcomer

1:51

in their world? And what should she watch

1:53

out for when she threw her sleeping

1:55

bag down in the box car? Who would be standing

1:57

nearby? To understand?

2:00

In hobo life? Today I had to track down

2:02

more riders. I'm

2:04

de El Morton and this is City of the Rails.

2:38

Are you hungry? I got chicken noodle soup

2:40

homemade. I'm hungry. I think I'm Cecy's

2:43

reputation is huge, but she's tiny,

2:45

not even five ft tall. She has

2:48

straight gray blond hair tucked under a cap

2:50

that's decorated with patches of long ago railroads

2:53

markers of how long Ceci roade. She

2:56

invites me into her trailer out of the cold of October

2:58

in Montana and settle down in one

3:00

of the plush, comfy chairs for a smoke. So

3:03

you keep here? You keep your cigarettes in the freezer?

3:05

Yeah, keeps it fresh? Yeah,

3:12

Cecy keeps the windows in front door open so

3:14

that she can smoke inside and you can hear

3:16

the trains passing on the tracks nearby.

3:18

The trailer is full of Cecy's relics and keepsakes

3:21

left by writers who have passed through. This

3:23

is a bracelet that some kid

3:26

made me for my birthday out of beer tabs.

3:28

Oh look at that, It's

3:31

actually wearable. The walls

3:33

are tagged with drawings and graffiti like still

3:36

crazy after all these beers, many

3:38

hoboes have lightened their loads by leaving something

3:41

behind. Distribute to Cecy. Even

3:43

have hair. This

3:45

chick cut off her hair and give it to me, and

3:49

it got arrowheads, real arrowheads

3:51

on it. People

3:54

passed it in present, take to the rails, on a whim,

3:57

on a dare, or on the run. I

3:59

mean it's a bit of all of those like I

4:01

suspected with Ruby. They

4:04

knew hundreds of writers, and she knew their stories.

4:07

Maybe she could help me understand more about why

4:09

Ruby ran off to hop trains. So

4:12

we began with how Ceci started writing. It

4:15

was in Amarillo, Texas, and what Cecy

4:17

told me sounded like a country song, but

4:19

a sad one. My boyfriend

4:21

and his brother beat me up, and

4:24

after I got a little bit well, a

4:26

friend of mine took me to a hobo bar

4:32

and to get back at my boyfriend, I

4:36

kissed this tramp on a Friday,

4:39

screwed him on a Saturday, hobo

4:41

marrieding Sunday, and then I took him to a judge

4:43

on a Monday. Who knows what the difference

4:46

was between a hobo wedding and an actual wedding,

4:48

but with her new husband, Broken Arrow, Cecy

4:50

had both. And then

4:53

he says, do you want to go and watch

4:55

me catch out? I went, yeah, So

4:58

you know, I got mommunu skirt on high heels,

5:00

my makeup, my hair is all done, and

5:03

uh, I go to the catch Out dog there

5:06

in Amarilla, Texas. Get up on

5:08

this box car with me and check it out. So

5:11

he coated me up there, and the

5:13

next thing I know, I hear and

5:16

a jerk. Quick, what is that? He

5:19

says, Well, you're riding now. Cecy

5:29

might not have been prepared to start writing, but she

5:32

decided to continue traveling with Broken Arrow,

5:34

and he showed her right away she'd have to give up her

5:36

old life if she wanted to come with him on the rails.

5:39

My first backpack, I had my lingerie,

5:42

some dresses, some heels, makeup,

5:45

curling iron unit. Look, what are

5:47

you gonna plug that into a tree?

5:52

I'm warning four hundred dollar high heels

5:54

to let us. We'll get the Pueblo,

5:56

Colorado. How am I gonna walk on these

5:58

railroad rocks? So he breaks

6:01

off my high heel? Not talking

6:03

man? Yeah, So

6:05

I went from high hill to combat

6:08

boots to having money to hold and cardboard.

6:12

Cecy's linked to the regular world got broken off

6:14

with those high heels, but that didn't scare

6:16

her. She was ready to leave her old life

6:18

behind. This new

6:20

life broken Arrow promised her was unpredictable

6:23

but exciting. She was eager to enter

6:25

this unknown world. And after she did,

6:28

she stayed for two decades. But

6:30

Ruby hadn't been swept onto the rails by a man,

6:32

at least not as far as I knew. But what

6:35

did I know? Young women now are

6:37

different from Cec, who hasn't ridden

6:39

in decades. So I also looked

6:41

for younger women closer to Ruby's age. You

6:43

could tell me about writing today.

6:45

Through a friend I met at a party. I found

6:47

Morgan, who had ridden for two years.

6:50

Hi can you hear me, Yeah, I can.

6:53

Okay, how are y'all? I'm good. Thanks

6:55

for agreeing to talk to me. Now do you know

6:57

what I'm doing? Morgan

7:00

Ceci took a blind leap onto the rails

7:02

and then scrambled to catch up with her new reality.

7:05

And like Cecy, Morgan turned to the rails

7:07

when she needed to make a break for it. She

7:09

had struggled with heroin addiction in her teens

7:11

and spent a year in jail for drugs when she was

7:14

eighteen, and like pretty much

7:16

all writers, Morgan's journey onto the rails

7:18

began with her leaving her possessions behind.

7:21

It started when Morgan was strung out again back

7:24

home in Maryland, trying to hold onto her car.

7:27

Funny enough, I actually the night

7:29

before had gotten a bunch

7:31

of drugs and I hold the drug dealer that

7:33

I would give to my car. So really,

7:36

when it all comes down to it, it was that moment

7:38

of waking up and saying holy shit, and

7:42

him and I both knowing, you know, I

7:44

am not giving him my car. We

7:47

called my friends, who both were trained

7:50

hoppers, and I said, we want

7:52

to leave. What do we do? Where do we

7:54

go? So

7:57

we were like, we're just going to drive until we really

8:00

can't drive anymore and try to make it

8:02

disported to this guy that

8:04

was going to put us on our first freight train. But

8:07

way they got to Georgia, someone stole Morgan's

8:09

car and she had a decision to make go

8:12

back home to Maryland and try to make it right,

8:14

or jump a freight and leave it all behind.

8:17

The car was gone, everything that was

8:19

in it was gone, and all we

8:22

had was the quotes that we had on. Morgan

8:24

decided she was going through with it, and

8:26

her friend Kayla gave her a quick lesson and the kinds

8:29

of things she needed to get before she hopped a train,

8:31

like cotton underwear because you're

8:33

not going to be able to change so much and

8:36

they're just breathable, and any other material.

8:39

But something else, Kayla said, stuck with Morgan,

8:41

something she didn't want to consider but knew

8:43

she had to, something that she stressed

8:46

to me that was like, I remember kind of

8:48

sinking in myself when she

8:50

said this, But she said, you really,

8:52

as a woman, want to dress as much

8:54

like a man as possible. You

8:57

don't know where things form fitting. You

9:00

know, you really need to protect yourself because you're

9:02

you know, you have to think, and you know, I didn't think

9:04

too far into this, but we're going to be in like the

9:06

biggest cities in the country and in

9:09

the most dangerous spots in

9:11

the United States. With these warnings,

9:13

Kayla was advising Morgan and how to fit in with

9:15

the other travelers, but Morgan didn't

9:18

have what she needed. She was on the run

9:20

with her car stolen. I think I had

9:22

like three skirts and like three

9:24

shirts and a few things. So

9:27

Morgan's high heels to combat boots. Moment

9:29

came standing in a Walmart. It

9:32

was the moment when she embraced just how brazen she'd

9:34

need to be to survive on the rails. I

9:37

remember my first pack. I stole it

9:39

from Walmart and it was such

9:41

a just in the moment thought,

9:45

and then I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna

9:47

try this because it's less

9:49

than a thousand dollars, so if I do get caught

9:52

whatever. She went through the store of stuffing

9:54

the backpack with cotton underwear and hoodies

9:56

and jeans, all boxing and loose everything

9:59

she'd need. Once it was full, she

10:01

faced the big moment, walking out

10:03

past the cashiers I remember

10:05

my brain saying, walk out like

10:08

it's yours, no one, it won't

10:10

bring attention, and who who's crazy

10:12

enough to walk in and do that? And

10:14

I kept it so cool that it was like inside

10:16

of me, the biggest adrenaline rush. I

10:18

remember it being just my heart

10:21

pounding, pounding, pounding, and

10:24

I got away with it. And that was my first pack,

10:26

and I had it all the way up to my

10:29

first trip to California, um

10:31

hoping trains and hitchhik and so I

10:33

had it for a very long time. Walking

10:36

into the parking lot with that backpack, Morgan

10:38

had crossed the threshold into the life she was

10:40

taking on. Yes she would be

10:42

homeless, but not just because she was down

10:45

on her luck. She'd walked into it willingly,

10:47

eagerly, both feet first. Around

10:55

the same time I met Morgan, I met another writer,

10:57

Alexei Would. Alexei was at

11:00

different kind of traveler. He was more

11:02

like the writer's Mike Brodie told me about early

11:04

on the kids choosing to live in poverty,

11:06

to see the country that way, Even

11:09

as a teenager, I just was like, that's

11:11

bullshit. There's got

11:13

to be something better than this garbage.

11:16

Mike Brodie said, there were plenty of hoboes like

11:18

this from middle class homes, families

11:20

with assets. My daughter was one

11:22

of them. So I was eager to hear how

11:25

Alexei ended up writing. Maybe I could

11:27

learn something about Ruby. Alexei

11:29

told me he left right out of high school, just like

11:31

Ruby. He looked out at the

11:33

working world ahead of him and knew he didn't

11:36

want to life bound up by the pursuit of money.

11:38

I wanted to travel, and I didn't want to

11:40

pay for hotels. You

11:43

know. I worked hard to not spend

11:46

money versus jobbing

11:49

could make money. So I

11:51

learned how to do things myself and

11:53

find food. And he

11:56

learned to live with very, very

11:58

little money, and I feel like it was the

12:00

freest I ever lived.

12:03

Living without money gave Alexei freedom he'd

12:05

never felt before, freedom from living

12:07

in the runt of the straight life. In a

12:09

way, it was a form of protest, but

12:12

it was also a thrill to be fully in control.

12:15

It was high adventure

12:17

all the time. So

12:19

I was hitchhiking and you know, just

12:22

train hopping, dumps, you're diving,

12:24

you know, just living well

12:27

off of the decads of the society.

12:30

I'd usually hitchhike during the day and

12:32

then try to find a train yard or something

12:34

and then hop a train and just sleep on

12:36

it all night long and be

12:39

cruising. Well, the feel of it is

12:41

the grittiness, the you

12:43

know, hiding from bulls and

12:46

trespassing and just living

12:50

in the cracks. But

12:54

like Ruby's friend Aaron told me, it goes way

12:56

beyond living free just because you could. For

12:59

some riders, this is a political act. As

13:02

I was finding out among hoboes, there are

13:04

a lot of anarchists, you

13:06

know. I knew tons of punks who just

13:08

hated money, wouldn't even touch

13:11

money. Once you get past the

13:15

idea that you need money, you just

13:17

have your own It's your own life. You

13:19

you have your own time. If

13:22

time is money, then time rich Alexi

13:25

was happy living by his wits, open to whatever

13:28

life brought his way. Even his

13:30

very first ride affirmed his new sense

13:32

of freedom.

13:34

I was going from

13:36

San Antonio to Houston, and

13:40

I was on a grainer, and

13:42

I remember it had gotten to night

13:45

time, and I

13:47

got up on top of the grainer and

13:51

it cuts right on the east side of the

13:53

Houston downtown um,

13:58

and I just remember the seedy escape

14:00

and all the lights. He'd

14:03

just been off the top of his train. I

14:07

just remember specifically

14:09

falling alone with train hopping with

14:12

that He's the skyline, and

14:15

I just felt like I could go anywhere

14:17

and I could do anything. Alexei

14:21

had seen that skyline a hundred times before,

14:24

but from on top of a freight train. He was feeling

14:26

the power of this boundless new life and attached

14:29

to the mundane world. He was hooked,

14:31

and so he kept going for nine years.

14:35

Yes, he was giving up the comfort of knowing where he'd

14:37

sleep, when he'd get to where he wanted to go, and

14:39

who he'd spend his time with. When

14:42

you give up everything you know and leave behind

14:44

the people you love, what

14:46

do you gain. There's

15:00

places on train tracks

15:02

that you can't go on

15:04

a regular road, you know. I

15:07

think back, and I'm like, you can't. I'll never be

15:09

able to see this again. One

15:13

of the most beautiful views I ever

15:15

saw in the coolest moments was crossing

15:18

the Salt Lake and realizing that it

15:20

was pink and

15:26

I was crossing it, you know, in a box

15:29

car and looking down

15:31

and just completely surrounded

15:33

by just like pink water and

15:36

just feeling like outside

15:39

of this world. I guess like

15:41

I was floating on like clouds.

15:46

Hmmm.

15:52

When you first step into the City of the Rails, you

15:54

see a world unlike any other. But

15:57

this beauty was a surprise to Morgan. She

15:59

was first drawn to the rails by the promise of a new

16:01

adventure. I had always

16:04

imagined all the you

16:06

know, adventure part of it, and and just

16:08

like how cool the pictures were, and how

16:10

big the trains were, and how small

16:12

we are, and how how big

16:15

that must feel to be a part of that.

16:18

That feeling of being part of something big is

16:20

what draws a lot of drifters to the rails. The

16:22

late author Lucias Shepherd captured

16:25

it well in his book Two Trains Running. I

16:27

especially love this quote, which I thought sounded

16:29

better in JP Right's voice, the voice

16:31

of a railroad man. There's

16:35

no doubt the riding on a freight car

16:37

as it carries you through some moonlight

16:40

mysterious corner of the American night is

16:42

a rush like mystical whiskey

16:44

for anyone with half an imagination. It's

16:47

a loud, uncomfortable, and

16:50

a lot of the time it's damn cold, but

16:53

it's also romantic. You're

16:55

riding with ghosts, those of Jack

16:57

Carolak, Jack London and Ernest

17:00

Hemingway, and all of the ghosts

17:02

so famous hobo's only hoboes have heard

17:04

of, and the fact that

17:06

it's illegal and a little dangerous

17:09

makes the moonlight extra

17:11

silvery Beyond

17:21

the hobo Shepherd mentioned. Other surprising

17:23

people who spent time on the rails include

17:25

actors Clark Gable and Steve McQueen

17:28

focusing our burrow Ey's for you oldies,

17:30

and even one of John D. Rockefeller's sons

17:34

for me. The most surprising hobo was Supreme Court

17:36

Justice William O. Douglas, who rode the rails

17:38

during the Great Depression as part of the Children's

17:40

Army of two hundred and fifty thousand box

17:43

car kids. In his autobiography,

17:45

he described hobo's as kind and compassionate,

17:48

adding that they had higher ideals than

17:50

some of the men who ran our banks and were elders

17:52

in the church. When Douglas

17:54

became a Supreme Court justice, in the

17:57

press called him wild Bill for

18:00

opinions that definitely were shaped by his time

18:02

on the rails and striking

18:04

down in nineteen seventy two Florida vagrancy

18:06

law that prohibited wandering without a stated

18:09

purpose. Douglas wrote, wandering

18:12

encouraged lives of high spirits rather

18:14

than hushed, suffocating silence, even

18:19

with decades of distance. Once sh' a hobo,

18:22

you're always a hobo, and that tie goes

18:24

through the years. I once told

18:26

a hobo I interviewed about William O. Douglas,

18:28

and his response was, we have a Supreme

18:30

Court justice. That's

18:33

the community, the wei that people

18:35

like Ruby and Morgan ran off to join. And

18:38

when you're a hobo, you don't need much, but

18:40

you do need your traveling partners. From

18:42

what I'd learned, the best way to survive the trains

18:45

is not to travel alone. You need your

18:47

friends around you to protect you and to keep you

18:49

from making some dumb mistakes. And

18:53

even though Morgan hadn't been traveling long, she

18:56

wasn't alone in that box car floating over the Great

18:58

Salt Lake. She was with three friends

19:00

that when she traveled with everywhere for years,

19:03

because, as Morgan told me, the people you

19:05

travel with become family. When

19:07

I was in Subsidy and I met Shiny and Harper,

19:11

they never left me like we'd leave each

19:13

other, like from town to town and come

19:15

back together, but they were they

19:17

were like my traveling family. It was like

19:19

us for against the world till the

19:22

end. Morgan

19:24

said that if you're traveling alone, the first priority

19:26

was to find a fellow traveler, and if you

19:28

just find one traveling kid and

19:31

you meet up with them, then you'll find the

19:33

rest. And then that's your community and that's

19:35

your family. So no matter where you go, you

19:39

have the ways it means

19:41

to like find your community

19:43

of traveling kids and you're safe within that. Finding

19:46

your traveling family meant having people to watch

19:48

your back, keeping you safe when you were drunk

19:51

and preventing you from making a fatal mistake.

19:54

I was seeing from Alexei Morgan and Cecy

19:56

that there were so many different travelers, starry

19:59

eyed hippies, hardcore kids who like to

20:01

fight, and eccentrics, including

20:03

oddballs you might recognize from a coffee

20:05

shop or a music festival. Morgan

20:07

described some of them you got your like

20:10

old timey boat kids like I remember

20:12

seeing my first like old time folk kid, which

20:14

with some sort of he had like a ukulele or

20:17

or a mandolin or something, and an actual

20:20

cat that just sat on his shoulder

20:22

and looked like he looked like Oliver

20:24

Twists the way he dressed. No

20:27

matter which type of hobo, the way they get information

20:29

doesn't change. It's spread by word

20:31

of mouth or and online forums like Squat

20:33

the Planet or Read It, Morgan

20:36

told me. New writers also learned from the people

20:38

they met traveling. When they rolled

20:40

into town. The experienced writers knew where

20:42

to go to tap into the network. There were bars

20:44

where travelers hung out, and since people

20:47

come on and off the rails, writers who'd

20:49

settled down for a while welcomed people

20:51

passing through. Like me with

20:53

no knowledge going into l A, I

20:55

was by myself when I got there, and I thought

20:57

to myself, where would traveling kids

21:00

be? So that's where it went. A

21:02

lot of them were hanging out actually in Hollywood,

21:05

and so I found one, and then I found another,

21:07

and then eventually, by like the next

21:09

day, I knew every single squat in

21:12

Hollywood. Squats

21:14

are an important part of the hobo network, a

21:17

place to stay for the night, usually in rougher

21:19

neighborhoods. So a squad

21:21

is with any abandoned building, any

21:23

abandoned shelter building,

21:26

how that you

21:28

go into and take it for your

21:30

own, whether it be a short period

21:32

of time one night, or some

21:35

people squat in houses without

21:37

being caught for years. Not

21:39

every traveler got let in on the secret of where

21:42

the best squads were. Morgan said,

21:44

you had to think carefully about who you told.

21:46

Even outlaws have hierarchies, and in

21:48

the traveling world, experienced writers

21:50

are at the top. At the bottom of

21:52

the heap are Google's, the newbies,

21:55

the loud, bumbling, clueless kids who

21:57

don't know what they're doing. They get drunk

21:59

and may noise, drawing attention that

22:01

puts everyone at risk. And

22:04

if an Google proved to be too much trouble,

22:06

that Google would be left by the side of the track

22:08

at the next stop. If you're

22:10

cool, not it didn't matter. But

22:12

like you're annoying, Maybe you

22:15

are a liar, you're somebody

22:17

that blows up the spot, like you're super

22:19

loud and like tell people you

22:22

don't need to be saying, or you know, like

22:25

people would be like, you don't tell him where we're going,

22:27

Like let's lose them.

22:30

No matter where they stand in the hierarchy, writers

22:33

are always sizing up everyone they meet. There

22:35

are some scary people mixed in among the characters,

22:37

with cats on their shoulders and

22:40

squats aren't the only places hobo's come together.

22:43

Many big train yards have places where hobo's

22:45

camp out nearby. But knowing where

22:48

camp is doesn't mean you know who else will be

22:50

there. Your campmates might be criminals

22:52

or people who have a score to settle with another writer.

22:55

You need to keep your wits about you. I

22:58

met another hobo named Cherry Blackburn's

23:00

sort of a modern CC writer. I kept

23:02

hearing about Cherry from other hoboes before

23:04

I finally got to meet her. But what I did.

23:06

Cherry told me about a night in camp with her boyfriend

23:09

Eric. They were just hanging out waiting

23:11

for a train near Roseville. But

23:14

when word got around that a notorious hobo

23:16

named Dirty Mike was coming, the whole mood

23:18

at the camp changed. It's

23:21

kind of a crazy night. There was a bunch

23:23

of us under the Antelope

23:26

Street bridge and if we're all drinking,

23:28

and somebody said, oh,

23:30

you know, Mike's coming down here. Sure

23:33

enough, Mike showed up down there, and

23:37

he immediately like ran up to Eric

23:39

and was like, we need to talk. Jerry

23:41

could see that Mike had a real problem with

23:43

her boyfriend, so she tried

23:45

to keep the peace. He

23:48

pulled Eric aside and they started walking away,

23:50

and I could hear them like escalating

23:52

and then arguing, and so I like walked up,

23:54

like, hey, what the hell, you know, what's what's going on? You

23:56

guys need to chill out what you guys don't need

23:58

to fight? And out of nowhere,

24:00

and Mike pulls a gun out, so

24:04

he points a gun at me first, and then

24:06

he was holding the gun at Eric's

24:08

head and I was and everybody at this point

24:10

noticed what was going on. I was like, oh my god, and everybody

24:12

ran over him like, dude, you need to calm down. I'm

24:16

right. At that same moment, my friend Jason

24:19

noticed that his dog was missing, and he's like, oh my god,

24:21

my dog. Where's my dog? The lost

24:23

dog was just enough to break the tension. Everyone

24:25

started to look for it, even Mike. Mike

24:29

kind of forgot about what was going on for a second

24:31

because Jason was good friends with Mike and so

24:33

he we all like started looking

24:35

for the dog, and then they found the dog dead

24:37

on the overpass, and my

24:40

friend Tim went to go buy a shovel so

24:43

that we could bury the dog under there, and then Mike

24:45

helped Mike was like really bummed

24:47

out for our friends, so he helped dig

24:50

the hole to bury the dog can

24:53

from being like a crazy gun wielding maniac

24:55

to distraw trying

24:58

to help out somebody, and like in

25:00

like a half hour period, a

25:05

night in camp could be that unpredictable. So

25:08

any season hobo knows the size up the scene

25:10

when they arrive. Who's around the

25:12

fire? How well do you know the people you're with

25:14

if a fight broke out? Could you trust

25:16

them in that climate? Cherry might

25:18

have saved Eric's life? Did we be have

25:20

companions whould look out for her like that? But

25:24

there's another hurdle that not everyone faces.

25:27

Like the rest of the world, the hobo community

25:29

is deeply patriarchal, and being

25:31

a woman could be a liability. The

25:34

women I spoke with were so strong, so confrontational.

25:37

But despite how badass these women are,

25:39

men run the scene. So CC

25:41

writer has some advice for younger women about

25:43

how to survive in camp. Gotta

25:47

have your etiquette, keep your hands

25:49

to yourself, don't make googlias

25:51

at anybody else. Just

25:55

don't be stupid. And

25:57

that's what I've tried to teach other women out

25:59

there. Don't be flirting

26:02

around, you know, do not

26:04

cause chaos in camp. You

26:08

do that on your own with your men,

26:11

y'all go off and beat each other up. I don't

26:13

care, but you're not doing it in this

26:16

camp. Cecy spent

26:18

years as the only woman allowed to travel with her

26:20

husband Broken Arrows Railroad Gang the

26:22

Wrecking Crew. Sometimes, as

26:24

she put it, that meant knocking some sense into other

26:27

female writers to save them from worse

26:29

violence. One woman,

26:32

we're in camp, the six of us, two

26:35

o'clock in the morning, night here.

26:38

My brothers, if you don't shut the funk up,

26:41

we're gonna kill you. I

26:43

roll over and say, broken there, how I gotta do

26:45

something. So I got up and I said,

26:47

my brother's told you to shut the funk

26:49

up. I suggest you do. She opened

26:52

her mouth and I put my fist in her throat,

26:56

And when I was done with her, I

26:59

told her the only reason, and I whooped your asses

27:01

to save your life because you would not shut

27:03

the funk up. On

27:08

top of the danger in the yard, there was violence

27:11

at its edges, a blow that could come from

27:13

any direction. But what a wild

27:15

move from CC punching a woman in

27:17

the throat. So men wouldn't come for her. Ruby

27:22

is tough, smart, resourceful too.

27:24

She makes fools of everyone, but she's not

27:26

easy to fool. But

27:29

after talking to Cherry and Morgan, I saw

27:31

that wasn't enough. In a world that was sent

27:33

mail according to government

27:36

survey of railroad trespassers, how

27:39

would she beat the odds and survive? Would

27:41

she ever get to be as old as cec h.

28:00

Talking to former writers like CC and Morgan

28:02

showed me the rules and the risk of joining this

28:04

mobile community like Ruby did

28:06

when she split a graduation. Outsiders

28:09

might dismiss hobo's as street beggars, never

28:11

knowing that they have ideals, unspoken

28:13

rules of conduct, and a social order. These

28:16

were rules with long traditions, and if a new

28:18

writer didn't pick up on these things quickly, she'd

28:21

never graduate from Google status. But

28:23

either way, there was one thing Ruby couldn't

28:25

shake. She was a young woman. For

28:28

women everywhere, that's a vulnerability.

28:30

It definitely was on the rails, but

28:33

it also has advantages, like when trying

28:35

to make money on the street, she could make a

28:37

lot more money and faster than

28:39

men she traveled with. In

28:42

the beginning of the day, writers fanned out to spange,

28:45

meaning asked for spare change. As

28:47

Morgan described it, all her friends pitched

28:49

in if everybody goes off on their

28:51

own to like make money during the day. Harper

28:54

would always joke around and with maca like,

28:56

this is fucking bullshit, like I've been. I've been actually

28:58

like playing guitar ol day and

29:00

this bitch fucking made

29:02

all this money and didn't do a goddamn

29:04

thing. It is unfair to say Morgan made

29:07

money doing nothing. In fact, she told

29:09

me about a technique she used often when

29:11

that guaranteed should make a couple of bucks, and

29:13

this was something she could only pull off because

29:16

she's a woman. I would go to

29:18

grocery stores and I would go up

29:20

to women and I would say

29:24

I would go up and say, hey, just got my curios.

29:27

I'm leading all over myself. Do you have a tampon?

29:29

And that's all I would say, because here's

29:31

what, here's the deal. A woman

29:33

getting asked by another woman who's homeless,

29:35

who just wants such tampon. She's not even

29:38

asking for money. If I end up with tampons,

29:40

great because I needed them anything great. And

29:42

then they're they're kind of pricey,

29:45

pracy enough that if they didn't have a tampons,

29:48

they were willing to give me five ten

29:53

dollars. The people Morgan traveled

29:55

with would share everything, so it was a big advantage

29:57

for the group to have a woman who could make a hunter us.

30:00

It didn't matter if I made twenty dollars and

30:03

you made two dollars, and we made twenty two dollars,

30:05

like we all made this and we're going

30:07

to split it and get sucking alcohol,

30:10

you know, and we're going to get together. We're gonna

30:12

get food together. Money

30:14

wasn't something you held onto, Morgan said,

30:17

or even thought it as yours. What little

30:19

they had they held together without

30:21

saying like it wasn't even like a conversation

30:24

of like, al right, guys, we're getting the spear fucking

30:26

make sure everybody gets the same amount. People

30:28

are like don't know, traveling kids or people

30:30

of the culture like probably see them and think,

30:32

like, while they're very scary, but like, truly,

30:35

some of these people are the most beautiful, kind,

30:39

amazing people you'll ever meet. I

30:43

could feel that the draw to a world where

30:45

everything is shared and where people look out for each

30:47

other. I was even grateful for it,

30:49

because maybe these people could keep really safe.

30:52

And I knew she had people around her because

30:55

she was always calling me from other people's cell phones.

30:58

So one day, when I was trying to find her, I went

31:00

through the list of phone numbers I jotted down

31:02

from the various times she called me. On

31:05

my third try, someone answered. I

31:07

identified myself, said I was looking for Ruby,

31:09

my daughter. I could hear them calling out

31:11

to her. It's your other mother, other

31:16

mother, it's really

31:18

a herd. Since she left, I

31:20

wondered where I stood with her, so to

31:22

feel like I'd been replaced really stung.

31:27

So when she came to the phone, I confronted her,

31:29

and she thought it was funny. Why

31:31

was I so uptight about this? Of course

31:33

she knew I was her mom,

31:37

so maybe I was being uptight, and maybe

31:40

I should be grateful. She had people so close

31:42

that she thought of them as family, but

31:44

even that family was sometimes not enough. The

31:48

City of the Rails is a world of extremes. It's

31:50

a place where the beauty comes laced with danger,

31:53

with the same person who points a gun at you helps

31:55

you find your lost dog minutes later. For

31:58

women on the rails, this meant choosing who you

32:00

traveled with carefully, so

32:03

in my experience, I

32:05

usually had a boyfriend and and

32:07

and usually the groups of people that I

32:10

was with were people that I knew. Morgan

32:12

was with the same guy for most of her time hopping

32:14

trains. She was attracted to him,

32:17

yes, but there was something pragmatic about

32:19

the man she chose, and I met him

32:21

the most attractive thing, Like he had a great

32:23

personality and his fun and stuff. But like

32:25

I think it was just so attractive

32:28

to me that like if like with

32:30

him, he could just take me

32:33

anywhere. But like that's what attracted

32:36

me. If you knew what you were doing, that's where I

32:38

wanted to be because I wanted to learn

32:40

from you and I wanted to be safe. Morgan's

32:43

boyfriend was more experienced than she was.

32:45

He acted as both her guide and protector. This

32:48

is typical for relationships between men and women

32:50

on the rails. In fact, a woman

32:52

by herself on the rails is expected to find

32:54

a man. Morgan told me about one

32:56

time when her boyfriend ended up in jail. I

32:59

was on myself for the first time, and I called

33:01

my friend back home, who had train hopped

33:03

a little bit when she was younger, and she

33:06

was like, you got to find a guy. I was

33:08

like, okay. She found an older writer

33:10

who agreed she could tag along with him.

33:12

He was nice. They drank and went to an anarchist

33:15

bookstore. It was fun, but

33:17

when the evening came to a close, her protector

33:20

went to payback. When

33:23

it was time to go to sleep. Um, he

33:26

like kind of you

33:28

know, it was kind of like suggestive,

33:31

like, hey, you wanna sure sleeping back

33:33

because you know it's it'll

33:36

just be warmer. And I remember

33:39

feeling really intimidated

33:41

and you know, scared

33:43

a little bit just in general because I'm by

33:45

myself and I feel like almost

33:48

you are protecting me, so I need

33:50

to just do whatever you're you

33:52

know what I mean. I don't want to upset you and be

33:54

alone. And

33:58

it didn't go all all the way, but

34:00

but there was some you know, physical

34:03

uh you know, things

34:05

that happened that I did not want to happen, but

34:08

did not feel strong enough in

34:11

many different ways to um

34:14

kind of stick up for myself. And

34:17

sometimes you were consciously trading sex

34:19

for protection. Absolutely definite.

34:24

So do you think a lot of women end up making

34:26

that sigon? I'm

34:29

sure I can imagine, especially

34:32

women that are new women

34:37

new to the world have trains. I mean I have their road

34:39

dogs. Yet for them every night

34:41

is like that one when Morgan's boyfriend was in jail.

34:45

Morgan's stories of tampon, panhandling,

34:47

and coerced sexual encounters aren't unique.

34:50

Generations of female writers have faced

34:52

the same dangers and taken advantage of the

34:54

same opportunities. Of course,

34:56

this is something that happens to women everywhere.

34:59

We make trade offs to survive. For

35:02

Morgan, she tried dressing like a man, but

35:04

that wasn't enough control.

35:08

Back in her trailer, Cecy told me she took it

35:10

a step further. She decided to

35:12

act like a man. And I think you asked

35:14

me the question, why have I done manly things?

35:18

Because I'm

35:20

getting my anger out. All

35:23

these skills come in handy when you get on the rails.

35:26

Mm hmm. I got an

35:28

attitude. I

35:31

don't want none, don't need none, But if you

35:33

want them, come

35:35

and get it. But

35:39

even a tough old bat like Ceci traveled with

35:41

a protector broken arrow. His

35:43

gang, the Wrecking Crew, was a small, violent

35:45

group that worked the rails in the nineteen nineties.

35:48

At that time, there were several vicious gangs

35:50

like the freight train riders of America and the

35:52

Dirty who fought each other

35:55

for dominance on certain big rail lines. So

35:59

after pulling See See up into a train and

36:01

breaking off her stilettos, Broken

36:03

Arrow still made his bride earn her place beside

36:06

him. They didn't break me in as a woman,

36:08

he broke me in as a man. He broke

36:10

me in as he was broken. I

36:12

had to carry a case of bottled beer

36:15

for two months without breaking any

36:17

I mean, would drinkle, but would

36:21

replace them

36:23

despite the hazing. Cecy's loyal to the Wrecking

36:25

Crew to this day. She even

36:27

has Wrecking Crew tattooed on her ass.

36:30

Broken Arrow was violent but a great protector,

36:33

and Cecy needed him until she didn't.

36:35

After twenty years of riding together, their

36:37

time came to a close. She

36:40

was getting older and increased security was making

36:42

the rails harder to ride. So when Broken

36:44

Arrow beat her up again, Cecy decided

36:47

she was done. It

36:50

took me forty years to grow up, mother,

36:52

and to find what I wanted to do.

36:57

Granted ahead, get my ass beat again.

37:00

That I finally found my whole mm

37:02

hmm, and I also

37:04

love me and

37:07

me said stop it, so

37:11

I started all over again, and

37:13

now I'm a homeowner twice. Cecy

37:18

bought a trailer and a piece of land in Montana,

37:20

not far from the tracks. And even though

37:23

she's settled down now, Cecy hasn't left

37:25

the rails. She hosts travelers

37:27

and she still keeps in touch with her fellow train hoppers.

37:31

None of us ride anymore, none

37:34

of us were all on a crew. Change somewhere,

37:37

and I go and see him where they come

37:39

and see me the ones that are

37:41

left. I can count on

37:44

two hands that I rode

37:46

with, that

37:48

I camped with, swap

37:50

gear with. At

37:53

age sixty two, Cecy's seen a lot and

37:55

lost a lot of friends while she'd

37:57

been brought into this life by broken Arrow. This

38:00

world is hers now, and she's seen how

38:02

much it's changed. But she enjoys

38:04

her new position as the grand old lady of the rails,

38:07

and she's got words for the new class of writers.

38:10

Today. It's not

38:12

a good day to right freight. It's

38:15

just full of stupid kids out

38:17

there. You know,

38:20

you get drunk and you get

38:22

on a train that means you've got a

38:24

good chance to be and pulled under the train

38:27

and lose a lamb or life. Every

38:30

culture has its elders who want to explain

38:32

things to these whipper snappers, but

38:34

it comes from a place of love. And

38:37

I was surprised that, despite her tough exterior,

38:40

being in a position to help writers touch a soft

38:42

spot in CC. I know

38:44

that all of the works that have done for

38:47

these kids, coming off the tracks

38:49

and stuff, I'm gonna be

38:51

less than I'm

38:56

gonna be blessed. When I take

38:58

the west wind, I'm gonna

39:00

be riding high.

39:04

Sorry, I

39:07

just try to be righteous. So

39:10

all these years later, Cecy still makes sure

39:12

she has enough space for any writer's passing through,

39:15

even the new kids. But whoever

39:17

you are and wherever you're going, when you stop

39:19

by, have her. The price of admission is a lecture

39:22

from CC. I

39:24

tell them what you gotta

39:27

do. First priority

39:30

is you.

39:32

You gotta be righteous with thyself

39:34

before you can be righteous with others.

39:38

That's the first thing I say, be

39:40

righteous with you. You understand that I

39:45

don't ask for respect. I'd

39:47

be manned respect for the simple

39:49

fact I've earned it. I'm

39:53

CC rider for Christ's sayings. I

39:56

don't put up with stupid ship. After

40:05

that visit with c C, I had the answer to my

40:07

question. When we we threw down her sleeping

40:09

bag. I bet she had people she knew and trusted

40:12

nearby. This was a comfort to

40:14

me that she had joined a community that lived

40:16

by a code of loyalty and compassion. There

40:18

was a network to tap into a web of generosity

40:21

and support. She hadn't just run off

40:23

on the life she knew, but toward a life she wanted.

40:27

There were dangers in this world. Google's

40:29

had to learn quickly or be left behind. And

40:31

the women I had met from the rails were some of the fiercest

40:34

females on Earth. They'd have to

40:36

be or they wouldn't last long. By

40:38

now, I had a pretty good idea of the train yard

40:40

inside and out, and the hair trigger insanity

40:43

of the camps, and I understood

40:45

that this community might protect an Google like Ruby.

40:48

At least I prayed that she was with people who were watching

40:50

out for her, guiding her between squats

40:52

and train yards. Because no matter

40:54

who you traveled with, the point was the

40:56

hot train, all

40:59

right, and we're in. We're in.

41:02

We are now tress to

41:04

understand the realities of train hopping. I

41:06

know what I have to do next. I'm

41:09

going back to Roosevelt to find out what it

41:11

actually takes to hop a train. Hello,

41:16

this is what it sounds like inside the box

41:18

car. You know, you just run next to it.

41:20

You grab the ladder and you just run

41:22

with it until you get your balance and you just kind of

41:24

like swing on. I wasn't even doing

41:26

nothing, honestly, except

41:29

taking him back. He was being a little

41:31

fucking handy with me, you know, like rough. So

41:33

I remember throwing my pack and I just right

41:35

in that moment, I had to go right then, and

41:38

I jumped. That's

41:42

the next episode on the City of the Rails,

42:10

as well to drinking gas.

42:16

Look what You've done.

42:22

City of the Rails is hosted and written by me

42:24

Danielle Morton and developed in partnership

42:27

between Flip Turn Studios and I Heart Podcasts.

42:30

Having a strong reaction to this episode, I

42:32

think we got it all wrong. Call in

42:34

and tell us. Especially if you're a group of

42:36

badass women who ride without men to protect

42:39

you, I definitely want to hear from you. The

42:41

number is seven oh seven six five three

42:44

oh three three nine. You might end

42:46

up on the show at

42:48

I Heart. Our team is executive producer

42:50

and showrunner Julian Weller, Senior

42:52

producer and editing master Abooza far

42:55

and our excellent producers Emily maronof

42:57

Sina Ozaki and Zoe Denkla, who

43:00

survived hours and hours coaching

43:02

me how to speak with production support

43:04

from Marcy de Pina. Excellent

43:06

original music every episode by Aaron

43:08

Kaufman. Our theme music is Wayfaring

43:11

Stranger, performed by Profane Sass

43:13

thanks to Scott Michaud at Flail Records.

43:16

Our logo is by Lucy Kingtonia and uses

43:18

a photograph by Mike Brody. For

43:21

all of you can make it to the end of the credits every

43:23

episode, I have some good news. Mike

43:26

got in touch with me. He made a bold

43:28

move and dished his cell phone but not his email.

43:31

Shout out to CC writer for bringing me out to have

43:33

her Montana for the first time ever, and

43:36

also to Morgan for being so candid and

43:38

available to answer all my many follow

43:40

up questions. Our executive producer

43:42

at flip Turn is Mark Healey. If you want

43:44

to follow along, find us on Instagram

43:46

at flip turn Pods and at

43:48

I Heart. Thanks to Nikki Etre and

43:50

Bethann Machaluso. Want

43:53

to help us out, you can do it very quickly

43:55

by leaving us a rating or review wherever you're

43:57

listening to this. It will help more people

43:59

find the show, and it's a big deal to all

44:01

of us making this show every week. We'll

44:04

be back next week in Roseville because it seems

44:06

like I'll never get the funk out of Roseville. Next

44:08

week on City of the Rails,