Riding The Rails (Hardcover)

by Errol Lincoln Uys (Author) "At the height of the Great Depression, 250,000 teenage hoboes were roaming America..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Great Depression, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Go fend for yourself," Clarence Lee's father said. "I can't afford to have you around any longer." Like hundreds of thousands of other young people across the country during the Great Depression, the 16-year-old left home, hopped a freight train, and started riding the rails. An estimated 250,000 men and women--many of them in their teens--turned to the trains as fast and free transportation. Some left out of desperation and went looking for work, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles on the rumor of a job waiting farther down the line. Others left out of boredom; still others with a romantic idea of life on the road. Many realized, too late, that they were leaving little for nothing. Henry Ford, for one, thought the boxcar teens had it made: "Why it's the best education in the world for those boys, that traveling around! They get more experience in a few weeks than they would in years at school." As one contemporary observer noted, however, after about six months on the road, "the boys and girls lost their fresh outlook and eagerness. Trips across the continent were no longer educational, but were quests for bread."

Errol Lincoln Uys (pronounced "Ace") has collected thousands of letters written by boxcar boys and girls about their experiences, and peppers his chapters on the various aspects of hobo life with lengthy quotations, allowing the riders to speak for themselves. They talk about the danger--"You had to be careful not to stumble and fall under the wheels when you climbed on the cars"--and the desperation--"We were always hungry. Wasn't just 'cause dinner was hours late. It may have been a couple of days late. You were hungry, cold, miserable, with nobody to help you." They also talk about the remarkable kindness of strangers who fed and clothed the riders. Whether you're a "gaycat" (novice rider) or a "dingbat" (seasoned hobo), Riding the Rails is entertaining and inspiring, recapturing a time when the country was "dying by inches." --Sunny Delaney

From Publishers Weekly
This erratic account of the 250,000 "boxcar boys and girls" who traversed the country during the Great Depression amounts to an oral history of the seldom-studied lives of teenage hoboes. Using material gathered for a documentary film of the same title (made by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell, the author's son and daughter-in-law), Uys draws on interviews, letters and other fragments from thousands of former rail-riders who answered an announcement in Modern Maturity magazine seeking reminiscences about their lives. A number of anecdotes offer insight into the desperation that led teens to leave impoverished homes. A sign at a Louisiana cafe, for example, stated succinctly: "Dishwasher WantedAonly college graduates need apply." Jobs were so scarce that one 18-year-old climbed eagerly on a locomotive in Ohio after hearing there might be work at a Los Angeles hotdog stand. The poignancy of such moments is diminished, however, because the various episodes are hitched together like random cars on a freight train and the text takes on the aimless movement of its young subjects as they drift in search of a hot meal. The most accomplished passages frame the vicissitudes of hobo life within the larger context of Depression-era politics. For many former hoboes, New Deal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps offered the only alternative to hunger, jail and degrading hardship. Most remarkably, perhaps, this book shows how the occasional generosities encountered on the road instilled in these wanderers a lifelong ethos of humility and compassion toward others. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: TV Books; Presumed First Edition edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575000377
• ISBN-13: 978-1575000374
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #196,754 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #45 in	Books > History > World > Transportation > Railroads
  #60 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > Minority Studies
  #76 in	Books > History > United States > 20th Century > Depression

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A time to Reflect - a new beginning, December 5, 1999

By	Scott Anderson "Sharpsburg" (Shepherdstown, WV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This work was thoughly enjoyable. From the first moment I recieved it I reflected on its contents, pouring over each page as a child first learning of his past. "Riding the Rails" vividly portrays children thrust into adulthood upon their first adventure across our wide open country.

Not that they were out to conquer the world or to make their mark, but moreover to find a better way of life, or just simply to survive.

These are the stories of those that did survive. Let's not forget those who fell beneath the wheels of destiny, or those that died silently in cold empty boxcars amid the despair of the Great Depression. Their pain is silenced, but much of their legacy lives on.

Mr. Ulys, thank you for all your efforts in preparing this book and for bringing these subjects to the light of day.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uys Paints Poignant Picture of Life during Great Depression, December 10, 2002

By	Anne (Kansas City) - See all my reviews

Riding the Rails tells a story not often heard about life during the Great Depression. Although the story is fresh, it really puts into perspective what was going on in America at that time. By using teenage runaways to illustrate the struggles of our country, Ulys puts a very human face on the time period.
I thought the way the book was divided into sections with each section illustrating a different aspect of the runaways' lives, was extremely helpful. Each section began with an overview of the particular subject, using people as well as facts to tell the story. The section ended with the true life stories of the runaways told in their own words, which I found to be the most enjoyable part of the book. You could tell a lot of research went into finding reliable and interesting sources, because all of the personal accounts were compelling.
This book tied together so many aspects of the economic disaster that was the 1930s. By showing readers a face behind the poverty, they can understand how the country's economy has everything to do with the lives of its people. The stories told are so sad and hard to believe that it can serve as motivation to see that our country learns from its mistakes and never lets the economy become what it was at that time.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting read and well worth the time to gain insight into a compelling piece of history.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Made the Depression come alive, April 11, 2002

By	Martha Spizziri "ms5" (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book helps bring home the reality of life during the Depression. I think it would be a good one for high-school- or junior-high-age kids to read while studying this period of history. It doesn't tell the whole story by any means but it would be a good adjunct to a study of the period.

I disagree completely with the reviewer who said that the use of many, short quotes "makes for dull reading and dilutes the overall power of the experiences shared by these people." For one thing, there are longer first-person accounts at the end of each chapter. And to me the shorter quotes used in each chapter are moving in themselves. I also appreciated the greater scope of commentary they provided, more than just few stories in their entirety would have done.

I also disagree with the person who said there should have been more first-person accounts and less commentary. I think the commentary helps set the historical perspective, which not all readers might have.

That said, I can see how someone might want to read more first-hand accounts after reading this book. Some are mentioned in the bibliography.