JACKSON'S HOBO DAYS CELEBRATE THE WANDERING LIFE

Few live the hobo life full time any more, but there are those trying to keep alive the romantic tradition of these railway wanderers.

Many of those are gathering in Jackson for this week's Hobo Days at the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway station."Hoboes are part of American life that we don't want to be forgotten," said Liberty Justice, who was elected King of the Hoboes at the annual hobo convention in Britt, Iowa, in 1996.

Justice travels around the country putting on hobo gatherings like the one in Jackson. Today through Sunday, the public can come to the station to see a hobo village, hear hobo stories, poetry and music and sit around the camp fire with men who have led the hobo life. There also will be train excursions with hobo themes at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday."We like people to come out and dress the part, dress like they think a hobo would. That really makes it fun," Justice said.

During these gatherings, Justice educates people on what the hobo life is."Hoboes are itinerant workers who ride the rails from place to place," he said, emphasizing hoboes are not bums and definitely not street people."The saying is a hobo travels and works, a tramp wonders and dreams and a bum just bums around," said Justice, who has been hoboing, at least part-time, since 1982.

Justice was a truck driver who would hobo in his spare time. When he retired in 1992, he began hoboing more often, including riding the rails."I rode my first freight train in 92," he said. Being inexperienced, he didn't realize the train was going only a little way north, then coming back. He ended up where he began.

But he kept after it and now has logged 20,000 miles riding the rails.

Justice's hobo experience is fairly typical these days, according to the men gathered outside the train depot Thursday morning.

Delbert Weaver, a 39-year-old Procter and Gamble employee who lives in Cape Girardeau, sat whittling a walking stick. He's been in love with trains since he was a child and has long held in his mind a romantic image of hobos.

Right now, he said, he's content to spend his vacations going to hobo gatherings held around the country like the large annual one in Britt, Iowa. But he's looking forward to his retirement when he can devote more time to the hobo life."You get to hear great stories, plus there's the camaraderie. It's like a big extended family," said Weaver, who has written songs about the hobo life and will be performing them this weekend.

Among others at the hobo gathering this weekend will be folk singer Fred Starner, "Backwoods Jack" Sophir and Begone Norm.

Norm on Thursday told of making grave markers for many old timers who "caught the west-bound home," and are buried at the hobo cemetery in Britt, Iowa."I make simple stones because they led simple lives," Norm said.

For information and ticket prices for train excursions, call 243-1688 or (800) 455-RAIL.