Teenage Train Hoppers

[aldenfender]

Has anyone seen this article yet? http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/photos-teenage-train-hoppers/

Loved the photographs.

 

[jesse1dog]

So did I. Thanks for the link.

jesse

 

[dfatty]

coincidentally just ordered that book (second edition from publisher's web site), based on someone mentioning it in the "library" thread here on RFF. looks interesting.

 

[helen.HH]

Me loved it toooo... Beautiful...Bittersweet
Quite an Adventure !

 

[sgtnikolaix]

Really good images!

Did anyone read this comment the bottom?

"I've a nephew in his 20s who does this and has for years. He eats garbage, is dirty, smelly, and probably diseased. When he gets tired of riding the rails or the weather is too cold, he returns home to his bed, food, tv, computer and games. He does no or little work, receives his $200 food stamp card, begs on street corners. He also fancies himself a musician as he carries his guitar everywhere and know three chords, but can't carry a tune. He wants to be a chef because he can fix up dumpster tossed restaurant scraps into something even dogs won't eat. My nephew is also just on north side of sanity and mental health. He's a chronic drug user and smoker, but doesn't drink alcohol because that leads to alcoholism. He was once a kind, loving, industrious, and intelligent kid. Now, he's a lost case and his vagabond friends, whom I've met, are just as useless and worthless as my nephew. We love him and we're afraid of him."

Think it should have been included in the book 😛.

 

[mugent]

Great images, really great in fact. I love photos that show me a life I didn't think existed, or knew nothing about.

 

[robklurfield]

The images are great (thanks for sharing the link), but the socio-economic milieu from the past which it references is rather upsetting. Perhaps these young folks are poseurs. But when one thinks back about the Great Depression, when many folks did this out of necessity, rather than adventure, it just seems like a sad commentary. Adventure is great, but economic dislocation -- not so much.

 

[Al Patterson]

I think this has been covered somewhere before. I remember seeing those photos before. Interesting, but dangerous...

 

[tunalegs]

You will meet all types.
Spoiled brats who think it is cool, but can run home as soon as they get bored or tired of being dirty all the time. Poor people who just want to go somewhere else. Crazy people who don't know what they're doing.

I'd see a lot of these sorts of kids a few years ago, but I guess the fad is wearing off, as well as the economy isn't quite as crap as it was two to three years ago.

Given how much attention and press the photog has managed to wrangle up though, I'd be surprised if they didn't have plenty of money or at least connections.

 

[jwicaksana]

Strong images there. Thanks for sharing the link.

 

[travis.taylor]

Those pics really grabbed me. Like really....