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Fair-goers hop aboard the story train for sentimental journey with 'Gypsy Moon'
Without ever leaving their seats Wednesday, those in the Putnam County Fair Family Fun Day audience enjoyed a sentimental journey, taking in the clickety-clack of the railroad track, the romance of riding the rails and the thrill of hopping a freight -- something Hobo Queen Gypsy Moon did for a dozen years.
"It was just about the time I was getting into my 50s," spunky 70-year-old Gypsy Moon -- aka Hoosier Jackie Schmidt -- explained as she autographed copies of her compendium of oral histories of riding the rails, "Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos."
Schmidt wanted to walk in the shoes of her father, Bob, who took to hopping freights back in 1911 when he was but 13 years old. He rode the rails for 17 years but never stopped telling the tales to his daughter Jackie.
Hobos are misunderstood, she says, explaining they aren't like tramps who resorted to a lifestyle of migration out of necessity.
"They (hobos) all did it because they wanted to," she stressed, leaning toward the romance-of-the-rails notion. "But that era ended because of the Great Depression when everyone had to do it out of necessity."
But that didn't keep Schmidt from belatedly jumping aboard.
"My daddy was a hobo," she reiterated, "and I wanted to see what his lifestyle was like."
The hobo culture began after the Civil War, Schmidt noted, when returning soldiers -- quite used to living outdoors -- migrated around the country in search of employment. Following the railroads and laying down new tracks became a way of life for many, she advised.
In traveling the country, Schmidt learned survival skills, when and how to take precautions, and absorbed hobo culture and the tricks of avoiding the railroad police.
Living in hobo jungles alongside the tracks, she soon learned to cook and eat hobo food, even compiling a recipe book, "Hobo-Style Cooking," filled with favorite hobo recipes readily used at campfires or kitchens.
She learned to carry a plastic pickle bucket, using it to tote personal items, as well as using it as a step up into an open freight car.
"Women always want to know how we went to the bathroom (in the box car)," Schmidt said near the end of her presentation.
A combination of old newspaper, plastic grocery sacks, a large trash bag and a little ingenuity can go a long way, she suggested.
Less of a chore was Schmidt finding easy acceptance into the hobo community. That came easily with her father's history and her smiling charm and personality. Hobos christened her Gypsy Moon, and in 1990 elected her National Queen of the Hobos at the group's national convention in Britt, Iowa.
Despite experiencing a danger or two along the way, Schmidt said she never feared for her life at any time.
Rarely, however, did she tackle an adventure without encountering railyard security or local police.
Yet not once was she ever arrested, crediting her clean record to being a good storyteller who would charm the authorities with stories about her father once being a hobo and how she was trying to see what his life was like.
Gypsy Moon turned 70 last November but still harbored the desire for one more go-around on the nation's rails.
"I had a dear friend who wanted us to jump freights together one last time," she said, "but he died of a heart attack before we could ever do it."
So now the Queen of the Road will keep both feet on the ground for her "next big adventure" -- hiking the Appalachian Trail.
"Just part of it," she is quick to add, knowing the entire length is an imposing 2,200 miles.
Ever the romantic, Schmidt also hopes to hike five miles in every state with 14 areas to her credit so far.
While never homeless at the time of her travels, neither is Schmidt today. She has a house in Owen County.
She studied writing at Indiana University, lived in Carmel and Indianapolis, is a mother of two and grandma to four, and was easily a Family Fun Day hit.
"But I'll always be a hobo at heart," she smiled.