Cliff Williams' (Oats) Oral Histories with Hoboes in Britt, Iowa

Recorded interviews with current and former hoboes, including those whose stories appear in One More Train to Ride: The Underground World of Modern American Hoboes by Cliff Williams (Oats), published by Indiana University Press in 2003. All of the people on these tapes were or had been full-time rail riders, for some period of time, except for the following:

• Tim Moylan in Tape 7, New York Maggie in Tape 8, and Connecticut Shorty in Tape 11. They are siblings. Their father was Connecticut Slim, who was a hobo for 45 years. The interviews with them are about their father. 
• Wanda on Tape 11 - wife of Steam Train, a former full-time hobo

Citation:
Williams, Cliff (Oats). One More Train to Ride: The Underground Railroad of Modern American Hoboes. Bloomington: Indiana Unversity Press, 2003. 

• One More Train to Ride contains stories of 14 hoboes. Oats transcribed the recordings and then edited them for publication. He secured approval, in writing, from each interviewee. 

Notes:
Oats interviewed all of the people in these interviews with a four-dollar, rummage sale, battery-operated tape recorder. All of the interviews took place at Britt, Iowa, during the annual, national hobo convention in August, except for the one with Stretch on Side A of tape 7. Oats believes this interview's location was in Chicago, underneath a bridge, where he met Stretch. Prior to the publication of his book, he published two booklets of hobo poetry and one booklet of stories, under the imprint of The Hobo Press, which he created. He sold these booklets at the Britt convention and online, and gave the profits to the National Hobo Museum.

Contact information:
Cliff Williams (Oats)
cliffwilliams30@gmail.com
cwilliam@trin.edu

• Cliff Williams (Oats)