On a tip, I took a side trip through the Trumbull, Connecticut, railway graveyard on my way down from a hobo linguistics lecture at Yale this morning, and I’m glad I did (click pics to enlarge). I finally got an up-close look at an Erie-Lackawanna railcar, which, as some of you may know, was an inspiration for my third- or possibly even my second-favorite hobo poet of all time: Eerie Lackawanna.
Eerie Lackawanna was born William “Billy” Harlick in 1901. Accompanied by his on-again, off-again pet mongrel dog Unlonesome, he often set his poems to contemporary music, and they’re indelible, I reckon. Just get a look at this excerpt from “Hattie,” which was probably sung to the tune of “O, The Saviour is Mighty and Soothing” (traditional hymn):
O, the color of Hattie is blue jeans,
And the flavor of Hattie is wine.
All the favors of Hattie are hijinks,
And the color of blue jeans is mine.
Chorus:
Hattie, O Hattie, won’t you sit down again
On my lap for a nap and a happy sip of gin?
Hattie, O Hattie, won’t you come back a while?
When you left you bereft me of the breath between your smile.