HOBO SONG
(learned in the 1960s from Tom Aley and Tom Juster, two versions)
All around the watertank, a-waiting for a train,
I haven't got a nickel, not a penny can I show.
Nobody seemed to want me, or lend me a helpin' hand,
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
A thousand miles away from home, standing in the rain.
I walked up to a brakeman, to give him a load of talk,
He said, If you've got money, I'll see that you don't walk.
He said, Get off, you railroad bum, and slammed the boxcar door.
He put me off in Texas, a land I dearly love,
The wide open space around me, the moon and stars above.
I'm on my way from Frisco, back to Dixieland,
My pocketbook is empty, my heart is full of pain,
A thousand miles away from home, just a-standing in the rain.