Hello all!
I'm "Shoestring". I acquired the name Shoestring from my father who also rode freight trains. He of course was a real "STP'er", (Steam Train People). He rode freight trains during the 1940's and 1950's. He rode for roughly 17 years solid. They called him "Doc" during his glory days.
I moved 26 times before I graduated high school, so trains may or may not have been simmered into my blood from all these moves, of course I believe it came both from this and being biologically born of another professional hobo!
Anyway, I was and still am to some degree a bit quiet and shy. This is most likely my reasons for wanting to ride alone thus belonging to the "ITRA", (Independent Train Riders of America) for 19 years during my train hopping career.
I found out about my liver cancer early last spring and had to get a "homebase" so I could get medical issues taken care of. (I started chemo a few times since spring, but it sure does make me feel worse than the cancer itself)! I still push myself too hard in trying to ride with all this shit going on with me! I'm taking tons of narcotic pain medications now for the cancer, thus this is what gets me into trouble being that I can't really "feel" the pain as bad and then I'll get myself way out somewhere on a freight train and run low on my pain medicines and then reality hits me hard right smack in the face like a tube of lipstick on Tammy Fay Baker! I then am stuck out on the side of the railroad tracks or inside a boxcar in dire abdominal pain and wish I'd never left my apartment in Sioux Falls here where I'm now! (I really have got to realize that I'm sick and should not be doing what I'm doing), but you know how that "Wonder Lust" builds up inside of your bloodstream and you feel like you're going to burst at the seams then you fly out the door and down to the railroad yard and you ride,...you ride and you ride hard! It's the only way that you can sleep, it's the only way you know how to function, it's the only thing that you know to do to get your mind together, and that's to ride, ride and ride, so ride on my brothers. Ride on hard like there is no tomorrow, because when you are faced with knowing that your train riding days may soon be over, all that you want to do is be happy, and for me, this is riding my freight trains and walking into camp and saying hello to my fellow train riding brothers out there! So, to all my brothers out there that might read this whether you know me from past train hops or you're meeting me for this very first time, I say, be good to one another and keep each other safe out there on the rails and make sure your fellow brother does not get hungry or thirsty because I believe what comes around all goes around, so help each other out the best that you can!
"Shoestring"
I'm "Shoestring". I acquired the name Shoestring from my father who also rode freight trains. He of course was a real "STP'er", (Steam Train People). He rode freight trains during the 1940's and 1950's. He rode for roughly 17 years solid. They called him "Doc" during his glory days.
I moved 26 times before I graduated high school, so trains may or may not have been simmered into my blood from all these moves, of course I believe it came both from this and being biologically born of another professional hobo!
Anyway, I was and still am to some degree a bit quiet and shy. This is most likely my reasons for wanting to ride alone thus belonging to the "ITRA", (Independent Train Riders of America) for 19 years during my train hopping career.
I found out about my liver cancer early last spring and had to get a "homebase" so I could get medical issues taken care of. (I started chemo a few times since spring, but it sure does make me feel worse than the cancer itself)! I still push myself too hard in trying to ride with all this shit going on with me! I'm taking tons of narcotic pain medications now for the cancer, thus this is what gets me into trouble being that I can't really "feel" the pain as bad and then I'll get myself way out somewhere on a freight train and run low on my pain medicines and then reality hits me hard right smack in the face like a tube of lipstick on Tammy Fay Baker! I then am stuck out on the side of the railroad tracks or inside a boxcar in dire abdominal pain and wish I'd never left my apartment in Sioux Falls here where I'm now! (I really have got to realize that I'm sick and should not be doing what I'm doing), but you know how that "Wonder Lust" builds up inside of your bloodstream and you feel like you're going to burst at the seams then you fly out the door and down to the railroad yard and you ride,...you ride and you ride hard! It's the only way that you can sleep, it's the only way you know how to function, it's the only thing that you know to do to get your mind together, and that's to ride, ride and ride, so ride on my brothers. Ride on hard like there is no tomorrow, because when you are faced with knowing that your train riding days may soon be over, all that you want to do is be happy, and for me, this is riding my freight trains and walking into camp and saying hello to my fellow train riding brothers out there! So, to all my brothers out there that might read this whether you know me from past train hops or you're meeting me for this very first time, I say, be good to one another and keep each other safe out there on the rails and make sure your fellow brother does not get hungry or thirsty because I believe what comes around all goes around, so help each other out the best that you can!
"Shoestring"