Hobo Jungle

[Tramp]

Wayne, I've never heard the term carriage porch. Is it the same thing?


Jimmy looked up now at Doris Callahan’s black windows. She went to bed early and was obsessed with saving electricity, refusing to leave on even a hall light. With the package of pork loin under his arm, he walked past the monolithic white posts of a porte cochere, their bases brown with rot. One bare bulb hung in the center of the sagged ceiling, a clumsy star of shadows on the ground and stone steps. It was Doris’s single lighting extravagance, and he’d had to beg for it. He closed the elliptical-paned front door with a tender click, entered the dark hall, thumbed on the newel post light, an acorn of amber, and mounted the wide stairs. The house had that smell of age. Dust, wax, varnished wood, molting curtains, worn-out stair runner, dry air breathed a thousand times—who knew? Half way down the second-floor hall he managed to unlock his door by feel with an old-fashioned iron key. On the bottom step, a massive yellow tom with a missing ear arched his back in greeting, letting loose a hoarse baying as Jimmy reached down to scratch him. Together they tiptoed up the steep stairs to his rented rooms. His heavy boots weren’t ideal for this, but Doris insisted on quiet, so he did his best.

[P&R Pete]

The house had that smell of age. Dust, wax, varnished wood, molting curtains, worn-out stair runner, dry air breathed a thousand times—who knew?

Tell me, can the hobo 'set a scene', or what? Smells exactly how my grandmother's brownstone in Hoboken smelled.
One of my favorite lines from Tramp's story.

92 degrees here yesterday, in Northcentral Pennsylvania. We were all a bunch of sweatbags. Our newly-opened pool was about 66 degrees. Major shrinkage! Sublime relief.
But last night at midnight a cold front blew through, giving us one huge Hellfire-And-Brimstone storm with window-rattling thunder and bolts of lightning coming two per second, the landscape more lit than dark. It was the talk-of-the-diner this morning, as was a local farmer's barn that got hit.
Me and the redhead wound-up with two kids in the king-size for the night.

Well, time to go dig, and await the arrival of the honey-wagon. A cold beer awaits the last toss of dirt.

[P&R Pete]

Old Glory looks damn good on that house!

That house looks damn good under Old Glory!

[webenda]

Tramp,

Main Entry: porch
Pronunciation: 'pOrch, 'porch
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English porche, from Old French, from Latin porticus portico, from porta gate; akin to Latin portus port -- more at FORD
1 : a covered area adjoining an entrance to a building and usually having a separate roof to protect people entering or leaving the building from inclement weather.

Main Entry: porte-cochere
Pronunciation: "pOrt-kO-'sher,
Function: noun
Etymology: French porte cochère, literally, coach door
A Porte cochere, from the french for coach door, in its simplest meaning is a cover over a vehicle loading point that protects those entering or exiting the vehicle from the weather.

I imagine the porte-cochere in your novel looking something like this (except the monolithic white posts are of wood and the whole thing is rundown.)



Is it a carriage porch? I think it is.

By the way... I have searched for your novels without any luck. Are any published?

[rogruth]

Wayne , I asked the same thing some time ago and never really got an answer . Maybe this time.

[Tramp]

None of my novels have been published. Sorry if I was vague about that. It's frustrating when you get very close to getting published, but it doesn't quite happen. I've published poems and a few articles, but that's it. Hopefully my new book will attract a publisher. Without connections it's not easy.

If anyone REALLY wants to read one, I could email that person the mss.

[2railjon]

Tramp, I think your writing is the best!!! I can't wait to purchase an autographed copy of your first novel!!
Pete had mentioned in the bar your latest work was off the charts!!








Hev, Naaa!!!! I'm not going totally MTH!! There's just a few engines that they've made that I don't think anyone else is gonna get around to making. And that certainly was one of them. They also make a light kit for the dummy unit that will be available this Summer. It's not cheap but it beats rounding up all the different bulbs and resistors.

[hev52]

I thought there was lights in that dummy unit........

hev

[2railjon]

Hev, look what was waiting on the doorstep when I got home from work!!! Thanks for hunting down the PRR N-8. The best 39.00 bucks I ever spent on a caboose.

[hev52]

Hey, that looks just like mine Looks real cool Jon............... Man, that was a quick transaction. That's what I call service. I want to see bringin' up the rear on a long *** freight and some babes hangin off her.......

I notice that your # is 478123 and my is 478069 Hmmmmmmm


hev

[2railjon]

Possibly because mine was part of a Premier Set break-up?

[hev52]

Your probably right. The sets could have had diffrent numbers.

hev

[2railjon]

The bar is open, "bo's. Belly up!

[Tramp]

I got the next round. We had a quite the rain storm yesterday, then a humid night. Reminded me of the South. Beer tastes good in warm weather, doesn't it?

[2railjon]

The cold front slammed into us yesterday afternoon. It poured cats and dogs!!! Nice cool morning but the temp and humidity is slowley climbing on up. I'm helping a neighbor pull a radiator out of a Geo Prism. What a freaking nightmare!!!! I'm beginning to think we really did'nt win the war after all.
The next round is on me!!