Transients

While I am on the subject of the city park, I should not forget to mention that occasionally there would be a group of gypsies who would camp in the park for varying lengths of time. Whether they needed to get permission from the town authorities I don’t know. As children we were cautioned to steer clear of any contact with them.

The transient population of Gowrie included not only the gypsies, such people as those tenting in the vacant lots to the east of the little brown house in the Depression years, but also hobos or tramps. The latter were doubtless brought into town by the rail traffic through Gowrie, and I’d guess that at the present time there are few if any around. During their stay in Gowrie they tended to inhabit a sort of informal camp pr hobo jungle which was located behind the Armour chicken, egg and cream plant which in turn was located just across from the M and St. L tracks from the city water tower.

I have a vague recollection of having viewed the hobo encampment but I’m sure we had been instructed, or it was tacitly understood, to stay clear of the area. Whether the place was on railroad property or on city property that included an adjacent golf course I don’t know.

It was a fairly common occurrence for one of these tramps to knock on the back door of town residences asking for a free meal. I’m sure this occurred both for us at the little brown house and at my grandmother’s house. From what I’ve heard the request for food might be accompanied by the offer of some labor in return but this was never accepted by my mother or grandmother. Rumor had it that the hobo fraternity had an informal way of designating places where a free handout was possible or likely. I don’t know as to the validity of this.

The closest contact I ever had with a transient came not with one of the tramps staying or passing through Gowrie, but rather a fellow student at Fort Dodge Junior College. If I can believe what he told me, he had “ridden the rails” out to the West Coast and as I recall related some of his experiences. He was the kind of brash, adventuresome character that would have been attracted to this kind of activity. In the Depression years with the associated idleness of young men, thia activity might have been a likely possibility. I didn’t know this individual well and I can’t know recall his name. I think he came from the Fort Dodge area.