Installment #5: A tramp named Nora

Train tracks were located about two blocks north of where Bertha and Claudell lived. Claudell could often be seen filling her red wagon with shucked corn cobs and coal that had fallen off the train cars. Bertha used the cobs and coal to burn as fuel in their pot belly stove, thus getting much-needed heat during the cold winters.

Before gathering cobs and coal to take home, Claudell would first gather a load for one of her best friends - an older homeless woman (or tramp) named Nora. I wanted to know the difference between a hobo, tramp, and bum so I turned to Wikipedia and found this explanation: "Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but see themselves as sharply differentiated. A hobo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but sooner or later he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police."

Nora fell into the "tramp" category. She had no family or home so she began "riding the rails" at a very early age. She had little or no education and would go to homes begging for food. When she wasn't riding the rails, she was living with hobos in their villages. There she learned how to speak hobo slang and survive. They were her family.

When Nora got older, she decided to stay in Galena. She made a shanty nestled in some catalpa trees not far from the railroad tracks. Her home was built from whatever materials she could find - wood, tin, roofing scraps. An old tarp served as her front door. The pot belly stove inside her hut was a heat source and could also be used for cooking a pot of beans. Outside was a fire area that had a pole on each side and a pole in the center. Hanging on the center pole was a pot. Nora did most of her cooking there. She also had a fenced in area to keep her chickens close by.

The clothes Nora wore were raggedy. During the colder months, she would wear several layers to keep warm. The layers were shed one by one as the days grew warmer. The garments she wore were items she found in the garbage. She didn't wash the clothes before putting them on. They were probably never washed the entire time she owned them.

Like most people, Nora received commodities. The little money Nora received from the government was spent on chicken feed and "tobacky." Claudell would gather cigarette butts she found on the ground and take them to Nora. Nora would combine the leftover tobacco from the butts (or snipes as she called them) and roll new cigarettes using cigarette paper. Claudell would also bring Nora soap from home so she could bathe occasionally, even though it never appeared that Nora used the soap to clean anything.

Nora was shunned by most people. Claudell thought it was her responsibility to help Nora as much as possible. She doesn't remember just how long this went on. She does remember going to the tracks one day and Nora wasn't there. She went again the next day and still no Nora. Nora had died.