mattywoh

In 1977/78 I made two freight train treks...my best friend and I were working at a fast food place, 18 years old---at the last minute my friend chickened out but I still went....

I took a local bus to the LA bus station....rode a Greyhound to Bakersfield and walked and walked for hours, finally finding the train yard....the first train I saw I ran after it and hoisted up into a boxcar...a man was yelling at me but I kept running, only the train came to a halt and backed up---I thought it was backing up because of me--(I was like Cigarette, a total greenhorn)--the man chasing me was a Brakeman...who put together trains for transport-- he told me to sit an the dock, and he'd show me when a train was going out....this was the Southern Pacific line, which was a "friendly" line for hobos...Union Pacific was an unfriendly line, a Bo told me SP would always leave open at least one boxcar, because during the Depression some hobos helped save a train from crashing and SP never forgot that....

A train leaving the yard will always have at least two engine cars, the very first one I rode took me overnight to Fresno, and it went very fast...from there I went to Klamath Falls, during the night we went through a huge lake...maybe Shasta---pitch black...smell of trees...and stars like search lights! Total freedom! I was very green, and had been riding a piggyback car loaded with custom Camaros--- upon reaching Klamath Falls there were men with flashlights looking up in the cars, saying 'Cmon out"! I stayed hidden, and was told had they found me I might've been beaten to death, hobos riding the piggybacks with Custom Camaros were severely beaten, and often murdered....it was so cold I nearly broke into one, so I consider myself lucky....

One time in the Sacramento Delta I was on a train full of empty old flat cars, and up ahead I saw a strange black cloud....it was a cloud of locusts, and the train was going so fast---when we hit the black cloud--not a single locust landed on me, they were all pulled under the train, by the low pressure caused by the train speed!...

In Klamath Falls I stayed in a old (very old) hotel, for $20 for a WEEK'S rent! Right across from a huge dairy complex, where for $.5 cents you could get a 20oz frosty mug of milk or chocolate milk....for the next two months I became pretty good at hopping freights, but I did not realize how dangerous the lumber cars were, because lumber can shift and crush a man....riding trains is very dirty-- but the scenery was the best I have ever seen...going thru mountains---train a mile long you'd see your train way down from you--the same train! I also saw several trains that had fallen down the mountains, they were decades old---they just left them hanging.....riding freights isn't for everyone, I'd pack a loaf of bread...jar of peanut butter...gallon of water....had five or six $20 taped inside my Levi's legs--- you had to be aware at all times.. and hoisting up on a moving train your legs go way under---very dangerous....but I was fit and young--and never felt more alive!... Emperor of the North reminds me of my "Cigarette Days"

Hud is the only movie ever that I watch anytime it is on, or available. I suppose that makes Hud my favorite movie...

As far as casts go Hud is the best foursome ever assembled, on one hand you have Paul Newman at his finest, and his co-stars Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and Brandon de Wilde all hold their own alongside...

Sparse landscape---desolate and stark, filmed in black and white, which is appropriate....the story is stark, as well as the subject matter--and Hud, himself..

Haunting score, goes with the settings perfectly, brings a certain mood that complicates the director's intent..

Hud is the best movie ever made, in my opinion..