After watching the movie “Riding the Rails” I know understand why some kids would want to leave home and travel the country by boxcar. The conditions back home were awful. For one many of the railroad boys families were broke and some didn’t even have a home. It must have been quite sickening to be out traveling the country alone, just knowing you have virtually nothing to come back to other than your family, if that. Many kids who left home parent’s had lost their job and couldn’t supply the family. When riding the rails it looked very dangerous, falling off, missing a footstep, or tripping were all hazards just waiting to happen. With 250,000 kids out on the rails some were bound to be injured and killed. Just the thought
After watching the movie “Riding the Rails” I know understand why some kids would want to leave home and travel the country by boxcar. The conditions back home were awful. For one many of the railroad boys families were broke and some didn’t even have a home. It must have been quite sickening to be out traveling the country alone, just knowing you have virtually nothing to come back to other than your family, if that. Many kids who left home parent’s had lost their job and couldn’t supply the family. When riding the rails it looked very dangerous, falling off, missing a footstep, or tripping were all hazards just waiting to happen. With 250,000 kids out on the rails some were bound to be injured and killed. Just the thought