Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, more than 250,000 children left their homes and hopped freight trains crisscrossing the United States. They were looking for work and adventure; some wanted to leave their homes, and some had to. They grew up in speeding boxcars, living in hobo jungles, begging on the streets, and running from the police and club-wielding railroad guards. The restless youth of these boxcar boys and girls, many who went from 'middle-class gentility to dirt poor' overnight, is rec...