The Great Depression was a devastating event for the American economy and the American people. Beginning in 1929 with the Great Crash of the stock markets, and lasting until the beginnings of WWII in the early 1940s, the Depression went on and on. Certainly there were times of faltering recovery, and there were gradations to the misery people suffered, but a return to normal unemployment levels and true prosperity eluded the country for all those years.
Naturally, there was a heavy social toll. The strains on families were especially painful. Parents worried that they would not be able to adequately feed their children. The children often felt that they were a burden to their parents, and older children frequently felt that if they couldn't get a job -- which was very difficult for young people in those days -- the best thing they could do for their families was to leave.
As a result, many thousands of young people, especially young men, took to "riding the rails". This just amounted to becoming a "tramp" or "hobo", and traveling about the country (normally, westward) by jumping aboard freight trains.
This experience is romanticized in songs by Woody Guthrie (father of Arlo Gurthrie) and others. No doubt it seems idyllic in the high pressure world of the 90s to think of being "as free as the wind". In reality, many of those who took to this life style were devastated by the separation from their families, and never fully recovered from the trauma of being dispossessed at, perhaps, age 15.
To learn about those times, read a few of the short tales told today by those who lived that life. Their bittersweet remembrances are hard hitting, and tell more than a simple description could. These are courtesy of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program American Experience.
I Was A Burden by Leslie E. Paul