| Summary: | In this interview, Charlie Scott describes a life of hoboing and gambling, as well as a mining job and making moonshine during the Depression. Scott's birth father was a coal miner. His step-father worked at a coke oven. The family left the country to come to the city for work. Scott's first job was at a coke oven. When he left that job, Scott hoboed around the country, living on earnings from gambling. He traveled through Kentucky, Chicago, Memphis, Arkansas, and Mississippi. He describes hobo life and says he mostly traveled alone because it was safer. Scott explains that he had a short-term job with the Ringling Brothers Circus. He was also in jail for stealing, and he worked in a chain gang. He said people weren't beaten or mistreated unless they misbehaved, and no one was actually chained unless they'd tried to escape. Later, he says he was accused of stealing a pistol, which was actually a payment for winning a gambling game. This landed him in prison for 26 years. Scott also recalls hearing about prisoners working in the mines, though he never had to. He says some of them were killed, and it was much rougher work than he was doing. Scott ends by explaining that he survived the Depression by gambling and selling homemade whiskey.The digitization of this collection was funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries.
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