The “hobo” character in the song is just a guy who never got his life together in a way he was satisfied with. That was Pat Hale. Although I didn’t consciously make the connection when I wrote it — it was happenstance — that’s how it turned out. Pat was never happy with his station; never settled as a family man; caroused some I think; just couldn’t put it all together.
The other part was that he absolutely loved New River, and Indian Creek. When he was there, he was kinda at peace. Often, I’d see him just looking into nothing, totally relaxed.
Once he said to mom, who repeated to me, “If you want to be nothing, do nothing, come with me and live in the stinking coal camp of Stickney, West Virginia. There is no one there who has any sense or any curiosity about anything.” And more. His description of Stickney: a barber shop, a company store, dirt, dust, people with no drive, no future, no ambition for themselves or their children. Through all that, Pat had a spark, and he was crazy about his parents and Audrey (and the rest of the family though not as open).
When he retired from the Chevy plant in Cleveland, he moved back to the Beckley area; then he and Joe Hale got a place on the Greenbrier River. Although his COPD was serious, his final years were probably peaceful. He and Joe were great buddies and closest brothers, and they had fun on the Greenbrier. He died in the spring of 1982, while we were still in Lewisburg. I went to his funeral in Beckley — the Hale crowd was there, along with dad and mom.
I really liked Pat. His brain was good but never challenged. His sense of beauty was a lot like mom’s.
This video features Alan singing this song from a recording made in 1965. The opening and closing photo was taken by Alan’s brother David in the 1950s and 1960s, all of them of Sandstone Falls.