170 Redball Charlie Dickens
Originally uploaded by Ape Lad.
I gotta say, half the fun of the 700 hoboes project is all of the interesting real facts I am learning along the way (as opposed to the made up facts in Hodgman's book, which are equally interesting, but for different reasons).
The term "red ball" appears on the list a couple times and can have applicable meaning to hobodom:
a) US route 218 was nicknamed the Red Ball Route when it was being built in 1913.
b) Red ball is also railroad parlance for express delivery.
c) The red ball express was the nickname of a european supply train which opened up shortly after D-Day.
(c is actually disqualified from applicability due to the fact that the hoboes had disappeared from the earth a few years prior to D-Day, as anyone who has read Mr. Hodgman's book will remember.)
I chose to go with a.
