Hobo Cats!!!These mixed media pieces have a touching story behind them.
Read on to learn more
& check out my Etsy shop
to make one your very own!
www.kellienoelle.etsy.com
During the Great Depression, young men would travel the countryside looking for work. Many of them would journey to farms in search of a job helping with the harvest. With them they often carried their own hoes, to show that they even had their own equipment to do the job. They were often called “hoe boys” which was later shortened to “hobo” a term used to describe these hard-working wanderers.
The story goes, that these men would often knock on the farmhouse door to ask for work or a hot meal. If the woman who answered was generous and gave him a plate of food, the men would often carve a cat into the fencepost at the end of her lane. This cat came to symbolize to other, down-and-out fellows, that “A Good Woman Lives Here.” and these lonely travelers could find a home-cooked meal, and some much needed kindness, from the heart of a woman in a time of such great desperation.
The story goes, that these men would often knock on the farmhouse door to ask for work or a hot meal. If the woman who answered was generous and gave him a plate of food, the men would often carve a cat into the fencepost at the end of her lane. This cat came to symbolize to other, down-and-out fellows, that “A Good Woman Lives Here.” and these lonely travelers could find a home-cooked meal, and some much needed kindness, from the heart of a woman in a time of such great desperation.
