January 23, 2012 | Reviews

Herman “Soupy” Musgrave can usually be found on a subway car, bundled up in  dirty blankets, drinking Ripple, offering unhygienic tins of stew to baffled teenagers on lunch breaks from The Gap and alarming other passengers by starting small trash fires to warm himself by.

At 109 years of age, “Soupy” is America’s oldest boxcar hobo and while train-transit may have advanced over the years, Herman still gets a thrill out of riding the rolling  thunder, reliving the 1930’s and the glory days of railway bums.

We have a love of mass transport that goes all the way back to, well, a week ago when we hawked a monthly subway pass.

A few years back, while visiting all the cultural sites in Bessemer, Alabama (this is a bit misleading as there is only one cultural site of significance in Bessemer, Alabama and that’s a very historic sign  – since stolen and moved to another town, thereby contributing to its cultural significance) we heard a knock on the motel room door and there was a 100-year old Herman “Soupy” Musgrave asking if there were any odd jobs that needed doin’ in exchange for a hot meal (say, the beans pictured).

“Soupy” had of course outlived his capacity for useful work by about 40 years, but the front desk, who had grown unaccustomed to such visits in recent years, gladly led him in and fed him- not in the lobby, mind you, as that would be disrupting to paid guests, but by the dumpster.

It seemed the visit brought forth fond memories of the older locals – other itinerants who’d passed by, that they’d fed and indiscriminately slept with as teenagers.

We got to talking and stories he told could fill up countless pages (not here mind you, as our attention spans are limited): the romance of the rails, the beauty of wide-open America, the dysentery, the land-borne scurvy and the threats of constant murder and forcible sodomy from the other boxcar hobos are just a few of the gems Herman shared.

“Soupy” is a wanderer however, and it was impossible to keep him contented in the mock-boxcar constructed in a back yard by a Motel 6 handyman, that could not even reach the neighboring 7-Eleven without a wheel becoming dislodged.

He kept grumbling about “when this damn car is going down the line.”

It better be soon, as few live to reach their 111th year.

This is a list of the oldest verified people and here’s hoping they’re all eating Soupy’s dust before he bites it.