What's the Moniker Mean

I am an avid traveler and enjoy meeting many interesting people. This post is named "The Hobo's Ramblings" because I was appointed to be a Grand Duke of Hoboes for life by one of the greatest Kings of the Hoboes ever, Steamtrain Maury Graham. I became a friend of Maury's in the 1980's and, although we had lost touch with each other, I still considered him a good friend and a wonderful personality. I was very saddened last year when he died. I was officially dubbed "Black River Blondie" in Britt, Iowa by my hobo friends. I've pretty much shortened it to "Black River" though, particularly as the blonde turns much more grey. My friend Joe and I read about the "King of the Hoboes" in an old Reader's Digest article and decided we HAD to meet this dude. We packed up our stuff, went out to the Catoctin Colorfest in Maryland and tracked him down. Met him, talked, hit it off right away. He invited us to come out to Britt for the annual Hobo Convention and, that August, we made our first trek. A great experience. Went back several more times and got to stay in the "jungle" with my friends and learn a lot about the "good old days" and the "bad old days" on the steamtrains. I'll never forget it. We were even filmed and interviewed for the TV show "Real People" (that dates me doesn't it) but the interviews were cut from the final show .... damn ... there goes my 15 minutes of fame. We are visible in the background though and it was fun to see ourselves on TV. But that's what the name means to me and why I chose it. I'll try to use that as the theme to many of the ramblings.