hobo not now the first garden i grew, in 1997, someone stole some of my cabbages. they cut 'em right out of the cabbage patch. my old neighbour then, nice lady, she told me it was probably garden raiders. she said "maybe it's hobo johnny up to his old tricks again". after a few minutes of conversing, my mom and i realized that 'hobo johnny' was my cousin john who lived up the hill from us. i never got to meet my cousin johnny. he was my grandpa's brother's son. he was around the same age as my mother. he was a twin, but his brother died early on. johnny's father drove across the border one day when he was young, and he kept driving. he never came back. my grandpa thinks he died in the great alaskan earthquake. he said he hired a private eye once to find out, but they couldn't say for sure what happened to him. i wonder if secretly my grandpa knows. johnny had a boyfriend who was a professional wrestler. my father used to pick him up sometimes when he was hitchhiking. i met him once when i was looking for my lost cat mina. i wanted to meet johnny too, but he died before i got a chance. my mother tells me that johnny was the first man to ever skate on his head (or maybe it was hands) in the ice capades. i was reading a health magazine one day and there was a story all about an olympic swimmer guy. there was a photograph of the man, walking down a street somewhere in vancouver. walking beside him was my cousin johnny. "John ______" the caption read. it was the first photograph i'd seen of him. he was quite good looking back then. i saw him once before he died. from my kitchen window i saw him. he was walking along the road. he was on his way home. he was dressed in raggy clothes. he looked 'like a hobo'. i admired him for that. as a kid, i fancied the thought of someday becoming a real hobo. 041016 ... skyburst777 i'll never be a real hobo 050609 what's it to you? who go blather from