REMEMBER WHEN TRAMPS USED TO COME THROUGH MY HOMETOWN OF MILFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE. THESE WERE MEN, USUALLY, NOT ALWAYS. THEY WOULD BE CLASSIFIED TODAY AS HOMELESS, I GUESS. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THESE PEOPLE WOULD CLAIM TO BE FREE SPIRITS WHO HAD CHOSEN THEIR WAY OF LIFE. THAT WAY OF LIFE WAS TO GO TOWN TO TOWN AND RELY ON THE GOODNESS OF PEOPLE TO SUPPLY THEM WITH FOOD AND A PLACE TO SLEEP. MY GRANDMOTHER NEVER TURNED ANY TRAMPS AWAY. SHE WOULD PROVIDE FOOD TO ANYBODY WHO KNOCKED ON HER DOOR. SOMETIMES SHE WOULD ASK THE PERSON TO STACK SOME CORDWOOD OR SOME OTHER CHORE. THE TRAMPS I SAW WERE NORMALLY STRANGERS AND WE NEVER SAW THEM AGAIN. AT AN EARLIER TIME, TRAMPS WENT ON REGULAR CIRCUITS. ONE TOWN THE FIRST DAY IN APRIL AND THEN THE NEXT TOWN AND SO ON, CALLING ON THE SAME FOLKS THAT HAVE HELPED THEM THE YEAR BEFORE. SOME OF THEM JUST LIVED IN ONE TOWN MOST OF THE TIME, HELPED BY NEIGHBORS. SUCH A MAN WAS PETE VARNUM OF CANDIA. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WAR AND WERE ONE, -- WORLD WAR I, ACCORDING TO A HISTORIAN, PETE VARNUM CHOSE THE LIFE YOU LEAD AS A YOUNG MAN BECAUSE HE HAD BEEN SPURNED VIA LOVER. THE RESULT OF THE LOSS WAS THAT PETE TIED HIS BELONGINGS IN THE BANDANA, SET OUT ON THE ROAD AND THAT IS WHERE HE STAYED THE REST OF HIS LIFE. HE WAS TALL AND GOOD-LOOKING AND WELL SPOKEN. HE WORE THE GARB OF A MUSIC HALL HOBO, RAGS AND A BEAT UP TALL HAT. PEOPLE LOVE TO SEE HIM COMING. HOUSEWIVES FED HIM BUT NOBODY INVITED HIM TO THE TABLE BECAUSE HE NEVER BATHED. PETE VARNUM WAS GOOD COMPANY BUT ONLY IN THE OUT-OF-DOORS. KIND OF LIKE THE COVID VIRUS TODA