Back in the day, you didn’t need a GPS system on your smart phone to find the Black community in any city or town. All you had to do was to find the downtown area and then look for the rail road tracks. For example, in Tallahassee, Florida it is as easy to find Florida A&M University now as it was to find the school 50 years ago. FAMU is on one side of the rail road tracks and FSU, or Florida State University, is on the other.
As a young boy in Atlanta, I spent a considerable amount of time on trains. I would oftentimes catch the train in the projects and ride the train to other parts of the city.
No, I wasn’t in the dining car or the sleeping car, I rode in the freight cars.
You see, I was hobo-ing since the age of about 12 years old.
Well, I can’t hop a train these days because the trains move much faster. Don’t even try to jump onto a MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) train or any high speed train anywhere in the world.
Slow trains are gone but you can still be a hobo!
Today, hobo is spelled differently and even has a different meaning.
The new hobo is the ho beau!
If you are in love with a woman or a man that disrespects you, sleeps around and shares time, money and body parts with someone other than you, you have a Ho beau!
Only God can judge you and your man or woman but it is not very safe to have multiple sex partners or have a partner that has multiple sex partners.
If you just have to freak, so to speak, you had better freak with professionals. In legitimate brothels or whore houses, the workers have to be examined by doctors on a weekly basis. They are tested for STDs and also for contagious diseases like flu, tuberculosis, pink eye and a variety of other stuff.
Two heads are always better than one, but in the words of Bob Marley “One Love” is better than that!
Everyone can recognize a Ho beau. In fact many people have a Ho beau, they just don’t know they have one!
I’m worried about the senior citizens that will do almost anything in their search for love or companionship. Seniors, and young people too, be careful with who you decide to sleep with.
If you are old enough to have an AARP card and you’re looking for a spouse or committed mate, take your eyes off of that man or woman that will leave home at 11pm two or three times a week to go to a club or set to slow dance (or grind on) multiple people until 3am in the morning. That is not a good look!
Respect yourself! Don’t be a Ho beau and don’t let a Ho beau spoil your love life!
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.