Drifting with the Beckett brothers

Gerald and John Beckett spent their younger days as quintessential hoboes, hopping boxcars and drifting along the highways and byways of America until they had visited nearly every state. But they always returned to their hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia where, in their later years, they enjoyed a measure of fame and a lot of charity. Better known as “Pete” and “Repeat,” the siblings could usually be found walking the railroad tracks or marching along busy highways, one shuffling closely behind the other in nearly identical hunched stances. The would often spend time socializing at the rectory of a local Catholic church or in a soup line at the Salvation Army before setting out on a daylong journey with no real destination.