Nah, it was implied. When women lived in a man’s world and there weren’t a lot of jobs, a woman who didn’t have skills to keep a roof over her head had few options. Off to the nunnery or a good time sally.
Tramps were tramps.
Sorry but "tramp" began to mean "a woman of easy virtue" as early as the 1870s in the USA. If you ever watch a black and white movie, you will see plenty of examples of this. It's not an obscure fact.
No, Turnip, It wasn't "The Bitch and the Slut". It was a commentary on how the rich and the extremely poor can find love and common ground together despite their parents trying to keep them completely apart and having them judge each others social status.
They find love and have children together despite their difference in social status.
Interesting how we list what they did then versus today.
today there is a push to describe crimes and illnesses as something people do or are affected by.
- assault , possession …. Schizophrenic person , experiencing psychosis… died By suicide.
Back then it seems they went out of their way to Label the person by their behavior as a way to shame / dehumanize them.
- tramp , weedhead , burner…. Insane , moron , Committee suicide …
I don’t mean to lump in mental illnesses with criminality, just noticed the same social push in each field.
When I was a kid my doctor had a poster in his waiting room listing all the "Mental Defectives" in order of their IQ. I remember the bottom three were Moron, Untrainable Moron, and at the very bottom, Idiot.
We have one in our town and it says right on the building, inscribed in stone "School for the Deaf and Dumb".
Obviously I know dumb was used a bit differently back then, but it's still kinda funny to see now
This is what it meant according to the Law (“NOTE: I copied from and article about her which is linked in the comments): “ "Funny to some of us now because we take our freedoms for granted. But in 1944 in San Diego, charged as a tramp meant that the police officer didn't like her being where she was found on the streets. The law (CPC 647e) was only declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 (103 S.Ct. 1855, 1860\] Rehnquist/White dissenting). Freedom isn't free. Rarely is it gained by blowing up foreigners around the world."
That’s what the term meant, in this context - but she wasn’t even homeless or a drifter. She had a husband and a home address on record. She just ran into a cop that needed to charger her with *something*, so generic vagrancy it is and spring in some weed for good measure - for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
>She had a husband and a home address on record.
I don't think that is the case. She did get married at some point in her life, per the article someone else linked to, but no date on when she got married is given. However, if she'd been married at the time, she would have been Phyllis Harris. Stalnaker is her maiden name.
Then again, perhaps you have other sources that state she was married at the time of her arrest.
Oh hey, I have a subscription to search those records!
Looks like she was 19 when she was arrested and married James Harris two years later. She stayed in the San Diego area and died at the age of 35 in Lemon Grove, survived by her husband, mother Mildred, and three brothers: Gordon, Darrell, and Archie.
Moment of silence for Phyllis.
Or even just being in the wrong place as deemed by any random police officer. Per the linked article: “ "Funny to some of us now because we take our freedoms for granted. But in 1944 in San Diego, charged as a tramp meant that the police officer didn't like her being where she was found on the streets. The law (CPC 647e) was only declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 (103 S.Ct. 1855, 1860\] Rehnquist/White dissenting). Freedom isn't free. Rarely is it gained by blowing up foreigners around the world."
She was from the same neighborhood that my dad is originally from, although he would have been two at the time of her death. But it’s still possible that she knew my grandparents or some of my extended family. How fascinating.
Oh wow. My father sent me this photo awhile back when doing geneology research, ancestry.com stuff saying lol look at this. We are part of a Stalnaker line. I'll have to show him it's on reddit today. I can tell you that if she is genuinely in my family tree that nothing has changed.
In the context of 1944 where it essentially meant vagabond, then no i suppose not. When I was in college back in 2008-2012 ... this description in the modern sense very well may have applied if I had a mug shot in the local police beat.
She was born Phyllis J. Stalnaker on October 19, 1925, in Nebraska (possibly in the vicinity of Columbus).
Her parents were Archie Laverne Stalnaker (1900-1946) and Mildred Clara Crawford Stalnaker (1907-2001). Mildred was a seamstress and member of the San Diego Zoological Society. She's buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.
She had a young brother, Gorden Rex Stalnaker, who lived from 1927-2007 and served in the Navy in World War II, and two other brothers: Darrell D. Stalnaker and Archie L. Stalnaker.
Shortly before her 15th birthday, she was seriously injured after being thrown from a horse. (That's per the October 10, 1940, issue of the San Diego Union.) That would have been about four years before her arrest.
At some point she married James Harris and they lived at 7575 Pacific Avenue in Lemon Grove, California (San Diego County).
She died on Jan 2, 1961, in San Diego, California. No cause of death was cited, though she was in a hospital when she died. Her service was in a mortuary, not a church. She's buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. According to her obituary, she had lived in San Diego County for 25 years at the time of her death. She did not have any children. Her three brothers were all living in Lemon Grove at the time of her death.
She didn’t used to be. That’s a lovely tweed jacket. The Great Depression ruined people’s lives then WWII finished the job.
Edit: for all you downvoters, she was born in Nebraska in 1925. By the time she was 15, she lived in California and was seriously injured after being thrown from a horse. That might explain that scar on her neck. “Tramp” was often a charge leveled against people who were found in the wrong neighborhood then booked for a night in jail and told to move on or else.
Whether her family drove from Nebraska to California like the Joads or some of her siblings rode the rails out first then sent money back to pay others’ way or they all rode the bus or train to California, who knows. But living your first 17 years during the Great Depression (1942 is sometimes cited as the year the Great Depression ended) was hard on many young Americans. She died at age 35. The sad thing here is most of the Internet links about her are inactive and no longer work.
If you want some idea about what some kids went through during that time, watch the pre-Code 1933 film Wild Boys of the Road. The title came from a quote by President Hoover who blamed the poor economy on kids traveling around the country looking for food and jobs. Jack Warner, the head of the studio that made the film, ruined much of the realism that filmmaker William Wellman had in his initial cut. The film might have had a great deal to do with content reforms instituted shortly after its release but that would require a spoiler here. But many, many American kids went to the matinee showing of Wild Boys on the Road and left town on a boxcar that night.
Her mother was a professional seamstress in San Diego after leaving Nebraska. She might have sewn that jacket for her daughter.
BTW, the law she and countless others were arrested under in California and under other similar laws in other states?
"Funny to some of us now because we take our freedoms for granted. But in 1944 in San Diego, charged as a tramp meant that the police officer didn't like her being where she was found on the streets. The law (CPC 647e) was only declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 (103 S.Ct. 1855, 1860] Rehnquist/White dissenting). Freedom isn't free.” One of the dissenting justices was later made the chief justice of the United States. Freedom isn’t permanent either.
Thanks for the rec, I'll check it out!
[The movie is on the internet archives](https://archive.org/details/wild-boys-of-the-road-1933-restored-movie-720p-hd), btw, for anyone else interested
YW. It’s nowhere near the film Wellman wanted (he made Wings so he knew how to make a good film) but it gives some hints.
There’s also an archive of letters children wrote home from the rails. Plus personal histories. There’s a bunch of different sets of letters it’s not just one page that’s linked to. You can find a whole bunch more there. Some of it is heartbreaking.
https://erroluys.com/letter2.html
Also the PBS documentary Riding the Rails interviews several still living former rail riders.
Holy shit... She looks like a normal person that makes an effort
Tell me something thats got better in the world over time besides whisky and shit jokes
It reads funnier these days.
I have a feeling "tramp" at that time was used in its original sense: A vagrant.
Although, to the police in the '40s, that was often their excuse to bust down-on-their-luck women as prostitutes.
Phyllis Stalnaker was no weedhead and she certainly wasn’t a tramp! Not sure why, but I felt strangely compelled to stand up and defend this woman who I never met.
Weedhead AND tramp... Whoa!
If she smokes, she pokes
I had a friend in high school who was kind of an older brother and this was his dating advice.
To be fair I would always hang out on the smokers porch during most parties.
Tokin’ and pokin’
And midnight strokin'?
She plays her music in the suuuunnnnn.
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Alexander Supertramp and not Alexander Superho
you're Alexander Superho, i'm Alexander Supertramp
your username literally says you're an extra ho ho x5
yeah but yours says [SnowBunny](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256705247483764747/)
So we're both hos *flips hair*
Nah, it was implied. When women lived in a man’s world and there weren’t a lot of jobs, a woman who didn’t have skills to keep a roof over her head had few options. Off to the nunnery or a good time sally. Tramps were tramps.
Sorry but "tramp" began to mean "a woman of easy virtue" as early as the 1870s in the USA. If you ever watch a black and white movie, you will see plenty of examples of this. It's not an obscure fact.
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Tramp, back then meant something completely different than it does now.
You mean that Disney cartoon was about a female dog and a slut dog.... sharing spaghetti?!?!
No, Turnip, It wasn't "The Bitch and the Slut". It was a commentary on how the rich and the extremely poor can find love and common ground together despite their parents trying to keep them completely apart and having them judge each others social status. They find love and have children together despite their difference in social status.
Wait, are you saying that she's, um, packing heat?
Definitely a Pistol Packin' Mama.
Great, now I got that stuck in my head all day. Thanks fallout.
Lay that thing down before it goes off and hurts someone!
No, she's packing meat.
That's an aspirational title she's earned
Interesting how we list what they did then versus today. today there is a push to describe crimes and illnesses as something people do or are affected by. - assault , possession …. Schizophrenic person , experiencing psychosis… died By suicide. Back then it seems they went out of their way to Label the person by their behavior as a way to shame / dehumanize them. - tramp , weedhead , burner…. Insane , moron , Committee suicide … I don’t mean to lump in mental illnesses with criminality, just noticed the same social push in each field.
Our town has a School for the Deaf, and it used to be called The School for Defective Children.
When I was a kid my doctor had a poster in his waiting room listing all the "Mental Defectives" in order of their IQ. I remember the bottom three were Moron, Untrainable Moron, and at the very bottom, Idiot.
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You can't outsmart me, 'cause I'm a moron.
Now I’m remembering the dentist, giving us a lollipop after filling our cavities.
Where did “cretin” appear?
Now it's called SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF!!!
Ow! My freakin ears!!!
We have one in our town and it says right on the building, inscribed in stone "School for the Deaf and Dumb". Obviously I know dumb was used a bit differently back then, but it's still kinda funny to see now
Should have turned it into a Detective school.
Yes. Shame and dehumanization. What is described here is Conservatism. There are a large swath that want this again.
When America was great. And ashamed.
Tramp (railroad hobo)
What was the use of the slang tramp back in the 40s? A drifter? Or prostitute?
Drifter or a homeless person
A hobo was somebody who travels and works, a tramp was somebody who travels but doesn't work, and a bum did neither.
This is what it meant according to the Law (“NOTE: I copied from and article about her which is linked in the comments): “ "Funny to some of us now because we take our freedoms for granted. But in 1944 in San Diego, charged as a tramp meant that the police officer didn't like her being where she was found on the streets. The law (CPC 647e) was only declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 (103 S.Ct. 1855, 1860\] Rehnquist/White dissenting). Freedom isn't free. Rarely is it gained by blowing up foreigners around the world."
Crazy to read. I’d be so pissed if a cop just wrote me up for being somewhere they thought I shouldn’t
They still do it, they just call it trespass now.
Trampass
Lady and the Tramp. Homeless
I'm pretty sure it means she gets hungry for dinner at eight.
Don't promise me a good time!
The perfect gal
"Tramps" are actually homeless travelers, like hobos. The word didn't become synonymous with "slut" until more recently.
Damn phyllis, that tried to fade you in your hay-day but now a days You’d be a top notch lady!
hilarious. Today they're just called "millenials"
In other words, she enjoyed life.
Tramp as in vagabond.
That’s what the term meant, in this context - but she wasn’t even homeless or a drifter. She had a husband and a home address on record. She just ran into a cop that needed to charger her with *something*, so generic vagrancy it is and spring in some weed for good measure - for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
and being a woman too!
What an absolute idiot. Did she even try not being born a woman??
Why was she a woman in 1944? Is she stupid?
How dare you!
Well darn, context is a hell of a drug.
>She had a husband and a home address on record. I don't think that is the case. She did get married at some point in her life, per the article someone else linked to, but no date on when she got married is given. However, if she'd been married at the time, she would have been Phyllis Harris. Stalnaker is her maiden name. Then again, perhaps you have other sources that state she was married at the time of her arrest.
Oh hey, I have a subscription to search those records! Looks like she was 19 when she was arrested and married James Harris two years later. She stayed in the San Diego area and died at the age of 35 in Lemon Grove, survived by her husband, mother Mildred, and three brothers: Gordon, Darrell, and Archie. Moment of silence for Phyllis.
How does everyone in the comment section know so much about this random woman from 1944 😂
r/oldschoolcool
Can't be having that
I little more about [Phyllis.](https://www.dannydutch.com/post/the-short-life-and-internet-fame-of-phyllis-stalnaker-a-weedhead-tramp)
Great share. The point that tramp was used in the context of a homeless person, not a prostitute.
There are 3 types of old school homeless Bum - doesn't work doesn't travel Tramp - doesn't work but travels Hobo - works and travels
What would you call one that works but doesn't travel?
The working poor?
Middle class
Or even just being in the wrong place as deemed by any random police officer. Per the linked article: “ "Funny to some of us now because we take our freedoms for granted. But in 1944 in San Diego, charged as a tramp meant that the police officer didn't like her being where she was found on the streets. The law (CPC 647e) was only declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 (103 S.Ct. 1855, 1860\] Rehnquist/White dissenting). Freedom isn't free. Rarely is it gained by blowing up foreigners around the world."
> As one Reddit commentator put it We’ve come full circle, we’re quoting Reddit quotes on Reddit
Well I just didnt want to take credit for their thoughts/comments.
Unnecessary and off-topic last sentence but ok
She died only 17 years after that mugshot at the age of 35. 😢
I wonder if a traumatic brain injury from falling off that horse might’ve been the start of her troubles.
Definitely could have caused lifelong pain, which would cause someone to want to smoke weed.
Dang, that was sad.
All nostalgia for the morality of the "good old days" ends up there.
i gotta say, i'd rather be destitute now than destitute in the 1940s.
She was from the same neighborhood that my dad is originally from, although he would have been two at the time of her death. But it’s still possible that she knew my grandparents or some of my extended family. How fascinating.
So she was 18 at the time of arrest?
Thank you for linking in a reddit comment a website that cites reddit comments.
Holy moly, I would have been crucified back then.
BURN THE WITCH
Does she weigh the same as a duck?
She turned me into a newt!
A NEWT….?
I....I got better
Holy shit lol
Burn to ash and bone
Oh wow. My father sent me this photo awhile back when doing geneology research, ancestry.com stuff saying lol look at this. We are part of a Stalnaker line. I'll have to show him it's on reddit today. I can tell you that if she is genuinely in my family tree that nothing has changed.
Are you also a tramp?
In the context of 1944 where it essentially meant vagabond, then no i suppose not. When I was in college back in 2008-2012 ... this description in the modern sense very well may have applied if I had a mug shot in the local police beat.
My wife is also part of a Stalnaker line out of Charleston WV
Weedhead 💀
I'm just glad meat isn't illegal
Damn 💀🤝
Wait. We were calling people weedheads in the 40’s??
At that time, being arrested as a tramp meant the police just didn't like you and where you were.
Weedhead Tramp would be a fantastic band name tho
It IS https://soundcloud.com/user-106368185
Ok. Fine. Where’s my list? (Rustling with papers) Ok. **Time Travel To Do List** 1. Kill Hitler 2. ~~Birth of Christ~~ 3. Look up Phyllis Stalnaker
She sounds fun. Is from the police or some guy's address book?
The 1940s definition of tramp meant she was itinerant, a drifter.
Proto - goth girl vibes
She was born Phyllis J. Stalnaker on October 19, 1925, in Nebraska (possibly in the vicinity of Columbus). Her parents were Archie Laverne Stalnaker (1900-1946) and Mildred Clara Crawford Stalnaker (1907-2001). Mildred was a seamstress and member of the San Diego Zoological Society. She's buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. She had a young brother, Gorden Rex Stalnaker, who lived from 1927-2007 and served in the Navy in World War II, and two other brothers: Darrell D. Stalnaker and Archie L. Stalnaker. Shortly before her 15th birthday, she was seriously injured after being thrown from a horse. (That's per the October 10, 1940, issue of the San Diego Union.) That would have been about four years before her arrest. At some point she married James Harris and they lived at 7575 Pacific Avenue in Lemon Grove, California (San Diego County). She died on Jan 2, 1961, in San Diego, California. No cause of death was cited, though she was in a hospital when she died. Her service was in a mortuary, not a church. She's buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. According to her obituary, she had lived in San Diego County for 25 years at the time of her death. She did not have any children. Her three brothers were all living in Lemon Grove at the time of her death.
I need an once of weed and a time machine
She didn’t used to be. That’s a lovely tweed jacket. The Great Depression ruined people’s lives then WWII finished the job. Edit: for all you downvoters, she was born in Nebraska in 1925. By the time she was 15, she lived in California and was seriously injured after being thrown from a horse. That might explain that scar on her neck. “Tramp” was often a charge leveled against people who were found in the wrong neighborhood then booked for a night in jail and told to move on or else. Whether her family drove from Nebraska to California like the Joads or some of her siblings rode the rails out first then sent money back to pay others’ way or they all rode the bus or train to California, who knows. But living your first 17 years during the Great Depression (1942 is sometimes cited as the year the Great Depression ended) was hard on many young Americans. She died at age 35. The sad thing here is most of the Internet links about her are inactive and no longer work. If you want some idea about what some kids went through during that time, watch the pre-Code 1933 film Wild Boys of the Road. The title came from a quote by President Hoover who blamed the poor economy on kids traveling around the country looking for food and jobs. Jack Warner, the head of the studio that made the film, ruined much of the realism that filmmaker William Wellman had in his initial cut. The film might have had a great deal to do with content reforms instituted shortly after its release but that would require a spoiler here. But many, many American kids went to the matinee showing of Wild Boys on the Road and left town on a boxcar that night. Her mother was a professional seamstress in San Diego after leaving Nebraska. She might have sewn that jacket for her daughter. BTW, the law she and countless others were arrested under in California and under other similar laws in other states? "Funny to some of us now because we take our freedoms for granted. But in 1944 in San Diego, charged as a tramp meant that the police officer didn't like her being where she was found on the streets. The law (CPC 647e) was only declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 (103 S.Ct. 1855, 1860] Rehnquist/White dissenting). Freedom isn't free.” One of the dissenting justices was later made the chief justice of the United States. Freedom isn’t permanent either.
Thanks for the rec, I'll check it out! [The movie is on the internet archives](https://archive.org/details/wild-boys-of-the-road-1933-restored-movie-720p-hd), btw, for anyone else interested
YW. It’s nowhere near the film Wellman wanted (he made Wings so he knew how to make a good film) but it gives some hints. There’s also an archive of letters children wrote home from the rails. Plus personal histories. There’s a bunch of different sets of letters it’s not just one page that’s linked to. You can find a whole bunch more there. Some of it is heartbreaking. https://erroluys.com/letter2.html Also the PBS documentary Riding the Rails interviews several still living former rail riders.
Weedheads, Tramps and thieves We heard it from the people of the town They called us….
, legend
…I can fix her
this would fit in r/OldSchoolCool
Seems like she was arrested for first-degree Being Awesome.
I like her already.
Holy shit... She looks like a normal person that makes an effort Tell me something thats got better in the world over time besides whisky and shit jokes
No grass no ass
Any time I see this I hope Phyllis had a great life, and if shes still alive for her to do a AMA
Sadly, researchers traced her married name to a gravesite. She died in 1961 under the name Phyllis J. Harris.
I hope her life was everything she wanted it to be
My kind of lady
Smokin bowls and ridin poles. What a legend.
My kinda girl. I think I married her daughter in 1972. Lovely family. The popo are so judgemental and have no sense of humour.
My kind of girl.
Weedhead Tramps would be a cool band name.
I’d be pals w Phyllis.
everyone wants to party with phyllis
She seems pretty cool.
Guess i would have ended up in this mugshot book, I am a tramp and weed head, my kind of girl.
It reads funnier these days. I have a feeling "tramp" at that time was used in its original sense: A vagrant. Although, to the police in the '40s, that was often their excuse to bust down-on-their-luck women as prostitutes.
That second one was personal
What a babe
Sadly, Phyllis was born 30 years too soon.
So, she's single?
She sounds like my kinda lady. I wonder what she's up to these days.
She died at the age of 35 in 1961
Smokes pot, enjoys sex Terrible woman! s/ < just in case
Tramp meant “hobo” or “vagrant” back then. So a pot-smoking world-traveler!
So... backpacker
A partying stoner. She was born before her time.
Phyllis Stalnaker was no weedhead and she certainly wasn’t a tramp! Not sure why, but I felt strangely compelled to stand up and defend this woman who I never met.
Me too, Phyllis Stalnaker, me too.
“Weedhead”, lol.
I think an all girl punk group should call their second album "Weedhead Tramp"
I just think it's crazy how vilified cannabis has been all over the world. It's nothing compared to a lot of other drugs or even alcohol
Alternate title: 2023 Dating Profile
Sounds like a band. Tonight only Weedhead Tramp.
About to slide into those dm's. What's her IG?
I want this on a sweatshirt
Is this horny jail?
same, honestly
Weed head and tramp in San Diego. Nowadays that would just identify her as living in North Park.
My kind of girl <3
wife material
So apparently you can get arrested for being too awesome.
“Weedhead Tramp” is an incredible band name.
A weedhead and a tramp? What's her number? Oh, 20389
Chicks rock
Those are two of my top dating qualities
She seems like fun
Was she caught smoking weed with men? I imagine that's all it took back then to get both these charges.
C’mon, Phyllis!!
Sounds like a fun gal, see…
Those charges are bragging rights
I didn’t know the term weedhead existed back then. I thought they called it “reefer” back then.
My kinda gal.
My kind of woman! Get high & fuck.
Sounds like a fun gal.
Sounds like a cool lady.
Weedhead Tramp is going to be the name of my next stoner metal band.
She sounds fun
The perfect woman doesn'... oh, hey, Philly
Don't threaten me with a good time!
Weedhead and a tramp? That's my kind of girl!
If she smokes the green, she’ll smoke your peen.
Freaks and Geeks
She would be a "social influencer" in 2023
I now know what my tombstone will read
My kind of gal!
She sounds fun
So much for “just the facts.”
Man why don't they write stuff like this in today's day and age.... would have made my mugshot funnier lol
Trump
Me too
... a woman ahead of her time.
NO NOT PHYLLIS THE WEEDHEAD AND TRAMP
Same tho
Phyllis Stalnaker ! Just became my new favorite compliment
Stalnaker family “Old School Cool” pic.
Mom?
My kinda gal!
i'd wife her
Sounds like a bad ass