The First Third

This excerpt of "The First Third" by Neal Cassady starts off as Neal being an employee for a train company. He says that one day, as he was going over his normal routine, he saw a "bum" on top of the train and he had time to kill so he sat down beside this bum and decided to chat with him. The bum begins telling hallucinations and keeps repeating "the time has come, everyone lie down so you don't get hurt when the sun bursts". He then tells his story of how he has been homeless and bouncing around from city to city catches rides on the train. 
As the engine of the train went on, he kept saying with the sound of the train "what's my name? What's my name?"(as anyone could if they have listened to the engine enough explains Cassady). Once the engine stopped the bum asked himself what his name was and he did not know. He did several things to try and remember his name, say names that were close to it, fall asleep, and nothing worked. He began to panic and as the train next to him began to leave, he hopped on it without any knowing of where he was going, he was only worried about remembering his name. It begins to tell us that he recalls what he has been doing recently but just as that starts the excerpt ends.
I found this passage really interesting as to what people or "bums" are actually like and what they behave like. It shows the encounter that Neal Cassady had with a "bum" and gives us further explanations on what they act like.