The other day, on my drive home, I saw a hitchhiker. He was in his 20s, lightly dressed for the cold weather and had no bag or backpack with him. He was in the classic pose, thumb out, on the side of a suburban road. I drove past, with no thought of picking him up.
For some reason, hitchhikers seem to have all-but-disappeared from the roads of America. I was trying to remember the last time I saw one anywhere and couldn’t. When I include other countries (Australia, UK, Japan) into the equation the results are equally barren. Could hitchhiking be a lost art?
Only once in my life did I try it. It was on the Pacific Highway, from Newcastle to Charlestown. Me and one other person who I now forget (was it you MMN?) made a half-hearted attempt to hitch a ride. No-one picked us up; no-one even stopped. I don’t remember how old I was, probably in my late teens. I figure the lack of interest was in no small way related to our appearance.
In those days, or rather at that age, there was no fear of some stranger picking us up and giving us a ride a mile or two down the road. Although the perception of hitchhikers was certainly there, who ever thought it was anything beyond urban legend?
And yet I wouldn’t pick up a hitchhiker today. Not even a young, harmless looking guy in Delmar, NY. In this increasingly social, decreasingly private world it seems ironic to me how people seem to be less trusting of strangers than ever. The world gets closer and yet the fear of the unknown increases. Maybe the reason I didn’t pick this guy up was because I didn’t want to be bothered; maybe it was because somewhere in my mind I feared he’d be a psycho.
Has anyone ever picked up a hitcher, or successfully hitchhiked themselves? How did it go?
I recall dad picking up a hitchhiker once and taking him just a few blocks to the Whitebridge shops.
I’ve never seen a hitchhiker, but if I did I wouldn’t pick them up.
While I was walking once in Los Gatos I did have a fellow stop and ask directions to some nearby freeway. I told him and he was very insistent that I get into the car and show him. I refused and continued walking and he drove beside me a short way and then drove away. That was a little creepy.
Hitched a bit in my late teens when BP and I were (briefly) hanging around with a couple of toughs who may well be in jail now. Just to the video store in the next suburb and places like that. It was hard to get a ride for 2-3 people – but when we did, no-one gave us any trouble 🙂
In primary school, I had a friend (MG) whose mum would stop and give people lifts. I remember I was packing it once when she picked up a wild-looking hitcher outside of Raymond Terrace. Turned out she knew the “nice young man” because she’d given him a lift before!