When did hitchhiking go out of style?

[gnome]

Hate being one of those, back in the day folks, but I use to hitchhike all over the country. Never thought much about it. But it seems that practice has gone out of style.

How far did you ever hitch, and when was it?

Me: Texas, California, Florida ...

[elganned]

I once hitched from Milwaukee to Madison, WI.

[Pam]

When did hitchhiking go out of style?

When serial killers started leaving bodies along the sides of the roads?

[East Detroit]

We hitchhiked to Los Angeles and back in the 1980s.

And we ran into quite a few problem people along the way.

[jams]

One of my fondest memories is my trip across Canada in 74. I hadl hitchhikers in my old Dodge van from around the world. Leaving the hostel in Wawa, I had packed into that ole girl two guys from Switzerland, a guy from New Zealand, a woman from France and her son, and a couple of guys from Ontario and a dog, as well, my best friend and all our gear.

I hitched regularily between Ann Arbor and Lansing or Detroit in that period, whenever I was short of cash, which was most of the time, Never was really concerned about my safety until one guy made advances towards me, after that, I kept a knife in my boot.

Interesting question you raise. I've great memories of the rides and the people I met while hitching or giving a ride, but I wouldn't even consider either today.

[rb336]

When serial killers started leaving bodies along the sides of the roads?

ah, you mean in some hollywood story, no doubt.

yes, hitchhikers occasionally got killed, or killed the people picking them up [[more often) but there was never a big surge of such crimes, except in the minds of screen writers and novelists

[oladub]

Longest hitchhike: Santa Cruz, CA to The Dalles, OR where I had some problems with the police for hitchhiking and rode Greyhound the rest of the way to Detroit. Also, multiple trips from Eureka, CA and Portland, OR back to Santa Cruz.

Longest I was stuck in one place waiting to be picked up: Off a rural freeway exit in the Saginaw Valley after the police had kicked me off the freeway. Second worst: Berkeley, CA

Best attire for hitching: After two women picked me up in a row en route from Lansing to Detroit and one invited me home 'for a drink' I had to do some serious thinking because women very seldom offered rides. I concluded that the pale yellow collared shirt I was wearing was pleasant and unthreatening.

[vetalalumni]

Several times in the 80s:

• Detroit - Traverse City and Ann Arbor
• Detroit - Mississippi
• Detroit - Kentucky
• Detroit - Ohio
• Detroit - NY

Very rarely [[once or twice maybe) with complete and total strangers though. Typically the hitching was with the friend of a friend of a friend etc... Someone that I never met or knew previously. Basically, I trusted the recommendations of the original friend.

[carolcb]

OK here is my best hitchhiking story. About 97, we moved from state A to state B. Forever the cheapo, I decided the week that my husband and kids moved [[I had been at the new job staying at a motel), that I would take the bus back home so we would not be stuck moving another car. So I am on a Greyhound.....we had made about three stops when the bus was so full that we were sitting three in a seat, and there were people up and down the aisle sitting on their stuff, using that as a seat. Getting up to use the bathroom was useless. Even when he stopped to pick up more people, he told us that if we got out to use the toilet at that city, he would not wait for us. I am not making this up! Well, we were on I-70 - a freaking interstate and the bus driver stops the bus on the side of the road, and backs up about the length of 5 buses - and picks up FOUR PEOPLE ON THE SIDE OF THE INTERSTATE. At that point, I stood up, got my stuff and walked though the people, said I am sorry, and started walking east on the highway. The bus driver never saw me because he was throwing their stuff into the storage place on the outside of the bus. Of course, I had walked about a half a mile when I remembered where I was and that my husband was probably going to kill me if he knew I got off a bus on the interstate. About that time - gosh I can't remember the name of the truck company - but a semi pulls over. I ran like hell to get in that cab. He was taking Keebler cookies for NJ to Colorado, and I looked him in the eye and said, "My dad was in HOFFA's local". He asked me where I wanted to go and I told him. I ended up going to the nearest bus station and taking a cab to the airport,and jumped another shuttle home, with about $10.00 left in my pocket. That was the last time I rode a bus or hitchiked. But I still think most people are good people, and they will help you if they can.

[Pam]

ah, you mean in some hollywood story, no doubt.

yes, hitchhikers occasionally got killed, or killed the people picking them up [[more often) but there was never a big surge of such crimes, except in the minds of screen writers and novelists

Even if it was only "occasionally", why risk it? Never sounded like a bright idea to me.

[Downriviera]

Stopped hitch hiking in 84 when a guy tried to run me over on the Pacific Coast Highway north of Malibu. Used to hop the trains a lot back in the day, but thats dangerous these days as well.

[ejames01]

Hitchhiking ended in 1986. When The Hitcher was released. What a scary movie!

[jams]

Like re-reading Steinbeck's novels this thread makes me nostalgic for another era.

It would be wonderful to just grab a backpack and put my thumb out on the side of the road again just to get to somewhere else. Alas, things change.

[gnome]

Great stories... Oladub, depending on the time of year, The Dalles can either be heaven or hell, but even when it's heaven, it sure is a windy heaven. Love that WPA road connecting Portland to the Dalles.

One of the best ways to hitch was aboard small planes. Back when all things were possible, you could walk into a small airfield, like the one in Birmingham, or out in Canton and wait around for someone who was going in your direction. Since it was a unusual way to hitch, the flyers thought it was a pretty industrious way to bum a ride.

Once I got stuck in Festus, MO. just ahead of a December ice storm. No planes in or out so walked over to US 55 going south. A cold sleety rain started falling and some guy felt sorry for me, picked me up but by the time we got to Cape Girardeau the ice storm was in full force. He invited me to his place and that's where I spent the next week. His wife and family thought it was pretty funny having a yankee being a house guest.

Thes folks were dirt poor. Lived in an old one-room school house set in the middle of the Ozark foothills. The ice storm coated everything in a couple of inches of ice and there was no going anywhere via car, so when in came time to eat, we went squirrel hunting.

First, and last, time I ever had squirrel brains.

Those folks were very nice to a stranger.

Longest wait for a lift: West Virginia, middle of the night in March...didn't get a lift until morning. Deathly cold.

Last Time I Picked up a Hitcher: 98 degrees, two years ago outside of Kalamazoo, took the guy to Jackson after a stop to see my Dad's grave at Ft. Custer.

Thing I miss most about hitching: trusting people

[gnome]

Attachment 3027

Found this picture of Jams.

[carolcb]

Now that was funny.

[UFO]

This thread is educating me because when the bank takes my home shortly, this is exactly what I intend to do.

Ill hitch going south for the winter and play it by ear.

[ccbatson]

It is not like the majority of drivers would have ever considered picking up a hitchhiker...it was a passing fad.

[EastsideAl]

Used to hitch up and down Woodward back in the '70s. Once hitched all the way to Florida and back.

Funniest ride I ever got was from a guy in a station wagon who had just arrived back in Detroit after being "out west for the harvest." When I asked him "what did you harvest?" he whipped back the tarp covering the entire back of the interior to reveal many large bundles of marijuana...

[ccbatson]

Not exactly a common everyday person [[even in the 70s) is it?

[gnome]

Attachment 3028

How Oladub remembers his lucky shirt.

[jams]

It is not like the majority of drivers would have ever considered picking up a hitchhiker...it was a passing fad.

You only needed one to stop and give you a ride. I met many great people hitching, several times, they also gave me a few bucks in addition to the ride.

And Gnome, I carried a sawed-off hatchet, less conspicuous.

[oladub]

gnome, don't laugh. The yellow shirt thing works with the ladies when hitchiking. That was me allright except the lady that invited me home had hairy legs. Cape Girardeau is Rush's hometown although I don't think he grew up on squirrel. While biding my time in The Dalles, I wound up at a park overlooking the town and ran into a guy who had just picked up a half a shoebox full of magic pills in California. Its amazing the situations one gets into on the road riding in dumptrucks, in a van full of Hare Krishna people, looking for a place to take a leak and stumbling into the set of where a movie was being filmed in San Francisco, winding up in communes for the night, having to duck out of sight when things got sticky...

carolcb, Thanks for the bus story. I've been on buses that run out of seats too but never to that extent. That's just what they do on the long runs - have people sit on their luggage in the aisle

[UFO]

Nice shirt OLA,, would you suggest I get one like it when hitching?

[vetalalumni]

Nice shirt indeed.