How about some good, positive hitchhiking stories from the days when that was acceptable?
Please share your hitchhiking story from the golden age of that art. When I was in the Navy in Key West, one Friday evening (late 1950s) I borrowed a car for a weekend to drive to Miami. A few hundred yards from the base, I saw a young girl, obviously pregnant, hitchhiking. I stopped for her. She wanted to go all the way to Miami, too. We had a great ride, and made arrangements to pick her up on Sunday night to drive back to Key West.
DeeJay2011-09-18T22:36:09Z
Favorite Answer
Great story.
The Summer of 1953. My best friend and I and a group from my hometown - worked at The Old Faithful Lodge at Yellowstone Park.
We also worked with a group of kid’s our same age - from Michigan.
On Saturday - we would hitch hike to West Yellowstone for a little night life and hitch hick back.
It was a no no. The matron would sit in the front foyer each night to check us back into our room.
Because we were most always out past our curfew - we had to pull down the fire escape - to sneak back inside.
One fun Summer - I must say and we never got caught.
We felt safe hitch hiking. Everybody did it.
Something I would never tell my grandchildren.
They would never approve of their Nana doing such a thing. DeeJay.
The only time I ever hitchhiked was in the early 70's, went to visit a sib in Champagne-Urbana. I can't remember how we got out there but we ended up among corn fields (or wheat field, some agricultural field growing stuff) on this road, it was hot and we couldn't see past the fields because it was so flat and the plants were so tall. I'm not sure if we even knew where we were going or if we were walking in the right direction. I was just visiting so I left all that stuff in the hands of those who were living there during the school semester. Oh, yea, there were like 5 very nubile, skimpily dressed young co-eds with me (including my sib). It was fun, we were smoking some plant matter and suddenly we hear this sound coming down the road--was a convertible Morgan so we all put our thumbs out....and the guy stopped. We all climbed in, some kind of sat on the thing where the canvas (or whatever) roof collapsed into) and he drove us back to campus with the silliest grin I've ever seen, these young women waving at everyone from his car. It was fun.
My first husband and I used to pick up hitchhikers all the time, it was fun meeting and greeting strangers and making friends if only for a short while. We lived on a college campus and there was nothing unusual about it; this was in 1970 or so. But one time, I was alone and picked up a male hitchhiker on one of the back roads of the campus. Well-paved, well-lit, but traveled infrequently. I took him a few miles and dropped him off in front of the student union. At that point, he very politely said something like, lady, I appreciate the ride and all, but please promise me never to do that again while you're alone. I could have very easily taken advantage of you or hurt you in some way if I were so inclined. It really made me stop and think. You feel so invulnerable when you're that young. I never picked up another one. Maybe that guy saved my life, you never know.
I did a lot of hitch-hicking as a young Marine back in the early 1950's. My home was in Reading PA and when I was stationed at Camp LeJeune, NC I would hitch-hike home every chance I got, a distance of 504 miles. People were wonderful back then and would even go out of their way to make certain I would get a good lift after they'd taken me as far as they were going. I could tell y'all many a tale about some of those good people but I'd probably get reported for chatting. The people in the south were the best at helping out a young guy in a Marine uniform. One weekend I didn't even make it home, I spent it in the great little town of Rock Hill, NC. I've never forgotten that family that made me feel so welcome. About a month later I shipped out to Korea. No hitch-hiking there
At age 16 a friend and I set out to hitchhike from Colorado to the coast of California. The first car to come down our rural county road picked us up. He was a nice guy who drove us half way through Utah and then let us out at Soldier's Summit, after buying us a nice lunch. We got out in the road and stuck our thumbs out again. As before, the first car to come stopped and let us in. He asked where we were headed. We said Long Beach California, we are going to the beach. He replied: "you guys are in luck, I am going all the way to Sacramento, California, you will be almost to Long Beach."
He took us to a nice restaurant that evening and bought our dinners, then drove through the night arriving in Sacramento in time for morning breakfast, which he also insisted on buying for us. He said we helped him stay a wake so he could drive all night, which he appreciated.
One more short ride provided by two elderly ladies and we were on the beautiful sunny sand at Long Beach. The trip didn't cost us a dime and we had made four new friends. That's how it was in 1952. People were wonderful back then.