Inspired from recent threads about the “good ole days”, I reflected about hitchhiking. In the 1960’s - 1970’s, I hitchhiked a lot. Not in the city, but for long distances. I loved the freedom of it. In all the thousands of miles of hitchhiking (across the nation a few times), I never had a bad experience. Sure, I got rides from some loonies, but never felt any threats. I tried to find a category that all the people that gave me rides would fit into. What I came up with was they weren’t afraid of dying. They were people that wanted company for their trip, some wanted help with gasoline, but everyone was a treat to ride with.
Last time I was in the states, I don’t remember seeing any hitchhikers. Possibly people don’t give rides, or people aren’t hitchhiking, or both. But, for me hitchhiking was a very beautiful experience. I am glad it was a part of my life.
How about you folks? Did you hitchhike? Was it good for you?
A bit, in the eighties, in the Netherlands. Women here.
I signed up for some log-distance rides through “hitchhikers switchboard” (doesn’t exist anymore here) that paired hitchhikers to people wanting someone to share the driving and the gas costs. Those rides usually went fine.
I hithchiked a bit on holidays, with a friend. With one exception where we were asked, rather unpleasanty, “how much it would cost” we always had nice experiences.
Only once, in Gatlinburg TN in the mid-90s, we didn’t want the hassle of parking in the touristy area so we hitched a ride downtown (and I think we walked back to the hotel). There’ve been a few times when I was young and my family’s car broke down and someone stopped and gave us a ride but I don’t really count that because we didn’t rely on that in our transportation plans and we didn’t have our thumb out.
I used to a lot up in Alaska, but you generally met a pretty good sort up there. Once caught 8 rides from Denali NP to Skagway and I remember and have stories about them all. As I crossed the White Pass and entered Canada, my ride emptied his backpack going through customs and all these IV needles fell out. :eek: Fortunately for me, he was just diabetic.
Twice people in mobil homes picked me up. One couple was on their way to Whitehorse for cancer treatment. I think him being able to talk to me for hours and, yes days on end was very cathartic for him, a way to think about something other than the pain. I even slept in their home at their insistence. They cried when we parted.
I used to hitchhike short distances (10-20 miles) daily for a few years from the age ~14 until I had a vehicle to drive regularly.
I used to make a point of stopping to give rides to hitchhikers if I saw them, but nowadays I only ever see them on the major highway, and I know they are hoping for a long-distance ride, rather than the 10-minute commute I can offer.
I have driven hitchhikers right to their destination a few times, when it was within 20 minutes of my home, and normally had some kind of dope given to me. On one occasion, years ago, I actually went in to the person’s house and got (far too) stoned with them and a couple of their friends, then had a harrowingly paranoid drive home from there.
On another occasion I picked up a Quebecker outside Medicine Hat, and dropped him off at my parents’ driveway in Central Ontario, as he was hitchhiking to Quebec. That was a lot of fun.
It always bothers me to see hitchhikers who don’t appear to be toting a ton of gear not walking. If you are standing still, you will never get where you’re going, was always my motto.
I did in England and Ireland in the late 1980’s. It’s hard for a couple of men to get rides, but we fared OK. Often split up.
In the mid-90s, I hitchhiked a number of times in Scotland, Croatia, and Poland. Whereas I probably would never hitchhike here in US, it didn’t feel all that odd to me out there for some reason.
As a long distance hitchhiker, my goal was to be on the last on ramp leaving the city. The police would hazzle you if you were on the highway. The last on ramp would insure a long ride. But when you are a hitchhiker all rides are appreciated. A short ride was welcomed, as it was better than wishing you had a ride. If you walk from the last on ramp, you are on the highway and the police are a problem. Also, once people get to highway speeds they don’t have time to analyze you to ascertain if you are safe to travel with. Plus they don’t want to stop, because they are at highway speeds.
I did quite a bit of hitching in New Zealand, when I spent a year there- I found that I got lifts faster if people could see my face. So no facing away from the traffic, and ideally no sunglasses. I frequently got told by people, especially women, who picked me (young 'n female) up that they only gave me a lift because I ‘looked safe’. Hard to look safe if people can’t see you properly.
I’ve done it a little in other places, but they seem never to have totally lost the culture in NZ, so it felt pretty normal. I spent two months there solely hitching, because I bet someone I could… 
I think I only had to wait longer than an hour for a lift once, didn’t have any really dodgy experiences, and quite a few nice ones.
I met some lovely people- got ‘adopted’ by a nice Canadian couple for two days- they said I was the same age as their daughter, who was travelling round Europe, and they felt like if they were nice to me maybe someone else would be nice to her. They gave me their address when they dropped me off at the place I was going to, and told me to visit if I ever went to Canada, but I lost it 
One story: me and my friend, both Dutch, were about 20 year old students at the time. We were hitch hiking in Norway on vacation. A Dutch couple stopped for us.
They had their 14 year old kid in the back, and it soon became clear that the kid had been bored out of his mind travelling with mom and dad. Seeing sights, taking hikes, boooring. And now he had two cool twentysomethings to talk to! We rode all the way back to the Netherlands with the couple. And I believe we saved their vacation for them. 
I suppose that was the last year the kid vacationed with mom and dad.
Hitchhiked in a group when I was 17 (summer of 1983). I was attending a 2-week Christian youth trip, several days of which were spent at a “dude ranch” about 40 miles from Big Timber, Montana. Those of us who smoked cigarettes were allowed to do so.
About three days into our stay at this dude ranch, everybody was out of cigarettes. This wouldn’t do. So several of us collected money from the other smokers, and we started walking. After about a mile, a pickup truck going the same direction pulled over in response to our thumbs, and we all hopped in the back. The old guy drove us all the way to Big Timber, right to a small grocery store. We climbed out of the bed of his truck and he pointed to another truck parked nearby. “That guy can take you back!”
We went in the store, purchased several cartons of cigarettes, then went outside and waited beside the other truck. A few minutes later, the truck’s driver came out, and we mentioned that the other guy said he could take us back. “Hop in!” he said, and drove us all the way back to the ranch.
Good times.
For those who did it back in the day, would you consider it now? Me, I’m too big of a chicken to hitch or ever pick someone up.
I used to hitchhike a lot in my early teens. We moved from one part of the city to another, and if I wanted to go see my friends in the old neighbourhood I hitchhiked.
Only once did I do a long distance hike. It was probably about a 100 miles. My friend and I were trying to get home from a camping trip. I recall one ride we got with 2 or 3 other people in the car, we smoked joints and drank beer the whole way, and I’m pretty sure they were also on acid at the time. The only thing that worried me was the driving: scary stuff.
Occasionally I still see hitchhikers. If I’m by myself I have, on occasion, stopped and offered a ride. I saw a guy on the highway last week hitchhiking with his dog! I didn’t think he would be too successful with a dog as a partner. I also saw a young dirty looking punk with dreadlocks down to his shoulders. Nope. Not stopping for him.
Last year I transported some college students from France down the highway, this was prearranged, not hitchhikers. Anyway, they told me they had tried hitchhiking the previous weekend (with a destination sign and everything) and couldn’t understand why they weren’t getting picked up. I had to explain to them that no one really hitchhikes any more in North America since we’re all scared of knife-wielding maniacs out to rob us.
But, yeah, occasionally I feel sorry for the knife-wielding maniacs and give one a ride. I’m still alive thus far.
ETA: I would only attempt to hitchhike now if my car broke down on the side of the highway, or something.
I figure I probably hitchhiked about 10,000 miles in the 1970s, in the US, Australia, and New Zealand.
My longest trip was from New York to Oregon with my girlfriend in 1973 when I was 21. It took us eight days and IIRC 26 rides. We slept under railroad and highway bridges or in fields. Our longest hitch was from a trucker popping reds all night from eastern Nebraska to Utah. A few of our rides were a bit scary but I never really had a serious problem.
Back in 1971-72 I used to hitchhike from Ft Leonard Wood to Chicago every weekend I had off. Took a bus back to make sure I got back on time. Wouldn’t do it today. I wore my Class A’s and got plenty of long rides, although I did get dropped in the middle of nowhere at 3:00 AM on a few occasions.
I did during the late 80s, in France. I remember that the likelihood of being picked up varied a lot from one region to another. The worst of all clearly was the region where I had been brought up
I wouldn’t not out of fear but because it’s not exactly the most convenient way to travel and nowadays I can afford a train ticket or whatever. I would pick up people…if I had a car.
Growing up on the outskirts of Evansville, IN in 1970 was pretty rural, but I was young and had nowhere to go anyway. When we moved into town, things changed. There was a mall - Indiana’s first covered mall - with a hobby shop to get models and supplies from. Trouble is, it was a long way from home, and when you’re 9 years old carrying a model and a shopping bag it’s longer. Recent research shows it to be exactly 1 mile down the road, sidewalk all the way.
They must have moved it closer after we moved. I’m sure it was 8 or 9 miles at the time.
Nevertheless, I decided the best way to get back and forth was to hitch. At 9 and 10 years old. Every single person who picked me up was incredulous and scolded me for hitching.
Mostly old folks my parents age or older, but occasionally a kid would stop. The lectured me, every one. I would simply explain, that I wasn’t some little kid. I was 10 years old and perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I was a scrapper! You don’t want to mess with me!
And thus was my love of 1974 Corvettes born. Some preppy Beach Boy stopped beside me in his glittery, blue convertible Corvette, and gave me a ride. Turns out he’s a BF of one of my sisters. Man, what a ride.
I haven’t done it since then, although I’ve picked up a couple here and there just to be nice.
You just don’t see them around Atlanta much anymore.
If you’re hitching cross country, you’re not going to get any significant distance by walking. And as harmonicamoon says, some locations are more strategically placed for getting picked up. If I was in a good place for people to stop, I would stay there rather than end up someplace like on a curve where it was difficult for people to see you in time to stop or with no shoulder where they couldn’t pull off. But if I was going long distances, I usually had a big pack that I didn’t want to tote too far if I could avoid it.
Hitching with my girlfriend was easier than hitching alone, since people feel couples aren’t as much of a threat as a guy alone.
I once hitched with two friends in pouring rain from Ithaca New York to Boston. I wonder that anyone at all picked up three guys in wet ponchos but we made it in reasonable time.
I don’t do it now but it’s because I can afford to fly or rent a car and hitching is slow and uncomfortable, not because I think it’s any more dangerous than it used to be. The only times I’ve hitched recently is when I’ve had car trouble.
1962-1966, I went to the Univ. of Richmond(VA). Girlfriend lived in town, about 2-3 miles away. Busses only ran til about midnight. So, many a Sat night, I tried ti catch a ride while walking towards the U. Only scary one was a guy in a Corvette.
Long straight road, 35 mph speed limit. He hit about 100 before I said “here’s my stop.” :eek:
Did quite a bit of hitching back in the early to mid 80’s. Most of it was ‘cross country’, city to city and mostly in the same state, Houston to San Antonio, Houston to Austin, Houston to Corpus Christi and a few trips back and forth between Houston and Lake Charles, La. As others have stated, the best bet at catching a ride going a long distance was to start close to the edge of town.
One of the things that always seemed to help was to have a ‘sign’ stating your destination. It let people know that you were trying to get somewhere in particular and weren’t just ‘drifting around’, I had more than one driver tell me that my having a sign giving my destination was a factor in their decision to stop and give me a ride.
I never had any problems, but perhaps the fact that I was a young man factored into that, IDK.
It’s not something I would recommend and would only resort to it out of immediate neccessity now, especially in this day and age, and especially for women alone or even in pairs.