Not exactly a hitchhiker, more like giving a stranger a lift. This was about four or five years ago, the day before Thanksgiving. It was really windy and cold that day. I had left work around lunchtime and stopped at the liquor store on my way home to get some beverage for the next day. As I was walking to my car, a woman standing at the bus stop flagged me down and asked me if I knew when the next bus was coming. She had just hitched her way into town and was trying to get to the homeless shelter downtown. I told her I wasn’t familiar with the bus schedule, but that I could give her a ride downtown if she didn’t want to wait in the cold. She took me up on my offer and showered me with God Bless You’s when she got out of the car.
In the mid '80s on the road from Toronto to Sudbury. He climbed in and started screaming at me that I was going the wrong way. I stopped and told him to get out.
Never.
I hitchhiked some when I was young and not smart enough to know better.
In 2002, I was parked at an intersection in Alexandria VA and a young woman approached out car and asked if we could give her and her mother a ride to their home. We did.
In 2007, I saw a young lady trying to walk quickly in high heels to avoid an oncoming thunderstorm. I pulled up, offered her a ride and she accepted.
We did that a few years ago. People on public transit here tend to talk to each other, unlike in most cities. My wife was talking to a young woman who had just gotten off work and who looked pretty worn out. During the conversation, it came out that she still had about a ten block walk from the bus stop in our mutual neighborhood, so we gave her a ride.
Best ride I ever got was near Fairbanks, AK. It was December. My girlfriend and I got a bus out to North Pole, AK just to see the place, then found out there was no return transpo back to the University, which is about 15 miles away. Like idiots, we started walking, thinking we’d hitchhike. Problem is, there were very few cars on that road in 1966, and it was blistering cold. Luckily, a car finally came along and took pity on us. My girl had a good seat, but they had a toboggan stuffed in the car, and I had to sit under it. No complaints, as it beat freezing to death.
My spouse and I picked up hitchhikers 3 separate times in Chile earlier this year. They all looked like student types, and that’s what they turned out to be when we got to know them.
We have never picked up any hitchers in the US, and, in fact, I can’t remember the last time I have even seen one here. It’s been a very long time.
Never. The sensationalist media of the days when I was a child had it pretty firmly drilled into my head that hitchhikers were mostly serial killers or other ne’re do wells and picking them up was pretty risky.
I never have. But once, when I was a tweener, over fifty years ago, my family was on a vacation roadtrip, and my dad stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. It was a soldier in uniform, and dad used to hitch rides, back when he was in the service. We were in the desert SW, and this guy was on his way to Tennessee he said. He rode with us for quite a ways, about two hundred miles. He had lunch with us, I remember, when we had a prayer before eating, he crossed himself.
2002-ish. I was driving up US 30 to South Bend and saw a guy with his thumb out so I stopped and picked him up. Immediately started telling me his story. He was fresh out of prison, covered in jailhouse scratch tattoos and was talking some crazy shit. I didn’t feel at risk from him but it really made me think about how so many people are out there, untethered from reality, waitin’ for a ride.
Picked up a lady on the interstate who had run out of gas. Took her to the nearest town, she got out with barely a thank you. 30+ years ago.
Only other time was not my doing. I was leaving a military base in the United Arab Emirates and was at the gate preparing to leave, when one of the guards said something and two other soldiers got in my car. Since they had guns, I wasn’t going to argue. Fortunately they were going to a base on my way home, so no problem. Their English was about as good as my Arabic, so we didn’t say much, but I did get many thanks from them.
Like most, I haven’t seen a hitchhiker in the USA for a long time. In UAE there was a lot, but we were warned not to pick them up, since they might be Iranian infiltrators (yes, we were told that).
Almost picked up one yesterday, but had The Killers in the truck. No room.
Slight Hijack: Picked up a dude about 25 year ago, and ended up taking him about 400 miles. He had to ride in the back of the '65 Ford Pickup the whole way, but I did buy him lunch.
My grandparents lived in Cuba.
~VOW
I remember the last hitchhiker I picked up because it scared me so badly that I never picked up another.
The year was 1975, and I was a college student, driving in the vicinity of the university. I approached a guy walking toward me on the sidewalk. He stuck out his thumb, and for some reason I felt compelled to stop. In retrospect, it seemed like he wasn’t hitchhiking until he saw me (single woman) driving toward him. And it really did seem like somehow my mind was being controlled to get me to pull over.
Once he was in the car, I got a creepy vibe. He wouldn’t tell me where he wanted to go. I was starting to freak out and pulled over in a very public place and demanded that he get out, which he finally did.
It was a very bizarre incident.
In terms of people trying to get around locally you might be right; but the entrance ramps of such highways used to be full of hitchhikers who wanted to cover longer distances. You’d hitch a local ride to the ramp, or walk there, or take a bus, or get dropped off by a friend; and then generally hold up a sign with your destination city or off-ramp.
In the early 90s a guy I eventually became friends with hitchhiked from California to Pennsylvania with his one year old Pit Bull. He ran low on cash before arriving in PA, and for the last few days he skipped eating, choosing to feed his dog instead.
In the late 1970’s a friend and I once picked up a couple hitchhiking with two kittens. No carrier or anything; just carrying two kittens along with whatever the rest of their gear was.
I have always wondered what happened to those kittens. Didn’t see any way at the time to do anything about it, though, beyond giving them that one ride.
- Passed a broken down car on the freeway shoulder, a couple hundred yards further I saw two guys trudging down the side of the road. It was a hot day, urban freeway, maybe another half mile until the next exit. I stopped and gave them a lift to the nearest convenience store so they could at least use the phone. I was driving a '87 MR2 at the time, so the two of them (decent-sized guys) had to double up in the cramped front seat, but at least they weren’t frying on the roadside. When I got home I’d blown my head gasket (big steamy jet and everything) & the car was dead shortly afterward. I never could decide if I’d overloaded the car of if it was just a coincidence.
Shitty little town, I avoid it whenever possible.
I remember seeing a bit of this, but only a little.
When do you think this started to decline? Around 1980 due to all the coverage of serial killers?
Last time I picked someone up- last summer. Gave a gentleman a ride home when he asked from Home Depot. And then I think about hiking/backpacking… And I have been the beneficiary 3x just in the past year in 3 national parks (Rainier, Haleakela, and Jasper) usually in going from my car to the other end of the trail. I similarly stop every time for any hiker (but I agree with the consensus that open-road hitchhiking is very much a thing of the past).
Riding with Junior McGee is still one of my favorite stories. I put it on the playlist for every long drive.