Last time I picked up hitchhikers was in 1990 when I was around 18-19. It had just started getting dark and I was leaving my small town heading towards the next slightly larger town, when I saw a group of about 5 teenagers come out onto the shoulder of the road and start waving. When I pulled over, they were desperate to get to the next town, having found out the hard way that the buses quit running between the towns at 6:30pm (it was around 8:00 by this time). Since they were all my age or younger, and I had a station wagon, I let them pile in. As they realized that what they had been facing if they would’ve walked was 7 miles of dark, no-shoulder highway, they were extremely grateful to me for picking them up. I dropped them at the bus stop in the next town and that was it.
I’ve never hitchhiked myself. I grew up with the idea that hitchhiking was dangerous (especially if you were a female). Not because of anything I was told, I don’t think, just that was the media message in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I remember seeing something on TV when I was around 7 or 8 that depicted a woman getting a ride while hitchhiking and being assaulted after the driver told her to put on some sunglasses. Then a couple years after that were the I-5 killer and then Green River* in the news, so yeah, in my mind hitchhiking was bad.
I now see college kids on I-5 all the time trying to get between Portland and Eugene. They are usually on an on-ramp or stopped in a shady spot with a sign indicating their destination. Come to think of it, most hitchers I see now use a sign. I saw a guy a month or so ago, as I was leaving a rest stop in southern Oregon, who was headed to Chico according to his cardboard. I still see the occasional hitchhikers who just walk down the road with their thumbs out, but usually only on smaller highways.
*I know now that these guys weren’t picking up hitchhikers, but we kids didn’t know any of the details, and to us “I5 Killer” or whatever made it sound like he was picking up people off of the freeway.
I’ve never picked up a hitchhiker or hitched myself when while driving or walking alone. The last time I’ve hitchhiked was in the mid-90s, for 20 minutes – literally, I was with friends in Gatlinburg TN when they wanted to hitch from one side of town to the other. I’ve been in the car with my mom at least twice when she picked up some hitchhikers, last time being the early 90s, and it might be possible that I’ve been with my mom when we accepted a ride when our car broke down in the 80s but if so I don’t remember.
I picked up a few and stuck out my thumb a few times in the late 70’s early 80’s. But then stopped completely when my fears overtook the thrill. I did offer a ride a few years ago to a young woman who was walking along the highway crying and carrying a baby on a blisteringly hot day she accepted and I took her into town. That was the last time I stopped for anyone on the side of the road.
I think it (people hitching on freeway onramps) did start to decline in the 80’s or maybe even in the late 70’s; but am not clear on either the dates or the reasons. It was still common in the mid 70’s.
I’ve picked up a few in the past but the last one I remember was a few years ago. I asked him where he was coming from and he told me he just got out of prison! That freaked me out a little bit but I did give him a ride to the bus station, he was very thankful so it ended fine.
Now being a little older I don’t think I’d pick up a hitchhiker though.
Driving to visit my brother in Michigan (near Ann Arbor) there is a stretch of highway with signage warning motorists not to pick up hitchikers due to the nearby prison.
That reminds me, the last actual time I’ve been in a party that picked up a hitchhiker was in Rocky Mountain National Park when we parked at both ends of a trail and found an elderly couple who had not, so it was simple to ferry them back to their car.
Never. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve even seen a hitchhiker. This is an urban region, of course. Things might be different in the vast expanses of the western states.
“When I pick up hitchhikers I like to let them get settled in and comfortable, and then ask them, ‘So, how far did you think you were going?’” - Steven Wright
That is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read! It’s in 3 parts: best case scenario, worst case scenario, and what actually happened.
I have picked up people I saw walking, but not necessarily hitchhiking, that I knew, and taken them to their destination if it wasn’t too far out of my way, both men and women. This was most common when I was in college.
The one time I considered picking up someone who had their thumbs out was when I was a 20-something working in a restaurant, and the hitchhikers were a co-worker and his best friend. To this day, I really don’t think they would have harmed me in any way, but something just told me to keep on driving, so I did.
My dad was in college in the late 1950s, and would hitchhike if he wanted to go “home” for the weekend, as did a lot of young men at the time. Even then, there were some well-publicized incidents of people being robbed or worse by those they picked up, or vice versa.
Every few years, Ann Landers would reprint a letter from a man who said that whenever he saw girls hitchhiking, he would pick them up and, while driving them to their destination, tell them about his IIRC niece who was murdered while hitchhiking, and warn them not to do it again. In response, she’d always print a letter or two from someone who said that SHE might be the dangerous one.
Last time (I think the only time) was 15-20 years ago. I was driving down a main suburban Sydney road, about 8 a.m. Three teens by the side of the road were shouting and waving their arms, practically jumping in front of the car. I thought they were in trouble, so I stopped. They turned out to be just very drunk. As soon as I stopped, they piled in. One of them kept leaning forward from the back seat to try to change the radio. I drove them a few kms down the road, to near the shopping centre. They got out with many, shouted thank-yous. It wasn’t a scary experience, but it made me realise that when you stop for someone, you have no idea what you are getting into.
Have I been hearing that wrong all these years? I always heard it as “sweet Emily will die.”
– Just looked it up. Apparently a whole lot of people heard either Emily or family, but it’s supposed to be “memory”. How a memory’s going to die if a person doesn’t – especially in a song about a killer – is unclear to me.
