What Killed Hitchhiking?
 

Hitchhiking
Once part of the American dream, thumbing a ride is now frowned upon by many.
by Robin Dalmas

http://autos.msn.com/volvo/article.a...22289&GT1=3203


In Douglas Adams' hilarious Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, fictitious characters thumb a ride through space to meet Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed president of the galaxy; Marvin, a depressed robot; and the Vogons, a warlike race who compose poetry about whatever they find in their armpits.
Down here on Earth, hitchhiking was never quite so colorful—but talk to some baby boomers, and their eyes roll back with delight remembering the joy of soliciting free rides.

Clifford Popp, a 49-year-old public relations professional working in Pittsburgh, hitchhiked throughout high school and college. What was the allure?

"The freedom of being on the road, man," Popp said. "Jack Kerouac was one of our idols, and On the Road was our bible." It was thrilling to climb into a car with a perfect stranger and chat. "It often provided inspiration for short stories, songs, and poetry," he said.

Gillian Christie, the 52-year-old president of Christie Communications, Inc., in Santa Barbara, Calif., found hitching during the 1970s the perfect way to escape a cloistered youth and meet the real people of America. During a college break, she hitchhiked from Colorado to Alaska.

"The experience was more than eye-opening and humorous in retrospect," Christie said. When French-Canadian hunters picked her up in the Yukon territory, she climbed into the back seat next to something warm, which turned out to be a freshly killed elk.

Thumbs Down
Nowadays, hitchhikers often worry about becoming the hunted. While you'll still find folks like Ben Boscia, a 26-year-old cook boldly thumbing from his home in Coudersport, Penn., to California and back, the phenomenon is about as popular today as an "Impeach Nixon" bumper sticker.

Society has given hitchhiking a big thumbs down. Just look at Let's Go Publications. This best-selling budget travel series, founded in 1960, caught its own ride on the success of the hitchhiking movement. Its 1962 Europe edition carried tips like this: "Boys will get rides faster if they pair off with girls; girls welcome the protection." By the 1970s and 1980s, however, the books were more frank about the dangers. In 1991, the Europe guide stated a new, official position: Let's Go does not recommend it.

"When we implemented our latest redesign of the books last year, we finally got rid of the thumb logo, which had become a relic of an earlier era," said Tom Mercer, an editor and writer with Let's Go Publications. "Though Let's Go readers might still choose to hitchhike in certain circumstances, we felt that the logo was no longer emblematic of budget travel."

Along For the Ride
So, what killed hitchhiking? The answers may be as complex as that swirly pattern on your thumb.

Robert Thompson, popular culture expert and professor of media and culture at Syracuse University, believes three things are responsible.

"The interstate highway system took over as the principal route of long-distance travel, and hitchhiking was forbidden on these well-patrolled throughways," Thompson said. "Law enforcement in many communities began taking a less casual approach to hitchhikers." Finally, he said, "a generation of paranoid horror tales of what can happen if you hitchhike scared the 'bejesus' out of most people who might otherwise have taken up this unique form of ad hoc carpooling."

Gillian Christie, the hitcher who once shared a ride with an elk, has her own horror story. While thumbing from L.A. to San Francisco, she was picked up by a man in a restored truck painted bright yellow.

"I complimented him on his truck, which I guess he took as a compliment of his maleness," Christie said. "He pulled off on some old back road in the middle of nowhere and tried to attack me. I hauled off and hit him in the face and told him never to do that again to me or any woman and to take me back to the main road."

No 'Safe' Place
While parents everywhere, including Christie, now admonish their children not to hitchhike, the debate continues as to why this American pastime got a flat tire.

Hitchhiking was once part of the American dream of movement and getting on the road. If America can no longer safely satisfy the dream, are there any countries that can?

"There is no 'safe' place to hitchhike anywhere in the world," said Tom Mercer of Let's Go Publications, "but travelers still find success hitching their way from town to town in certain countries and regions of the globe." In Europe, it's still easy to catch rides in Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Hitching remains common in New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and rural areas of Central America and China.

So, if your great American dream includes hitchhiking, perhaps it's best to proffer your passport.

Robin Dalmas is a freelance writer based in Redmond, Wash. She is the former travel editor and producer for MSNBC.com.

Um, Serial Killers.

When I first saw the article on MSN that was my first thought. Still is really. It's way too dangerous!

There are often people here trying to hitchhike up or down the mountain. I actually told myself that I'd offer a ride to the next hitchhiker I saw, but it ended up being two goth kids and I knew they'd annoy me too much.

a few ppl stil do it, although I think it's a lil safer for men than women.

LAst year a friend's bf was telling us how he hitched across Canada 3 times...he had some weird stories, esp. one about a man that picked him and a female friend up and was talking about the hitchhikers recently killed in the area - pointing out the places the bodies were found and all the while he was staring in his rearview mirror at the chic.

I did it once (I was stranded out in the country in the middle of winter) and I was terrified. I'd never do it again unless my life was in danger. The people that picked me up were very nice (two farmers on their way in to town) but that doesn't mean I wasn't saying my prayers the whole way into town.

As it turns out, they recognized me from the farm store I worked at. I didn't know them, though.

I've done it also. When I was working at a summer camp in Occidental CA and we were in between sessions(the kids were gone). I had taken the bus into Santa Rosa and I needed to get back. The buses on ran on the hour. So I didnt feel like waiting so I started walking, and walking and walking. Anywho, this guy drove by in a cool 2 seater convertable and asked me if I needed a ride.

I'll be back. I have to take my lunch break and my co-worker is yelling at me!:)

I've never hitchhiked per se, but when my car broke down in Sedgewick, AR (middle of NOWHERE, plus I have no cell phone), a very nice old couple stopped to help me. THey didn't know what was wrong with my car so they offered me a ride to the local college where the man taught so I could use the phone to call someone to come and get me. While I waited they even bought bought me a soda and a candy bar from a vending machine. It was super nice of them.

While I wouldn't accept a ride from a stranger normally, there's some cases where you don't have much of a choice. I mean with me it was, 1)walk literally for miles in the dark to try to find a phone (not a very safe option), or 2)accept a ride from a nice old couple to get help.

It's dangerous, really.

I remember hearing how my dad used to hitch up to Pennsylvania from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina to visit my mom when they were dating while he was in the Army. When I was older he told me that the last time he hitched the guy who picked him up tried to, um, feel out his, um, package (ok, it's hard for me to even think about my dad's package much less type about it so give me a few minutes....ok, I'm fine now) My dad was in the 82nd Airborne so he definitely was able to take care of himself but he still steered clear from hitching after that!

On a related subject, I've had a short story idea bouncing around in my head for years about a serial killer who picks up another serial killer while hitching. Really, the comic possibilities are endless. But I have yet to sit down and put pen to paper.

Dangerous is the Key Word! To damn many Nutsoids out there!:eek:

What a damn shame as some people need to hitch a ride while others just to it!

Well, I do not pick up hitch Hikers anymore and if my car broke down, it is hard to get anyone to help you!:confused:

Been There and done it! Damn near drowned that night! Thank God for a kind guy!:)

I think it was that scene from "there's something about mary", when ben stiller picks up that hitchiker that has a body with him, and wants to creat 6 minute abs.

When I was a child, my mother picked up a 13 year old boy hitchhiking to the beach. She admonished us never to hitchhike or pick up hitchhikers. She only picked him up because he was so young, and she was afraid some killer would pick him up.

When my brother was younger, my family went to Target where my parents got into a little argument. He slipped away and hitchhiked home because he was afraid they were about to get a divorce (child logic??). He was gone in just a few seconds! I noticed that he had taken off and told my parents, but by that time it was too late. Anyway, some local college students happened to pick him up and take him to our house! Craziness!