In 70s, hitchhiking was a common way to get around for those who didn’t have a car or too young to drive. While hitchhiking seems unthinkable today, it once symbolized the freedom and trust that defined the open road in the ’70s.
In 70s, hitchhiking was a common way to get around for those who didn’t have a car or too young to drive. While hitchhiking seems unthinkable today, it once symbolized the freedom and trust that defined the open road in the ’70s.
Guys like Ted Bundy ruined it for everyone.
In the spring of ’67 I hitchhiked Minneapolis to Seattle, down the Pacific coast to San Diego, Phoenix,Texas, back home to Mpls. I did it again in the fall. ADHD I suspect. I was seldom murdered
A hell of a lot of kids never got where they were goin’ tho.
“trust” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this sentence.
My dad hitch hiked during the late 1930s as a kid until the late 1940s as a young man. He picked up many a hitchhiker all throughout his life. One time, on a trip back home to Miami from NY, he picked up a guy wanting to come south. I woke up one morning to a stranger in my kitchen. I had breakfast with this young man. It was the first time I’d ever seen someone eat grits. Virgil was from VA or WV, but my dad drove him halfway across the country because he stuck his thumb out.
I hitch hiked heaps in NZ in early 2000s. Don’t see many hitch hikers around these dats
That’s hilarious. Wasn’t just the 70’s. That shit went back decades.
Edited for grammatical errorrorirororrl
Did it all the time. We never thought that we were in danger.
My dad hitchhiked from San Antonio to LA, for college, in the 1950’s. He did it all the time. He said no more than two or three cars would pass you before someone stopped and picked you up. He never had a bad experience.
Dad knew what it was like to be poor. He never forgot it. He was always, picking up hitchhikers. He wouldn’t do it with us or my mom in the car, but he would tell us about it.
He’d come home from work and say “I gave a kid a ride today” and tell us a bit about the hitchhiker. This was as late as the 90’s. It drove my mother crazy. He was from a different era.
In this day and age, I honestly think it is safer than it was thirty or forty years ago.
Before getting into a car, you can send a photo of the number plate and even a photo of my ID to a friend or relative. Similarly, I can take a photo of a hitcher’s ID and it will be on my wife’s iCloud instantly.
I’ve only ever had positive experiences of hitching and have been picking up hitchhikers for all my driving life: there just are far fewer such people nowadays.
“Unthinkable” seems pretty hyperbolic. There’s a fair of bit of hitch hiking still happening on the west coast
wasn’t limited to just the 70s
I lived like 3 miles away from the main road that had a bus so I hitchiked 3-4 times a week from age 15 – 19. Usually late at night.
Honestly the Uber sounds more scary than the 80s
Ed Kemper enters the chat
Ass, grass or gas… nobody rides for free
This was my main form of transportation as a kid. Things were different then. I never had any problems or difficulties. Small town, fairly isolated community. I guess I was just very fortunate.
Guy is trying to hitchhike for a long time. Finally someone stops. He gets in and says “thanks for picking me up. Just curious, weren’t you worried that I might be a serial killer?”
Driver laughs and says ” what are the chances that we are BOTH serial killers?”
As a kid in the 70s I remember my aunt totally addicted to true crime stories. Many were of the missing girl who was hitchhiking to somewhere and later found in a shallow grave. The 70s were no really that cool.
The filmmaker John Waters hitchhiked across the country and wrote a book about it called “Carsick” that was released in 2015. I remember hearing him being interviewed about it on NPR and how he was heartened about how kind people were, generally.
I hitchhiked quite a bit in the late 80s to late 90s. The first half was getting back to apartment in Boston after drinking age couldn’t afford a cab. The T stopped service at 2am. The latter half out west as a ski and MTB bum.
Ass, Gas or Grass….
I was hitchhiking from our community pool heading home and a guy in an old English Rolls Royce pulled over. Right hand drive so I had to go out in the street to get in. Got a ride all the way home but no one was home to see.
I still pickup hitchhikers today. I hitchhiked a few times when I was younger. Never had a negative experience 🤷♂️
I did hitchhike when I was a young guy. Some experiences for sure but none too weird to handle, and did get about.
I see hitch hikers all the time in northern Florida. I haven’t been tempted to pick any up though.
I think this was a good practice but I don’t think it was particularly safe because the number of serial killers targeting hitchhikers was unproportionally high and included Edmund Kemper “Co-ed Killer,” Dean Corll, John Wayne Gacy and Robert Ben Rhoades just to mention a few
Imagine living in a time and place that people trusted strangers.
My two uncles hitchhiker around BC one summer in the 70’s. If nobody picked them up they would breakout a couple of hard hats from their kit. Always got a ride then.
I dated a girl in the early 2000’s who thumbed it everywhere. From Quebec naturally. Whenever she got picked up she would haul out a bag of apples and peel them slowly with big ass hunting knife. Never had a problem.
It was dangerous even back then. We had the Texas Killing Fields here.. We were warned over and over again to never hitchhike.
In high school I didn’t pick up a pretty girl hitching because I was too high. I expected my friend to tease me but he was apparently too high as well.
How different is it really from rideshare apps honestly
hitchhiking seems unthinkable today? I do it every summer…. I am not broke either. Its just fun.
…it was a different time
Hitchhiking is very very common for people hiking long trails like the Appalachian and pacific crest. I hitched a ton last summer on the at. It’s really not that unthinkable.
Still is where I live
Still happens in areas where people walk cross country trails. Definitely not the same but I feel like it is fear on all perspectives that make it not as common. Like, people don’t want to pick anyone up and also most don’t want a ride with an unknown driver.