1971 A friend and I ran away from home, hitchiked West. Well I did any way, he chickened out in St.Louis and called his parents for a bus ticket. I went on first to Arizona, then to California. Hitched around California for a couple of months and then headed East. Had a great time adventure of my life. My parents told me had a letter from Uncle Sam at home so the adventure was over. I did not want to go to Nam and that is exactly where a drafted High School dropout was headed, so I joined the Marines and had a whole nother kind of adventure.
Oh, my, had hitching adventures much like Ken's but different. Have acquired many memories while hitch hiking, most I had forgotten about.
Your experience is very similar to mine. My place of refuge was called "The Winners Circle" in Bakersfield. Times were different then, folks were trusting and altruistic. Many is the time I was taken into a complete stranger home for a bath a meal and a bed,or floor for the night. I got the kivin hell beat out of me in Abilene for the sin of being a long haired freak. A cop in Needles knocked me around a bit. Two Mormon girls picked me up in Ely, Nevada, took me to their home in Ogden. They did not drink coffee or smoke, but that is about all they didn't do!
Yes we hitched often...we had no money for fares to go anywhere so it was something we did often I finally stopped when we hitched one night when in the pitch dark the driver started talking dirty to us and then drove right past our destination for about 5 miles out of the city and into the countryside..my friend and I were terrified , so eventually when he stopped we were in the middle of nowhere, we didn't waste a second , we managed to both jump out of the car and run hell for leather over the dark fields toward some lights which turned out to be a small airport.... .... he did run after us, but we were young and fast, so he gave up... . That was the end for me..no more hitching...
I had one bad experience and I wasn't really hitching but offered a ride while I was waiting for a bus. It was before I was married and working summers in Chicago and staying with my grandparents. 3 guys were in the car and were Serbian I think but knew Hungarian so naive as I was...thought they were okay. They were...dropped me off at my job. Then at lunch time, one of the guys came into the store looking for me. Asked me out to lunch. I said ok.... Didn't go to lunch but instead he drove me to some underpass area near Lake Michigan. Said let's go for a walk....I still trusted him at this point...so went with him but once we reached the underpass it got ugly...thankfully I got away and he didn't push it any further. Yikes...didn't tell anyone about that...felt stupid and embarrassed.
Only hitched once in the U.S., in Ann Arbor, MI. Felt safe as it was a college town. Never hitched in other places here because, well, didn't feel safe. Easy Riderish. Hitched all over England, Scotland, Wales both alone & with others. One not so fun thing happened once, but to my friend who was in the front seat. My favorite all time hitch was from Salisbury to Stonehenge. Was in a lorry in high front seating. Up a hill, then at the crest the sun was waking up. Dawn was breaking behind Stonehenge. GASP! Will never forget that site. Was before the days of fencing around the monument. My friend & I were the only persons there. The only other presence were the ghosts of the past.
I wasn't a hitchhiker but it was a little bit frustrating living in a small rural village that every time you went for a walk various people would slow down and offer a ride. I did pick up a few hitchhikers back in the day. It was pretty common for the young college kids to hitch to and from school so they could save a few bucks for important things like beer and weed. These days I rarely see a hitchhiker and these days I would be very reluctant to stop for any reason.
Also and I don't know if this is sad or funny but that's probably the closest I came to having a date before I met my husband. Not because I was ugly but because my parents were very strict ..especially about that!!
awww that is kind of sad.... but a the same time, if you're parents had not been so strict then you wouldn't have had the successful kids you have today probably, nor the beautiful grandchildren... just a real pity you lost your husband so young and didn't have more time together to enjoy the grandchildren
All very true! He wasn't alive for my son's 3 boys at all. And my daughter's oldest was 5 when he died and his brother 6 months. The oldest barely remembers him because we were in Hungary those years and only I would come and visit my daughter and grandson every 3 months, stay for about 3 months, go back to Hungary for 3 months...I did that for the 5 years until we moved back. My husband couldn't because he was working...he did visit a couple times when business took him to California from Hungary...both kids. I also would take a side trip to visit son in Illinois...he was in dental School at that time. Also flew him over to visit us in Hungary a few times at Christmas or summer vacation. Daughter never visited Hungary. She's the only one in the family who has never been there. All my siblings and mom visited me. Haha..I'm off track again...what was the question???
Awww...shame that it's not on topic, but you know you can always start a new thread if you need to talk about him... it must be hard not to have anyone but the family to talk to about him...