maddogg09 posted: " Believe it or not, young people, it used to be a thing. You could go literally anywhere in the contiguous forty-nine states by merely standing on the side of the road and putting your thumb out. We thought nothing at all of climbing into a stranger"
Believe it or not, young people, it used to be a thing.
You could go literally anywhere in the contiguous forty-nine states by merely standing on the side of the road and putting your thumb out.
We thought nothing at all of climbing into a stranger's car, doing drugs with them, and trusting them with our very lives.
Naive?
I prefer the romantic vision of innocence if truth be told.
I personally know of probably a dozen people from California who "claim" to have hitchhiked to Max Yasgur's farm to attend Woodstock.
Impressive.
Good luck finding anyone to stop and pull over to pick you up on the very narrow roads in England.
Futile.
You have a much better chance of going in a local pub and befriending some locals who can direct you to the best way out. Even money says that someone will get you a ride to your destination.
People are good all over the world.
People are also fucked up all over the world.
Having watched every single episode of Criminal Minds, after reading Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Story, and after going inside the mind of Thomas Harris in his writings, The Domestic Despot gets a little worried about me.
I get into this absolutely insane subject matter with the same intensity I did when I began researching World War II and Adolf Hitler's reign. I became obsessed with everything ever written by William Shirer, and diving into other sources, I kept turning each page I discovered, shaking my head the whole while because I just couldn't believe that human beings could and did, treat other human beings so callously.
I am sure that is not what God wanted.
I read a book in high school called Thumb Tripping which romanticized hitchhiking, but also served as a portent of dangerous things that happen out on the road, where you are most often times, not dealing from strength.
The only hitchhikers I see nowadays are people at freeway entrances and exits. But rather than go anywhere, they are just looking for some supplemental income. The signs that I see range from pitiful to hilarious and I choose to donate to members of society on a much more macrocosmic scale and give to organizations like the Humane Society, and the United Way as examples.
Today was absolutely gorgeous, and in another time, I might have said it was a great day to hitchhike.
But no.
Sometimes just picking up and going spontaneously is just as money as thumb tripping.
A girl I met in Albuquerque was sitting at the bar. We were the only two souls on stools. She ordered a shot of V.O and a beer chaser.
This might have been a sleazy little dive bar, but they could pour some shots.
She drew my immediate attention.
I ordered another drink.
A shot of V.O and a beer chaser.
I looked in the big Budweiser mirror and a big grin spread across my face.
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