Pick up hitchhikers...?
...I never do, unless it's obviously a disabled vehicle, but I made an exception this morning. The young guy's girlfriend, with whom he has a child, left him stranded out of town, while she left to party with friends. We found his car at a fast food place, but no girlfriend. I left him with $5 to make phone calls and get a bite to eat. Also, advice to not let the impending argument get physical in any way. I hope things work out for him.
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Dude if you stop to pick someone up around here and they don't run for fear of their lives they are probably going to kill you!!!
Hitchers are usually the victims now days not the other way around!!!0 -
Thank GOD I live in the country. Around here, if the guy is hiching, you probably KNOW HIM!! (Yeah, that's Butch- his old truck broke down last month- probably headed home from the grocery store) 0 -
Like I said above, I have picked up lots of hitchikers, hardly ever had a problem with one.
But here is one interesting case.
I was getting on the big perimeter highway in Atlanta, at Roswell Rd. This is where the richest people in the city live. Rich people don't pick up hitchikers.
I saw a guy hitching on the ramp. I gave him a ride. He said he had been there 5 hours. I told him he was lucky I came by, he would have stayed there 5 more, due to high percentage of Mercedes and Lexus there.
Right away, he starts complaining about everything. It is too hot. Hitching is bad. Can't get a job in Atlanta, blah blah blah.
I offered him a banana, he said he didn't like fruit.
I offered him a coke, he said he didn't like coke.
All the guy did was gripe and complain.
We went along for about ten minutes, I told him I had to get off at the next exit. He starts griping right at me, "A ten minute ride. I thought you were going longer than that. I wouldn't even have gotten in your truck for a ten minute ride."
I expect gratitude when I give someone a ride, not this crap.
I pulled right over on the shoulder, two miles from the exit, in the middle of a construction zone. Hitchikers walking on the shoulder of I285 often get arrested.
I said, "Your problems with me are over. Our ride is ending right here."
He wouldn't get out.
I reached past him, opened the truck door, and started shoving his ass out the door. Since I was 40 pounds bigger than him, he did go out.
I looked right at him and yelled, "No wonder you are so down on your luck, you are an A$$HAT!"
I pulled away, fast. I could see the guy picking up a big chunk of concrete. He threw it at my rear window, it landed 10 feet behind the truck as I roared off.
Like I said, very atypical, most hitchers are quite happy for the lift, and almost never turn down free food. Maybe this guy was a Martian.0 -
I used to pick them up all the time but I hardly see any hitchhikers anymore.
I once picked up a guy who looked like a deadhead and he pulled three intact Woodstock Tickets with stubs and all then proceeded to tell me how he got there after the fence was tore down and tickets were no longer required and all about the bands and music.
He was like in a time lock.0 -
I'm pretty selective but have gone out of my way on occasion to drive past my destination.
Once I picked up a serviceman who got in too late to check in his parachute and had to lug it along with his duffle bag.
As a serviceman in uniform I got a bad impression from drivers between Ft Lewis and Seattle. They rarely picked up hitch hikers in uniform. Pretty cruddy. It was wartime.0 -
"Pick up hitchhikers...?"
Never....0 -
The wife and I hitched around the country for a summer, back in the 70s.
Met a LOT of people, seen a lot of places we wouldn't have.
We still pick-em-up.0 -
...Sure, it can be dangerous, but something I didn't mention in my original post was that I'd seen the guy a half hour earlier, when I was going the other direction. Something told me that he was down on his luck and wasn't a threat. I saved him an eight mile walk, bought him breakfast and gave him one bright spot in his rotten day. Call it karma or whatever, but it made my day too.
...If he'd turned out to be a threat to me, I'd be rolling down the mound of dirt by now...[;)]0 -
From my experience being the hitch hiker seemed to be allot more dangerous, I got rides from allot of really nice people, some youd never have thought would be the type to stop, some were weird as hell and totaly safe, but I also seemed to get a lot of drunks that would stop that was the dangerous part.
I stopped picking them up when a friend told me a story about a friend of his who's brother who was on leave from the army was killed by two guys he picked up that were hitching, didnt know if it was true or not but I stoped picking people up.0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
I have hitchiked a lot. Once, I got a 14 day vacation, and hitchiked from Atlanta to Boulder Colorado, from there east to Duluth Minnesota, north into Canada and around the Great Lakes, and then east to Vermont, then back to Atlanta. Back home Sunday night, and back at work Monday morning.
Once I hitchiked from northern British Columbia to Atlanta, 4,300 miles.
I hitchiked all over Europe, from Italy to Sweden, from England to Denmark. Got hit on by a Kraut gay boy, he got mad when I said "no" and he made me get out in the middle of the Autobahn, two miles from an exit in the rain.
On the other hand, ONE TIME I had the hitchiker's dream. I got a ride in Nebraska with a female driver. Wound up back at her apartment at 10 pm, and I mean, "she offered her honor, I honored her offer, and all night long it was on her and off her."
She was engaged to be married in two weeks, but was considering calling the thing off. So, I gave her what I considered counseling. She wrote me a letter a week later, she had dumped her fiancee.
Anyway, one time I figured it up, I had hitchiked more than the circumference of the earth, 25,000 miles.
This was back in the seventies.
When I was driving, I picked up all hitchikers.
These days, I pick up hitchikers on occasion. Many of them stink, and just give me the creeps. If I see a guy with a backpack I will give him a ride, he is probably going to hike the Appalachian trail.
Most of the hitchikers, I pass by, it is a dangerous world. These young punks see a guy like me who is bald with a gray beard, they figure it is a geezer who is an easy mark. I am not, and do have a "surprise" for such a person, but who needs the hassle?
And you never used a sign??? Mannnn you couldda went around the world 3 times , if you would have just kept changing your sign, to read the next town!!...IT WORKED back in the day..
Jeff0 -
NOt as a rule, as we had an incident a few years ago where kids posing as hitchikers with a disabled vehicle shot and robbed some guy who stopped to help him.
I wouldn't as a rule, being female.
Last year, while driving home from the race at Watkins Glen, Mike and I passes an older couple having radiator problems on 86. They didn't ask for help, but we stopped anyhow. Turn out they are from the area. Nice folk.
Gave them a lift and let them use a cell phone. I thought they would cry.0 -
First thing I got for my younger sister to go along with her new car was an AAA membership, and a cellphone. And a car plug-in adapter for the phone. Joe
No one in my family will stop to pick up a stranger. Not worth the risk.0 -
It is still pretty common in Alaska I pick up everyone. Funny thing is the few times I have tried it never got a ride and the people who did stop scared even me. Best hick hiking luck I eve had was summer of 2002 co worker was female 6'2 and fire engine red hair she would stick up her thumb and we could pick which ride we wanted. it was awesome. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by fishkiller41
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
I have hitchiked a lot. Once, I got a 14 day vacation, and hitchiked from Atlanta to Boulder Colorado, from there east to Duluth Minnesota, north into Canada and around the Great Lakes, and then east to Vermont, then back to Atlanta. Back home Sunday night, and back at work Monday morning.
Once I hitchiked from northern British Columbia to Atlanta, 4,300 miles.
I hitchiked all over Europe, from Italy to Sweden, from England to Denmark. Got hit on by a Kraut gay boy, he got mad when I said "no" and he made me get out in the middle of the Autobahn, two miles from an exit in the rain.
On the other hand, ONE TIME I had the hitchiker's dream. I got a ride in Nebraska with a female driver. Wound up back at her apartment at 10 pm, and I mean, "she offered her honor, I honored her offer, and all night long it was on her and off her."
She was engaged to be married in two weeks, but was considering calling the thing off. So, I gave her what I considered counseling. She wrote me a letter a week later, she had dumped her fiancee.
Anyway, one time I figured it up, I had hitchiked more than the circumference of the earth, 25,000 miles.
This was back in the seventies.
When I was driving, I picked up all hitchikers.
These days, I pick up hitchikers on occasion. Many of them stink, and just give me the creeps. If I see a guy with a backpack I will give him a ride, he is probably going to hike the Appalachian trail.
Most of the hitchikers, I pass by, it is a dangerous world. These young punks see a guy like me who is bald with a gray beard, they figure it is a geezer who is an easy mark. I am not, and do have a "surprise" for such a person, but who needs the hassle?
And you never used a sign??? Mannnn you couldda went around the world 3 times , if you would have just kept changing your sign, to read the next town!!...IT WORKED back in the day..
Jeff
fishkiller, you bring up the great debate among serious hitchikers, to use a sign, or not to use a sign?
I didn't use one, just stuck out the thumb. It worked pretty well. On long trips I always had a big frame backpack with sleeping bag on it, so people could tell I was going a long way.
I hitchiked the lenght of Italy, from Brindisi to the Swiss border. My girlfriend with long blonde hair was my hitchiking partner. We never waited more than 3 minutes. Those Italian boys go nuts to get a blonde Americana into their car, they figure, you never know, the big boyfriend could die from a heart attack in the back seat, then the Italian could make his move on the blonde.
Following a suggestion from some hippie magazine, I did one time make a sign that said "OZ."
I got a lot of smiles from drivers, but after three hours had not gotten a single ride, I figured the joke was on me and I ditched the sign.0 -
Depends on the situation [:D] 0 -
quote:Originally posted by tacking1
I hitched to and from school in the 80s. I gotta say, it was a blast I met some great people.
BUT...
I was trying to get home up I 85 north of Durham, NC and was having a hard time getting a ride from Greensboro, NC. It was hot amd way too much traffic on a friday afternoon. Finally, after three hours of misery, and old chrysler pulls over and backs up. This car is a pure rag smoking and barely running. I go up to the door and open it and all manner of junk falls out. I look over and it is the ugliest woman I have ever seen driving. Fat, about three teeth and hair that looks like a freakin broom. as I am standing there she looks at me and says, "you ain't gonna rape me are you?"
Now, I indicated that that was far from my mind and got in. On the way up 85 she told me she was going to visit her boyfriend in the maximum security prison at Butner and that he was "in" for killing her mother....
Hitchhiking is interesting, to put it mildly
were you actually "lying to her" and raped her anyway?0
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