Generational question

36 comments

• Papi_Chulo

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  4 years ago

  Never did it - it always felt dangerous getting in a stranger's car
• rockie

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  4 years ago

  Probably 20 times between 13 and 21 years of age with a max total of about 500 miles. Longest roundtrip was about 200 miles!
• winex

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  4 years ago

  Yes, numerous times. I couldn’t even guess how many times. Never any long distance trips - just around town.
• Eve

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  4 years ago

  If I get in any complete stranger's car in my town, I know for sure I'm going to die or get propositioned.
• skibum609

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  4 years ago

  I never understood women hitchhiking fifty years ago for the same reasons Eve.
• winex

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  4 years ago

  But women hitchhikers were common.
  
  If you grew up in the 70s, you hitchhiked.
• Muddy

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  4 years ago

  Hell to the no
• CJKent (Banned)

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  4 years ago

  Never hitchhiked.
• wallanon

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  4 years ago

  Probably only once or twice, and while drinking because I can't really remember the details but remember that it happened. A lot of college was like that for me.
• shadowcat

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  4 years ago

  I can only remember once. I bought my first car 2 months before my 16th birthday with money I had saved from delivering newspapers. So I always had my own transportation.
  
  The one time I did hitch a ride was almost a disaster. My car was broken and I was coming home from my girl friend's house about 5 miles from mine. I got a ride with a big guy that turned out to be a queer. I felt his hand moving across the seat towards my leg and he kept taking the stop signs in second gear. I decided that I had to take a chance and when the next stop sign came up I opened the door and jumped out. I rolled over and got scratched up, I remembered yelling at him "Get away from me you fucking queer". My girl friend's mother drove me home after that until I got my car running again.
• gawker

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  4 years ago

  I hitchhiked quite a bit in the 60’s. Never a bad experience and one very good one where an “older woman” picked me up. We ended up parking and making outand I may have brushed my hand over a boob, but that was a thrill in the I’d 60’s.
  Another time when I was 21 I lost my license -cardboard - no picture. A few months later I got a $5 ticket in the mail for hitchhiking on the Connecticut Turnpike. I hadn’t been in Connecticut in years. I ended up paying $5 and never found out who’d taken my license
• Cristobal

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  4 years ago

  I have never hitchhiked, I had a car ever since I was 18, before that I always had reliable friends and family for transportation and when necessary I knew how to use the bus system.
  
  I grew up being taught hitchhiking was an invitation to getting kidnapped, raped, or killed.
  
  Not directly part of the topic but I feel it is rested, I also never picked up a hitchhiker.
• mike710

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  4 years ago

  Never hitchhiked because I never really needed to. Picked one up once. I was on highway 50, the "Loneliest Highway in America", and picked up a German guy trying to catch a ride. I was driving between Cedar City Utah and Carson City Nevada. During the drive, you would not see cars for hours. The one stop had signs imploring you, many times, to stop for gas as it was the only chance. I felt sorry for the dude. He gave me a warm beer. I just wish he would have shut up once in a while.
• latinalover69

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  4 years ago

  I'm 58 hitchhiked my ass off when i was 15-18
• londonguy

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  4 years ago

  Before I bought my first car in.my military days I hitchhiked 250 miles home and back to base. I found it easy and trouble free as I was in uniform mostly or what I carried made it obvious I was serving. I rarely waited anywhere more than 15 minutes.
• twentyfive

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  4 years ago

  In the 1960s many times longest was probably 30-40 miles, never had a bad experience, it was really quite common on Long Island in those years, by 1969 I had my drivers license and bought my first car for about a hundred bucks, which is also a generational thing, Never hitchhiked again but we used to pick up girls hitchhiking all of the time some of those pickups turned out quite fun.
• SerenitySinn

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  4 years ago

  😬🤔🤐🤦🏻‍♀️
• Icey

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  4 years ago

  Never done it. Its too dangerous and I'm not sure many people would take a hitchhiker anyways.
• DandyDan

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  4 years ago

  Did once in the 90's when I was going to college. I knew a guy who rented a house way across town from the college who had a party and I thought I would just walk home afterwards. The temperature dropped to the teens, so I just thumbed a ride home to my apartment. I suppose since I wore my college jacket, they must have assumed I was a student. Never did it again.
• gammanu95

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  4 years ago

  I grew up in the 80s, so no. By that time, post-Adam Walsh and Gacy, the dangers of child predators were well-known and communicated to us at young ages. Additionally, someone did once try to abduct my best friend and I at a young age.
  
  The only time I got in a stranger's car was in my 20s when I had a roadside breakdown on Christmas Eve, before cell phones were so common. I got my first cell phone soon after.
• skibum609

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  4 years ago

  I actually hitchhiked last year to buy ice melt. Two inches of ice on the driveway meant cars stay at bottom.
• Longball300

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  4 years ago

  Yes, it was more acceptable and safer in the 60's / 70's but, that was just a bit before my time. I grew up in a city where everything was a easy walk..... drug store, Sears, hobby shop, record den, library. Rode public buses to school and some of my friends had cars by age 16; I had one by 18. Hence, I cannot remember a single time I needed to hitch hike. Although, I did give a few a ride.
• Studme53

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  4 years ago

  I hitch hiked all the time before I got my drivers license between the ages of maybe 14 through 17 during summer at the Jersey shore. Lost my virginity to an older woman (she was probably 18, I was 17) who gave me a ride and then invited me to a wild party. Got rides from a lot of drunks, which was dangerous in retrospect, but I didn’t realize.
  I hitchhiked a little in College in Philly (no car) but got spooked once or twice and that was it.
• Studme53

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  4 years ago

  I was usually carrying a basketball or books, which were sure fire props to get rides.
• Dolfan

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  4 years ago

  I've never done the hitchhiking, but I have picked up a couple people.
• Jascoi

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  4 years ago

  in ‘75 i hitched a ride once 50 miles in a early 60s cadillac with dead heads. interesting.
• woodstock

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  4 years ago

  @Jascoi, did they have a dead head sticker on their Cadillac?
• magicrat

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  4 years ago

  I did it many times in my youth and thought nothing of it. Once from home for a 7am basketball practice. I think the first car I saw picked me up. Once I decided to come home from college and caught a ride with 3-4 kinda redneck guys who eventually started passing a bottle of Jack Daniels around. Come to think of it, I do believe that was the last time.
• Nidan111

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  4 years ago

  Twice in the 80s because my car broke down 200 miles away from college destination. Back then, I never worried about being accosted because I thought I was a bad ass being a black belt martial artist in the days when few even knew what the fuck martial arts were. Yeah, was a dumb ass.
• minnow

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  4 years ago

  sb69- Been there, done that. (Although hitchhike events were strictly local). Most events were during college years. The college that I graduated from had a spread out, disjointed campus area, with the admin buildings, student mail boxes, and bank (no atm's) being located ~ 3 miles or so from dorm and academic buildings. There was van service from the dorm that ran ~ every 30 minutes. If one missed the van, they could start walking towards destination with thumb out. In rare events one couldn't get a ride, regular van driver was usually good about picking up stragglers. One time going back towards dorm, a 40 something or so guy picked me up. Right away, he questioned me about the wisdom about going to college in general, and my college in particular. I replied- "College is supposed to prepare one for life." "Xyz university has a program for the career that I've wanted to pursue since my early teens. Therefore, I feel that a degree from "Xyz" would be more useful than, say, a political science degree from State U, as I don't see anything scientific about politics". He didn't ask or comment further. I guess I convinced him that I wasn't a typical young snowflake. I thanked him for the ride, leaving us both to go forth in our respective worlds.
• gSteph

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  4 years ago

  Sure, lots in the 70's, late 60's. Farthest was 180 miles, coming home from a job.
  Hell, on our HS senior skip day, couple of us hitch hiked from the beach back to town, got some beer, then back to the beach. Guy who picked us up was drinking beer, but was unhappy we teens had some too. But he took us to our destination.
• nicespice

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  4 years ago

  When I was in high school, I had to stay late after school for some reason (I forgot why) and needed to walk two miles back “home”.
  A 95 year old woman pulled over and offered a ride, and I took it.
  
  She was awesome.
• SanchoRG

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  4 years ago

  My younger, dumber stubborn self needed a car battery so I walked a mile to oreillys and was walking back with a heavy fucking battery when some kind soul gave me a ride. That’s the only time I’ve ever hitchhiked but I’ve picked up several
• Eve

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  4 years ago

  @spice, If a cute little old woman offers me a ride if I'm walking in the middle of nowhere, I may be more tempted to accept the offer. Seems the only threat they pose is in horror-themed video games and movies. (ie: The Shining bathroom scene)
• JamesSD

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  4 years ago

  I bummed a few rides in my college town with other college kids I hadn't met before but that's it
• EastCoaster

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  4 years ago

  I used to hitchhike *all* the time during the early 1970s -- more times than I can remember. I don't think I ever did it locally for short hops. It was always long-distance trips, usually 200 miles (like home to college) or 500 miles (like college to Nashville TN). I didn't have a car (obviously), but there were always places I wanted to go and girls I wanted to see. Hitchhiked with different girlfriends several times and thought nothing of it.
  
  I always had my best luck getting rides when I had a guitar with me. It was a totally different scene back then. Easy to get rides, and very safe, though I did get picked up by drunks now and then. Once my girlfriend and I hitched from Boston to Amherst Mass and got picked up by some guy with space in the back of his open-bed pick-up. At one point, I glanced through the window and saw the jerk was going 100 mph. At least it wasn't raining.
  
  Would I do it today? Gotta be kiddin' me.