Writer’s Rant for 11/26
In NC, “It shall be unlawful for any person to hitchhike or to solicit rides, or for the driver of any vehicle to stop for the purpose of picking up one who is hitchhiking or soliciting a ride, on any interstate or controlled access highway. ” Hitchhiking is still legal in 44 of the 50 states, provided that the hitchhiker is not standing in the roadway or otherwise hindering the normal flow of traffic. There were and still are restrictions on interstate highways. Fortunately for me, there weren’t many interstate highways back in the 70’s between my college in Connecticut to my hometown in western New York State. The bad thing was, I had to hitch 400 miles on a lot of two lane roads, none of which went directly home. I usually hitched alone, without incident, and I was fairly lucky getting rides; one trip took 14 different drivers. On my final adventure, I hitched with a college buddy from Buffalo. We made fairly good time all the way to Corning. There, we were picked up by a Pontiac GTO. It was a two door sedan with a very rough exterior. We climbed into the back seat. Keep in mind, it was the 70’s and we sported rather long hair. The driver and his passenger however sported very short hair, military style, which was significant as they informed us they were “not” honorably discharged, which they seemed proud of. We surmised by then that they were inebriated, which the driver demonstrated with his erratic driving at upwards of 80 miles per hour, passing vehicles indiscriminately and without concern for oncoming traffic. It took some time but we eventually convinced these kind gentlemen, after thanking them profusely, that we had reached our destination and they could let us out. When they finally did stop and we climbed out, we bid them farewell. There was a house nearby and it was now dusk, so we knocked on the door and a kindly lady answered. We explained our situation and she invited us in to call my brother and wait for him to drive about 50 miles to pick us up and take us the rest of the way home. If there is anything to be gained from my “Hitchhiker’s Guide”, it’s this: just don’t do it. Do NOT hitchhike.