Hitchhikers?

Henro

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I seem to be full of off topic ideas.

For some reason when I was driving down to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription today, I saw a guy at the side of the road fixing his shoe or something, and it made me remember the old days when you saw many hitchhikers all the time everywhere. I was one of them

I used to hitchhike from New York City to Pittsburgh and back on the weekends when I was in the Coast Guard stationed in Brooklyn. It would take me about eight hours when a guy I worked with used to drop me off on the New Jersey Turnpike right where it split off to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. On the way back it took me a little longer but not that bad when my dad dropped me off at the turnpike entrance. At the end I could just take a ride from anywhere in New York City and ride the subway.

So anyway, when I was going to Southeast Asia in the Coast Guard of all places, I hitchhike from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, and it probably took several days(don’t remember). When coming back from Southeast Asia to San Francisco, I hitchhike from San Francisco airport to my home in Pittsburgh in, believe it or not, 56 hours total duration. That included six hours stuck in Cheyenne Wyoming at a gas station when there was no traffic except for maybe one car per hour from midnight to 6 AM. It wasn’t worth waiting at the road edge all the time. That was 1968.

Of course, having a white sailors uniform on during the time of the Vietnam war was sure helpful!

After returning to the states in 1978 with a wife and two kids, although it hurt me in my heart, I decided not to ever pick up hitchhikers because I was hearing too many bad of stories about unfortunate things that happened to people that were kind enough to pick them up.

Now it looks like nobody even would understand what a hitchhiker is! Now that my kids are grown and they have their own kids I might actually pick a hitchhiker up! Except they don’t seem to exist anymore.

Times do change…
 

GeoHorn

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I know what you mean, Henro. (and Thanks for your service, Coastie, Glad you made it back!)

I remember that as a child overhearing my Mom and Aunt Pauline recollecting a time they saw a khaki-uniformed hitch-hiker up ahead with his duffle-bag over his shoulder… and being two young women slightly nervous about picking up a hitch-hiker…. when Mom said, “Well… I’d hope that someone would give our little-brother a ride if he were out on the highway somewhere”…
…and Aunt Pauline agreed with her…. so they slowed down as they approached to nervously give the Army Pvt stranger a ride…. As they pulled over to offer the guy (who was just-back from Korea and trying to get home)…. they suddenly realized the soldier was their younger brother!
What a Fine Homecoming!

…….
And, on another side of the coin,…. I recently saw a young motorcyclist broken-down on the side of the highway trying to push his scooter along the ditch…. So, driving a pickup truck, I did a 180 and went back.

Pulling over in front of him I got out and asked where he was going.
”Home”, he said….indicating a trailer-park about ten miles away on the San Antonio highway. I was familiar where that was, and offered to give him and his bike a ride, despite at the intersection up ahead, it being opposite direction from where I needed to go.

It seems he was trying to get to his job a few miles away, when his cycle broke down.
Did he prefer me to take him to his job…?…. (which happened to be the same direction I needed to go)…..? …..No, he was just going to go back home.

I drove him ten miles out of my way (and needed to drive the same ten miles back …just for me to get back to zero….so I could drive 8 more miles to my destination)…. and,… arriving at his trailer park, I stopped,… he got out and rolled his bike off the back of my truck…and rolled it away to a trailer-house and went inside.

Not even a “thank you”.


Yes, …times have changed.
 
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skeets

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OMG you was a " Puddle Pirate" off shore on a cutter ?
 

civlized

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I drove him ten miles out of my way (and needed to drive the same ten miles back …just for me to get back to zero….so I could drive 8 more miles to my destination)…. and,… arriving at his trailer park, I stopped,… he got out and rolled his bike off the back of my truck…and rolled it away to a trailer-house and went inside.

Not even a “thank you”.


Yes, …times have changed.
Stuff like that is infuriating!! Had you known he would show no appreciation, would you have still helped?
I mean, just a couple words makes the trouble worth it.

I've gotten into so many bad situations from trying to help someone. Kind of sad, but I tend to mind my own business these days. There are still situations I'll offer help on the road, but very sparingly.
 

Henro

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OMG you was a " Puddle Pirate" off shore on a cutter ?
Believe it or not, I get extremely seasick even thinking about being on a boat.

My good fortune was I spent four years in the US Coast Guard and never set foot on a boat more than a few minutes. And that was only riding the Governors Island ferry from Manhattan to Governors Island, about a five minute trip!

A year in Southeast Asia was also spent on land In Northern Thailand. My good luck…😳
 
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GSD-Keegan

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In my younger days I always hoped to find that cute blonde wearing daisy dukes hitch hiking…😂😂😂. Never came across her tho…..😳😳😳
 
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ctfjr

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I hitched from Boston to CT pretty regularly in the mid 60's. The pike wasn't finished yet into Boston so I had to take the T out to Riverside Station & walk down a hill to get to the pike entrance. I found having a sign cut down the wait time for a ride, by a lot.

One not so great story - got a ride a couple of exits short of Sturbridge (where you would get off to connect to Rt 84 going into CT). No problem, got out and started hitching again. Problem, state trooper pulls up and tells me to get off the entrance. So I start walking away but as soon as he is gone I turn around and head back. Big problem, he come back 10 minutes later. Tells me to get in the car. Asks me where I started from and proceeds to take me back to Boston.

One 'there is a god' story. I was let off at an exit short of Sturbridge. Was walking onto the entrance ramp and there is a trooper. Tells me he is running radar and to just stay on ramp (where I was going anyway).
So I go just a little further past the bridge he was hiding behind and start hitching. A few minutes later a car full of kids honks and pulls into the breakdown lane a couple hundred feet ahead. I wave to my buddy the cop and start running to the car. Just as I get there they peel out and give me the bird.
Before I know it my new friend is along side me and tells me to get in. He pulls over the dicks and gives the driver a ticket (some bs like unsafe start or something). He then takes me to the Sturbridge exit. Seems he did a lot of hitching as a kid too.
 
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Botamon

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Believe it or not, I get extremely seasick even thinking about being on a boat.

My good fortune was I spent four years in the US Coast Guard and never set foot on a boat more than a few minutes. And that was only riding the Governors Island ferry from Manhattan to Governors Island, about a five minute trip!

A year in Southeast Asia was also spent on land In Northern Thailand. My good luck…😳
Sounds a lot like my story. Got my notice to report for my physical from the local draft board. I knew if I allowed myself to get drafted there was a 95% chance I would end up in the Army. But I figured if I were to go in the military I'd rather be in the Navy and see much more of the world so I ran down to the Navy recruiting office and signed up. My first duty station was in the desert at an air station in Fallon, Nevada - now the Navy's Top Gun school. The second was in the jungle in Vietnam. Never did set foot on a ship in my 4 year Navy career.

The closest I ever got to a Navy ship is when one of their "stores" ships (a floating warehouse) appeared off shore to resupply us via helicopter:
USS White Plains stores shipr.jpg
 

GeoHorn

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I really appreciate and Thank You guys who answered your call and went over there. My brother was at Quang Tri in the Americal Div. for a year…. he got back home safely.

The closest I got was my pre-induction physical and testing. I did my dead-level best to make high scores on those tests, hoping I might get to helicopter training as a Warrant Officer.
Then the very next week…The Lottery was initiated and my bday drew Number 354. Whew! 😓

I’m still heartbroken over my Boy Scout buddy Henry Hale C TRP, 3RD SQDN, 5TH CAVALRY, 9TH INF DIV, USARV, …who, on Dec 31, ‘67 was participating in taking some vehicles from Blackhorse down Hwy 2 to a maintenance park/depot…. and died in a burned-out ACAV during a rocket-attack ambush because of stupidity by cavalry commanders who communicated convoy plans over an unsecured telephone system.

Full story, Chapter V, in the book: “Ringed in Steel, Armored Cavalry, Vietnam 1967-68” by Michael D. Mahler.



IMG_20230605_195436170.jpeg
 
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skeets

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Sounds a lot like my story. Got my notice to report for my physical from the local draft board. I knew if I allowed myself to get drafted there was a 95% chance I would end up in the Army. But I figured if I were to go in the military I'd rather be in the Navy and see much more of the world so I ran down to the Navy recruiting office and signed up. My first duty station was in the desert at an air station in Fallon, Nevada - now the Navy's Top Gun school. The second was in the jungle in Vietnam. Never did set foot on a ship in my 4 year Navy career.

The closest I ever got to a Navy ship is when one of their "stores" ships (a floating warehouse) appeared off shore to resupply us via helicopter:
View attachment 104203
PBR, Swift?
 

DaTow'd

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My hitchhiking true story.
. I had just gotten my draft notice and went to the Air Force to join up No Army for me.
I took the test to see what my interests were - I had been going to Photography school- so I aced the Photography test

I had two months before I was going to fly to Lackland AF base in Texas. So in !968 i hitchhiked from California to Pennsylvania to visit my grandfather before I joined up. I was clean shaven and had a back pack.
Pretty uneventful journey most of the way and met some nice people until I got dropped off near Chicago.

I was standing at a off ramp watching a group of guys beating up on some guy near a hamburger joint they were working the guy over pretty good and had I guess his suit case throwing his stuff around. I noticed one of the guys pointing at me.

Just then a older black man driving a 1950's Chevy stopped.
He stuck his out the window and said,
"Either you are a tough some bitch or really stupid" "get in".
He drove me to a better spot. He told me that those guys would have cut off my arm for your wrist watch.
I said my watch is cheap wind up Timex. He just looked at me.
I told him my story.
Last thing he told me was to call your momma and tell her you love her.
Good Times?
 

mcmxi

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it made me remember the old days when you saw many hitchhikers all the time everywhere. I was one of them
I still see hitchhikers up here fairly regularly. I've given two people a ride during my almost 10 years in Montana. The first was Christmas Day 2014 around 11pm driving from a friend's house in Polson back to Kalispell. It was snowing and cold and there was a guy standing by the side of the road so I stopped. After picking him up he started to tell me that the cops were looking for him. Great! He was a little off and I had to manage his mood during the hour long drive. I was armed (as usual) and dropped him off at a barn in Somers.

The other guy had just delivered a UPS truck in Kalispell and was standing outside the local UPS depot as I was picking up a package. He'd driven up from GA I think. He needed a ride to the bus depot to catch a ride to the airport in Billings I think. He mentioned that the margins were slim and that it was a fixed bid deal so any way to save money was a good thing and that's why he had an 8 hour bus ride to Billings rather than fly out of Kalispell.

In general I'm hesitant to pick anyone up. Too many folks off their meds.