We used to hitchhike a lot as teens. If you wanted to go somewhere, you just wet your thumb, and hung it out to dry! But by the mid to late 'seventies, it seemed to have become about as extinct as hopping trains. Still, the freedom of the open road was fun. Canada even used to have youth hostels for hitchhikers. One hot, summers day, while hitching along the main highway connecting Windsor, Ontario, with Toronto. I got stuck in the same spot. I was there so long, I started seeing stuff. And, in a cornfield, several hundred meters from the highway, I thought I saw a bunch of young girls, working topless. I quickly got out my binoculars, and zeroed in. And yup, it was a bunch of half-naked young girls. Then, at the precise moment I realized I wasn't hallucinating, a ride stopped. Later, when I got to my destination (Toronto Island Blues and Jazz Festival, Summer, 1973), I asked about what I had seen. And I learned it was a Canadian government-sponsored youth hostel. Too bad we never had anything like that in the U.S.!

My car broke down two years ago and I had to do it. Great guy picked me up and I sent him and his girlfriend movie tickets in thanks.

so it's guy picks up a hitchhiker and after they've driven for a while the hitchhiker says "aren't you afraid you'll pick up someone who might be a serial killer?". And the driver says, "the chances of there being two serial killers in one car are pretty slim."

I hitched a few times as a student in the early '70's and then through that decade and early '80's I had a job where I drove all over Scotland and I frequently picked up hitchers. These days I rarely see hitchers and the few I do see look a bit disreputable so rarely stop.

I love the idea of hitch hiking but with my luck I'd be offered a ride with that one serial killer

I hitched nearly every day in the late 70s and a couple of times in 81 or 82 but not since.

I haven't picked one up in well over 20 years either.

when i was a young navy guy i hitchhiked from halifax, ns. to edmonton, AB in 4 days (about 2500 miles). that was back in the early 60s. that odyssey included a few hundred miles on a train riding with the engineer from the lakehead to winnipeg.
must admit i haven't picked up a hitchhiker for yrs. just don't see them anymore.

I DID IT IN THE 60s. No big deal in those days.

In summer of 70, went from Wash. D.C. to California to Washington State and back to DC. Thousands hitchiking. Went between DC and Kentucky 10-15 times. Those days are long, long gone.