8 of 60 - The Lost Art of Hitchhiking

 

As I was driving along the highway, I suddenly saw this sign. It kindof caught me off-guard. Fortunately, since I usually travel alone I don't typically pick up hitchhikers anyway -- bit it is a bit disconcerting that there are frequent enough jailbreaks that they have had to put up signs. I mean, how often do people around here break out of prison???

My dad told me that back in the 1930s that he used to hitchhike quite a bit. He lived in Preston, Idaho, and attended Utah State University in Logan, Utah -- about 30 miles away. Back in the 1930s, it was the Great Depression, so few families had cars -- and even fewer college kids. But amazingly hitchhiking was a frequent method of transportation for my dad -- especially to get home to see his family. At 6'2’½" and a tall skinny red-head, I doubt that Dad ever looked very menacing.

Seeing this sign reminded me of the hitchhiking story my dad told me -- and that made me smile. If I had seen a tall skinny red-head, I might have stopped -- so it's probably better that no one was thumbing it on this stretch of highway that day.