Last time was a couple years back. My buddies and I were driving to Snowshoe WV and heading up the final, long road to the top of the mountain--pitch black and snowing like h*ll--some dude was thumbing. I pulled over and my buddy in the back seat asks "what are you doing?" told him I was picking up the hitcher. His eyes got wide and he just blurted out "What?!" as he had to ride next to him to the top of the mountain.

Guy turned out to be alright and he would have had a looong cold walk had we not stopped.

I had my 79 Wagoneer at the time and he spent most of the time telling some story about how he was a carpenter for Stevie Nicks in CA and she had a Wagoneer. We humored him and dropped him at the gas staion at the top of the mountain.

I had stayed up until about 3:30 am putting the Driveline back in my friends 70 Corvette. This was also after a day at work so I was wearing my work uniform. I went to crash at my girlfriends house. I got up early, I had to go home, to get a change of clothes. All I had at her house were my dirty work clothes, so she loaned me a pair of her shorts and a t shirt for the ride home. , the shorts were hot flippin' pink. I jump in my winter beater I think it was a Pontiac Bonneville station wagon, and head for home. It is only about 15 miles up the interstate, no big deal.
About 5 miles into the trip, my winter car sputters, then quits. So there I am in January Pittsburgh weather walking down the interstate with Hot pink chick shorts on , work boots, and my work uniform shirt with my name tag on it.
Sure enough, I got picked by a decent couple who rode me right to my front door. They laughed about my situation.

Good thread, almost forgot to empty the freezer in the garage before the wife gets home next week.

All through Jr High and High School (late 60s)the cutest smokin HOT girl in school was Donna Cunningham. Never got the courage to talk to her and ask her out since she was such a babe. I think most of the guys were intimidated by her. She dropped out of HS before graduating.

Fast forward about 8 years......I'm driving along in my VW bus and see a girl hitch hiking on PCH. I figured she was on her way to the beach. She gets in the car and says hi, I'm Donna. I immediately knew who she was, but she didn't recognize me. I asked where she was going and she answered "all the way....wanna go with me".

I've picked up hitchhikers two times:

In 1979, two of my high school budies and I were coming back from LA. As we were getting to the grapevine, we passed a line of hitchhiker (about 100 people) and the very last of the croud were two biker-type dudes that waived a bag of weed in the air. I hit the brakes and picked them up (we were young & foolish back then). They rolled joints the whole trip home (in my moms station wagon). We dropped them off in Visalia so they were with us for about 3 hours. That was some trip. Whenever I see my old HS buds, we always say "Here it Comes Again" which is what these biker dudes would say each time they passed the dubbie.

In the early 80's, I was driving along when a chick came running across the street and begged for a ride. She was being chased by an angry boyfriend. I gave her a ride but quickly realized she was kind of skanky. She was drinking coffee and tequilia. After about a mile, she asked me to stop at a gas station since she had to pee. When I pulled over, she opened the door and pulled her pants down (right outside of the car). I hit the gas and left her there. Later that evening, I discovered her purse was in my car - nothing in it but her drivers license. I dropped it at her mailbox the next day.

Those were the days.....

One day when i was 18, I was driving from staten island to my friends house in NJ near the shore,. I was going eastbound on the road. I see five girls on the westbound side hitchhiking. I hit the gas, at the next intersection i blow the light make an illegal u-turn. Lit my tires up, and im praying nobody picked them up yet. They were still there. I had my Ford LTD wagon. I pull up past them and pull over. They run up to the car, i ask them where they were going. They say they are trying to get to Great Adventure ( an amusement park). about 40 miles in the opposite direction of where I was headed. Needless to say I suddenly happened to be going in that direction. I say i can get them a little closer but couldnt take them all the way there, but they got in anyway. All im thinking to myself is MOTHER OF GOD! the holy grail! One of them, this girl Wendy kept saying i hope youre not some crazy murderer or something. She was nervous as hell.
Anyway, instead of just getting them close, I ended up going to Great Adventure and hangin out with them the rest of the day and night. Wound up becoming friends with them afterwards and dated one of them for a couple months. Kept in touch with three of them for a few years.

man, some great stories!!

me, not even close.

one time..flying into SFO, weather blew the flight plans out the window. we were in PHX.. i was effed..i had to get back, i just started my job. right then, some guy stands up on the counter and announced, "i just rented the last passenger van to SF..i need some people to split the cost!"..i jumped on board. there was about 9 of us..all walks of life..hippies, business people..everyone immediately fall asleep. i drove from phx to SF non effen stop..at the end, everyone just handed me cash and jumped out of the van..in the end, i profited..i had to pay nothing. i didnt even rent the van!!! i thought about just abandoning it..but returned it legit..it was bull**** me doing all the driving.

Come to think of it, the last time I hitch hiked I was 56 years old. I had spent two weeks doing cross country in the Sierras and had to walk another 5 miles from the trail head (a place named Taboose Pass trail head) to Hwy. 395. I didn't get there until about 8:30 at night. Stood by the road with my pack & got a ride in about 20 minutes to The Sizzler in Bishop, CA. I ordered a steak, and after taking one look at me they upgraded my order to a bigger steak for free.

Marv,

Funny you say that. When we got to mammoth, we hopped on their little bus. Everyone immediately got up and moved elsewhere. I was thinking it was our big packs. We finally cleaned ourselves up in the restroom somewhere. it wasn't until I got home and had a shower then I learned that my dirty clothes stunk like a dead animal.

Not a hitchhiking story but back in highschool a group of us would go camping for a week during the summer, and would be a little gamie when we came out of the woods. We used to stop at the first place we came to for a real meal and people would leave very fast. It became a tradition to see how many people we could make yack. :)

Did some hitch hiking when I was much younger. One that comes to mind was trying to get from the 4 corners area in NM to Santa Fe, where my car was being repaired. Got a ride from 2 ladies that said they could take me most of the way. It turned out that they were going to see their husbands in the State Pen, a few miles out of town. Getting a ride from that turnoff was a Very frustrating adventure. Similarly, during a summer working at Philmont, even wearing my scout uniform couldnt always overcome the signs warning of the reform school not too far away.

On the other hand, I had the same experience as many. Picked up a hitcher in Alabama but the BO was so bad and my car wasn't air conditioned, that I was more than glad he didnt need a ride for more than 20 miles.

When I was going to school at San Francisco State, I lived in Oakland. I would go by the bus stop right by the Grand Theater and ask if anyone needed a ride to the City. People would jump in which allowed us to use the car pool lane across the Bay Bridge for free!

This happened so spontaneously, and so many people started doing it, the city finally put up a sign that said Car Pool Waiting Area! I switched from driver to rider and got many a free ride. Back then, the Muni was only 25 cents. You'd get dropped off at the terminal in SF, catch a Muni and ride all the way to Daly City. What a freak show! The Muni went through the Castro district.

I could go from my house to Daly City for a quarter! Later, I hired on with Bechtel and rode for free for another three years before Bechtel sent me off to parts unknown, but that's for another thread.

I don't pick up hitch hikers. Short story, just google Robert Garrow Jr. And you will get all the facts. It happened right is our quiet little town in the Adirondacks back in the early 70's.