Hitch hiking

[Sysman]

I recall when I was still in junior school, one of the seniors wrote an article in the school mag about hitching around Europe.

The way to get lots of lifts in Scandinavia was to stitch a Union Jack to your backpack.

[cailin maith]

I ran away from home when I was 13. Hitch hiked to Dublin to my Grans. I look back now and think how horribly wrong, it could have went!!

[MarillionFan]

I used to hitch hike when I was in my mid 20s but to be honest it was pretty difficult to get picked up as a fella, so I took to dressing up in womans clothing and applying a little makeup. Well I used to hitch up my skirt and stick out my leg and it was amazing cars used to pull up, lorry drivers hoot etc.

Problem was there are a lot of idiots about, because everytime I used to approach the vehicle they'd drive off. Bloody time wasters.

[Lockhouse]

Many years ago the younger and more naive Cliphead would get fed up with whatever boring job I was treading water in and pack a rucksack and just bugger off to the nearest motorway. No clear destination was just happy to go wherever the driver was going and see where I ended up.

Met some very interesting people, met people who became friends, saw places I didn't think I would see and generally had a great time. A very few dodgy experiences but handled easily.

Got a lift in a Rolls Royce, a lift all the way from Barcelona to Glasgow including a free ferry ride, same on a trip back from Ireland by entertaining the crew with country songs, even got a job. It really was almost a lifestyle.

The few times I travel on the motorways I never see hitch hikers, what's changed?

I used to hitchhike everywhere.

I hitchhiked my way across Europe for months. In various adventures I met a very nice woman who took me home and gave me "breakfast", got invited to a couple of parties, helped put out a fire, survived an attempted assault, got given a tray of peaches, helped out on a market stall, met a middling famous Swiss rock drummer, got a private guided tour of Chartres cathedral, got offered illegal substances (on several occasions) and lots more. I was indestructible at that age. This was just at the tail end of the "everyone stopping to give you a lift" attitude that Europe was known for.

I hitchhiked in this country as well - up and down the A11 mostly to see my then girlfriend who lived in Suffolk. I used to take a crash helmet with me so I could go on motorbikes as well. I didn't have a bean and couldn't afford the train, plus at the time it was borderline an acceptable thing for young people to do. It was colder and wetter than Europe though.

This was all in the late '70s early '80s.

[dang65]

I used to hitch-hike quite a lot in the early-mid 80s, but then I learned to drive and got my own car. Only time I've done it since then was during a Tube strike in the early 90s. I think it was an unplanned strike, or may have just been a major system failure or incident. Whatever it was, I wasn't prepared and there were thousands of people waiting for buses and taxis and looking lost. I was at Victoria Station and just walked down the road a bit and stuck my thumb out. Was picked up within a couple of minutes, if that, by a friendly chap who was going through Wandsworth, where I lived, and dropped me off at my house. I don't know if anyone else saw me hitching and had a go themselves. Seemed the obvious thing to do.

On holiday in the Scottish Highlands about five years ago I was amazed to find hitch-hiking alive and well, but obviously the place was full of backpackers anyway. We picked people up a couple of times and they were both foreigners.

It's very odd how hitching just died out so suddenly, while things like 'car pools' and special lanes for cars with more than one occupant were hailed as great new ideas for saving fuel and congestion.

I'd definitely hitch again if the requirement arose, like if I ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere or something.

[DimPrawn]

I used to love picking up hitch hikers.

Often reminded of those glorious days whenever I glance at the patio.

[Sockpuppet]

I sometimes give hitch hikers a lift. Mostly trade platers as they are the more sane of the bunch. Though most transport companies have made it a sack able offence to collect passengers.

Having said that a few years ago I was at Uni in Cardiff (ok 10 years ago) and I used to come back to Leicester via the Tesco distribution network. There was a Tesco store next to the halls of residence and a big warehouse down the road from where my folks lived and because I used to work for the Tesco warehouse before I went to Uni I usually managed to get a lift back from South Wales to the Midlands with a couple driver so its not totally dead.

Only got into trouble once at a place where the driver got a talking to for picking up passengers other than that ok.

[xoggoth]

Saw one a few weeks back, first i've seen in years.

In my teens and 20s I hitchhiked all over Europe including to Istanbul and to Iron Curtain countries. Loads of people did.

Best experience, think I've mentioned before, I was illegally sleeping in a shop doorway in Sofia wrapped up in a plastic sheet and a young lady who was caught short mistook me for a pile of rubbish and pissed in my ear. Fantastic!

[Scrag Meister]

Last time I gave a hitcher a lift, we picked him up in Devon on J27 on M5 and he wanted to go to Stamford Hill. He hit the jackpot as I live in Tottenham.

He was a squatting artist in some dive just off Stamford Hill Broadway.

[shaunbhoy]

Hitching was the best way to get round Arran

Second best, shirley?