I hitchiked the 17 miles from my Jesuit high school to my house all the time in the late ‘60s.
I wasn’t a casual or regular hitchhiker back in the late 60’s or early 70’s. I had hippie-like friends who did it all the time.
My hitchhiking was done pursuant to unreliable motorcycles.
But, I still pick up folks time to time. You sometimes get some interesting tales.
I started hitch hiking while in junior high in the mid sixties. This was in my small New England town and it was strictly just to get around. My brother and I did this and we rarely waited more than 5 minutes for a ride. Upon graduating from high school in 1969 I started attending UMass in Amherst, a distance of 60 miles. For 4 years I used this method frequently to go home for weekends and then back to school on Sunday nights. Again, not much of a problem. My parents never once questioned it. We used to call it “thumbing a ride.” I wasn’t a hippy or anything like that, just a regular, resourceful kid. I admit that it is not a good idea today.
I sometimes had to thumb across town to my grocery store job back in the mid 60’s.
Totally different times back then. I wouldn’t dream of trying it now. Nor would I pick up a hiker. Last one I stopped for was a hiker in the Smokies in the late 90’s...
Likewise here.
Hitchhiked 10 miles to high school starting at age 13, books under arm. (No school busses for parochial school kids, which would probably please the many anti-Catholic bigots here on Free Republican).
Hitchhiking was an art form. Giving passing motorists that forlorn look, especially when it was pouring rain or snowing. Sometimes it would take three hours and four rides to make that trip, others a swift ride to the street where you lived.
Never had a single incident in four years, over 1400 trips.
But it was the ‘50s.