by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
I've been doing this for a year and a half now, making the journey about twice a week. The average trip takes me two rides; in addition to advantageous departure points in the cities I call home, I've found a busy on-ramp in a town between them that serves as a good midpoint. When I'm picked up by a driver not going all the way, I ask to be dropped off there; I usually turn down offers from drivers going shorter distances, since there aren't any other points along the route as conducive to hitchhiking. Sun, rain, or snow, it never takes me more than three hours to travel the sixty miles of my commute, and I've made it in a third of that before.
Account
Hitchhiking 303
You can improve your chances of
being picked up and treated well
while hitchhiking, not to mention
getting away with other things, by
dressing in dark pants and a white
shirt with a tie and perhaps a name
tag?that is, as a young Mormon
on a mission! Pick up some free
Mormon bibles at your nearest
tabernacle for authenticity, and if
anyone asks serious questions, what
better form of cultural terrorism than
to spread a little fun misinformation?
Hitchhiking 304
To date, I've been picked up by well over one hundred different drivers, and I'm happy to say that I've never had a single bad experience. I am a white male of small build, now thirty years old, and surely that slants the results; all the same, I think this record indicates that the line I get from every driver?"you can't hitchhike anymore, it's too dangerous"?is sheer mythology. The only people wdth whom I've had unpleasant encounters have been the police officers who have harassed me on a couple of occasions {"What law am I breaking, exactly, ma'am?" "Oh, I'll find something!"). I've learned that if I keep an eye out for them and pick up my bags and start walking away whenever one appears, they won't bother with me; apparently, it's only the brazenness of trying to circumvent capitalist economics in their presence that affronts them.
I've started to get repeat customers, drivers who have given me rides before and now pick me up whenever they see me. If I made my commute at the same time every day, I'm sure this would happen more often. Drivers are glad to have company, and many clearly appreciate the opportunity to do a good deed; many of them have expressed gratitude that I choose to hitchhike instead of buying a car and creating more traflQc and pollution. Hitchhiking has helped me get to know more about the people and cultures of my region; once people learn that I'm from the area, many want to talk about local issues and history. I've learned a lot from these conversations, and it helps that I've been hving here a long time myself.
In my experience, hitchhikers are most likely to be picked up by drivers from demographics that resemble their own, so it makes sense to hitchhike at times and places that provide many such opportunities. All the same, I've received rides from everyone from an Indian professor of economics, who orated at length on the importance of mutual aid, to a teenage mother from Texas, who confided in me about her struggle to leave her abusive husband. One crippled Vietnam veteran explained to me that he picked me up because God told him to take me wherever I needed to go, and responded to my query
about the bullet-hole-riddled targets in his van with a sermon that warmed my atheist heart: "God is angry with the Federal Government! God's not going to take it anymore!" A black man my age told me of the prison time he and his mother had done as a result of their efforts to provide for their family, and gave me precise details of when and where to find him if I ever needed a ride again. A professional hula-hoop dancer who picked me up went on to join me in organizing a social gathering.
So it is that hitchhiking not only reliably gets me where I need to go on a regular basis, saving me hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the process, but also keeps the journey interesting, and connects me to others of all walks of life. My friends and I were brainstorming challenges for each other recently, and here's one I'll pass on to you: spend a year hitchhiking everywhere you need to go, and form a revolutionary organization composed of everyone who picks you up. You'll certainly have an easier time engaging people than you would if you were to spend the year driving, separated by metal boxes and furious with each other for congesting the highway!
Hitchhiking 305
Infiltration
Instructions
Going Undercover
^06
