Hitch-hikers

vikingaero

Companies and Insurers are unbelievably risk adverse that most have a blanket ban on carrying non-company passengers. I know of a few companies that specify vans and trucks without passenger seats. The seats are stored to be refitted when the vehicle is at the end of lease.

Years ago I saw a hobo thumbing a lift on the A30 near Honiton. Feeling sorry for him I stopped and asked where he was going. He said Frome/Longleat. As I was on my way to Chippenham it wasn't any inconvenience so I agreed to drop him at his destination - Longleat.

I only realised who he was when when we got to the ticket booth and the agent said: "Good afternoon Lord Bath". He got the agent to give me a complimentary family pass and I dropped him off at the House.

suki1964

I remember the start of the Falklands war, and living along the A3, there was many a young man hitching a lift up to Portsmouth/Southampton


I like picking up hitch hikers, I admire their spirit

Thankfully here, its still relatively safe as every stranger knows at least one person you are related too

SailorSam

oldhand wrote: »

So be aware of this scam,I have been caught 4 times in 2 weeks already.....:p:D:D

You've been caught out 4 times in only 2 weeks ?
You must have felt a right t1t, or was it a left t1t.

[Deleted User]

Imagine picking up a hitchhiker and ending up with a dark matter in your car :eek:

now if that doesn`t put you off watch the Hitcher :rotfl:

VfM4meplse

I stop for old ladies if I see them struggling with shopping - but they're hardly hitchhikers! I'm female and considerate rather than threatening.

Now I think about it, they must have bus passes?

musafir05

Picked up a hitch hiker once, she was a student looking to get a free ride. She was friendly and offered sexual flavors if I drove her other 50 miles to her destination. Being a guy I accepted and had a time of my life. True Story!

Richard53

I hitched all over the UK in the 70s, and when I got a car I repaid the favour many times. I liked meeting different people, and the experience was always interesting, in one way or another.


I stopped after a nasty experience. I had stopped at a motorway services for fuel, and a guy asked me where I was going, said his truck had broken down and he needed to get to a town about 30 miles away. I said I was going past there on the motorway and would leave the motorway to drop him at a roundabout about 2 miles from his house, but I was not prepared to go into the town (I had young children at home and wanted to get back to see them). He seemed fine with this, but when I got back into the car after paying for the fuel he started to tell me I was taking him to his house. I said that wasn't the agreement and he became furious and started kicking the inside of the car and cursing me. He wouldn't get out of the car so I did, and informed him from ten feet away that the car wasn't moving an inch until he got out and walked away. Plenty of witnesses about, so eventually he complied. He slammed the door so hard when he got out that about a kilo of rust fell out of the wheelarches. I got back in and drove off like a bat out of hell. (I'm quite a big chap, but he was a lot bigger.) That rather soured the experience for me, and I haven't given a hitcher a lift since.


That said, somewhere out in the wilds where there was obviously no alternative, I probably would even today. I have no objection in principle, and I think that a world where people with cars are able to give free lifts to people without is a nicer place.

dlm

Here is a funny Hitch Hiking tail for you.

Years ago, when I was a school lad - I lived 14 miles from school. Due to buses never actually starting running in time for me to get there I used to walk/hitch.

One day, a car screeched up at speed as I had my thumb out and shouted 'get in!' So I did and they had sped off at great speed. Right bunch of dodgy's they were, but i was grateful.

It transpired as we were going along, and they were talking of the drain entrance and examining the contenets of swag bags that they had just robbed a local post office(whilst it was closed) and picked me up on their escape as a hitch hiker.

I got to school OK, robbery was on the news so not a wind-up - would have been an interesting day if they hadn't have got away and I had been pulled in as one of the gang. 'i was only hitchiking' probably wouldn't have been believed!! lol!

Stevie_Palimo

dlm wrote: »

Here is a funny Hitch Hiking tail for you.

Years ago, when I was a school lad - I lived 14 miles from school. Due to buses never actually starting running in time for me to get there I used to walk/hitch.

One day, a car screeched up at speed as I had my thumb out and shouted 'get in!' So I did and they had sped off at great speed. Right bunch of dodgy's they were, but i was grateful.

It transpired as we were going along, and they were talking of the drain entrance and examining the contenets of swag bags that they had just robbed a local post office(whilst it was closed) and picked me up on their escape as a hitch hiker.

I got to school OK, robbery was on the news so not a wind-up - would have been an interesting day if they hadn't have got away and I had been pulled in as one of the gang. 'i was only hitchiking' probably wouldn't have been believed!! lol!

Jackanory at it's best if I've seen it done.

gwynlas

I regularly hitched in the 70's and one of the wierdest lifts that stopped for me was not the estate car I thought I saw but a hearse with a coffin in the back. The occupant was being buried in her hometown across country from where she had died.