Hitchhiking circa 2009

So last night I get a text to head over to a friend's house. I'm like, okay whatever. Grab the keys, say bye to Mom, hop in the car and I'm off.

Now before I go any further, when I drive, from the beginning of April till the end of October, I drive with my windows down, and my music bumping. Even if it's a little Bubbly. I'm not ashamed. So I'm driving, windows down, listening to some CD my sister had on, (Milkman? Apparently he's "the next Girl Talk." I don't know about that but I like what I heard,) and I'm not even to the end of my street when I see these girls walking in the middle of the road. I get a little closer, they part, and as I stop for the stop sign one girl yells out, "Hey! Wanna give us a ride?" I have never met these girls before in my life. They asked a random stranger to give them a ride somewhere. A moment's hesitation.

"Where're ya heading?"
"Over by the old high school."
"Sure, hop in."

Next thing I know, I've got 4 girls in my car, and I'm off again. They asked me my name, for safety reasons, to which I replied, "I'm Jim." To which they all replied in unison, "I'm ------." I didn't catch one of their names, as they all said them at the same time. So making conversation, I ask if they're at the high school, they said yes. I told them I'm at UMass Amherst to which one happily replied "Ooh! I'm applying there!" I do not envy her. I got in right before everyone else decided to go. They liked the music, so they couldn't have been that bad. But the funniest part, in my opinion, was when the girl riding shotgun asked, "Do you smoke?" "No, no I don't." "Oh, okay." Then not 30 seconds later the girl riding right behind me said, "Oh! Do you smoke?" "Nope. Sorry." "Oh , okay, cause we were gonna give you weed."

I laughed. By then, we had just gotten to the place they wanted to get dropped off. I pulled up, stopped the car, and they just hopped out chattering a chorus of "Thanks!" and "Bye!" Then I put on my blinker and off I went.

Hitchhiking is awesome. I've heard stories of guys who whenever they needed to get anywhere they'd just hitchhike. People'd see the thumb, pull over, and take 'em as far as was convenient. But in today's day and age, people get scared because of "the law" and because movies about hitchhiking axe murderers. But you know what? I think we should bring hitchhiking back. Axe murders won't pick up on people hitchhiking again for a little bit. Plus, people normally driving solo can pick someone up and hop in the carpool lane. I mean, it's definitely under the subject of "Going Green," right? Let's do it. Power to the People.