Sunday, March 25, 1956
Page Six
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
he Art of Aimless Hitch-hiking
THE AIM IS TO AVOID COMMITTING YOURSELF
AND TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE
I
Fate Is Best Courted by Sitting Back on Your Suitcase
And Waiting for the Gods To Take Over
By RICHARD LAING hitchhiking is not this well-direct- a ride. You are by the ru
HERE ARE many kinds f ed. There is an element of lassi- gated to accept it but youc
hitch-hiking. Perhaps most tude in the signal to the oncoming tale for a moment as if ye
lines of traffic. The gesture of
familiar around here is the "I the aimless hitch-hiker is less a quite understand what th
gotta get home this weekend but violent jerk of the thumb than wants.
I'm flat broke," variety. Devotees an almost imperceptible shrug of It is convenient to hav
of this form are to be seen on the shoulders. But the perfectionist case at your side to not
Friaenafternoos nmedthep o in aimless hitch-hiking will avoid Just look up the road ror a
ashenaw arossfro theMu-even this. Fate is best courted bya
seum. sitting back on your suitcase and as if you expected a
Another form is the "Next sum- waiting for the gods to take over. Greyhound to come boo
mer I'm going to hitch-hike to Wait three seconds bef
Seattle and look up my old girl s Rue i u suitcase up. Te
friend" sort. This is obviously ing your
merely an extension of the first THE RULES, however, allow one the crucial moment. If
sort since in both these cases you to use hand gestures as long as quickly enough he can l
hitch-hike because it is cheap and they are badly timed. They are there and you can sta
because you want to get some- vaguely suggestive of hitch-hiking cooly watch him take offc
where in particular. rather than assertive or pleading. road.
One more type is the "I think The wrist action is definitely You can wait until he
I'll hitch-hike around the coun- though not deliberately mistimed. commits himself to leavir
try" kind. For many penniless It comes a bit too early and fades out you and then pick
young Americans this has become away before the driver can clearly suitcase. It is my opini
a sort of an equivalent to the determine whether or not you are technique makes sport of
affluent young Englishman's con- signalling cars or are merely ad- basically a very serious
tinental grand tour. ousting your shirt in your coat gation. Such foolishness+
Finally there is a form of tour- sleeve, to no good. If the driver s
ing hitch-hiking that has almost Or the gesture can come a bit for you, this is it; get in.
disappeared in this well-ordered too late so that it bewilders the
and prosperous era where everyone driver at the final moment when '
knows exactly where he is going he cannot be sure he saw anything'
and a new GM cFord car is at all. This is probably the best IT IS the aimless hitc
issued at puberty. This form is way for by the time he realizes attitude during the dr
aimless hitch-hiking.that you did signal for a ride he is h- given this form of hi
far down the road and would not ing such a bad name. S
Attractive C1N be able to stop anyway. This solves later the driver is goint
the problem for driver and hitch- how far you are going as
Iint}roa hiker before it even gets started. you are going and it is1
of the true aimless hitch
HE DEVOTEE at aimless iitch- T IS obvious though, even with give no answer to these q
hiking says "I don't know wh e'this care in thumbing, that sooner or if to answer, then to d
S a . aor later one will be offered a ride, manner that provides n
where I deserve to be. This farm Often this occurs because the bad mation.
of hitch-hiking had its Golden Age timing to one car turns out to People have got to k
in the years between World War have been magnificent timing on answer or they will go nu
II and the Korean War. another. Before you can fade back is only one in fifty who
it asothasinageAtigan drvnthere is a squeal of tires, a car become decidedly annoys
it wa. both fascinting 'nd an door ope r and some damnably can not quickly get an a
eremwanoyethinge.ohatrav cheery voice (usually that of a what seems to him to be
tive and immoral in aimlessness positive thinker or other sales- question.
In aimlesshitch-hikingy'. man) is saying "Hop in. We're go- If he asks where you a
putyou time outand-i . You ing to Mudbank." you say "toward town."
want to find out where you land This is a real challenge to aim- say, "Phoney Gulch?"
if you refrain from making con- lessness; you've been offered a ride "No." After a few mo
scio, decisions about your goal. which implies a direction. Since silence he will try anoti
You try to find out where your there is no one else in the car the "I'm going as far as Indiar
sub-conscion' decides you should "We" implie. tha t you and the he will say. You say
be. Tau might think tiat aimless- driver aresireadysteadfastdtra- (If violence seem' immis
ness would take you nowhere or eling companions willing to share "Uhhuh.")
if you did end up somewhere there every confidence. One of the rules All this seems to elimi
would be no significance to it, but of aimless hitch-hiking is never possibility of terminating
this does not seem to be the case. confide to the driver where you But you will find thatM
One fellow, 'or instance, always came from or where you are going, driver finally wants to g
found himself on the same street An additional challenge lies in you he will stop the car
in Toronto regardless when or the driver's naming of his destina- "Well, this is it" or "I tu
where he started. But to get such tion. This poses the problem of or "This is the end of
consistent results one has to care- goals right from the beginning. buddy" or "Get out." It i
fully avoid making any overt acts Usually talk of destination can be that we have here a rou
of volition. postponed until the driver is ready cator of the irritationt
The whole idea of the thing is to to burst with curiousity. The idea have generated in the di
avoid committing oneself. One is is to get him to burst,
not even very vigorous in the put- NOW and then drivers
ting out of the thumb. Some per- atJ n aul fl so irritated at then
sons have erected the thumb ges- 'Gr y umital attitude of aimles
tire into a sort of violent, semi- hikers that they adopt ru.
obscene gesture toward fate. But themselves of their guest
this violence presupposes that if BUT BEFORE you get in you 4 o'clock one afternoo
one does not know where he is have one more legitimate ruse. years ago on U. S. 6 a driv
going at least he knows where he You can pretend that you do not feigning extreme sleepin
wants the driver to go. Aimless know that you have been offered proaching a town, he yaw
les obli- eral times and announced his in- a hitch-hiker's graveyard just in-
an hesi- tention of getting a room for the side the state line from Arizona
didn't night but promised to keep an (and also the spot where the Joads
eye out for the hitch-hiker the lost Noah, the first born), there
ie driver next day. If he saw him he would were twelve earne. hitch-hikers
pick him up again, he said. already lined up facing east when
e a suit- They parted, the driver into a an aimless hitch-hiker showed up.
pick up. hotel lobby, and the aimless He took the place reserved for
moment hitch-hiker across the street and newcomers at the far end of the
into a park where he sat down line, sat down on his suitcase and
bartered on a bench and began to watch waited. He didn't even bother to
ping up. pigeons. A few minutes later he get up when cars came by. The
ore pick- saw the driver peer out of the others, of course, waved desper-
n comes hotel, look carefully in both direc- ately. They all wanted to get to
he artstions, make a dash for his car and Phoenix by nightfall.
creep slowly out of town down a Once an hour a State Police car
save you aide street- came along and drove slowly past
nd and This driver's ruse is suitable for the column of waiting men. There
down the the moderately populated sections was an auto air-conditioner on the
of the United States but in the police car. The temperature by
e finally desert states the hotel trick is less the side of the road was 111 de-
ng with- feasible. A certain driver on one grees.
up your of the desolate stretches of U. S.
ion that 66 solved the problem of his un- THE FIRST time by, the police
what is desirable aimless hitch-hiker by officer who glanced along the
investi- stopping at a lonely gas station row of men seemed a bit puzzled
can lead and lunch stand, giving the hitch- that the aimless hitch-hiker did
till waits hiker a quarter and telling him to not get up and put out his thumb
go in and order the coffee while when cars came by.
he had some gas put in the car. At the next hour, still seeing no
se As soon as the hitch-hiker stepped response from the aimless hitch-
inside, the driver tossed the hitch- hiker, the police car stopped, the
h-hiker's hiker's bag out on the ground and officer rolled down his window
'ive that took off down the highway. and let the hot desert air roll in
itch-hik- just to tell him that there was a
ooner or The Needles vagrancy law in Needles and that
to ask the local constable would come by
ad where at sundown and make everyone get
the duty l ci it hotel rooms or go to jail. The
-hiker to IT WOULD seem evident from hitch-hiker thanked him for this
uestions; tiis that the aimless hitch-hiker information but continued to ig-
o it in a nore the passing traffic.
o infor- would get fewer rides than his
more goal-conscious companions An hour later the police car
and that once getting a ride he came by again. This time the cop
now the wnd have g e hgi stopped and told the aimless hitch-
ts. There would have great trouble holding hiker to get in. The other twelve
will not an to it. stood there and watched. The cop
ed if he One must remember, however, took the hitch-hiker down to the
nswer to that mere motion is not the object fork in the road at the state line'
a simple of the aimless hitch-hiker. He and bid him good-by.
figures that if he is to be ignored The first car that came along
re going, there is a reason. And if he is took the hitch-hiker to Phoenix,
He will kicked out there is a reason, and which was of course where he de-
You say that if he is to be picked up he served to go. He had gotten there
nents of will be picked up regardless of what without lifting a finger. The
her tack. the chances seem to be. others are probably still in Cali-
n Belch," One time in Needles, California, fornia.
nothing.-
sent say,
nate the , SMOKERS!
the ride.
when the ::0"PIPES
et rid of U CIGARS
and say,
,rn here," eMAGAZ IN ES
the line,
s obvious . BOOKS
igh indi-
that you * Imported and Domestic Tobaccos
iver.
become «
son-com- f a
s5 hitch-
ses to rid
s. About Mon.-Fri.7 A.M.--9 P.M. 118 EAST HURON
ver began few
venIea Sat,. 8 AM--5 P.M. Across from the
ess. Ap- Sun. 9 A.M.-1 P.M. Court House
cned sev-