Whither Hitchhiking?

(image from here)

There's a quote on the Wikipedia page about hitchhiking from someone named Julian Portis about the supposed decline of hitchhiking after the 1970s. It's this:

The real danger of hitchhiking has most likely remained relatively constant, but the general perception of this danger has increased. ... [O]ur national tolerance for danger has gone down: things that we previously saw as reasonably safe suddenly appeared imminently threatening. This trend is not just isolated to the world of hitchhiking; it has become a pernicious artifact throughout the American cultural conscience.

Certainly if my mother had ever known that I had hitchhiked, it would've given her tremendous anxiety. To be fair, most everything gave my mother tremendous anxiety, but this would've been for her egregious. As I mentioned yesterday, I didn't hitchhike myself, but did pick up hitchhikers for a time, & never felt I was ever in danger. Books & songs had made the act of hitchhiking somewhat romantic for me - I envied the life of someone like Laurie Lee whose As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning I read too late to influence me to have similar adventures; I tried to read On The Road but found it too desperate to convince me it was great to enjoy it. My bleeding heart did empathize with those walking in the hot Texas sun & the moments I got to take one fellow from just outside Elgin to just outside Brenham were satisfying to me.

What does this have to do with why this week's Self Help Radio is about hitchhiking? I think sometime last year I saw a film, or a television show, that featured hitchhiking, & it caused my brain to think about the things I wrote about here today & yesterday. A moment of thought & reflection often translates into a radio show. & that's what happened here. & there are lots of songs about hitchhiking.

Which you can hear this afternoon noon to 2pm on Freeform Portland. The show is on 90.3+98.3fm in town & online at freeform portland dot org. In addition to the songs, I talk to four hitchhikers too!