Do you ever pick up hitchhikers?

Yehoots, I was just thinking of this tonight. A ridiculously long walk...long story but I should have known better. I'm talking maybe seven miles WOOOOF. Seriously in the dark in a high traffic area. I just made sure I stayed in view of the road. Something stupid like passing out and I want someone to see my body before morning.

But when we lived in small town PA ten years back strangers would stop and ask if you needed a ride. As a teen I hitchhiked daily. I know I was just very lucky, but it was still different in those days. Here there is way too much crime and people would never stop. Even the police, if they stopped every pedestrian they'd have to get a bus. You have to be full down on the pavement for anyone to stop...if you're lucky.
 
Last year my wife and I were up in Kennebunkport, ME. It's a pretty little seaside town and home to George HW Bush. We parked the car and walked along the water for a ways to see his house and on the way back passed a man and his wife who had walked from town. Now we're talking a good 3 miles or so. The man was hurting; you could see he was in pain. As we passed them we said hello and they asked how far it was to where you could see the house. They told us how far they'd walked, so we offered to pick them up on our way back into town. They were so grateful. He had had hip replacement surgery and had no idea how far they'd walked. He was dreading the walk back. It was clearly too much. The kept thanking us, but it was just a kind gesture and the right thing to do. Felt good to do something nice for someone in need.
 

In my working years I was a road warrior, drove about 40,000 miles a year. I would see young men on the side of the road thumbing a ride. Some of them would have no shirt on and be as sweaty as could be. I would never want someone like that in my car.

I never pick up anyone.
 
Oh back in the day you'd get rides like "Yeah mahn no problem, we know what it's like not to have a ride"...<<<inhale>>>" Yeah mahn no problem at all wherever you gotta go, here pass this to the back teehee, have you heard the new Cheech and Chong mahn? Wowwww
 
I mentioned to my husband recently that when I was out food shopping I saw an older man with a cane hitchhiking and felt sorry for him, years ago I would have given him a ride. But I promised my husband a long time ago I wouldn't give anyone rides anymore when I was alone, and that's probably the wise thing to do nowadays. This 71 year old gal gave three teens a ride and was assaulted, ended up in the hospital and may have died if someone hadn't called for help. Her really big mistake was inviting them to her house for food, etc. http://kdvr.com/2016/09/21/teen-accused-of-attacking-71-year-old-woman-identified/
 
Hitch hiking is very common here on the Big Island. I've picked up about 6 or so in the last year. Never had a problem. It's the Aloha thing to do.
 

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