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14509glenfield
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Username: 14509glenfield

Post Number: 19
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 12:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Many of us later in the 50's and 60's pre-drivers license high schoolers, hitch-hiked to school and back. The same drivers, to and fro, would pick you up. More dependable than the DSR. Any good memories? When is the last time YOU picked up a "raised thumb"...anywhere?
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Supersport
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Username: Supersport

Post Number: 10625
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 12:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I gave a guy a ride from downtown to the projects about a week ago, he flagged me down prior to leaving the parking lot. Does that count?
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14509glenfield
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Username: 14509glenfield

Post Number: 20
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 12:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

SSport..yes
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 811
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 12:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Been there done that, especially on a brutally cold day in winter.

Is that redundant? It wouldn't be brutally cold in summer, would it??? :-)
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14509glenfield
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Username: 14509glenfield

Post Number: 21
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 1:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanx again SSport. There has to be some other in Motown stories in PARTICULAR. Out of area meaning travels elsewhere is SECONDARY. Scored to and fro school. Turnimg back the clock, even out in never ever land all the "I-???"? Wonder what the psychic is today in Detroit primarily. Thanx....response
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Jams
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Username: Jams

Post Number: 3737
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 1:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

14509glenfield,
During the 70's I hitch-hiked all across Michigan and several other states. When I had the money for a vehicle and gas, I had no problem picking someone up. At one point on the Trans-Canadian in my truck, I had a French woman and child, 2 Swiss travelers, 1 guy from New Zealand doing an around the world trip, a dude from Toronto with his dog heading to Vancouver and some space cadet looking for a road to get him to the Artic Circle and a truck driver who needed to get to his next job and drank an entire litre of CC from the duty-free he found in my kit.

Would I ever do that again? No way.

But I enjoy my memories.
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 1189
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 1:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I went to Pershing HS and I would walk to the corner of Davison and Ryan every morning to pick-up my freind Bob. Then we would hitch-hike to school and as you said,

quote:

The same drivers, to and fro, would pick you up. More dependable than the DSR.


Some were more dependable than others and some were too dependable. I remember we started getting picked-up by this woman in a black 1951 Cevrolet with her son and daughter that she was taking to Pershing, too. It was bitterly cold and snowing the first time she picked us up. The defroster and heater hardly worked and she was always using a rag to wipe off the windshield on the inside but it didn't do much good because she was always putting her head down trying to peek under the icy part of the windshield. So, we're bopping along with no heat or defroster and we get to about Nevada, the windshield is fogged up and the next thing we knew the wind blew the hood open and it went back so far it cracked the windshield. Needless to say she scared the schitt out of all of us. But, she kept on driving and tryng to see under the bottom of the hood while her son was yelling at her in Ukranian. She finally pulls over and we all get out and try to figure out what to do. We open the trunk and it's a rat's nest back there but we found some rope and shut the hood and tied it down. That's one of my more harrowing hitch-hiking stories. Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it.

Livedog2
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14509glenfield
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Username: 14509glenfield

Post Number: 22
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 1:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ray '36. Bet that shivering soul aprreciated the opening of the passenger door. You could open the windows in the summer.. and polish your thumb...and thank your driver...but SUMMER VACATION (no school...practice ..pratice...practice..for the upcoming fall. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME .... [MNF]
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14509glenfield
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Username: 14509glenfield

Post Number: 23
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 1:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Did you stand in groups of 1,2,3, or more? First come, first served? Familiar faces a determing criteria? Does it exist compared to...well todays society...thanx
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14509glenfield
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Username: 14509glenfield

Post Number: 24
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 2:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

JAMS...YOU ARE INTERNATIONAL. Congrats. Check is in the mail from Coca-Cola...hmm..perhaps Canadian Club. Thumbs Up...thanx
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Upinottawa
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Username: Upinottawa

Post Number: 523
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 2:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jams: that must be one hell of a big truck....
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 812
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 3:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My route home from Mackenzie HS was south on Wyoming to Schoolcraft, then west on Schoolcraft to Meyers. The Wyoming bus was pretty regular, but that Schoolcraft bus was a real turtle. I'd usually hike it, but on cold days my thumb would be out. Times were different then; a ride was usually only a few minutes away.

I think I used to hitchhike in the summer to get to the Brennan Pools in Rouge Park...or did I take my bike? Darn, it's foggy in here......

There's probably gonna be a guy here shortly talking something about the Dexter bus......
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 1456
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 4:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I lived at 157th and Burleigh in the Brookfield burb of Milwaukee. My high school--the Jesuit Marquette University HS--was at 34th and Wisconsin Avenue. That's about 15 miles apart, give or take a mile or two.

I got a ride in from a classmate's dad a few blocks away who was the circulation manager for the number 2 newspaper--the Milwaukee Sentinel.

Getting home was a bitch because the two bus routes which I could take still left six miles for me to either walk, hitchhike, or a combination of the two. An alternative was to take the bus across the street from the school to our old farmhouse which we still owned at 42nd and Capitol Drive and see if my father might be there and give me a ride home.

Sometimes it worked out--sometimes not. But since I could transfer to another bus route a block away, it was not out of my way. If he was there (the old house was converted into his upstart manufacturing business), I lucked out and probably got some free beer and burgers at the neighborhood tavern across the street. I also had the option to sleep over there, if need be, during really cold hitch-hiking weather. But usually, I transferred buses and did the six mile walk/hitchhike...
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 813
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 4:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Curious...was the choice of far-distant Jesuit Marquette Univ. your choice or your parents? That distance seems torturous!
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 1457
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 4:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I had a senior take me both ways for my freshman year. But he graduated, and then I was on my own.

This guy was really nice and wouldn't take any money for it. He was 6' 5" and didn't want to play basketball, for some reason or another. That was pretty tall back in 1957. Unfortunately for him, he died suddenly at age 19 or 20, and his father died of a heart attack soon afterwards..

I only roughed it for my sophomore year and transferred to the public school whose school bus stopped less than a block away and drove me the three miles to school for my final two years. Otherwise, I probably would have driven when old enough. Still, it's a long way to go to school.
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Nedab3
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Username: Nedab3

Post Number: 98
Registered: 01-2004
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 7:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Many days i "thumbed" to Detroit Lutheran High School at Grand River and Joy Road. Used my bus money to buy a grilled cheese sandwich at Cunninghams. In 1960 I thumbed from Calif to Detroit. It helped that I was in a USMC uniform. I never had a problem in Detroit. East side was the easiest place to get a ride. Auto workers always took me where I had to go. Would not think of doing that today. LOL
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Jimaz
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Username: Jimaz

Post Number: 645
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 7:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Livedog2, good story about the Ukrainians.

In the early 70's, I and about 15 fellow hippies were walking down the road toward church. Knowing well that no one would pick up a bunch of hippies, we decided to make a joke of it and try hitchhiking anyway. We all lined up along the road and choreographed an exaggerated synchronized thumb sweep à la Mr. Natural. A car started to pull over but then took aim at us, trying to run us over. He must have been a bad aim because he missed all of us.
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Ptero
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Username: Ptero

Post Number: 41
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 10:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I used to hitch home in the early 70's as a student at WSU. I'd thumb along Second near the DeVries(sp?) dorm/apartments to get up to around 7 mile and Lahser at the time. Probably not the smartest but I never had a problem. It wasn't exactly crime free back then either.

It would be late evening as I was waiting for the last bus. Got a few rides, including from the choirmaster from the church where I grew up - he recognized me.

(Message edited by ptero on September 19, 2006)

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