By Paul Mills
With the price of gas on the upswing at the advent of another summer, hitchhiking can also be expected to be on the rise.
As more Mainers take to the “thumbs up” mode of travel they can take inspiration from the fact that many of our state’s political icons also once commonly pursued it. From George Mitchell to Paul LePage, from Joe Brennan to John Frary, despite their divergent ideological paths, all at one time in their youth heavily relied upon it.
For Mitchell, it was how he as a 16-year-old made his first trip from his Waterville home to Bowdoin in 1950. Hitchhiking is how a 30-year-old Joe Brennan made it from Portland to Augusta to be sworn into his first term in the Maine Legislature in 1965.
The Husson College undergraduate Paul LePage visited college acquaintances in Aroostook and New Brunswick by this method in the late 1960s.
The impetus for Mitchell, Brennan, and LePage was economic necessity. Though involuntary frugality was an occasion also for John Frary’s hitchhiking, his professed reasoning was something else altogether. As the spirited conservative columnist and one time congressional candidate recently explained – possibly somewhat tongue in cheek – to this columnist:
“When I was in high school the constant theme that we were exposed to was you should not drink and drive. So being an impressionable young man I had thought about it and decided I would rather drink than drive. So I proceeded according to that.”
Frary carried the philosophy well into his adulthood, not obtaining a driver’s license until he was 44, not owning his own car until 62. Now at 74 and having reversed the priorities of his youth, he now spends more time driving than drinking. He is still as cognizant as ever that they should not be concurrent pastimes and has a license unblemished by a drunk driving charge.
The duration of Frary’s experience is on par with a figure at a different seat at the political table, Maine Green Party Founder Greg Gerritt, who like Frary, has spent most decades of his adult life without a car (though unlike Frary he always maintained a current drivers license). Gerritt, who in 1986 was the first Green Party candidate for the state Legislature in the United States and later served as secretary of the national party was – until his removal to Rhode Island a few years ago – one of the more inveterate practitioners of hitchhiking in west central Maine.
This columnist has on occasion provided rides to both Frary and Gerritt, though he was deprived of the privilege of hosting them simultaneously as vehicular fellow travelers.
Though many public as well as private figures in Maine have regularly pursued the hitchhiking experience there’s only one who has written a recent book about it. Meet Josephine Swan, the author of the riveting, you-can’t-put-it-down, The Right Car – A Hitchhiker’s Hymn to the Divine in Humanity.
The Spruce Head resident logs about 2,500 hitchhiking miles a year. In keeping with her description of the practice as a form of “forced austerity,” she “would not suggest hitchhiking to anyone at any time.” The admonition is issued despite that fact that her remarkable book is on the whole an uplifting testimonial to the generosity and humanity of the many drivers who get her from Montana back to Maine during five hot days in July of 2010. This occurs after a stirring account of her attempt to re-kindle an association with a close friend for whom she unsuccessfully endeavors to seek psychiatric support. A modern day Henry David Thoreau, Swan not only travels with frugality but lives that way as well, usually residing in small cabins without the amenities of modern utilities.
In a recent e-mail to this columnist, Swan prescribed these recommendations to those who, like herself, have been forced to resort to the hitchhiking practice:
• “Wear clean conservative clothing, with some color somewhere; red or blue and clean white is good.
• “Carry a well printed sign on a white, 16 by 10…The pen should be waterproof magic marker so there is no messiness about the sign if it rains. The marker should be black or dark blue, not red (which signifies trouble), not yellow (can’t see it), not pink (depicts vulnerability and thus target/victim).
• “Never wear sunglasses. They cannot see who you are.
• “A hat needs to be clean, good design, and not stylish or over the eyes. We are not aiming to attract any other attention except business. Need to get to where the sign depicts.
• “Face the traffic only when you are completely ready. No phone out, not holding a drink or a coffee, and you are not rushing, not desperate. You are steady, ready, and at work.
• “It is a good idea to smile, but slightly. No laughing or grinning. The idea is to show respect.”
Swan also offers this advice on what to do when a driver does in fact stop to attempt to pick you up:
“Open the door with confidence and look at them then, and say hello with genuine welcome, as if you were greeting them at your own front door. Ask where they are going. While you do this you can sense the car, who is in it, whether they are sober, straight, and safe.”
Once the decision is made to accept the offer of a lift, Swan then suggests the following:
“They have stopped for you and so your job is to be there for them. If they want to chat, if they need silence, if they need to talk about something…If they need to make a detour, get out where they make their turn.”
As for what steps you can take if you realize you have been picked up by someone that makes you feel ill at ease, Swan advises:
“Pick a landmark, say you want to stop there and get out.”
“In a word Paul, don’t hitchhike.”
Like Swan, this columnist also does not extol nor does he celebrate the practice. With public transportation still out of the reach of many Mainers and with emergency circumstances occasionally compelling its use in unforeseen circumstances, it’s a phenomenon that will, however, likely endure. When its use is unavoidable, Swan’s advice on how to practice it is a set of principles on which – however much they may politically differ – Mitchell, Brennan, LePage, and Frary would likely find some common ground.
Paul H. Mills, is a Farmington attorney well known for his analyses and historical understanding of public affairs in Maine. He can be reached by e-mail: pmills@myfairpoint.net.
Hitch hiking was my chosen means of travel for a number of years and in a number of countries. Multiple trips across the USA, once across Canada, round trip to the north of Finland and several loops thru Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia used up half a decade. I chose to travel in this way because one meets people! On a bus or train most travelers are a bit wary of a large young man. They silently tell me ‘please don’t sit here, not near me…’ Out there when I was offered a ride it was a full on offer to get acquainted more than 95 % of the time. The usually asked questions were “Who are you? Where are you going and why? How long have you been traveling like this….? and on and on. In return I asked ” Who are you? and What is important to you? and Where is life here leading you? ” and on and on. I rode and drove and listened and learned. I have never regretted a single moment of it.
Be clean, be straightforward, be pleasant. Clean out the treads of your boots before lofting your thumb.
Best of luck. Mr. Lauri Sibulkin
PS now I pick up hichhikers, and sometimes feed them.
in the 60s and 70s it was a different place, or at least they seemed that way as far as hitching a ride somewhere. I did my fair share of hitching to get to work, meet friends, and just get from here to there. Lots of interesting people, very unusual might be a better description of them. Never was worried about getting hurt by any of the people who picked me up. some even went out of their way to drop me off right where I was headed.
But the world has become much more dangerous so I wouldn’t recommend doing it today unless there is no other way to get where you need to be.
I would never advise anyone to hitchhike. However, it is good to know how to do it if needed. The only time I have hitchhiked was out of necessity. I was driving to Calais, and my car died on Route 9 about a half hour west of town. At the time (about the late 1990s) my mobile phone did not have coverage there, and there were no houses or businesses in the vicinity. So, the only thing I could do was to hitchhike. Fortunately, an older couple returning home to Calais from a Bangor doctor’s appointment picked me up and drove me to my destination. The lesson learned? Even someone who thought they’d never hitchhike, may need to out of necessity. So, it’s good to know a few rules of the road!
The original Wilton Academy was a private school. Wilton paid our tuition, but no busses were provided. For my four years there, late 50’s early 60’s, the only means from East Wilton was hitchhike or have a car, which most didn’t. Boys and girls were always along old Route 2 “thumbing a ride” as we called it. Academy Corner after school was crowded. A car would approach and the driver would indicate how many could go. I was fortunate living east of town and got first dibs on rides in the morning. Often our local teachers would take us along, remembering especially Mrs. Mitchell with her hot new ’57 Chevy, Mr. Rowe with a Renault maybe, and a wonderful lady teacher from Phillips. I do not remember ever being late to school and the system worked very well. I always had a couple big books under my arm to appear studious, though probably didn’t open them. This ruse worked nicely outside school hours when staying late for activities or evening social sessions back in town. It’s a very different world we have today.
don’t u get arrested in some states for hitchhiking..?
I thought hitchking was illegal in Maine?? Anyone know for sure??
I would like to think there are a couple of us are still around that remember standing at Fairview and Middle St with thumbs out to go to “the lake”, sometimes with a sandwich in a paper bag
And likewise on the grass in front of Tolman’s store to get back to town for supper
As a student at UMF in the late70’s early 80’s I hitched rides to Sugarloaf all the time either to ski or work. My father in-law at age 81 still picks people up and sometimes delivers them to their destinations. He has made friends with a good many of them.
I remember hitching a ride from E. Wilton to Farmington back around 1973. I’d only been out on Rt. 2 a few minutes when a State Trooper came along and picked me up. When I got in, I said “what happens now?” He said, “That depends on you”, and proceeded to tell me a story about passing by another hitchhiker the previous week. That person “flipped him the bird” as he passed by. For that, the Trooper stopped and wrote the guy a ticket. Me however, he drove to Farmington and dropped me only steps away from my destination. It probably didn’t hurt that I was wearing a suit, dressed for a family party, and I knew how to mind my “Ps & Qs”. That expression probably dates me.
@bob what did he write a ticket for? hitch-hiking is not illegal in maine (or most other states, for that matter) and neither is showing a cop your middle finger, although they might not be very nice to you if you do.
(for the record, maine law prohibits hitch-hiking only after dark, if the hiker is walking in the roadway or on the turnpike, or if a prohibition is otherwise posted.)
growing up in the 90s, i hitch-hiked around maine and other states regularly. i was picked up by a few cops myself, and it wasn’t implied that i was being taught a lesson or kept an eye on. they were just kind people doing a favor for a dirty, tired, homeless kid.
here’s another tip: don’t stand still. these days people willing to pick you up are few, and you’ll stand there the better part of a day if you act like you’re waiting for a bus. start walking, turn to face traffic when it approaches, and people will be more likely to help you if you don’t look like you expect them to.
a tip for motorists: you really can’t judge a book by its cover. someone in rough shape might be perfectly safe and friendly. that said, the stench of an alcoholic’s urine is not something that airs out easily.
I STILL hitchhike and agree with most tips above except “don’t stand still”
Its important to find a good location and stick to it–like just after an intersection so the cars have to slow down, on a straightaway not a curve so they can see you well in advancen, and make sure there’s plenty of room for them to pull over. NOT in front of anyones home or business. I always set my backpack on the ground next to me so I look like a traveller and not a bum. And I only use a sign when I’m heading home to farmington. Simply “UMF” in big bold letters– works every time.
In 2003 I hitch hiked through parts of Mexico, into Guatemala and Belize, back through Mexico and across the border to San Antonio, Texas. I met some very generous people and did not feel uncomfortable (except for the heat.) On my last day, a guy about 35, stopped after I had been hitch hiking all day. He said he had seen me out there on his way to work, and now returning home decided to pick me up. I asked him why no one else had. He said there was a state prison nearby, and motorists had been warned about picking up hitch hikers near there. He fed me Carl’s Jr. and brought me to the airport.