Hitchhiking in Mockva occurs frequently. In Cyrillic hitchhiking is “автостопом”, I think. Both men and woman use автостопом to get around. And it doesn’t seem to be just kids. I’ve seen men my age trying to get a ride on city streets and even along major highways автостопом.
When I was in my teens автостопом in the US you’d stand in a spot you think you’d be seen, stick out your thumb in the direction you wanted to go, looked unassuming and pathetic and hoped you get a ride. Some would move their thumbs in the direction they were going, I guess for added emphasis that they could really use a ride. Most of the time I was successful but there were times, usually late at night, that I ended up doing a lot of walking. Here is Mockba the posture is slightly different. People автостопом stick out their arms in a downward position and extend one or several fingers like you might when you were hailing a cab or bus.
Автостопом is how I got around in the US when I was a kid until I was old enough to drive a car. Back in the 60s is was very common for boys to автостопом. You almost never saw girls doing it. The longest trip I ever made автостопом was from Gettysburg, PA to Watchung, NJ. Ironically it was to pick up a car I had just bought which would end my автостопом days. It took me most of the day and I did it in four rides: a clergyman, a truck driver, a businessman (I guess) and oddly one of my father’s friends during the last leg of the journey which was close to home.
I автостопом enough that I had many experiences some of which included: getting rides from some of my friends’ drunken brothers; a pimp who wanted to know if I wanted a date; a gay guy (although he wouldn’t have been called gay back then) asking me the size of my…and did I want to have a good time; a van load of drunk people who reminded me of the Beverly Hillbillies (I’m talking about the Klampet’s) who offered me a beer as I was trying to get from Princeton University where I saw a pre-season Giants game, to the Jersey shore And there were many, many other interesting people – mostly friendly but occasionally pretty scary.
I never mentioned any of these rides to my parents. In those days it was quite common – it was just how a kid got around but I’ll bet they wouldn’t have been happy about some of my experiences.
Today, of course, автостопом is almost unheard of in the US. In fact I can recall TV ads warning kids about accepting a ride from a stranger. Parents would be horrified to hear that their child was автостопом and probably for good reason. How many times do you hear in the US news the story of a kid who was abducted and killed or molested after accepting a ride from a stranger?
But here in Mockba thinks seem to be different. Trying to get a ride by автостопом is quite common. There must be more trust here. We seemed to have lost it in the US.
Доследующегораза,
Борис
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