Thought of this when I saw Bayou City history post an old article from Leon Hale about the "Rules of Hitchhiking in the 50s. Curius to see how many did it back in the day. I did it twice and picked one up once. Both times I didn't really have a choice. First time I was coming from Austin to Brenham on a Honda scooter and the back tire went flat. Freezing cold too. I was in the middle of nowhere as I had done that trip enough times to know that there are two towns in between and both were 30 miles apart. Had a guy pick me up and take me to a gas station and I called our dorm phone and had a guy there come and pick me and the scooter up for $70. Second time I was in Padre and I missed my ride home. I ended up staying a week longer with some friends but because I was just crashing with them after my paid Spring Break, I'm guessing they weren't aware I needed a ride. Was a long time ago so the details are blurry. Anyway, after about an hour I found a group of girls that were heading To Austin and allowed me to ride back with them. The one I picked up happened to be in a gas station and asked if I could give him a ride to some place on the way from Lubbock to Houston. He was an older big black dude, but I had just gone through a breakup and figured "what the hell?" Wasn't much of a talker. Only frustrating thing was he wanted me to take him specifically to where he was staying, which was off the path and a crappy neighborhood. I dropped him off and got out of there fast. Any other stories? Doubt anyone does it anymore.
I've given rides to a few people. One guy, who told me he was late for work but eventually had me drop him at a park, slammed my door about as hard as one can when I kindly told him afterwards that I could not spare any money. Another lady peed on my seat after asking for $20. Not sure if she leaked out or did it on purpose, but thankfully sheepskin seatcovers were popular at the time... The last time was to a well known homeless guy in our are that was eventually hit and killed by a car. He didn't ask for money, just wanted me to pray with him.
I've given rides to many people. If someone needs help and I can assist, I generally try. About 4 years ago I was coming back from lunch to my office at NASA1 and i45. There was a barefoot lady in a hospital gown walking down 528 (the other side of NASA1 and 45). I asked her if she needed a ride and she said yes. Apparently she was sick of being in the hospital for some sort of hormone thing and had decided to walk home to Alvin. It was 30 miles. I bought her a soda then took her home. Towards the end of the ride I was getting a vibe from her and when I dropped her off, she started to ask me if I wanted to come in, which I quickly cut off and said I had to get back to work. Once I was catching a ride back from Nacogdoches with a girl I had met (nothing romantic) about 15 minutes before she left. About 30 minutes our her car was smoking, so we pulled over and let it cool off and I put water in the radiator (that's what I thought we had to do). About 15 minutes down the road, a cop pulls us over because the car is on fire. I grabbed my stuff and got out. It was surreal, we watched it burn to the ground, firetrucks came, etc. Cop took us back to the station and I called a friend for a ride. Never saw the girl again. Back in the day, I was staggering around the parking lot, drunk, at a club in Clear Lake called J. Larkins (@boomboom ). This guy pulls up and asks me if I need a ride, which I did, so I said yes. Turns out he was as drunk as me, but I didn't really care. We got to Bay Area Blvd and HW3 and he starts to yell 'lemmieseeyourdick!' over and over again. I told him to **** off and he starts to reach under his seat, so I punched him and jumped out of the car. He peels off. It was about half a mile to my apartment so I hoofed it the rest of the way. I went to an afterhours club in Houston with a friend of mine, who had some serious mental issues. He was honorably discharged due to them. So I dancing and having a good time and he's hanging out with this real shady hood guy. It's 4 am and we decide to leave and my buddy says we're going to give this guy a ride, that he's going to hook us up with some drugs and some 'b****es'. I didn't have a good feeling about it but I went along with it. We're smooshed in my buddy's small truck front seat and I feel this hard piece of something sticking out of the side of the guy's shirt, like a gun handle or a knife handle. I tell my buddy I'm sick and get in the back of the truck. So we're going up 45 and this guy keeps looking at me over and over again, real shady, so I tell my buddy I need to pull over and puke. We pull over at the gas station and I tell them to go on, I'm too sick. So they leave. Two hours later, my buddy comes back and tells me the guy pulled a gun and tried to rob him, but he flipped out, floored it and went psycho on the guy. The drove like that for hours until the guy just told him to drop him off. Then he came and got me. I ran out of gas a real bad part of 5th ward when I was younger, had a cheap suit on and was walking to the gas station. This black guy rolls up in his hooptie and asks me if I need a ride. I figure, what the hell, I'm screwed either way. Dude takes me to the gas station, I buy a gas tank, and he asks me for money. I told him that I didn't have any cash but I would fill up his tank, which I did. He took me back to my car and told me to have a nice day. It was a good lesson. There are a few others I'll post later.
When I was a kid, my Navy vet Dad would pick up any guy with a military duffel bag. Turns out all of them were just kids trying to get home on leave. Different times.
Years ago, I was in Florida making my way down to Miami in a rental car hoping to hook up with this girl. I had been driving for like fifteen hours. Anyway, ended up picking up this dude who had this huge duffel bag. He was really "off". He started talking about this million dollar idea he had. "7 Minute Abs". WTF? Bonkers. He went on and on about how he would guarantee just as good of a workout as "8 Minute Abs". If not, he would send an extra minute for free. LOL!!! I asked him about someone scooping him with "6 Minute Abs". He was not amused. We ended up making a piss stop. I ended up getting arrested due to a huge misunderstanding. Turns out this dude I was giving a ride to had killed a guy!! Totally true story.........
If your radiator runs out of antifreeze, water will always work; especially in Houston. Now, my stupid Land Disco had the thermostat at the top of the radiator, so when my hose completely blew out (I stupidly bought a replacement hose online to save a few bucks figuring the hose leak was minor) the engine completely broke down. Had it towed to a specialist who said the motor was ruined. Good times...
We were in a somewhat small four door car with four people on our way to see Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" tour at the Astrodome. We stopped at a gas station in Clear Lake City and I guess the driver was blabbing to folks inside that we were on our way to the concert. There were these sketchy, smelly looking dudes listening to this and go "we're on our way there too but we don't have a ride". So, dufus driver decides it's a good idea to give these sketchy looking thugs a ride. So, we've got like five people crammed in the back seat where one had to sit on a lap while four of us are crunched together uncomfortably. And, one of these dudes had to ride in the trunk. But, the trunk door couldn't close with him back there and the cabin light wouldn't turn off. So, one of these sketchy dudes shorts out the cabin light in the car. Then, we got stuck in a helluva traffic jam getting there and we got sketchy drunk dudes pissing out the back door of the car onto the freeway. Suffice to say, we didn't stick around to give these guys a ride home. But, man, we're we pissed at this dumbass driver the whole time on the way there. And, he got a broken cabin light to boot. I mean these dudes were foul and could have robbed us for all we knew.
One time I had a blowout close to Baybrook Mall around 2AM. My girlfriend and I started walking to her parent's house because it was only about a mile away. This guy around 50 pulls up in an old pickup and asks us if we needed a ride. We said sure and jumped in. He was pretty wasted too but what caught our attention was the carpet of dirty magazines like Hustler and Swank covering his floorboard. He was really creepy and kept looking at my gf the whole time. He ended up taking us to the right house, but after we got out he just stared at us until we got in. I watched out the peephole and he sat there for another several minutes before he drove off, very slowly. Never saw the guy again, but it was creepy.
