You had to be young and rebellious to hitch rides, with a touch of the bohemian. Many of us did. It was a great way to travel. Hazelton, like many others, quit thumbing as she got older. The turning point, some say, was the '70s, when hitchhiking took a turn for the worse all over North America, due to random violence.
Drivers quit picking up people standing beside the road.
Soon there weren't so many with their thumbs out. With my foot firm on the gas, I wonder where he came from. I don't even bother to wonder where he's going. I'd be crazy to even think of stopping. I'm one of the crazy ones, I guess.