4- Friday, October 4, 1985 - North Shore News

Hitch-hiking

THE YOUNG girl by the side of the road was ob-
viously nervous. She had her thumb out, but just

barely.

She was so damn
vulnerable-looking, I took
my foot off the gas and was
about to stop when I
remembered my rule: don’t
pick up female hitch-hikers.

It only encourages them.

T shouid say that I didn’t
always feel this way. In fact,
back in the 60s, I used to pick
up anybody and everybody. I
felt I had a duty to do that.

might bag a few rabbits along
the way, I brought along a
.22. It was the era shortly
after Castro had taken over
in Cuba, So, to make things
worse, I was wearing what we
used to call a Fidel Castro
hat.

Thus dressed up like a
guerrilla, I set out, armed,
along the Trans-Canada,
heading east.

the other persuasion. 1 had
hoped to hitch-hike from
Genoa to Rome, about half
the distance from Vancouver
to Calgary. It still took two
weeks.

With all these bitter
Memories of standing in rain
and sleet, frozen thumb stick-
ing out like a fish hook
without bait, | vowed that
when I got a car of my own,
no hitch-hiker would ever be
left in the dust.

This attitude ied to a few
Strange scenes, needless to

strictly personal

‘Actually, it was more ethan

a duty. It was a religious con- |
viction: When Iwas a youth, :.

I used to-hitch-hike all: over
the place. Correction: I used
to TRY to hitch-hike all over
the place.

It didn’t always work, to
say .the least. Once, ‘in the
very early 60s, I tried to
hitch-hike “from Vancouver
to Winnipeg. Thinking that I

by Bob Hunter

To make a Jong sad story"
short, it took me two full,
to get as far asi
Calgary. 1 took-a bus from’

weeks

there. The siracle, really,
was that I got any rides at all.

In Europe, a few years
later, I discovered that if you
wanted to hitch-hike, you
really had to have a girl with
you, otherwise the only males
who'd pick you up were of

say. Especially after 1 bought
a Volks van.

Once,
Long Beach, back before the
highway from Port Alberni
was built, I] turned the corner
to start the long haul over the
logging road, only to find
10,000 hippies all waiting for
somebody i ina Volks van to
come along.

. It was a bit like picking up

Schreck chases Davis

. " Froin Page 1 |.
said the uphill battle was
levelling out.

“One thing we can’t: be
accused of in this riding is
over-confidence,” he. said.
“Admittedly, | a win, for the
NDP in .North Vancouver
would . be. an upset, , but
regardless. ‘of a win, we will
cettainly do better.’’

The most difficult. job fac-
ing anyone running against
Davis; Schreck said, is .the
confusion held in the elec-
torate over. whether the
North Vancouver-Seymour
MLA is a Liberal or a
Socred : ‘‘We still run.into
people i in door-to-door cam-
-paigns who say they .are

voting Liberal, Jack Davis.”? :

According to Schreck,
‘while the NDP has become

" revitalized under the low-key _

leadership of.
Bob Skelly, the Social Credit -

. government under, Bill Ben- |

concilatory

nett has fost much: of ‘its

traditional populist support: *

Schreck said’ ‘B.C. has

' 50,000 less jobs now than it:
Job-:

had in June of, 1981..
-creation inthe retail: trade, a
traditional.
overa!l economic heaith, has
been stagnant, he said: .
“Sales tax has doubled
since 1!981,’? Schreck said.
“Projected: revenue from
that tax for: the 1985-86
fiscal year is $1.4 billion. We
are totally overtaxed.””
Davis admitted economic

recovery had not been as ‘fast -

. as anticipated, ‘but. disagreed
that the government had lost
its’ foundation of . populist
support.

_“Thé number of undecid-~

“ed votes traditionally rises be-

‘ tween elections,"’ Davis said.

“T think what David
Schreck’s biggest’ problem
here is trying to convince the
people of this riding’ that the
NDP means more jobs and
lower taxes.’

Both Shvis and Schreck

agreed that the issues facing | 4
North ‘
Vancouver-Seymour.. were’ §
‘the same issues facing the
“entire province: _unemploy-;.
the |

‘the constituents of

ment, education,
‘economy and taxation.

barometer. ‘of -

Davis, ‘who characterized
Schreck as one of the NDP’s
younger. bright lights, said
the general manager of C U
and C Health Services, while
bolstered now with the expe-
rience of two election cam-

paigns' under ‘his belt, would

not enjoy the same: trade
union: support enjoyed by
previous NDP candidates:
‘I’m surprised the party
would Jet him run in this

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heading over to ,

survivors from a shipwreck.
The moment I opened the
doors, they all tried to pile in,
snarling and elbowing each
other amid little cries of
“Peace, brother!"

In Mexico, I once picked
up a tired-looking guy and
his two little kids. Too late, I
noticed the machete dangling
from his belt. But he was a
nice guy, careful to put the
machete down on the floor to
relieve my then-wife’s anxiety
about the possibility of hav-
ing our heads lopped off.

What has changed? Well,
for openers, in the last
decade there have been more
cases of young people - males
as well as females - being
picked up and either tor-
tured, raped and killed or all
of the above - than anybody
really wants to know.

It was probably crazy
enough for a young guy to go
hitch-hiking in the early 60s,
and dumb to be picking up
weird hitch-hikers in the early
70s, but nowadays you have
to be just plain nuts to either
pick anyone up at all or allow
yourself to be picked up.

During the transit strike in
Vancouver, I. picked up
hitch-hikers, and even then, I
selected only those with grey
hair. But that was an excep-
tional situation.

The big danger, of course,

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isn’t to drivers so much as it
is to the hitch-hiker, especial-
ly young women. It crosses
my mind, when | see one
standing by the road, to pick
her up because if 1 don’t
some mad dog axe murderer
coming along in the car
behind is liable to get her.
And then isn't it my fault,
since I could have saved her?

The answer is ‘‘no,’?
because by the same token
the young lady who gets a
safe ride with me is very like-
ly to be encouraged by her
good fortune to try it again,
and the next time it'll be the

isn't good for your health

axe murderer.

Of course it’s awful being
left standing by the side of
the road. Tell me about it.
But it's far worse to be
dumped in a ditch later.
Hitch-hiking nowadays,
given the number of psychos
running loose, is like playing
Russian roulette. Both ways.

So now I just look straight
ahead, avoiding eye contact,
and keep my foot on the gas.
I feel like a Grade A louse.
But I’m sorry, young lady,
hitch-hiking ‘just isn’t good
for your health.

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