There was a time when I was young, when truckers & hitchhikers went together. I grew up in a family of CBers, so when I started hitchhiking around the country I carried a 23 then later a 40 channel walkie talkie and thats how I got rides. At Rainbow I was known as Gypsy. But the truckers knew me as the American Nomad. Thanks to the conservatives and insurance companies, truckers are no longer allowed to pick up hitchhikers (some do though still). Independent truck stops begin disappearing, replaced by chain truck stop that have no drifter rules. When I was young I could get dropped off at some small truck stop and work for a meal doing dishes etc.. Talk to the drivers at the counter over a home cook country meal and ended up hooking up with another ride without ever having to stick my thumb out or sit on my pack with a sign. The drifter life was easier at one time. I know many of the old Rainbows here will remember those days. The homeless population in cities has risen, but the drifter population has dropped. Conservatives have gotten their way and truckers don't like us and the kids today don't like them. Granted truckers can be assholes, but they were once our friends and it's partially the kids fault today as well as the truckers. You kids don't realize you have more in common with the truckers than not. Truckers are the last of the old outlaws. Remember Earthfirst was started by a bunch of rednecks not hippies, so not all rednecks are bad. Well in my day, many of the truckers were ex-vietnam vets who came home pissed at a government who screwed them. Like the bikers as portrayed in the movie "Easyrider", the truckers had their own counter-culture movement. Truckers didn't like the man anymore than we did. "Convoy" was for the truckers, what "Easyrider" was to the bikers. Hell I even remember a few truckers who went to Rainbow gatherings. You see their bobtails parked in bus village at every National. We need to reconnect with our country outlaw brothers of the highway. How? By educating the young Rainbow kids to understand them. Learning to show them respect again. There are asshole in every lifestyle and truckers are no exception. But hey you know what? I know some real assholes in Rainbow too. So lets reconnect with the truckers who aren't assholes. If you are an older Rainbow who has done your fair share of hitchhiking around the country, share you trucker/truck stop stories, both good and bad. lets heal the riff. I live off the grid in a RV and stay at a lot of truck stops. So I have been reconnecting with these folks and they aren't all bad. They is Family too. Here is a great look into their culture. http://www.hulu.com/watch/140100/big-rig
well , if you're standing along the road and you get a friendly trucker wave - respect it , return it . when somebody says to you go to the truckstop and they are so sure you'll get a ride from a trucker if you do .... just smile . let them think the best about truckers . if a trucker picks you up and wants to smoke your weed - well , fine ... but maybe not all of it . respect'm like you is the traveling doctor . do you see that golden thumb next to my tikoo handle ? last time i hitched i tripped from iowa to new mexico and back . the year before i'd made the same journey to the 2009 new mexico gathering . traveling that 4800 miles i had a ride from just one trucker - a perfectly good one of 500 miles that got me home . anywhichway tho , i'm always going home . age 54
Do You Remember The Americans? by Stephen Stills Standin' by a snow drift in the pale moonlight Hitchhikin' west on a highway at night Tryin' to get to Frisco lookin' for my girl Here comes a trucker, hope he don't mind my long curls I remember years ago hitchin' this same road Never saw a trucker leave a man out in the cold No riders sign on the window never meant a thing Nowadays they just roll on lookin' kind of mean Kind of makes me wonder, scratch my head and kick the snow Four years of overseas who are these strangers in my home Where are the country people does anybody know Do you remember the Americans where did they go Were they simply bought and sold?
I enjoyed reading that. Makes me feel like I really grew up in the wrong era. My dad and all his friends while I was growing up were vietnam vets in the South and although they were more redneck than hippie, there was definitely something anti-establisment about them. Rednecks get a bad rep, but they want the same thing that the hippie movement wants and that is for the government to leave them the hell alone and let them live their lives freely. i love when all my long haired hippie friends party with the local rednecks. always makes for good times. thanks for sharing that!
one time a trucker i dumped . he wanted sex with a handsome young man . now i am frumpy as goes an old man with a dready beard who wears a shirt ragged to the end .
