Travellers Tales

One subject less shared about nowadays
is stories that describe hitch-hiking,
where women are rare, but an optimist
will stand next to an easy-to-stop-by place
on a slow road, slow because it is narrow, 
where the optimistic male will raise a thumb
to attract the attention of passing drivers,
in the hope that in passing one of them
likes his face enough after a brief glance,
for the driver to stop and give a stranger
a ride closer to where they want to go.

In the car (lorry insurance now bans hitchers)
the hitcher will pay his host for the journey
with a well digested thought through point of view,
on a subject that is and out of the news,
or they will leave the driver a question to ponder.

I write 'less is shared'; I am referring to the UK,
where since the 1980's learn to drive was a way
of making teenagers more social and mobile,
where their parents buy the teen their first car,
and their parents have taxed and insured it too,
to get the teenager on the road of life early.

But for poorer folk, like me, hitching taught us
how to talk and listen to strangers,
taught me how to get to the places
I would not otherwise get to for free,
when I gave myself the extra time,
and all the while travelling thousands of miles
in short but necessary journeys,
whilst saving myself an estimated £60,000.

What I could never get
from my yen to travel on the cheap
was the experience of being a provider.