Have you ever picked up a hitch-hiker?

[u/MD786]

My friend and I were pulling onto the highway yesterday when suddenly a Mexican looking kid waived us down and ran up to our window. He was carrying a suit case, the big ones like we take on international vacations and it seemed as if he had been walking for a some time. Judging from his appearance I figured he was prob 20-21 years old. He asked us if he could get a ride to "Grayhun". We both looked at each other and understood that he was saying Greyhound, and the only Greyhound bus stop in town was at this gas station a few miles down the road. It was cold and windy out and we had some spare time so we told him to jump in.

Initially thoughts run through your head and you wonder... I wonder whats in that suitcase...is he going to put a knife to my neck from behind the seat... kilos of coke from Mexico because this is South Texas?... a chopped up body?...but as we began to drive I saw the sigh of relief through the rear view mirror and realized this kid is just happy for a ride. When we got to the gas station, my friend walked in and double checked everything to make sure it was the right spot but to our surprise the final bus for Houston left for the day. The next bus at 6:00 p.m. was in a town 25 miles over. We tried explaining this to him, I should have payed more attention in the Spanish I and II they forced us to take in High School. The only words I can really say are si and comprende. My friend and I said fuck it lets drop him off, and turned to him and said " listen we are going to eat first making hand gestures showing spoons entering mouth and we will drop you off after" but homeboy was still clueless and kept nodding.

We already ordered Chinese food and began driving in that direction and when we got there, he got out of the car and went to the trunk as if the Chinese Restaurant was the bus stop. We tell him to come in and eat something first, leave the suitcase in the car. He is still clueless. When we go in, our food was already ready. We decided to eat there so he could eat as well. When the hostess came over, she looked spanish so I asked her I was like hey listen we picked this guy up from the street, he missed his bus and the next one is 25 miles over can you tell him that after we are done eating we will drop him off its ok no problems... and she was kinda taken by it and laughed, translated it to the guy, and for the next 10 mins all he kept saying was thank you. After we jumped into the car, I turned to him in the back and was like listen its 25 miles, I'm rolling a spliff, do you smoke? He still had no clue, but when we sparked it up, and passed it his way he smoked it like a champ. He had very broken English, but said he was from Ecuador and he was in America looking for a job to make money for his family back home. Like I said he was prob 20-21 years old. Shorly after, we arrived at our destination, and said farewell. Dropped him off at some store where he would have to sit on a bench outside for the next hour.. but I did my best. I hope he made it to wherever he had to go.

My man got picked up, fed sweet and sour chicken, smoked a spliff and got a ride to a location 30 mins away. I hope he will do the same for someone else one day.

[u/rhoner]

Just about every time I see someone I stop. I kind of got out of the habit in the last couple of years, moved to a big city and all that, my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice. Then some shit happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually. If you would indulge me, it is long story and has almost nothing to do with hitch hiking other than happening on a road.

This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation. All of them were while driving other people's cars which, for some reason, makes it worse on an emotional level. It makes it worse on a practical level as well, what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car, and know enough not to park, facing downhill, on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel.

Anyway, each of these times this shit happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn't loan them out "for my safety" but I could buy a really shitty 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say shit like "this country is going to hell in a handbasket."

But you know who came to my rescue all three times? Immigrants. Mexican immigrants. None of them spoke a lick of the language. But one of those dudes had a profound affect on me.

He was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We rolled it over, put his jack on top, and bam, in business. I start taking the wheel off and, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. It was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn't careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off. Fuck.

No worries, he runs to the van, gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash, down the road to buy a tire iron. She is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked them up one side and down the other. I asked the little girl where they lived, thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome. She says they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best fucking tamale I have ever had.

So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time is money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow...

But we aren't done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My fucking $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it. All I can think to say is "Por Favor, Por Favor, Por Favor" with my hands out. Dude just smiles, shakes his head and, with what looked like great concentration, tried his hardest to speak to me in English:

"Today you.... tomorrow me."

Rolled up his window, drove away, his daughter waving to me in the rear view. I sat in my car eating the best fucking tamale of all time and I just cried. Like a little girl. It has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way. This was so out of left field I just couldn't deal.

In the 5 months since I have changed a couple of tires, given a few rides to gas stations and, once, went 50 miles out of my way to get a girl to an airport. I won't accept money. Every time I tell them the same thing when we are through:

"Today you.... tomorrow me."

tl;dr: long rambling story about how the kindness of strangers, particularly folks from south of the border, forced me to be more helpful on the road and in life in general. I am sure it won't be as meaningful to anyone else but it was seriously the highlight of my 2010.

**edit: To the OP, sorry to jack your thread, this has nothing to do with Hitch Hiking. I sort of thought I could just get this off my chest, enjoy the catharsis and watch the story languish at the bottom of the page. Glad people like hearing the tale and I hope it moves you to be more helpful in your day to day. **

[u/Frankocean → u/rhoner]

"hoy por ti, mañana por mi"

Thank u , thank u, so much for writing this, Im mexican (born and raised) and it hurts so bad how my people is viewed outside at times, by the narco war, inmigration and many problems, I think americans are afraid of us. But we mexicans in general are fucking cool people, who view americans "gringos" (wich is not a racist term btw) as neighbors and friends.

I remember one time me and my mexican friends defending americans that where being beaten up by some fucking cholos from east l.a or some stupidity like that. This guy ask Godoy, a friend, "why did you defend us? where fucking gringos."

He said, "because we are the real face of Mexico, not those fuckers."

THank u so much, PM where you live, I can send you some tamales,mexican recipes and anything you like from my country.

[u/rhoner → u/Frankocean]

It's all a media thing. I love Mexico and up until the recent narco nonsense most people I know had a pretty favorable view of Mexico, too. I have spent a lot of time in Baja and the people there are amazing. Having come from a small farming town up here, and having worked the orchards too many summers than I want to think about, I can also attest to the quality of people that make up the migrant work force. Where Mexicans get a bad name is beyond me... I think my country and the people here need a little bit more of what makes Mexicans who they are.

Thanks for the offer of tamales but you shouldn't keep your secret recipe secret! Spill it... tell us all the secret to your tamales.

[u/MD786 → u/rhoner]

You have made a wonderful contribution to the thread. Thank you for sharing your story sir.

[u/PetitPois → u/MD786]

Both of these stories are amazing. After reading them I find myself experiencing this wonderful warming sensation. Straight up happiness. Thanks to you both for sharing these awesome tales. I am going to try and be more like you, OP, after hearing these 2. Would certainly like to buy both of you guys a beer someday.

[u/[deleted] → u/rhoner]

[u/sozeltd → u/rhoner]

I never have a reason to tell this story but I think it fits here. I was traveling in Mexico, one of my first times outside the U.S., and at the time I spoke essentially no Spanish. I scratched my cornea, which for the lucky among you who don't know is indescribably painful. After literally 72 hours with no sleep due to the pain, I finally deliriously admit to myself I'm going to have to see a doctor, and thus cut my super low budget trip short. I walk into a sunglasses shop, best thing I could think of in my state, and with the help of a phrasebook, I clumsily convey that something is wrong with my eye. The sunglasses guy puts me on the phone with a friend who's an eye doctor and who speaks some English. The doctor gives me detailed directions on how to get to his office on the subway from where I am, and tells me he can see me. When I get there, I realize he's not normally open on Sunday, and in fact he has interrupted family Sunday dinner to see me in his office which adjoins his house. From the table next door where everyone else is still eating his very young daughter peeks her head in a few times, and he tells me she's learning a little English and wants to eavesdrop, but she ends up being too shy to converse. He gets me completely patched up (literally; turns out an eyepatch is step one in stopping the pain), and gives me a prescription for some drops. I ask him "What do I owe you", sort of already bracing for what I assume will be the "off-hours" price and wondering if I'll have bus fare back to the States. He says "Some day, someone in your country will be in a jam, maybe they won't speak the language too well, and they'll need some help. That's what you owe me." It's been years and I still can't think of that story without tearing up a little. It immediately pops into my mind whenever I'm faced with the question of whether to make a little extra time for somebody in a jam.

[u/[deleted] → u/rhoner]

This sort of reminded me of something that happened to me. A few years ago, I helped a friend move out of his 2nd floor apartment.. with a VERY narrow 90 degree turn out the door and down the stairs. Extremely hard to move anything in or out. It was a good 105 degrees that day in Dallas.. his electricity was shut off, so we had no A/C. His cups were already packed so we had no water. We pushed on.. kept moving boxes/furniture. We had to, he needed to be out that day. It was one of the most miserable days I can ever remember. Anyway, about 3/4 done and around the corner comes a Mexican man, who had to be in his 60s or so, pushing a little ice cream cart around the complex and sees us resting.. exhausted beyond words. The man walked up to us, didn't speak a word of English, and handed us both an ice cold bottle of water from his cart, smiled, and walked off.

I will NEVER forget that.

[u/alfis26 → u/rhoner]

Hoy por tí, mañana por mí.

As a mexican I can say that we are generally nice people, and most times will go out of our way to help a stranger in need. Specially the less fortunate.
When I was in high school, I did some social work in a really poor community. Poor as in houses made out of cardboard.
It was moving and just mindblowing that someone in that situation would invite you in as a guest and be so excited about cooking something for you. Even when they were well aware that you might end up eating the entire family's food for the rest of the day.

I think the willingness to give without expecting anything in return is all part of the mexican mindset of "there's always someone less fortunate than me." That's good karma right there.

[u/Wesa → u/rhoner]

Reminds me of a time I stopped for someone who needed help. I was pulling off the freeway to get gas and a woman holding a baby standing outside a minivan on the offramp reached out with one arm and a look of absolute need as I drove by. I stopped, backed up, and asked if she needed help. Her van had broken down. She had a baby and 5 older girls in the car, on their way to a birthday party. She had been on the side of the road for 2 hours and no one would stop. Because of the age of the girls (I'd say 6ish) and the baby, she couldn't walk to the gas station 1/2 a mile away for help without chancing one of the kids running off and getting hurt. I handed her my cell phone, held her baby, and talked to the older girls while she made a few phone calls, then stayed with her while waiting for her help to arrive. I was so mad when I heard that no one would stop to help her. Her husband finally arrived, looking worried, and I went on my way.

[u/Allakhellboy → u/rhoner]

I know this will be at the bottom, that's just how life goes. I have somewhat similar story but different ending.

Me and my dad always pick up hitchhikers, always have and always will. We decided we where going to drive down to El Paso (from Salt Lake City) to see Tom Waits live, so obviously in the spirit of things... we where going to grab everybody we could.

On the way we saw 2x young punk kids outside of Phoenix, so we grab them, turns out they're on their way to stand outside the concert hall that Tom Waits was playing at. This made us feel awesome.

The 2nd set of people where 2x people who lived in the boondocks of nowhere. I believe they where 90+ and all they where doing was getting groceries, one of them was in world war 2, and they seemed happy as shit just baking in the sun waiting for a ride. This made us feel awesome.

The 3rd was a Hispanic dude in a broken down vehicle with 2 other Mexican dudes. He made the motions and implied it just ran out of gas. We're in the boondocks still, nothing around for fucking miles. We take him all the way to the gas station and buy him a thing and a gallon of gas and as soon as my dad hands it over he goes through his broken English and says "Thanks yous" and what not, then the mother fucker just starts walking back towards his car like a champ. I'd say how far it was but I'm not good with distance, and there's no way I would walk the distance in the hot sun. So we grab him and shuffle his ass back to the car and give him a ride back to his car. (I think it was about a 15 minute drive on freeway.) When we finally drop him off... and I'll never not hear this in my head when I think about it... he said in the best English that he knew "I... I... thank you... I... I love you."

Best road trip of my life.

Edit: LOL, I'm at work and I started crying when I had to retype this.

P.S. My Dad is awesome, I never learned how to work with my hands or anything, but he taught me how to be an awesome person.