On 6/24/2012 7:27 PM, Tommy Joe wrote:
>
> I have not flown in 47 years since I was 17 years old. I flew
> 5 times in a short span, once in a small plane. They're less safe in
> the long haul than the big planes - sliding all over the place - but
> the mere fact that I could still see the earth below made me feel like
> we still had some kind of chance to glide in, not go down in a nose-
> dive like the huge metal jet boxes.
>
> I like to hear people complain about flying complications, as
> if flying is any different from taking a stinking land bus. It's an
> air bus, that's all. A lot of things that were luxuries yesterday are
> necessities today, just as today's luxuries will be tomorrow's
> necessities.
>
> Anyway, I used to travel a lot - driving and hitch-hiking - and
> I'm thinking about a trip to J'Ville to see my brother and also one to
> NYC to see my sister, and I think I'm going to hitch hike both times.
> Last time I hitched was about 13 years ago, to PA from NC, then a week
> later, back the other way.
>
> It's incredible the people who think they know things because
> they hear them. "Oh, it's scary, hitch-hiking today - nobody will
> pick you up." Really? Maybe if you cut giant scars into your face
> along with a nose ring and a vest made of chains with no shirt beneath
> it revealing a hairy mass with a very loud tattoo below it reading, "I
> hate people!"
>
> But believe me, they still stop. Oh there are period where you
> think you'll never get out of where you're at - that you might just
> die there - then out of nowhere someone stops, sometimes even when
> your thumb isn't out. Everyone has a reason for stopping, Used to be
> a lot of gays when I was younger, maybe even still today - but also a
> lot of preachers looking for a chance to spring Jesus on you - who
> knows why they stop? - but sometimes they stop just because they've
> hitched themselves - and other times they'll stop because they want to
> know if you have a license and will drive for them because they're
> tired. I love that. Sure, it's no picnic in the rain, and it's bad
> at night - but you don't have to deal with being confined in a moving
> hell on wheels with a bunch of screaming children and their even more
> annoyingly loud parents. Took a bus cross country 4 different times -
> twice each way - vowing each time, never again. This time I mean it.
> Unless it's freezing cold I'm ready to stand or sit in the elements
> rather than be confined to a stinking seat with no leg room and a
> bunch of buzzing my head to madness.
>
> TJ
>

My brother-in-laws would stop and pick up a guy hitching a ride - even
today. They once picked up Robert Zimmerman in Pittsburgh or
thereabouts. The army brats had recently come back to the states after
living on-base in Heidelberg. They were in a couple of trucks and the
oldest brother's wife was towing a large U-Haul to their new home. They
didn't know a thing about Dylan since they were out of the US for so
long. My brother-in-law asked him to sing something because he said he
wrote songs and sung and was pretty much sorry that he asked - that boy
had no talent as a singer and his songs were off-the-wall goofy!

Anyway, the guy promised him some weed as payment for the ride. And what
an eventful ride it was. Dylan would write a song about it later. One of
the trucks had a tire that disintegrated on the highway. They also had a
blown headgasket. The brothers' solution for a blown headgasket was to
go to a junkyard and put in a new old engine. Somebody suggested that
they just go to the Chevy dealer down the road and since it was freezing
cold, they thought that might be a better idea. When they walked in,
everybody was startled to see Dylan and froze in their tracks. The
brothers were wondering what the heck was going on and Dylan said "Maybe
they seen a ghost." The shop only charged them for the parts which the
brothers thought was a pretty good deal. My guess is that there wasn't
none of that "it'll be ready next Thursday" stuff either.

Once they got to Dylan's big house, there was no weed to be found. The
brothers thought the guy was trying to screw them over. He showed them
the photo that was going to be used on his new record. My brother-in-law
said that he later recognized it to be the cover of "Nashville Skyline."
I guess Dylan felt the need to show that he actually was a professional
recording artist and therefore trustworthy. All the brothers cared about
was that he kept his part of the deal and they went out onto the streets
looking for some grass. I like to imagine them out there in the darkness
and the cold searching for some smoke.