Another thing we've lost in low-trust, multi-cult, pervert-ridden Britain.
In the 1970s, we young Brits hitch-hiked everywhere. From the age of 15 I hitched thousands of miles every year, as did nearly all my school and university friends. Even when we got our own cars we still often hitched, because it was free and usually almost the same speed. You met all sorts of interesting and often very kind people. From lorry drivers who broke their solitary boredom by giving lifts, to elderly folk whose own grandchildren hitched. None of us ever encountered muggers, psychopaths, predatory perverts or drug-drivers - though I did once endure a terrifying late evening drive with a drunken Pole. It was fun, mind-broadening and both reflected and helped build a genuinely sense of common nationality. Many younger people don't even know about it, and certainly none of them do it. Though I'd still stop for any teen with thumb out, looking like we did. The past is indeed a foreign country.
