public transportation
last night we were driving to butte, listening to the oldies station. heard a good old vanity fair song, 'hitchin' a ride.' as i heard it, i thought about my uncles, who hitched all over the country when they were long-haired hippies growing up in the 60s. and my friend lynette who hitched all over honduras while she was in the peace corps; it was the standard mode of transportation.
and i wished people hitchhiked. i sat in the car and sang along
('a thumb goes up, a car goes by.
oh, won't somebody stop and help a guy...
hitchin' a ri-ide, hitchin' a ride.')
and thought about how nice it would be to just step out onto the road and put my thumb out whenever i needed to get to missoula. to just wait for a ride, to get there when i got there. to pick up strangers and meet new and interesting travelers whenever i was on a road-trip. to feel like that was a safe, sane thing to do. makes me feel summery and drowsy and like laughing. like a soul song sung on a porch.
the very next song was 'bus stop,' by the hollies.
('bus stop, wet day,
she's there, I say,
please share my umbrella.')
and i wondered to myself whether the dj had some sort of subversive political agenda, because here were two back-to-back songs about a dying way of meeting people -- in public places, in interdependent situations, etc.
what are public places, anymore? (there's a private *bar* in missoula, for god's sake.) i mean, if you don't belong to a church or if you're not a regular at the bar (i consider myself one of the latter, by default), where is your community? some of us have workplaces and colleagues, which can provide varying levels of community, but usually can't fulfill that need with much satisfaction.
we all have our own cars and our own tvs and our own individualized shrinkwrap. we travel in little bubbles of anonymity and imagined self-reliance. these two songs were about a way of communing, of being around other people, that's fading away. hitching is *illegal,* fuhgoawdssakes. and lots of politicos don't even think about public transportation -- trains or buses -- as a useful tool in our efforts to reduce environmetnal degradation. i mean, they can talk about cars getting better mpg, but if you bring up the possibility of preferring public transportation -- maybe not everyone *needs* a car -- you might as well be espousing socialism. it's sacrilege in this country to even suggest it.
and i wished people hitchhiked. i sat in the car and sang along
('a thumb goes up, a car goes by.
oh, won't somebody stop and help a guy...
hitchin' a ri-ide, hitchin' a ride.')
and thought about how nice it would be to just step out onto the road and put my thumb out whenever i needed to get to missoula. to just wait for a ride, to get there when i got there. to pick up strangers and meet new and interesting travelers whenever i was on a road-trip. to feel like that was a safe, sane thing to do. makes me feel summery and drowsy and like laughing. like a soul song sung on a porch.
the very next song was 'bus stop,' by the hollies.
('bus stop, wet day,
she's there, I say,
please share my umbrella.')
and i wondered to myself whether the dj had some sort of subversive political agenda, because here were two back-to-back songs about a dying way of meeting people -- in public places, in interdependent situations, etc.
what are public places, anymore? (there's a private *bar* in missoula, for god's sake.) i mean, if you don't belong to a church or if you're not a regular at the bar (i consider myself one of the latter, by default), where is your community? some of us have workplaces and colleagues, which can provide varying levels of community, but usually can't fulfill that need with much satisfaction.
we all have our own cars and our own tvs and our own individualized shrinkwrap. we travel in little bubbles of anonymity and imagined self-reliance. these two songs were about a way of communing, of being around other people, that's fading away. hitching is *illegal,* fuhgoawdssakes. and lots of politicos don't even think about public transportation -- trains or buses -- as a useful tool in our efforts to reduce environmetnal degradation. i mean, they can talk about cars getting better mpg, but if you bring up the possibility of preferring public transportation -- maybe not everyone *needs* a car -- you might as well be espousing socialism. it's sacrilege in this country to even suggest it.
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