Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore

by Ed Griffin-Nolan

Overview

In the summer of 1978, Griffin-Nolan and a friend took to the road, hitchhiking from New York to California, on to New Orleans and back home to New York. As 2018 approached, the itch to hitch returned-but most people seemed to believe that this was now impossible. Griffin-Nolan decided to find out why nobody hitchhiked anymore. With a backpack, a hashtag, and a sign, he stuck out his thumb near his house, and let luck, and the road, take him where it would. Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore is an "act of loving rebellion" (Sean Kirst, Buffalo News) and a travelogue about a changing society and the people who lifted him up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578690381
Publisher:	Rootstock Publishing
Publication date:	09/22/2020
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Ed Griffin-Nolan wanders, runs, sails, and writes. He has worked as a journalist in his hometown of Syracuse, NY, and has written from Latin America and the Middle East. He has lived in Pinochet's Chile, Sandinista Nicaragua, and traveled to Iraq in the aftermath of Desert Storm. His works have appeared in the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, The Nation magazine, and the Syracuse New Times. The father of three grown children, he lives in Pompey, New York, with his wife, Ellen, an artist, and their gregarious Labradoodle, Gracie. His day job is massage therapy.

Editorial Reviews

"Hitchhiking, in essence, involves those with the elemental-a vehicle that moves-offering the most immediate of gifts to those, at least in the moment, who are utterly without. It is also a chance for little miracles, for connections and confessions, and as Griffin-Nolan unwinds each one within these chapters-as you meet the jobless and the dreamers and the nostalgic and, again and again and again, the fundamentally kind-you realize that his journey, above all else, is an act of loving rebellion."

- Sean Kirst, Buffalo News columnist and Ernie Pyle Award winner

"Griffin-Nolan's spontaneous, unpredictable pilgrimage to revive old memories works wonderfully as a reminiscence for those who were there in the '70s and as encouragement for those who might contemplate such a venture now."

-Feathered Quill Book Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 2020-10-07
A former journalist sets out to reexperience the hitchhiking adventures of his past in this absorbing travel memoir.

In 1978, Griffin-Nolan, accompanied by his childhood friend Joe, hitchhiked from New York to San Francisco and back. Since it was one of the “finest educational and recreational experiences” he’d experienced, he decided, 40 years later, to do it again. Joe, among others, tried to convince him to abandon the idea, arguing that hitchhiking was no longer safe. In 2018, the author set out alone from his home near Syracuse, New York. Progress was uncertain at first; a deputy sheriff stopped him and said that hitchhiking is illegal in New York. But the author soon began to pick his way west, fueled by the benevolence of drivers who responded to his cardboard sign: “#NobodyHitchhikesAnymore.” The trip takes in the thousands of wind turbines of the Midwest, Salt Lake City, and the Rockies before culminating as the author approaches San Francisco. Along the way, Griffin-Nolan ponders the ways the road and those he met on it have changed since the late ’70s. Griffin-Nolan’s writing crackles with an energy for adventure: “The only way to convert today’s uncertainty into tomorrow’s story is to get out there and live it.” His writing style is almost photographic, offering keenly observed snapshots of the lives of others. In a Peoria Greyhound station populated by the city’s addicts, he witnesses a woman trying to calm a “troubled mother-to-be”: “Into an audio landscape layered with rumbling moans of withdrawal and a chain of psychotic call-and-response dialogues, this serene lady whispers enchantments.” The memoir’s tight focus on individuals means that the sweeping vistas of America’s landscapes are sometimes overlooked, but this does not detract from an intelligently written memoir that documents how America is changing: “The disappearance of hitchhiking and the rise of the gated community seem part of the same thing. Fear leads to isolation leads to more fear.” Griffin-Nolan is acutely aware of America’s current troubles, focusing particularly on “evidence of empowered and emboldened racism.” Yet his unswerving faith in the kindness of strangers is uplifting, and his intrepid spirit will encourage others to take to the road.

Sharply observant, contemplative writing that captures the buzz of hitchhiking.

Kirkus Reviews