Music:The Be Good Tanyas, "Keep It Light Enough to Travel."
A question about hitch-hiking ghosts.
Almost everybody's heard the basic hitch-hiking ghost story—dude (usually) gives a girl a ride home, and later finds out that she was actually dead way before she got into the car—but there are some really fascinating regional variants. So here is my question for you:
How does the story go? Is she a victim, a predator, or just a confused kid trying to go home? Is seeing a hitcher like seeing the Bean Nighe—you're just doomed to die now? How does it go?
To be clear, I'm not asking you to make something up; I want to know how, in your part of the country or the world, the story goes. Or, if this is the first time you've encountered the idea (outside Disney's Haunted Mansion), I'd like to know that, too.
In my neck of the woods (suburban Phoenix, AZ), growing up, the version I heard goes thus:
A guy is driving home on an empty back road/highway at night. It's cold, sometimes raining, but usually not. Suddenly, he sees a girl in a party dress on the side of the road, and pulls over to see if she needs a ride. She's shivering and wet (even if there's no rain), so he gives her his jacket - usually it's a leather jacket or a letterman's jacket, the guy was always a 16-20 type of guy. In school, y'know? Anyway, he asks where she lives, and she gives him directions. He gets to the house, puts the car in park, and looks over at the passenger seat where she was sitting, and it's empty. So he frowns, and goes up to the door, and knocks. When someone answers the door, he asks if a girl who looks like the girl he picked up lives there. The parent tears up and says that a girl matching that description lived there, but she died in a car crash on her way to a formal dance of some sort, on a rainy night - lost control of the car in the rain or something. They show him a picture of their daughter from that night, and it's the girl he picked up, dress and all. In the morning, he goes to the local cemetery on a whim, and finds her grave - his jacket is draped over her tombstone.
curious
April 19 2009, 03:48:34 UTC 8 years ago
A guy is driving home on an empty back road/highway at night. It's cold, sometimes raining, but usually not. Suddenly, he sees a girl in a party dress on the side of the road, and pulls over to see if she needs a ride. She's shivering and wet (even if there's no rain), so he gives her his jacket - usually it's a leather jacket or a letterman's jacket, the guy was always a 16-20 type of guy. In school, y'know? Anyway, he asks where she lives, and she gives him directions. He gets to the house, puts the car in park, and looks over at the passenger seat where she was sitting, and it's empty. So he frowns, and goes up to the door, and knocks. When someone answers the door, he asks if a girl who looks like the girl he picked up lives there. The parent tears up and says that a girl matching that description lived there, but she died in a car crash on her way to a formal dance of some sort, on a rainy night - lost control of the car in the rain or something. They show him a picture of their daughter from that night, and it's the girl he picked up, dress and all. In the morning, he goes to the local cemetery on a whim, and finds her grave - his jacket is draped over her tombstone.
So that's the one I grew up on.
April 19 2009, 03:50:06 UTC 8 years ago
April 19 2009, 03:56:56 UTC 8 years ago