Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: curious
  • 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.

Curious cat is curious.
Tags: folklore is awesome, ghost stories, requesting things
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  • 149 comments

amanda_nye

April 19 2009, 03:52:05 UTC 8 years ago

I've generally heard she is a lost ghost, victim of bad circumstances... doesn't realize they're gone, wants to get home. Driver just ends up spooked.

In one version I heard, she led the driver to something he'd lost

I'm from Southern California, though the versions I've heard were never based in socal or anywhere nearby

seanan_mcguire

April 19 2009, 23:46:03 UTC 8 years ago

They almost always seem to be somewhere else, unless they're Chicago-area.