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.
Growing up in Maryland, it was a combo of victim/confused kid trying to go home; the ghost never hurt or tried to hurt the one giving her a ride, and you got the sense that she knew she was dead but she wanted to go home anyway.
ETA: I wasn't going to mention this, but what the hell - my former father-in-law used to say he'd had a ghost hitchhiker. He was coming home late one night from work, on back country roads, and stopped at a stop sign. He was just about to pull off when he realized there was now a man sitting in his truck next to him. He knew it had to be a ghost, since the door hadn't opened and there wasn't anyone for miles in the middle of the woods; he was scared shitless, but figured his best bet was to keep driving and act like nothing had changed. A couple miles down the road, as he drove past an old church with a tiny cemetary, he felt a breeze and the ghost was gone. We never were able to figure out who the man was; there'd been so many accidents on that road that it was impossible to narrow it down.
...that is AMAZING. I know a lot of people who've seen/encountered ghosts, but this is the first time I've heard someone mention a one-step connection to a hitcher. Thank you!!!!
curious
April 19 2009, 04:07:43 UTC 8 years ago Edited: April 19 2009, 04:19:38 UTC
ETA: I wasn't going to mention this, but what the hell - my former father-in-law used to say he'd had a ghost hitchhiker. He was coming home late one night from work, on back country roads, and stopped at a stop sign. He was just about to pull off when he realized there was now a man sitting in his truck next to him. He knew it had to be a ghost, since the door hadn't opened and there wasn't anyone for miles in the middle of the woods; he was scared shitless, but figured his best bet was to keep driving and act like nothing had changed. A couple miles down the road, as he drove past an old church with a tiny cemetary, he felt a breeze and the ghost was gone.
We never were able to figure out who the man was; there'd been so many accidents on that road that it was impossible to narrow it down.
April 20 2009, 00:07:55 UTC 8 years ago
April 20 2009, 03:40:24 UTC 8 years ago