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

emberleo

April 19 2009, 20:17:42 UTC 8 years ago

I'm not sure, since I think most of what I know probably comes from you, but the story in my head says she's just lost, not hungry, and she's getting a ride but either has the car stop at the graveyard to let her go home, or else jumps out of the car when they're stopped near the graveyard, runs off much to the driver's surprise, and disappears.

Not violent, just confusing and sad.

I think the assumption is she died because of a drunk driver...

--Ember--

seanan_mcguire

April 21 2009, 01:34:13 UTC 8 years ago

Wow, okay. See, the drunk driver isn't a touch that's standard to a lot of the ones I know.

emberleo

April 21 2009, 07:28:53 UTC 8 years ago

See, but I can't promise that isn't just what I inserted to try and make sense of the story for myself. I have that kind of brain.

Once I've built the scene in my head, I can look around within it and see plenty of things I am only assuming are there. Like if you read the book version before watching the movie, only the book doesn't actually exist.

--Ember--