Dumbest Thing I Ever Did

Adventures and Misadventures

Dumbest Thing I Ever Did

In the late fall of 1967 (November maybe?) I hitchhiked 61 miles from Slippery Rock State College (at the time – University now) to Pittsburgh, PA with the bright and oh-so-handsome, red-headed, Ronnie Koch (very Ed Sheeran) of Long Island, NY?

The previous week, my boyfriend (Rich) called to tell me that he missed me and that I had to come home.  I didn’t have the money to fly home or any other way to get home, but I knew I was going.

Enter Ronnie Koch – a classmate, who desperately (yes, desperately) wanted to go home to Long Island to see his girlfriend.  He was so desperate to go home that he told me he’d buy my plane ticket to Philadelphia (via Allegheny Airlines – they supposedly didn’t have a flight plan -  they followed the roads) if I would hitchhike to Pittsburgh with him.

You see, I was cute then (stop laughing).  Some might even say “hot” (if they said “hot” in the 60s – which they did not).  Ronnie was sure it would be much easier to get a ride with a cute, well-dressed girl as a traveling companion. (Ronnie was astute)

Why did we hitchhike?  There was really no other way to get to Pittsburgh - unless you had a ride.  There was a bus, but the bus took you the wrong direction to Grove City, PA.  Then there were two more bus switches to get to Pittsburgh IF you could make connections.  The buses didn’t run very often so it was very possible to get stranded somewhere between Grove City and Pittsburgh.  Not an option.

So we hitchhiked.  True, it was a “different time”, but I had still never hitchhiked before.  I was excited, but scared to death.  (Ronnie was persuasive)

Ronnie wore a navy blue, pin-striped suit with a tie and vest (Ronnie’s family had money – Long Island, right?).  I wore a red and black buffalo checked suit, with a black turtleneck, black fishnet stockings, and black heels (remember the song by Cake about a short skirt and a lonnnnnnng jacket?  Yup!  I lived that song.) We looked good!  We were about 5 minutes out of Slippery Rock when we scored a ride clear to the airport in Pittsburgh.  Ronnie was a genius.

And I was home.

Did I ever hitchhike again?  Not a chance!