"We Are Respectable Gentlemen"

One of the main points I wanted to drive home about the story is these two characters are decent, likable, and responsible souls; and that the action of hitchhiking itself is a nonthreatening, entertaining, and even honorable form of transportation.  It really bugged me when I did a Google search on the term “we picked up,” (prior to this website being pasted up), and the first entry to pop up was, “I got picked up by a weirdo.”  How wrong and twisted the world is to promote an idea like that, to perpetuate the evil myth of hitchhiking.  I don’t care what year we’re talking about. Travel into the 1970’s, at least, always turned up one or two teams of hitchhikers along the highway.  It was accepted. Sure, it wasn’t for everyone.  Maybe it took guts to get out on the road, and it was bold to some extent. But it hardly seemed dangerous.  Early on, Roger yells at a passing Mercedes Benz, “Girl, you have no idea how respectable we are.  She lost her chance to participate in the great undertaking.” In Colorado he yells to another car, “We’re not going to assault you, people!  Take a chance, take a chance.” Detroit sums up my philosophy on page 280, “It’s bull that hitchhiking is dangerous.  I’ve never met friendlier people.  What driver you know ain’t offered to give the shirt off his back, with directions, tips, food, or even a place to stay? I’ve got no patience for anyone who tells me I’m crazy for hitchhiking.” That is exactly what I would say—when I was 17.