NOTE: This post contains some adult language, please distribute only to appropriate parties.
Next time it may be, your question to Tom. Email it, TrainTomOtt@Gmail.com!
Do you really suck dick for rides?
- Lonny M., No city listed
Some of you may expect me to take offense for such a brash question, but this is something I have actually been asked a lot in conversation with non-vagrants and in the mailbag. Best to address it concretely, once and for all.
Generally, modern vagrants do not panhandle nor hitchhike. We've discussed before the difference between a legitimate homeless person and a vagrant, and we should add to that differentiation those desperate to travel for one reason or another. Some people need to travel across the country to visit a sick relative, or run away from something, or in search of a better lifestyle. These sorts usually adhere to one or both of the following: They are traveling to a specific place and/or they in a hurry to get there.
If we're going to nit-pick, we could say that one or both of these could also apply to a modern transient from time to time, but it generally does not define them. A transient may be headed specifically to Florida
The majority of travel in my life as a tried-and-true transient has been by foot, by train, by donkey, by bicycle or by the back of a pickup truck. Very seldom will I ride in a car seat, and I can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that this is the case for nearly all modern vagrants.
There are times where hitch-hiking is essential...if you do need to get out of a certain area quickly, if the weather is turning bad and you have no accommodations, so on and so forth. For these sorts of reasons, yes, a transient will occasionally travel by vehicle.
More often than not, no matter what your movie-pictures say, there is no exchange of goods or services for the ride. The friendly driver simply wants to help someone out. Other times the vagrant may be expected (or willingly give some sort of monetary compensation for the fuel used.
I'm going going to flat-out say that sexual favors are never exchanged for such a service, but I do want to dispel the myth that this is any sort of common form of payment for a modern vagrant. I cannot say what the case is for other hitch-hikers with other motives, all I can speak for is my own experience and the experience of those I am close to.
This is especially the case in the day of HIV, AIDS and other common forms of sexually-transmitted diseases. I can say with a level of certainty that there is VERY seldom any penetrative act given in exchange for a ride, although other forms of non-penetrative sexual relief such as a "four mile handshake" may or may not be common in rural areas where non-automotive travel is restricted.
In short, friends, be safe and don't allow yourself to get into positions where you feel uncomfortable or unnecessarily vulnerable.
In solidarity,
Train Tom
