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So I don't hitchhike anymore because I'm old and whatnot but once in a while I still end up touching the road. One day I was involved with teaching a class for election judges. This class took place in the county complex—a collection of buildings including the administration center, the county nursing home, the health department, highway department and the county jail.

I had worked in that complex for many years as a regular employee in the administration building and so was familiar with what went on in that campus. For my training session that night, I got there around 6 or so, helped set up for the training, and then spent several hours trying to teach volunteerish judges how to run an election. Once done, I then helped clean up and reset machines for the next training session.

I walk out around 9:30 or 10 pm or so, a time in which the complex is pretty much deserted. I get into my car and start it up and then notice that there is someone walking towards me. I immediately noticed that he had an old-style paper grocery bag carefully folded—something that I recognized as a bag given to those recently released from jail. As he got closer he started shouting. I rolled my window down to listen. “Are you my Uber?” He was saying.

I denied this as I won't have anything to do with Uber. He then went into somewhat of a plea for a ride. He immediately made reference to a part of the county that was on my way home, albeit with a slight detour. So I had him get into my car.

He eventually explained that he had been arrested on a suspended license type charge with some other vague issues. Having had my own experiences with legal issues and incarceration I recognized that he was embellishing his situation to make himself innocent. I was polite in reserving my judgment as I wished to only grant him the mercy of immediate transportation. Otherwise he was walking.

It also reminded me of another time when I was hitchhiking. Except in this case I was trying to get to a nearby train station and the shuttle bus I usually took opted not to run that afternoon. So I found myself hitchhiking while wearing a tie on a suburban street. I got a ride pretty quickly and made my train. My benefactor said he knew I hadn't come from the jail because there was a big sign at the exit saying hitchhiking was forbidden.