Black and White: Two Contemporary American Thumbers
After a string of mistakes on the first day he lands at a truck stop in Stockton. After 4 hours trying to find a ride here, he throws the towel in and heads for the next freeway on-ramp. It happens to be in Stockton's red-light district! He waits 3 more hours for a short ride to another ramp in Stockton, where he promptly remarks "I was struck with the reality that this had been a disastrous, catastrophic first day" and, lo and behold he waits until 10 a.m. the next morning before giving up and walking to the next freeway on-ramp where he gets a ride in 10 minutes and notes "I have been awake now for about twenty-eight hours and the effect is beginning to distort my perception ...".
He spent the second night in a shared motel room with that driver, and third night at a truck stop again fishing rides all night, never pausing to sleep ( "I am exhausted, and so tired. However, my mission, my mission."), which he did again on the fourth night!
"... but that was all right, too. No hitch-hiking trip is complete without being forced to stay up all night in a truck stop somewhere, waiting for a driver to wake up or just waiting for dawn, eyes stinging, nose itching from cigarette smoke, folding your arms and putting your head down on a Formica table." writes Brookes. If only Hamilton would put as much faith in that Formica table as he does in his Big Brother J.C.! It is this unwavering faith that God will deliver the right ride, in His good time, that keeps Hamilton doggedly thumbing, even past midnight in a red-light district!
He's a hitch-hiker, an old black hitch-hiker at that, so you might think he'd meet with some signs of disrespect, and sure enough he does: "I would swear (again) that he gave me the ?@%$ sign with his whole arm as he drove by. I get the sign twice in one afternoon? I can't believe it." Heck, I've waited in places where I get the finger once every 10 minutes. I've even had eggs thrown at me!
It's a short book, rather stilted prose, in a very documentary diary format, but it's an icon all the same, and a charming read. It warms the heart to follow Hamilton's honest, simple, bumbling adventures across the land, and have him conclude:
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