4/25/2006: Girl scouts harmless in 1976

xoB finds this in the archives of the National Park Service, who are credited. IotD seeks mind-boggling images and cultural images, and often the shots are of different lesser-known cultures and their mind-boggling practices. Well, presented here is the mind-boggling culture of thirty years ago.

Thirty years ago, if two 15-year-old girls were hitchhiking, through Yellowstone, unaccompanied, it would be incumbent on them to prove THEY were harmless. Not the driver picking them up.

And to prove it, they would announce right on their sign that they were Girl Scouts. Harmless, as in unarmed. And then they would flash the biggest possible smile at the upcoming driver.

It seems like a totally different culture, and yet it's right in the heart of Americana. Today, upon seeing this image, there would be multiple Amber Alerts issued, the national news would gear up for the Lost Scouts story, and helicopters would be flown to start the search for the shallow graves.

(I just had to! I'm so sorry!)

1. Chick on the left looks to be sporting a well-worn pair of Vasques, which were also my choice of footwear back in the 70's. Great old school hiking boots.

2. Anymore, you wonder who's preying on whom. I neither want to be a hitchhiker nor the prospective provider of transportation to a hitchhiker.

Isn't it incredibly sad that we are apparently totally unsafe in our own country, or that the media has persuaded us that we shouldn't feel safe?

That's the position I usually take. I think life has *always* been scary. We've just gotten more efficient at gathering and reporting the scary parts.

I think children have always been molested, but that we now have more systems in place to discover and report it, and our society has evolved to the point that we are less likely to look the other way. I think that there have always been horrible, senseless crimes, but we now have more free time to hear about them and ponder the horror.

I also think that the news media presents the most provocative, ghastly things it can so that we will watch them, their ratings will rise, and they can charge more for their advertising. It is a handy byproduct for them that they can then point proudly to themselves and profess that they are "revealing the truth". I'm not suggesting that such horrors should not be reported, but I'm pretty damn certain that the incidents themselves, horrible though they are, are being used as a sort of perverse entertainment to help stimulate profits.

I used to hitchhike in the 70s, alone even sometimes. Back then nice people would pick you up. Now mostly they won't pick you up because they are scared so it stands to reason that hitchhiking isn't as safe anymore since only the predators stop for you.

i'd just like to comment that i live about an hour north of yellowstone and my girlfriend and i would each, while alone probably not think twice about hitchhiking anywhere around here. Granted, my girlfriend also runs a 30"+ chainsaw for 8 hours a day...

The point is that life is a bit different here. Hell, i couldn't tell you the last time i locked the door to my house and i'm generally gone for 10-12 hours every day of the week. i still pick up hitchhikers when i'm driving alone in montana on a regular basis. I even picked one up in an audi a couple years ago, he didn't know what to think.

oh, i also still wear vasque sundowners (same boot as the girl in the left) on most hiking trips. That or chacos.

I hitch-hiked the entire summer of '82. I quit after the father of one of my classmates recognized me hitching, pulled over and bawled me out. He was pretty pissed off. (but,he did give me a ride home!

I don't think the Girl Scout Council would approve of this. Not even to sell cookies.


Girl on the right looks rather Sound of Music-ish.

There' been an awful lot of rapes in the news.
I think I'll start hitchhiking to work.

I knew you couldn't resist that picture, UT.

xoB - you are a dirty 'ol man...

I never pick up hitchhikers here - we have 14 freakin' miles of paved road. For fuck sakes they can walk to where they want to go.

I'll have you know I shower daily. Gotta be ready, ya know. :p

Only 14 miles of sub-zero, with homicidal bears and pumas and stuff.

I worked at Old Faithful in 96 and 97 in two giftshops. My boyfriend didn't have a car and would hitchhike where ever he needed to go that wasn't walking distance. This is common practice for the employees that work in the park that didn't drive out to the park. I had a car (1974 Super Beetle)and picked up hitchhikers when I wasn't in a hurry to be somewhere. You have more family-on-vacation and Retiree types coming through the park than anything. And guns are not allowed in the park. Im not saying no one ever gets through but...

xob - Pumas?

I am getting you a globe or a map for Christmas this year.

Pu-mas, is from an old Smothers Brothers routine.

Statistically we are far safer now than ever before.
It is just reported more.
School violence is way down, school murder is WAY down over the last twenty years. But if you watch the news you would think there is an epidemic of kids killing other kids since Columbine... fear turns the set on.... fact. That is all.
"We have breaking news of something you may be eating that could be killing you RIGHT NOW... story at 11".

I worked near Crater Lake, OR in the 70s and 80s, and I used to hitch up to Portland on long weekends to see my GF. And I hitched to school (about 13 miles) and back every day for a whole semester (Corvallis OR to Albany). I think once I didn't get a ride and had to miss class. One trucker who picked me up made a point of showing me his machete, and once a couple put me in the back of their pickup with a large canine, but I never really had a problem. Wow. I haven't thought about that in years.

Gave a ride to a guy last week. I guess he wasn't hitchin, but just walking down the shoulder of the freeway. I had passed his disabled vehicle a half a mile earlier. I've accepted rides from strangers too.

I don't watch TV. At all. There is no signal going into my TV except the S-video cable from my 5-disc DVD changer (okay I have a VCR too). I keep some Family Guy or Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Simpsons or Seinfeld in there and maybe a movie or two I'm in the middle of, maybe some porno, I have plenty of things to entertain me. No need whatsoever to let the squawking propoganda freaks into my living room. Banish TV from your life - not just a little bit but completely - cut the cord! You will feel a million times better within a short span of time.

I don't watch TV. At all. There is no signal going into my TV except the S-video cable from my 5-disc DVD changer (okay I have a VCR too). I keep some Family Guy or Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Simpsons or Seinfeld in there and maybe a movie or two I'm in the middle of, maybe some porno, I have plenty of things to entertain me. No need whatsoever to let the squawking propoganda freaks into my living room. Banish TV from your life - not just a little bit but completely - cut the cord! You will feel a million times better within a short span of time.

clearly

lesbians.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, there's all sorts of right about that.

Thought the one on the right was a boy, when you look at the clothes and hat.

Harmless girlscout lesbians.

Dammit there should be a movie with that title.

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen Thelma and Louise to goon on pilgrimages

hmm

phobia;
1- A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.

2- A strong fear, dislike, or aversion.

I think she does.

why?

It's a continuation of this thread.

Uh, don't you think you might be a teeny tiny bit bias about Jordon.........you know, from previous experience.

Jordon: Bruce... I see gay peeeepuuul!

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce Uh, don't you think you might be a teeny tiny bit bias about Jordon.........you know, from previous experience.

Seems like Jordon has gone to seek more fertile fields, where his lack of debating skills won't be so prominent

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaggieL Seems like Jordon has gone to seek more fertile fields, where his lack of debating skills won't be so prominent

I have to question the term "Harmless" just meaning they will not be of any harm to anyone.

I had a female friend who was hitchiking home from college in upstate NY in 1969 and was picked up by a state trooper and booked for prostitution on the basis that she was young, female and soliciting a ride and who knows what else. The charge was later dropped but could that idea also be part of the meaning of "Harmless" on these Girl Scout's sign?

That makes sense, if she wasn't wearing a locked chastity belt she must be a hooker.

So what happened? Was she actually prosecuted?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce Pu-mas, is from an old Smothers Brothers routine.

in that case, "HE HE HE"

Quote:

Originally Posted by footfootfoot And why, pray tell, was that not on your cmep mix?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce I haven't hear it since 1963.

I haven't hear it? Good grief, since we got spell checking, I've gotten sloppy about rereading for obvious errors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce Are you insinuating I'm elderly?

Geez, I've never been called "geeky fetishist" before. I don't know if I should be insulted or say thank you.

I take it he was into audio pretty heavily.

Well in order to rip vinyl, you've got to be able to play it. My turntable is hooked to my PC as I slowly transfer all the old vinyl to digital.

Foot if you have a sound card you can get RCA to Mini jack cables at radio shack ( or sum such ) hook these up to your line in , there are MANY adio progs available , some free and some pay , when you get one make sure you can play with the sound levels and convert to MP3

Older turntables need a phono preamp?

My turn table has a preamp built in , if yours doesn't you could just hook it up to a tuner ( stereo ) and use the tape 2 output , again rca to mini cable .

My hardware setup is turntable to preamp to rca stereo cable to stereo miniplug to audio card. As zippy said, you can use a stereo for the preamp, but I didn't have any that I wanted to move around, and the preamp cost $30 at best buy.

I use Wave Corrector to record, de-click, and normalize. Wave Corrector does a good job of automatic click removal, but no software will get everything. Wave Corrector has additional tools to allow you to finish up by hand. The documentation will tell you everything else you need to know.

Before you start recording, go into the windows sound dialog and go to the setup for recording [In the properties dialog]. Uncheck everything except for the line-in. That way you won't end up recording the other boops and beeps that your computer makes.

One more thing. De-clicking can take quite a bit of time to do. Plus, with home equipment, there is no way to do as good a job as the record companies can do. So before you knock yourself out, see if your local library has a cd of the album you're looking to convert.

This is one of the times we discussed this.

Oh, here's another one.

I miss old vinyl. The last couple of posts just brought back some cool memories. Me and my brother used to play my parents' old 45's and 78s (they might have actually been my sister's, but the songs were from my parents' era). I can't believe we were ever that innocent -- we could actually spend hours in the basement, sitting on the floor and listening to music.

I distinctly remember an album of Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, and Danny Davis all playing together. Didn't care for the trumpet, but I thought Chet and Floyd were the best. Now I have Last Date running a loop through my head.


/threadjack

my dad used to hitchhike from his Navy base in...Corpus Christie? to home and back.

Yeah, service men used to do a lot of hitchhiking, in uniform, and were almost assured of plenty of rides. I picked them up, all the time.

I remember picking up a sailor in MA, in a torrential downpour, and for twenty minutes he apologized for being wet. I finally had to shut him up by saying, I picked you up in the pouring rain, don't you think I knew you were wet?