4/25/2006: Girl scouts harmless in 1976

[Undertoad]

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.

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

the national news would gear up for the Lost Scouts story

Even more so if they had happened to be blonde. I guess the media can't have everything . . .

You forgot the ritual mutilation of the parents, for allowing the girls to go gasp hiking.

[Emrikol]

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

[Elspode]

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?

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Elspode

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?

I maintain that we're much safer than the media and government want us to believe. I mean you have to be careful but not everyone is out to get everyone else. Otherwise, we'd have quite a bit more chaos in this country than is apparent.

[Elspode]

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.

[Promenea]

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.

[gerstle]

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.

[axlrosen]

Originally Posted by Elspode

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.

Or the flip-side way of looking at is, life has always been not so dangerous. Who knows if the odds of getting kidnapped etc. have gone up or down since the "good old days". But the odds of *hearing* about a terrible crime have gone way, way up.

We're evolved to take news as evidence. 1000 years ago, you only heard about events that happened in your village. If you heard about one kidnapping a month, things really were VERY unsafe. But now if you hear about one kidnapping a month, that's one kidnapping in the entire U.S. But yet it still feels like the same evidence of danger, so we don't let our kids play outside, etc.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

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.

The sensationalistic media tends to give us the impression that the world is a more dangerous place. What we have these days is a situation where the bad news is crammed down our throats so often that we think it happens more often. It doesn't, it's just reported more often. How many blowjobs do you think JFK got that we never heard about in the news? Clinton got one, and they still won't shut up about it.

My band does a cover of Henley's Dirty Laundry.

[Trilby]

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

[seakdivers]

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

[ferfanerd]

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...