Page 4
University Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 19. 1965
Bizarre Experiences
By Rosalie Jenkins
A ride with escaped convicts in Missouri, an unplanned stopover in Oxford, Miss., when James Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi, a 135 mile per hour convertible ride with the top down in Texas in winter—these have been some of the hitchhiking experiences of Don Duffy, Las Vegas senior.
The ride with the escaped convicts and the James Meredith enrollment incidents both occurred in Duffy's first hitchhiking adventure. He explained that he and three other members of his fraternity decided to go to Pensacola, Fla., for semester break his freshman year.
Duffy, speaking in an interview last night, said he began hitchhiking when he was a freshman. Since that time, he said he estimates he has covered 25,000 miles, traveling around the country during the school vacations.
"WE DECIDED to go to Florida and, not being of great resources we all decided to hitchhike," he said. "We had such great success I decided to continue hitchhiking," Duffy said.
The four decided to split into pairs and see who could reach Pensacola first. Tonto Mays, Lyons senior, accompanied Duffy and, though the two reached the city in three days, they lost the race.
Duffy said the second ride they got was from the convicts. Duffy
said the students didn't realize the men were convicts until they turned off the main road onto the back road, saying they were "dodging an unmarked sheriff's car."
THE POLICE finally caught up with the man and arrested them about 20 minutes driving time outside Anderson, Mo. Duffy said Mays and he didn't have any trouble convincing the sheriff that they weren't criminally involved.
On the trip back from Pensacola, Duffy said they decided to stop off at the student union at Mississippi University in Oxford, Miss.
"We didn't know that it was enrollment time but decided to stay when we heard that James Meredith was enrolling in a couple of hours," he said.
The winter convertible ride occurred while Duffy and a friend were traveling from El Paso, Tex., to Las Cruces, N.M., during a school vacation.
"I think that ride is the nearest I've ever come to freezing," the young traveler said.
As he has hitchhiked, Duffy said he has developed a number of techniques. He noted that he has always traveled, except for one ride, with at least one of his friends.
A boy picked them up and drove them about 40 miles in his open convertible which was going about 135 mph.
THE OTHER pointers include:
Befall Student Hitchhiker
- Emphasizing that they are college students by always carrying a sheet or pillowcase with the neatly lettered statement "Kansas University students traveling to"
- If the weather allows always wearing bernuda shorts in order "to look like the all-American kid."
- Making sure that the driver lets them out near a freeway or intersection so they will have a good chance of finding another ride.
- Pressing the "Pedestrian Walk" button at an intersection so the cars or trucks will stop and be able to get "a good look at us."
Duffy said he always hitchhike back and forth from his home in Las Vegas and usually takes route 66 through Kingman, Ariz.
It was in Kingman, Duffy said,
that he started his longest ride so far-1,400 miles straight through to Lawrence, Kan.
DUFFY SAID many of the people who give him rides are fairly wealthy and many say they have never picked up a hitch-hiker before.
Duffy added that he has been picked up at that same spot four times and each ride has taken him at least 1,000 miles. He said he thought the reason for such long rides is that there are few towns to break up the mileage.
He said he rode with one man on his Pensacola trip who said he
owned a number of apartment buildings in Hollywood. One of his tenants, he said, was Debbie Reynolds. The man told Duffy and Mays that he would get them jobs for the summer if they decided to come to California.
Duffy said he also occasionally keeps in touch with people he has ridden with. For instance, he has exchanged Christmas cards for the past two years with a Negro family who drove him to Lawrence from Salt Lake City.
When asked what the majority of people who give him rides are like, he said about "75 per cent of the people have been hitchhikers themselves" when they were in college or as soldiers, during World War II.
"THE PEOPLE we ride with are
mostly people who have gone to college and want to know what is going on in the colleges now," he commented.
"I sound like a tape recorder the first 30 minutes of the ride, answering the same kind of questions—where are you from, what's school like," Duffy added.
Duffy noted that he has actually ridden with only about 15 people since his rides have generally been long ones. He said only about five of these rides have been of the unusual such as the convicts or the convertible speeder.
"YOU MEET some sharp people and often you learn about the local history or what is going on in the area you are passing through." Duffy stated.
THE SHANTY "HAPPY HOUR"
Every Wednesday — 7-8 p.m.
Every Friday — 3-4 p.m.
All Brew — Half Price
Pitcher 50c
Enjoy The Folk Music Too.
How much longer can we hand you this line?
Forever. we hope.
Because nobody ever intends to change the Volkswagen's shape.
The only reason the Volkswagen is ever changed is to make it work even better.
The money that isn't spent on outside changes is spent inside the car.
This system provides an immense advantage: Time. Years of it.
(Which is why it's so easy to get VW parts, and why our mechanics don't wake up screaming.)
There's time to improve parts and still keep most of them interchangeable.
There's time to put an immense amount of hand work into each VW, and to finish
each one like a $6,000 machine.
And this system has also kept the price of the Volkswagen almost the same over the years.
Some cars keep changing and stay the same.
Volkswagens stay the same and keep changing.
"Lawrence's Only Authorized Dealer"
CONZELMAN MOTORS
SALES — SERVICE — PARTS
- European Deliveries Available
- 2523 Iowa
(Hwy.59 South)
2522 Iowa
Lawrence
AUTHORIZED
DEALER
VI 3-2200