I love ghost stories. Most of those are first-person accounts of paranormal activity that have come to me through the years.

There is a related body of material that I would place in the category of "legend." It's almost impossible to trace this kind of story back to a specific person or historical event. However, it is interesting to find the earliest published accounts and follow through with variations on the theme.

Such is the case of what has been termed "The Vanishing Hitchhiker," which started in a bygone age. At first, the hitchhiker jumped onto a horse with the owner and later disappeared. As the story evolved, she got into a buggy. And, since the second decade of the 20th century, the story has almost always involved a woman flagging down a car, riding in the backseat and disappearing somewhere along the way. At some point, the driver usually stops at an address given by the vanishing hitchhiker and learns that the woman has been dead for months or years.

Chances are excellent that even if it all started with something that was perceived to be true, it has been embellished far beyond recognition.

HITCHIN'

People have been hitching rides for hundreds of years, but the word "hitchhike" was not used in print until the automobile came into general usage in the early 1920s.

I can come up with about 10 movies with a hitchhiking theme. One is "The Hitch-Hiker" from 1953.

In literature, we're familiar with references in the writings of Jack Kerouac, Douglas Adams, John Steinbeck and others. Even the Guinness Book of World Records has hitchhiking listings.

My favorite song on the subject is Vanity Fare's 1969 hit, "Hitchin' a Ride."

On television, several shows used hitchhiking, including "Different Strokes."

My own hitchhiker stories are far less compelling, but it dawns on me that I rarely see people standing by our North Country roadways with their thumbs stuck out or with destination signs these days.

Does that mean hitchhiking is dead? Nope. It's alive and well in many parts of this nation and others. And the whole hitchhiking concept is evolving, not unlike the story about the "Vanishing Hitchhiker."

LATE-NIGHT RIDE