Laura Wright Every region has it’s own particular version of this tale. It has became one of the most common urban legends, globally, today. It doesn’t matter where you go or who you speak with, everyone knows of a phantom hitchhiker.
There’s an old Bluegrass song that discussed the event decades ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC2QLDNgHv8
This song is perhaps best known for the Mac Wiseman version. This song is about the infamous phantom hitchhiker. The singer picks up a girl, Mary, who is hitchhiking in the rain. He agrees to take her home. He turns to where she sits in the back seat only to find she disappeared.
He continues following the directions she gave him and arrives at an old house. He is greeted by Mary’s mother who informs him that 13 years earlier, Mary died and she has been trying to return home since then./p>
The lore surrounding a phantom hitchhiker has been reported worldwide for as long as can be recalled. If the mode of transportation was not cars, it has been wagons. For more information on this topic, here are some resources:
- Vanishing Hitchhiker@ Wikipedia
- Vanishing Hitchhiker @ Snopes
- Ghosts of the Prarie- Vanishing Hitchhikers
- The Vanishing Hitchhiker– By Jan Harold Brunvand
One cannot help but wonder, though, how the story originated? What originally spurred it on, when and where? That’s an interesting story, one about which I have read many times. Did this actually happen at some point in time or was it merely a concoction of someone’s vivid imagination? I cannot say either way, but the story does seem to have a following and has had one for some time.
What are your thoughts on this, Loverly?
Hi!
I think it is a very real phenomena, but as to what it is, I’m torn. Half of me thinks it’s a residual presence that just repeats the same act over and over, but the other half wonders when it’s intelligent and interacts with the drivers.
We have a phenomena like this, I’m hoping to do an entry on soon, regarding a place called the Rotherwood Mansion in Kingsport, TN. There is a massive concrete bridge in front of this plantation house, but the bridge is apparently more active due to a suicide from the WW I era than the house is. The girl who died is supposed to be in the center of the bridge on certain nights and causes people to nearly go off the side. It’s at least a hundred feet down, if memory serves, so I’m not sure if it’s repetitive or if it’s actually trying to run people off the road. She isn’t a hitchhiker so much as just a part of that stretch of the road. As far as I know, there’s been no real interaction between a person and the presence.
I’m sure some people could imagine seeing something, but if they’re imagining someone actually getting in their car and talking to them, that’s quite another;-) I don’t think that many people could be mentally unstable or have issues there, and see the exact same thing.
Loverly,
I have never heard about that account, the one regarding the girl on the bridge, that is. I would like to look further into it and will do so. I am curious as to the girl’s story–how she died, when . . .
>>I don’t think that many people could be mentally unstable or have issues there, and see the exact same thing.<<
That's the same point I made above; if a number of people have seen the exact same thing in the same place, there must be something to it. The same goes for this girl in Kingsport, TN; if more than one person has witnessed her on the bridge at different points in time, and these witnesses have no history of mental illness, and none have previously heard the story, then that lends credence to the girl's substantiation. That's why I place significance on numbers as far as people involved.
Hi!
I found a link to help you get started in learning more about Rotherwood:
http://johnnorrisbrown.com/paranormal-tn/rotherwood/index.htm
Thanks, Laura. I will definitely take a look at that link on Rotherwood. It sounds very interesting.
R1