The Blizzard of '78

I was hitchhiking home to Dayton From my Columbus college dorm It was an early winter’s morning I layered my clothes to stay warm I stood on the ramp to the highway Watching early commuters pass me by I tried to look innocent and harmless As the drivers avoided my pleading eye About a hundred yards up ahead The car pulled over to the side When I saw the backup lights come on I knew I finally had my first ride She was only about thirty or so But to a college kid that’s old The red circles that surrounded her eyes Of a crying story they told She looked too scared to be doing this I was too cold not to accept So I threw my pack in the back seat door And into the front I slowly crept She said, “Where are you going to And why are you out here with your thumb Hitchhiking is oh so dangerous Especially for a boy who is so young” I said, “I’m going all the way to Dayton And, I think I’ll be just fine I do this fairly often To pick me up you are so kind” She headed west down I-70 Without saying how far she’d go Outside it was getting blustery And the skies started to snow As we were coming up to Springfield The roads were getting rough It was approaching blizzard conditions And the driving was getting tough I watched tears escape down each of her cheeks As silently we crept along The radio had never been turned on And the wind was our only song She sobbed, “I was hoping to get you home alright But I think that we must stop I am going to get off of this exit Maybe with another driver you can hop” We pulled into a Restaurant Where she offered to buy me lunch I thought she needed to tell her story Or at least that was my hunch I heard a story full of loneliness A story of torment and abuse A story of a wife who was running away Picking up a hitchhiker was a good excuse The blizzard continued to get worse The roads were now shut down We got a room in the hotel across the street On the outskirts of the town I won’t say what happened that evening But I hitchhiked back to Columbus when the storm did break I never did quite make it home that week During the Blizzard of ‘78