Thread: For the times they are a changin'

You hardly ever see any hitch hikers around here any more, it's a sign of the times. A combination of more people being able to afford cars, the hippies settling down and selling real estate, more public transport, police enforcement and of course, more than a few lunatics going around kidnapping and murdering the unwary. Cairns and especially Kuranda used to be a hippy mecca back in the seventies and there were always hitch hikers. I often stop for them because it's nice to be able to talk to someone on the drive.
I saw a young girl in the middle of Cairns hitching today at lunch time. I pulled over as I was on my way home.
"G'day, I'm going to Kuranda"
"That's nice, the thing is, I'm a working girl and I'd like to do a job for like fifty dollars"
"Ah, no thanks"
"No problems, have a nice day"

In the few moments that I spoke to her I saw an attractive young girl who should have been looking forward to all that life offers. I also saw the needle tracks inside her left arm.

As I drove off I saw her in my rear view mirror approaching another car. So sad, what a waste of a life. Now I'm not naive, I grew up in Sydney and lived with my girl friend in Rose Bay and we used to hang out in and travel through Darlinghurst and the Cross, so I've seen plenty of empty eyed junkies sliding into oblivion. I know that there's plenty of junkies in Cairns and that prostitution can be found everywhere. I guess I wasn't ready to be confronted with these realities in sunny downtown Cairns, amongst the lunch time office workers, the tourist throngs and the locals heading to Rusty's markets. But on a glorious sunny winter's day in Cairns these realities can be forgotten.

Mick - saddened by the waste.