In 1959 in Berkeley I met a fellow carrying a guitar case (not unusual in Berkeley at the time) with a sheet of butcher paper taped to it that said ", please." I asked him what that was all about. He opened his case and under his guitar, he had two more sheets of butcher paper, one of which said "East" and the other said "West."

He said that when he was going to hit the road, he would tape either one or the other in front of the ", please," then stand there at the edge of the highway with either "East, please" or "West, please" facing oncoming traffic.

He said he never waited for more than about ten or fifteen minutes before someone stopped to pick him up. Crossed the continent several times that way.

Don Firth