THUMB OUT - 1970s Hitchhiking Memoir
Volume One Of “The Spaces Between” Memoir Series
“A masterwork of American road literature that captures a specific moment (summer 1973) and makes it eternal. Saint Phalle’s prose is deceptively simple—clear sentences, vivid details, dialogue that breathes. But beneath that clarity runs a current of poetry.”
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For Charlie and Anni
That moment -
you both walking toward me
coming up Oregon Road
backlit in the dying light
holding hands
You’ve both been in my heart
since mama brought you home
You still are
Epigram
(Author readings are embedded at the top of each chapter)
Every young man tells himself a story about who he’s going to become.
My dreams were blocked.
Every resource denied.
All that was left was the side of an American highway.
Thumb out.
Scared shitless.
But I felt a growing confidence that if I just put one foot in front of the other and walked out that door, I would make it.
I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
ACT ONE: BEFORE THUMB OUT
The Band That Never Played Out
ACT TWO: SURFING THE INTERSTATES
Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso
ACT THREE: AFTER THUMB OUT
“Raw, unflinching 1970s hitchhiking memoir blending family trauma, Vietnam-era tension, Grateful Dead mysticism, and vivid road encounters. Strong voice, evocative prose, no filler—reads like Kerouac raised on acid and Allman Brothers.”
