The Legend of the Wawa Hitchhiker:
The J.J. Talman Lecture Series
The Legend of the Wawa Hitchhiker: Youth Mobility in the Hippie Generation
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
3:30pm - 5:00pm (with reception to follow)
Location: TBA
Professor Linda Mahood
Linda Mahood is Professor of History at the University of Guelph where she specializes in the social history of Britain and Canada. She is the author of several books: The Magdalenes: Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century (1989); Policing Gender, Class and Family, Britain 1850-1940 (1996); Feminism and Voluntary Action: Eglantyne Jebb and Save the Children, 1876-1928 (2009); and, most recently, Thumbing a Ride: Hitchhiking, Hosteling, and Counterculture in Canada (2018). Since 2018, Professor Mahood has also served as Editor of the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth (Johns Hopkins).
In 1969, Pierre Trudeau’s government struck a task force to investigate why thousands of young people with backpacks, beads, and long bushy hair were hitchhiking along the Trans-Canada Highway. This talk looks at Ontario’s response to the “transient youth” movement through the lens of what a hitch and hostel holiday meant to restless teenagers and twenty-somethings. It questions adult intervention in youth culture and how hitchhiking as a rite of passage for baby-boomers turned youth travel into a pressing social issue.
About the J.J. Talman Lecture Series
The J.J. Talman Lecture Series focuses on Ontario history, Ontario regional collections and innovative uses thereof, or previously unstudied aspects of Canadian history.
Reflecting the breadth of Dr. Talman’s career at Western, as a respected historian and Chief Librarian, the lectures are organized annually by a joint committee comprised of representatives from the Department of History and Western Libraries.
The J.J. Talman Lecture Series was envisioned and is funded by Raj Jain, Librarian Emerita, and her brother, Dr. Sushil Jain, in gratitude for Dr. Talman’s many personal kindnesses, and to recognize his substantial contribution to Western.
Presented by the Department of History and Western Libraries
