By Rosie Preston
Do you obey traffic laws? Are you so impatient that you speed or drive too close to the vehicle in front of you? Do you race to drive through a yellow traffic light? Do you pass on double yellow lines?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any one of the above questions, you could be considered a driving bully, and I encounter you and your ilk every time I drive around our city.
Do want to hurt people with a vehicle that is as dangerous as pointing a loaded gun at them? You are driving a vehicle that weighs hundreds of pounds or more and in addition forget to respect the passengers around you.
For your sake, your family’s sake and you fellow motorists’ sake, please drive safely while obeying all traffic laws. Talk to your family about how to drive defensively and not aggressively. Explain how they can save other’s lives, and perhaps their own.
After many years of having it mechanically and cosmetically repaired, my little red VW Rabbit Cabriolet has cost me approximately over $15, 000. I realize that I could never get my money back if I decided to sell it. However, the motor and transmission are the originals and it still drives well. I guess that I’m a little senior citizen who has a little muscle car!
This last year, I replaced a white top for a black convertible top. To my surprise, the guys took my seats out and cleansed them and replaced my carpet and repaired several smaller items. The cost to work on this little car has cost a small fortune and has taken years to restore it. When other drivers think that they can rear -end me or blow me off the road, tehy are sadly mistaken.
I know a bully when I see one, and nd I witness reckless driving every day.
It is impossible for me to call some wrecks an ‘accident,’ like a driver intentionally drives so close to me that I can almost see the color of his eyes. I imagine them to be flaming red, and their horns are not always visible to me and especially not to them. If people driving could only see themselves and realize their car is not just a car.
I’ve heard it said so many times” “Look at how slow or how fast they are driving; did you that it run that red traffic light?”
It’s not the car, it is the person who is driving the car.
Driving could be compared to how you operate a store buggy when you are shopping. You put your buggy in front of you and begin to run down the supermarket aisle. You do not consider that the buggy you are about to run over is being driven by a real live person. The buggy can’t be blamed for not having horse sense. There are at least 65,000 people killed or permanently disabled in vehicular wrecks each year.
A few years ago, started a campaign to bring it to people’s attention to ARRIVE ALIVE! I wanted to have car stickers and business cards to give out and maybe get some newspapers and radio stations to join in for the cause to save lives. Since I was five years old, my family has lost seven members to car accidents.
I grew up on the corner of Harts Avenue and Noccalula Road, which quickly turns a long curve into an oily surface when it starts to rain. I’ve seen drivers hit a rock wall or another vehicle or sail off the road into a deep ravine, often rolling over. I‘ve witnessed several people dying or being seriously injured in wrecks at that location since I was in the third grade. My family would say to each other when it was raining, “Be ready to call 911!”
I love to drive and would sit in my dad’s lap as we drove to Birmingham to visit our family when I was a little girl. Of course, daddy would allow me to think I was racing because I was too young to know he was kidding me.
We did not have seat belts or air bags until years after that. We also did not have the amount of law enforcement agencies that we have today that hopefully stop and ticket many bad drivers. We certainly never will have enough to stop the ones who speed.
It would take every penny our cities have to support this policy, so it has to be a personal decision.
Keep smiling, Rosie
P.S. Many years ago, our house was taking over by uninvited guest, also known as roaches. I had never used a business company to spray because I could not afford one. Being the professional penny pincher that I was, I looked up do-you-own ways to kill roaches, ants and rodents and I found several homemade remedies. Here is one that I used: mix one cup flour, one cup sugar and one cup baking soda in a bowl. Put mixture into small containers and put on lids small enough to fit under a refrigerator, stove or in any place where children would not play with it.
The concoction is safe for animals and children but hide it so the kids can’t play with it. The sugar attracts the unwanted visitors, the flour holds it all together and the baking soda causes the roaches to be filled with the gas from the soda, which causes swelling in their digestive system, which causes them to die.
Good luck and let me know if it worked for you!
Keep smiling, Rosie
Contact Rosie Preston at rosie.preston@yahoo.com.