I was recently crossing the street in a certain down-Island town at one of those
crosswalks that is marked with a little plastic sandwich board that reads something like “STATE LAW, yield for pedestrians.” You already know what is coming: a car paid zero attention to me or the other pedestrian and rolled right on through. So what else is new? The thing is, this time it was a police cruiser from the same certain down-Island town. The pickup truck behind the cruiser stopped to let us cross, and the driver, perhaps seeing me theatrically shrugging and pointing at the “STATE LAW, yield for pedestrians” sign, put his hands palm up and smiled.
It was no doubt a one-off oversight by the driver of the squad car, though I’d seen the same thing happen not long before at another well-marked crosswalk in the same town. That time I was the guy in the pickup truck behind the police cruiser and it was someone else on the sidewalk who theatrically put his palms up and pointed quizzically at the sign that read “STATE LAW....”
So it was a two-off.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t for a second think there is a cabal of “bad cops” in a certain down-Island town who are conspiring to ignore pedestrians; rogue Island detectives who in retribution for this investigative column are quite capable of planting false evidence of me ignoring crosswalks or even performing rolling stops. Normally, I’m the type of guy who waves gratefully at the officers who are directing traffic around the trucks that are eviscerating the trees alongside the road. Had the police car in question stopped to let me cross, I’m fairly certain I would have waved to him or her with all due courtesy and respect.
No, the coincidental irony of “the law” driving right past the signs advertising the law of the Commonwealth was merely an early reminder that summer is coming, bringing with it that joyful quintupling of people and cars to fill all the Island’s homes, hotel rooms, parking spaces, and restaurant seats. Summer is coming, bringing the tribe of those who know they are on their way to somewhere too important, such as the beach, to stop to let the other fellow cross. Or who worry that while they are in sunnier southern climes the year-round people might take excessive pleasure out of using an off-season-only trail across the public land that abuts their property.
It’s not just the seasonal people. The warm air brings out plenty of unpleasant indignation among those of us who over the winter have grown used to less-crowded streets and sidewalks and somehow think we could survive without the summer
economy. Summer is coming, and we would be wise to start stockpiling courtesy,
humility, and patience. Up-Island and down, on both sides of the thin yellow sign. – John Doe
(Guest Columnist for Paul Schneider)
