Ruminations on Coothood

When we moved to Georgia in 1970 (expecting to stay for two years), as a family we observed what seemed to be a Georgia phenomenon.  Wt least twice a week we would get stuck (on two lane roads) behind an older car or  pick-up going just about ten miles slower than the speed limit.  When we finally found a place where we could pass the car ahead, we could see that it was usually being driven by an elderly man, usually wearing a wide brimmed (frequently straw) hat. 

It became a running joke, seeing a car slowly progressing to somewhere, and one of the kids would say, (loudly), “Don’t get behind the old man with a hat>”

Yesterday, as I was driving us to our daily water aerobics session, I pulled out of our subdivision making a right turn and progressing in a westerly direction when a car zoomed up behind us at what seemed to be an extreme rate of speed (the limit on Burkhalter road at that point is 45 miles an hour. )  I sped up a little bit to encourage the guy not to rear end me, and went on down the road to the four way stop.  I turned right, and went on down the road about half a mile when I noticed that I had four cars lined up behind me.  One of them passed me going over a solid no passing line, and I sped up just a bit to discourage those others from endangering their lives and mine, when Janet turned to me and said softly “Don’t you have a wide brimmed Panama hat that you should wear in the mornings? “

It took a minute for this to sink in, but I moved a little faster for the rest of the way to the swim pool.  We both chuckled a bit, without discussing the topic at all.