The Eventual Left
I am my father’s son.
“Always with the left turn signal on, from when they left the house that morning. That’s a legal turn in Florida. It’s known as an ‘eventual left.’” — Jerry Seinfeld, commenting on the driving habits of old people.
I’m not sure I can pinpoint the exact moment I became aware of my dad’s turn signal sins, but if I had to guess, I’d say my mom made me aware of them at a pretty young age. She was always very good at pointing out flaws like that. We’d be driving down the highway, minding our own business, and then he’d flick his turn signal on before changing lanes, he’d change lanes, and then click, click, click, click, click, click, click…
At some point my mom would call him on it and we’d all have a good laugh. The driver of the car behind us notwithstanding.
One summer I spent a considerable amount of time traveling Missouri with dad as he made service calls for his office equipment business. I was a teenager full of angst, just looking for excuses to be embarrassed by my parents. It was on these trips that I became acutely aware his turn signal sins. With each occasion that he would turn it on, then forget to flick it back to the off position, I noticed. Oh, I noticed. Sometimes I would say something to him, which now that I think of it, coming from a 15 year old kid, my pointing out his signal sin was probably more annoying than the turn signal’s clicking sound. Other times, I’d let it be. Allowing him to slowly drive me mad with that incessant clicking.
He didn’t always forget, but it sure seemed like it.
20 Plus Years Later…
As I write this, I’m around the age my dad was when I was noticing his failure to turn that signal off.
When I drive, I’m typically listening to music and just enjoying the time spent getting wherever it is I am going. I especially like to think when I drive alone. That means I’m focused on the road, but I’m zoning out too, and thinking about things I need to do, things I need to work on, or whatever comes to my mind at the time. For me, the long commute home can be a good opportunity to do a little self reflection.
You probably see what I’m doing here. I’m making excuses for becoming just like my dad.
I’m not sure when I first noticed it was happening, but at some point in the last year or so, I’ve noticed I forget to flick the turn signal off much more often than I used to. I don’t have an annoying teenager to call me on it (thankfully), but my wife does sometimes.
It’s funny how time can change your perspective on some of the smaller things in life. When I was younger, it annoyed me to no end to hear that persistent clicking. Now that I’m older, if I don’t flick the turn signal back immediately after changing lanes, I may not hear it or see it for quite some time. Too often I’m just cruising along happily going click, click, click, click, click, click…
Of course, now that the shoe is on the other foot, I’m just chalking it up to age, listening to music, thinking about life, and any other thing that seems to be a good, reasonable excuse. The eventual left should probably be a legal turn everywhere. After all, we’re all getting older and will need a good excuse when it starts to happen. “It’s not annoying, son! It’s legal in all fifty states!”
Actually, moving to Florida so I can say I’m making a left turn — eventually — is starting to sound like a pretty good idea.
“Sorry, Officer, but I signaled for that in 1979.” — Jerry Seinfeld
