the rix mix

Late model white mid-sized car slowly pulls over to side of St. Georges Ave in front of the Shell station/convenience store, about 10 PM. No parking, dangerous road. Passing cars honk. Driver thinks better of it, pulls slowly into parking lot & is unable to pull straight into spot. An old lady. She fiddles around in the car, slowly gets out, sees lights are still on, gets back in, gets back out, lights are still on. I walk over & ask, "Are you o.k., Mam?" She smiles & says yes & thank you for asking. She has white hair & is wearing the standard old lady uniform of loose beige slacks, white blouse & pale blue knit sweater. She looks eighty years old & fairly healthy. She leaves car lights on & walks very very slowly to the store, goes inside & slowly buys two packs of Marlboro Lights.

You wonder who those elderly people are - the ones who drive up on the sidewalk, run over ten pedestrians, kill several, & crash though the window of a bakery (As happened a few weeks ago in Wildwood, NJ), then emerge from the car unharmed claiming the gas pedal got stuck? The problem with old folks who drive badly is that the reason they're bad drivers is the same reason they don't know they're bad drivers. Most of them were good drivers before they got old. This old lady, sweet as she is, should not be driving a car, much less driving it at 10 pm on the four lane drag strip called St Georges Ave. She comes out & walks slowly toward car, which is parked at an angle. A man inside, seeing her, quickly pays for his purchase & rushes out past her to his late model van, parked next to the old lady's car, & which the old lady will surely crunch if he doesn't exit ahead of her. He makes it. The old Lady slowly backs her car up - I think she'll hit a gas pump but she doesn't - moves forward, slowly makes a right (safe) turn on to St. Georges & slowly drives away, past the historical cemetary.