On Center
by BRENDA STEWART

I’m going to take a slight detour from Center Street this week and implore you to slow down, yield sometimes – even if you don’t have to by law – and become aware of what’s going on around you. Kyle is growing so fast and we are all heightenedly aware that the roads have not yet caught up with our sheer numbers. I feel like I take my life, and my kiddos’ life as well, into my own hands every time I drive on our two-way access roads these days.

Not that long ago folks were from around here and kind of kept pace with the rurality of the area and the reality of old pickups and farm equipment coming at you head-on for a couple of seconds, and we all slowed down and made it work. Even waved.

Lately it seems we’re either contending with massive gravel trucks or hurtling SUVs driven by yakking cell phone users eating a cheeseburger, seemingly unaware of anything but the CD they are fumbling to insert. Absolutely clueless or perhaps blatantly uncivil as they barrel toward their destination.

I’ve been swerved at, honked at, tail-gated and flipped off either trying to clear a perilous lane-crossing on-ramp and misreading the 70 mph speed of the oncoming car careening blinkerless on or off the freeway, or when I’m attempting to enter or exit a freeway ramp, totally unconvinced that my fellow drivers are aware of my blinker and, therefore, my intentions, and will do everything in their power to keep from killing me.

Don’t even get me started about the traffic circles and 4-way stops. By law you are supposed to yield to your left, like clockwork. But, really, if there is a doubt, watch what’s going on, use your common sense and yield to courtesy.