Vendor Writing

Road Rage is Real

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Picture this in your mind's eye:

It’s Thursday afternoon April 13, 2023, rush hour traffic between 4-5 p.m.

A young man in a red Jeep Renegade with a black top is attempting to exit to a local strip mall. He signals to a young man in an older model long body Lincoln Towncar that he needs to get out so could be please move back. Rather than comply with the man’s initial polite request, the man in the Lincoln sped up further blocking the entrance/exit to the strip mall. (A police officer once stopped me and told me it’s illegal to block entrances/exits that way. Now I ALWAYS ask if I can cross BEFORE I actually attempt to.)

What happened next shouldn’t surprise me, you see it almost every day on the news. Still, it was unnerving-especially for my friend/customer Belle who was an eyewitness to these events.

Seeing the man in the Jeep get out of his vehicle she said her voice now trembling she said: ‘Oh my God! He’s got a gun! (Going further she said it looked like a .45 saying her son has one similar.)

As I started to turn to see for myself, she put her hand visibly shaking on my shoulder and said: ‘don’t look.’ She later explained that she was afraid he would just start randomly shooting people including us.

Next, he proceeded to bang the gun several times on the passenger window/door of the Lincoln yelling: ‘On my momma, ‘I’ll spray this whole m *****r f*****g car up if you don’t move it right now!’

By now, traffic was backed up, and had the Lincoln blocked in.

Onlookers seeing/hearing what was happening began backing up allowing the Lincoln to let the Jeep out. Whew! That was a close one!

Dick (the young man in the Lincoln) did return on April 22, 2023. He asked Belle and I if we'd seen what happened. What stood out about that visit was that he was now wearing a bulletproof vest! How sad! (Although if that guy had opened fire on him in that car I doubt it would’ve done him much good!)

I asked if he had filed a police report about the incident, he said no, he just wanted to get home after that.

Another thought crossed my mind though: Could it be that he realized he was in the wrong, blocking the entrance/exit to the strip mall?

As for the young man in the Jeep. Were you REALLY willing to shoot someone over something SO minor, possibly costing you your freedom?

Why not just use the other entrance/exit to the strip mall (there are two)?

Bottom Line: Many road rage incidents such as this one can be avoided/resolved by simply being courteous to other drivers.

However, if YOU find yourself in a road rage incident there are a few steps you can take to deescalate the situation:

1. Move to the right and decrease your speed.

2. Apologetically wave and nod at the driver.

3. Avoid eye contact and drive defensively.

4. Temper your own reactions. (*Drivers Ed.com)

Finally, if you’re ever a victim of Road Rage PLEASE report it to authorities, otherwise what’s to prevent the offender from doing it to someone else?

Since this incident occurred I try to acknowledge courteous drivers who help others out when needed, backing up letting others in/out of the strip mall, etc.

I’m also hypervigilant particularly when it comes to Red Jeep Renegades (not kidding)!

Why We Need Automatic Doors at Stores

BY WILLIAM B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

There's a store in my neighborhood without an automatic door. Once, I went there on my smaller scooter and getting in wasn't a problem because a lot of customers were going in they held the door open for me. But the employees there don’t have anyone at the door helping disabled people to get in and out.

The second time I shopped at this store, I went in on my bigger chair and coming out my scooter pulled the door off its hinges at the bottom. I was mad at me about it, but I was also mad at them for not holding the door open.

The next week, I went in with my little scooter and they told me I wasn’t allowed in. That I was barred. I went ahead and did my shopping and they called the law on me. Three officers came in and told me I had to leave and told me I couldn’t come back. I think that is very, very wrong because not only am I disabled, but I am handicapped. I have a history of falling down. I’m going to talk to my doctor to get a paper I can carry around with me to prove my disability. It would be helpful on the bus too. I got in touch with the MTA operator and they worked it out for me.

Some people treat me so bad when they see my chair. To be treated that way when I’m out here trying to make a living hurts. I’ll be clean 16 years next month and I’ve come a long way and people like this are keeping me down.

I was really hurt and disappointed and I was mad because they didn’t tell me they were gonna call the law. At a very young age I was abused by an attendant at the juvenile hall I was in and put me in the hole and it was dark and they would play the radio real loud. At a very young age I had no idea why I was treated so bad.

They told me they didn’t have to have automatic doors. But I think they should have them. I haven’t seen them bar anyone else. I think she’s pinpointing me out for a reason, but I don’t know why. My goal is to try to get these stores to put in automatic doors because I’m not the only disabled person who has this problem probably. Some stores don’t even have a ramp. I’ve also got a problem with the 8th Ave. streets. They block off a lot of the sidewalks there and I have to literally get into the street to get around to the bus. I took this to the mayor’s office and talked to one of the mayor’s assistants myself and they haven’t done anything about it.

Fantasies about riding in a Roberts & Dybdahl 4070 red semi - Late 70’s

BY LESLIE S., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Early to mid late '70s my dad Don Schmidt was a forklift driver who also unloaded boxcars of wholesale lumber. Robert and Dybdahl was a wholesale lumber yard in the '70s. And my dad worked there as a foreman laborer. He loaded and unloaded all the semi tractor-trailers. He worked full time six days a week.

Obviously my dad had several connections with the semi drivers. I rode in both Roberts and Dybdahl semis: twice in the red 4070 Big Jake and once in the Roberts and Dybdahl nightowl green with dark and light green trim tractor.

My first and favorite trip was with the Roberts and Dybdahl 4070 Big Jake in the mid 70s on a day off I had from school. It was 5:306:15 a.m. when Don Kephart drove in front of my dad and mom's house. I rapidly ran up to his beautiful 4070 Big Jake International Cabover. We got back to Waterloo Iowa about 5:57 p.m. That afternoon we went all the way to Southern Illinois.

I really, really hate to tell you Don Kephart eventually started falling asleep at the wheel and had to retire from his driving semi career too early. In fact I’ll write another article about Don Kephart's untimely demise in the future.