You Paid For That Stick on Your Steering Wheel

Here's a post that I have been wanting to write for a long time. One question first:

When you get behind the wheel of your car, there is a stick on the left side of your steering wheel. You can push it up or down. It makes a clicking sound. Do you know what it does?

A show of hands. Yes, you in the back. What? No, it doesn't click to the beat of the music on your car radio. OK, let me help. It sends a signal (pun intended) to the back, front and right there on the dashboard of your car. If you push it down, this signal tells one of the lights on the back drivers side of your car, one light on the front drivers side, and another right there on your dash, yes, again on the drivers side, to go on and off, on and off, on and off, until you turn in that direction. If you push it up, everything I just told you happens, but on the passenger side of the car.

Do you know what that is used for? I'll tell you! Let me tell you! It lets people know where you are turning, or what lane you are intending on moving into. Now, before you start saying, "It's nobody's business where I'm going," actually, it kind of is their business.

Do you know why another motorist might want to know which way you're turning? It's truly not because they're nosy. I don't really think the guy driving next to you or the woman two car lengths behind you really care where you're going. They most likely don't even know you. I know I don't mean to be intrusive, especially when I'm driving. When I'm in the car, I'm pretty much concentrating on getting to where I'm going. Maybe even sometimes thinking about how I can beat the arrival time on my GPS. But, I can honestly say that I don't really give a thought to where anyone else is going.

It's not that I don't care. Wait, actually, that's exactly what it is. I really don't care where anyone else is going. I really just care about getting to where I'm going.

The reason I might want to know which way you're going is because it gives me, the person in the lane next to you, a clue that you're about to cut me off. Or, that I may need to slow down because you just got an insane craving for a donut, and need to turn into that coffee shop up ahead on the right. I honestly don't want to be in your trunk. That would probably put me in a bad mood.

Getting back to that clicking stick. The one that makes those lights blink in your car, guess what? You paid for it. Whether you wanted it or not. It's not an option, and it wasn't free. You. Paid. For. It. Why wouldn't you use it?

So, as a fellow motorist, I ask you, can you please use it? Tell your friends to use it. Tell your parents, your kids, your boss. Let's all be blinking, light-up, crazy, directional using maniacs.

After all, you paid for that stick!

Listen to Linda G weekdays from 3-7pm on 105.5 FM, online at kicks1055.com/listen-live/ or by downloading the radioPup app for your mobile device.