Friends and too many cars and bad drivers

There has never been a summer as bad as this since I moved here in ’71 for accidents on Route 6. We have had more fatalities this summer than I ever remember. Each time they wait for the accident reconstruction guys to arrive and then they run their little wheels and chalk around for at least two more hours. At some points on Route 6 there is an alternate route if you can get to it, but between the Drive in and B & B Boulangerie, there is no alternate route so people just sit there – it has been up to SIX HOURS this summer. There are too many cars, too many people and too much distraction. People do not think of driving as an activity that requires full or even much attention. instead it’s like listening to music. It’s there, you are conscious of it but you may be texting, talking, combing your hair, fiddling with the radio or the CD player, drinking coffee or eating a sandwich or putting on make-up. I have seen many people doing each of these activities while barreling down the highway. Summer people also often have discontented screaming kids in the back seat. They are looking for a place to do SOMETHING. They see a souvenir shop or a restaurant that looks likely. They’re in the right lane but it’s on the left side of the highway, so they try to cut across traffic to get there. Or they’re in the left lane and see something on the right. A friend was hit on his bike last week when a young woman in aBMW pulled out of a motel talking on her cell onto the highway without looking and she hit him. Tuesday Woody had two friends of ours Jeff Jones and Eleanor Stein on his program talking about Central America, where they volunteer in a very poor section. Afterwards they came over for tea and cookies. My dear friend of many many decades Kathy Boudin came with them to our house. At 5:20 we all left for Moby Dick’s, taking two bottles of cold white wine. We had given them all out tomatoes. But the parking lot was full, the line was out the door and on and on and a herd of cars were sitting at the entrance to the parking lot, hoping somebody would pull out. We gave up and they followed us south on Route 6, planning to go to another restaurant. First traffic was stopped for a memorial going on for a woman taxi driver and waitress so many people knew and loved, who had been killed that morning. Once we edged by that, we went about half a mile and then hit stalled traffic. We sat there, occasionally edging forward a few feet. We were talking car to car. Eleanor said if we could get a tenth of a mile further, we should pull off and they’d guide us to their rental. they’d make pasta with the tomatoes we’d given them and they’d see what else they could throw together, rather than sitting on route 6 for the next who knows how many hours. So that’s what we did, and it was fine. You can’t imagine how we all look forward to the Day After Labor Day, a local holiday. I gave a reading to an overflow crowd at the Wellfleet Public Library Wednesday night, two of the short stories from my new book THE COST OF LUNCH, ETC. and six new poems including one I wrote last week. It was hard to stand that long and I was very sore that night and the next day, but it was a good experience. Every time I can do something I used to do and carry it off, I am very pleased with myself.