Jan Coffey wrote:
>
> --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Jan Coffey wrote:
> > >
> > > --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Sounds like the average Hispanic is subject to the "last
> bastard"
> > > > syndrome -- "I'm the last bastard that should have gotten in,
> > > nobody
> > > > come in after me".
> > > >
> > > > (I first heard this term on a local talk radio show, referring
> to
> > > people
> > > > coming to Austin. I didn't think *I* should be the last
> bastard,
> > > I just
> > > > thought they should have stopped coming about 2 1/2 years
> after I
> > > > married and became an official resident. ;)
> > >
> > > Why do you think people don't want more, well, people?
> > >
> > > I think it is stability, not only of culture but also financial.
> > > Isn't it the rate, not the actual influx with causes that
> > > instability? Could slowing the rate not only stabalize the
> culture,
> > > but also stabalize the economic outlook for those already there?
> >
> > Actually, in my case, it was traffic. :) Traffic started getting
> to
> > the point of unreasonableness sometime in 1994, IMO.
>
> I was there then and I agree. One very horific accident happened on
> the 35 on the lower level. A VW Rabit was driving with a semi in
> front and a semi behind all in the rigt lane. Another car cut off
> the semi in the front to get to one of the tight exits.
>
> I saw it and I will not describe what I saw.
Sounds worse than the accident I know the most about.
Of course, the one I know the most about happened around 10PM on
Thanksgiving, and there was hardly anyone on the road. Just the VW
Beetle (a 1960-something model) and the small compact that hit it from
behind at about 90MPH. (The driver of the speeding car was extremely
intoxicated, and what was really amazing was that he'd made it as far as
he had without crashing into something already.) Can't remember which
year, but it scarred the embankment in the median at the curve shortly
after the split if you're going south on 35. It was 1993 at the latest
and I could still see the scars 18 months later. (Of course, I knew
where those specific scars were....)
> > Or if everyone coming in had had the same sort of driving habits
> as the
> > people already here, that would have been fine. But we got
> examples of
> > the regional stereotypical bad driving habits of several regions,
> and
> > you didn't know what to expect on the road anymore. (With the
> > newcomers, for the first few weeks while they still had the out-of-
> state
> > plates it was OK.
>
> OK like OKlahoma? That was me in 92 - 93.
No, OK as in "all right".
I don't think I've ever been to Oklahoma, actually.
> > Once they had Texas plates, though, there was no clue
> > as to how they were going to act in traffic.)
> >
> > The other thing which has nothing to do with the "last bastard"
> syndrome
> > was that the character of pickup truck drivers changed somewhat,
> so I
> > didn't know which set of behaviors to expect from a newer pickup
> truck.
> > (People driving older ones fit into one of two behavior patterns,
> so I
> > could predict what they would do based on just a little bit of
> observed
> > behavior on the road.)
>
> You had the "we are Hicks get-out-our-way" drivers, and the good-old-
> boy "take your time, be curtious, it's a nice day for a ride"
> drivers.
Exactly, and once you'd seen them respond to *one* situation, you could
predict their behavior for the next 10 miles, if you were in traffic
with them for that long.
I've noticed, though, that people driving older pickup trucks these days
tend to be a lot more courteous than people driving newer ones, on
average, and that people driving brand-new SUVs are the worst, because
they're oblivious to just how much they block the view for other
drivers, especially in turn situations. (I've had to call Dan on that a
couple of times since we got our Suburban. I'm hoping I haven't done
anything so rude, but I'm sure I have once or twice.)
Julia
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