Let’s celebrate us older drivers
- col-dave-mast
- November 28, 2024
- 297
Did you know there is a National Older Driver Safety Awareness Week?
Normally, I would laugh this off as one of those “someone in some government position is getting paid way too much money to come up with idiotic days,” like National Wear Blue Underwear Day, Speak Like a Falcon Day or perhaps National Levitation Day.
However, with the recent realization that I am now one of the aging and elderly, I might want to revisit the sanity of National Older Driver Safety Awareness Week.
We celebrate Older Driver Safety Awareness Week in the first full week of December, from Dec. 6-10 this year, to make the roads a safe place for the older generation.
I remember back in my younger years when I would see a 55 mph sign and fly by it, thinking to myself, “Someday in the far away future, another lifetime perhaps, the speed limit and my age will be identical, but not today, and not any day soon.”
Well shame on me because that day came and went in a heartbeat, and now at 61 years of age, I’m lucky to even recognize a speed limit sign without my spectacles while driving, let alone read what it says.
So it is with regret and respect that I think maybe it’s time to take this holiday with the amount of seriousness it deserves.
But then again, when they say older drivers, do they mean people nearing 90? Perhaps 80?
I’d like to think that is the age this day is targeting, but if my senses are correct and it is aimed at senior citizens — of which I now am or am not, depending on whether you place the beginning of that age bracket at 60 or 65 — I think I might fall into the participants on the receiving end of this special national holiday.
Yikes, when did I get so old?
I tell myself “I don’t feel old,” but then I stand up from my desk or crawl out of bed and it sounds like a choir of skeletons is warming up to sing the Mennonite National Anthem (that’s 606 in your red hymnal, by the way).
Thus, this special holiday may be just for me.
So the next time you’re flying down the highways and byways, sliding around tight corners, high-flying over hills like the Dukes of Hazard — did I really just make a Dukes of Hazzard reference? I am old! — or making a beeline home to beat curfew because you’ve stayed too long at your girlfriend’s house — all things I’ve managed to pull off in my days of youthfulness so many decades ago — think about those of us who are now poking along at some incredibly slow pace, because we’re out there, and we’d appreciate it if you laid off your horn and eased back on the gas pedal.
We’re out there baby, and we are numerous — cantankerous old folk crawling around our roads like so many ancient sea turtles who grew out of our shells and found some enormous metal shell on wheels as our new home.
That’s right, we, the elderly, are out among you on the roadways.
Seriously though, the elderly may experience several challenges such as weak eyesight, hearing issues, dementia, sleep disorders and physical disabilities that may impact their driving.
You young’uns may not like it and might hate that we’re in your way, but travel is part of life, regardless of age, so might I suggest leaving for your destination a few minutes earlier than normal and driving with care?
It also is important to note that traveling in vehicles is often necessary for the elderly, who cannot walk for long intervals or distances, so do your part in making the world a better place for us cranky old coots on the pavement and celebrate Older Driver Safety Awareness Week.
Just remember, someday you’re probably going to be among us too, should you be so fortunate, and you’ll be the ones spouting out phrases like “Back in my day we didn’t drive like maniacs” — even though, much like myself, you probably do.
I guess I am asking for patience on the roadways. Be slow to anger and quick to forgive. Be gracious in extending a modicum of respect for your elders, because behind the wheels of these slow-moving vehicles that may annoy the ever-loving mind right out of your skull are people who have given a great deal to the world, a group with incredible experience and knowledge who deserve your ultimate respect.
I preach to you now because I preach to myself, because truth be told, I drive like I’m still 21, not 61.