When I was a kid, our first genealogy vacation was to eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania in search of our Dilley ancestors. We found them too, while “Cemetery Hunting,” but that’s another post!
On this trip, we encountered an interesting little driving phenomenon that people in Pennsylvania called the traffic circle. Flabbergasting! Instead of a stop sign or a traffic light, the intersection was arranged in a circle, and drivers had to drive around it to the right to find the road they needed.
Since I was all of 10 years old when we discovered traffic circles, I didn’t really understand how they worked. The problem was, neither did my dad. And he was driving!
I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in the outer suburbs. Back in the ’70s, all the intersections had stop signs or traffic lights (stop and go lights if you’re from Wisconsin, eh). They weren’t fancy and no one had heard of a roundabout or traffic circle. Keep in mind this was an urban area. My dad, on the other hand, grew up in rural Wisconsin where even stop signs were sometimes optional.
Our First Double Lane Traffic Circle
So, when Dad was blindsided by his first traffic circle while driving a 1970-something Plymouth pulling a bulky Sears tent camper… he didn’t know how to handle it. Luckily, it didn’t take him long to catch on to single-lane traffic circles. Keep turning right until you get to the road you want. Easy enough! When we got to one town, however, the traffic circle was a double-laner. Uh oh. We were in the left lane. Time froze and we all broke into a cold sweat.
My dad often used colorful language when he was trying to do something that just wasn’t going his way. This was no exception. We drove around… and around… and around again as he tried to figure out where to turn and how to get from the left lane to the right lane in fairly heavy traffic while pulling a tent camper. My mom tried to help, but it was no use. Dad was just too discombobulated, as I like to put it.
“Where’s our turn?!”
“There’s someone blocking my way. I can’t see to get over!”
“Oh *&%*&!!!”
My brother and I thought this was enormously funny. We tried not to laugh as my dad, well, expressed his frustration. It felt like we were on a merry-go-round!
He finally got us over to the right lane and off on the road we needed. I don’t know what the other drivers on the road thought. They probably saw the Wisconsin license plate and collectively rolled their eyes. He didn’t say anything, but I could sense how embarrassed my dad felt.
Dad’s Grudge Toward Traffic Circles
After our encounter with the double-laner, Dad was ready to take on more traffic circles. He was out for revenge. But, you could still see him cringe every time another was coming. It became something of a family joke, but I don’t think he screwed up another one. The next time we came to a dreaded double-laner he took a deep breath and navigated it perfectly! He was so proud, you might have thought he won the Indy 500.
Later, once home from our vacation and laughing about the traffic circle fiasco, my mom confessed she had stopped wondering where we learned all those bad words. It sure wasn’t at school!
These days the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has decided that roundabouts, a close cousin of the traffic circle, are the way to go. Now you find them all over the place. Despite that, my dad has refused to drive anywhere near them. I think, all these years later, that he’s still a little traumatized.
Image Credit:
Header Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay
Body Image by Richard Drdul, July 3, 2006, https://www.flickr.com/photos/20816835@N00/180846954.
