Everyone hates road works. They clog up the street making your journey take longer and making you arrive even later at your destination – usually work which you were late for anyway. Other road users get equally annoyed and behave in irrational and impatient ways.So imagine my surprise to find the stop/go man on Tory Street is now my newest favourite thing (if a person can be a thing, but that’s far too existentialist for this time in the morning). The adjacent car park and apartment building is covered in scaffolding and builders are crawling all over it like construction rats, hurling slabs of materials into waiting skips below.
The man in the middle of the road orchestrates the passing cars, trucks, and cyclists with a cheery wave and a few bizarre dance moves. All he needs is a pair of white gloves and he could be a French traffic cop. Or a Michael Jackson impersonator. It’s satisfying to watch people drive by with a smile and a laugh to start their day.
I wonder if this task is shared among the road crew or whether it is his specific designated duty. I was once told in the States that there are diplomas for this sort of thing, and I laughed; I assumed we were playing our much-loved game of ‘let’s smugly mock our American cousins’, but now with the way the world is, I’m not so sure.
Anyway, if there is such a qualification for this particular vocation, I would like to recommend that this chap gets a scholarship.
Incidentally, when looking up ‘stop/go man’ on the Internet, I came across this blog from a bloke in Bermuda, so it’s proof (if you can call a random sample of two, ‘proof’) that people around the world are interested in the phenomenon.
2 comments:
Growing up in a family with five kids in the 70's/80's, we used to do a lot of camping road trip holidays. We encountered these fine fellows everywhere and named them "stickmitologists", after the stop/go science of traffic movement known as "stickmitology". I prefer an older, more mature stickmitologist to be in charge of my traffic movement. The younger ones are usually less expressive. I never fail to give one a wave or nod as I pass by, and always enjoy the chance to stop driving for a few seconds when their red-side is aimed my way (the red also has me reminiscing of LFC's heyday with the likes of Dalgleish, Souness, Rush, Hansen, Nicol and, of course, that trail blazing Aussie - Craig Johnston).
Stickmitologist - what a fantastic word!
And what a great thing to reminisce about when the sign turns to red. I like the way you think!
Post a Comment