Friday Firesmith – The GWT and Me

Today’s Motoring Moron is the person who was traveling down the road in a Giant Wrecker Truck. I got behind this person and the GWT outside the thriving metropolis of Quitman Georgia and realized the GWT was going about three miles an hour slower than I wanted to go. US84 is a four-lane so I kicked it up to about five miles an hour faster than the GWT waited until I was half a mile ahead of him, and then changed lanes to get in front of him.

Clearly, this sort of behavior is an affront to his manhood.

So he kicks up the speed until he catches up with me and passes me with about a car length between us, and I drop back a football field behind him and I wait. He’s going faster than I want to go now, and his manhood has been restored now that he’s in front of me again. The Order of the Universe is in balance now. But as we get into Valdosta the traffic catches him and he’s blowing his horn because the guy who is front of him lets someone pull out and I’m so over all of this. I hit Boone Dairy Road, a side road, and I go around the mess in front of me.

This pops me out back on Saint Augustine and generally speaking, this is a slower route I’ve taken. But I look back in my rearview mirror, and lo! There he is. He is now behind me. Deftly, yet without intent, I have neutered him once again. So the chase begins anew. He with his GWT and me really not caring. The next light catches us both but there are three cars between us. He’s trapped in slower traffic now, and I pull ahead, not with intent but simply because traffic dictates how fast it is safe to travel.

Somehow, without any action taken on my part, I was part of a conflict I cannot understand. I am totally without any comprehension why someone who is traveling faster than I shouldn’t pass me, and why anyone traveling slower should not allow me to pass. Somehow, the collective psyche of the American motorist has been high jacked to believe that no matter where we might be going or what speed we are traveling, it’s all some sort of mass competition with some surreal sense of satisfaction awarded as the prize for driving dangerously in the name of not letting someone pass at any time for any reason.

Explain this to me. I’m at a total loss as to why this person behaved in this manner. Why did my passing this person make him react to what I had done? Why was the fact that I took a side road and wound up in front of him drive him, no pun intended, to try to catch up with me? Is it so important that we turn each and every other motorist into some sort of enemy? Is this something we cannot control or reduce?

Explain this to me, please.

Take Care,
Mike

 

Mike writes regularly at his site:  The Hickory Head Hermit.
 
Opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the management of this site.
 

14 thoughts on “Friday Firesmith – The GWT and Me”

  1. Usually, it’s a race until you pass them, then they drop back down 10 miles an hour. I passed two vehicles on a double onramp that narrows to one. I went a little faster to get around. The second car, a truck, got pissed and flew up the inside white line no access area to block my merge. I still don’t understand what I was taking away from them that meant they had to retaliate.

  2. Easy, Mike. GWT equals Hummer equals Cigarette boat equals Ford Super Duty F450 XL Truck equals SPS. Small Penis Syndrome. You dissed his pee-pee so he had to show you up.

  3. The worst thing is when two trucks are side by side on the interstate because one can’t stand to follow but can’t get enough speed to actually pass.

  4. But you’re reading (writing) your own script onto the entropy around you.
    Try, he’s enjoying his morning tea & crumpets as you go by, when his wife, daughter of the boss, calls and tells him he’s late, there’s an important job waiting, and if he botches this one she’s taking the kids and going home to mother. After that, you and everyone else are just an impediment.

    Now I don’t disagree you can’t drive two miles on any road at any hour without seeing someone do something stupid. What scares me is not the aggressive because it’s easy to figure out what they’re trying to do and let them, but the scary are people who are clueless they did/are doing something stupid.

  5. It’s really simple. For some yet to be discovered reason the human (usually male) brain gets itself and its owner insulted over some perceived slight and decides, due to a heavy dose of testosterone (at toxic levels), to retaliate. This results in road rage. In a case I am familiar with the driver of the over-jacked up Ford truck hit and damaged a Toyota Prius and claims the Prius driver pulled out in front of them. The Prius driver and some witnesses stated the Ford driver sped up and the battle was on. The Ford driver maintains he is a good, courteous and knowledgeable driver who wouldn’t harm a flee and on Sundays he reads his bible and drinks two glasses of whole milk while doing so. Reality in this case tells a far different story and it looks like his ego was bruised somehow and he felt insulted by the Prius owner. followed him for over 15-miles trying to run the Prius owner off of the road and finally did so before the next town when the Prius slowed on entering town.

    The Sheriff’s deputy I know who investigated the wreck said the Ford p/u driver has an extensive record of speeding, following too close, failure to signal and failure to obey a stop sign. He was driving on a suspended driver’s license, so yeah, not a perfect citizen as he wants you to believe.

    • David, Okay, do you think this basically male behavior gone overboard? The worse person I ever knew to do this sort of thing was a woman. She walked with a limp because she tried to run over a pine tree. The tree is still there.

      • Mike,

        Sorry for the late reply. I do think that this is male behavior, but cannot explain why women also have these tendencies. I recall that road rage started in Seattle and was because of male drivers responding to female drivers on the road. There are road raging females and while they are not so engaged they are out there.

        Yes, it is human behavior gone overboard and I am not certain why people do this, but as a Paramedic I also say it is job security.

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