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Driving Backwards

In: English and Literature

Submitted By ciuciukas
Words 708
Pages 3
Driving Backwards in a neighborhood

For my violation of the folkway I choose to drive backwards in my neighborhood. This past Sunday I decided to violate this folkway, the face reactions I received were quite humorous. Some ignored which was pretty acceptable on account of mid-terms, but the majority stared followed by questioning and maybe laughter. Understanding my violation how could you blame them, driving backwards in a neighborhood is not only a driving folkway it is also dangerous to myself as well as my fellow neighbors. As childern we grew up learning to speak a certain language or dress a certain way. When natural motor skills come in to play such as walking and running heading in the forward motion is a judgment of what ought to be. I got in a car and pressed my foot on the brake, put the car in reverse and went flying backwards. As I was driving in reverse I simultaneously looked over my shoulder to see where I was going, not doing so may have caused me to trip over a curb with the ending result not being very positive. I soon realized that screaming "woah" would not make the car stop I kept going. I was driving fowards and backwards and I passed my house twice and drove to the end of my street in that same fashion. After pulling into another neighbor’s driveway, I went back down the street in reverse and did so twice more before I realized that my next-door neighbor was standing on his porch watching me. I learned one thing from our class experiment of “breaking norms”, and that is that I have nosy neighbors. "Why are you driving like that?" my neighbor asked. I responded by saying "like what" shrugged my shoulders and kept driving again. Three fourths of the way there I heard my name being called, so I stopped to see who it was. Alicia, my friendly next door neighbor, was walking her dog, came over to me inquiring the same thing many other neighbors asked. I told her I was just going for a drive, and she asked me why I was going backwards and proceeded to tell me to stoop it, because I could get hurt or injure one of the children in the neighborhood. I continued with my experiment for about another five minutes, before some kids from the neighborhood walked by me, then started to stand and watched and I continued down the block in reverse. "Where are you driving backwards?" I simply stated "I don't know?" "Where are you going driving forwards?"- they looked at me confused, and let me continue with my drive. After a few minutes... My friendly neighbor calmly looked over at me and said, please stop doing that, kids are watching you, nobody understands your behavior. I didn’t want to star over and explain, that is just an experiment and I am fine. “Please stop, kids are watching you” , she kept repeating and repeating. What is somebody will call a police?- she continued. The reactions of my neighbors to the unusual my actions was to stare and be amused. The folkway I had broken was not considered to be a serious problem and my neighbors were good-naturedly reacting to the contraction. They will undoubtedly tell this story to other people, but the reaction was amusement, not mockery. I told them about the class experiment, and went into my house… The norm I chose to break was the idea of driving normally-the belief that cars should be driven by pushing the gas pedal and moving in a forward motion, not a reverse motion. The implement needed for this task was simply a car and my dear neighbors. Since this was a minor breakage of the norm, the reaction of the people around me was good-natured amusement. When I realized what I had done, I could have been embarrassed, but because my oversight occurred because of my concern for my neighbor, I was able to see the humor in the situation and laugh at my mistake. I think the reactions of both the onlookers and me were the best possible outcome to the breaking of a societal norm.

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