July 11, 2025 • 39 mins
We explore the fascinating and frustrating ways people just can't help being people, from politicians who succumb to corruption to everyday encounters with the oblivious and selfish.
• The word "people" sometimes functions as a complete sentence, perfectly encapsulating our reaction to selfish or oblivious behavior
• Politicians frequently demonstrate how access to power, influence, and money can lead to corrupt decision-making and criminal charges
• A golf outing with a drunk young player showcases frustrating disregard for etiquette, even when politely confronted
• Our digital photo habits reveal disconnection when we prioritize documenting experiences over living them
• Sports fans often cross lines of decency when alcohol and crowd dynamics embolden them to behave poorly
• Traffic merge lanes serve as perfect litmus tests for human character and consideration
• Self-awareness about our own participation in frustrating behaviors helps us understand the human condition better
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
you're tuned into another episode of tales from
the first tee.
I'm rich easton telling talesfrom beautiful charleston, south
carolina.
You know just when I'mconvinced there's nothing else
(00:31):
to say, life rears its ugly headand I shake my head in
disbelief, or maybeacknowledgement that the word
people should be a sentenceFollow my logic on this.
Most every time a politiciangets elected to office, the
access to power, influence andmoney inebriate them to make
(00:55):
selfish decisions.
So here are some examples KwameKilpatrick, serving 28 years in
prison for racketeering,bribery and extortion.
William Jefferson, serving 13years in prison for racketeering
and money laundering.
Rod Blagojevich, serving 14years in prison for attempting
(01:17):
to sell Barack Obama's Senateseat when he ran for president
and I've heard him interviewedand he said hey, everybody's
doing it.
Six former world leaders fromGuatemala, panama and Brazil
prosecuted and jailed for years,and recently former Senator Bob
(01:39):
Menendez convicted of 16 countsrelated to bribery of a foreign
agent, $100,000 in gold barsand $486,000 in cash and a
luxury Mercedes Benz.
And that's just the stuff theyfound.
So it's like every time I reada headline from any media source
(02:02):
, I have this internal voicethat murmurs the sentence people
.
You know and I'm talking aboutcelebrities and politicians, but
it doesn't have to be them.
We're pro athletes.
Every day we leave the house wecome across somebody that cuts
in front of us.
(02:22):
Somebody that cuts in front ofus, that cuts us off while
driving.
Or tastes every flavor of icecream at Jenny's before ordering
a scoop of you name it vanillachocolate, something simple.
People that bring their familyto an open beach and then, right
(02:44):
in front of you, betweenyourself and the beach park,
their 20-foot shade device andmonster speakers where they had
the entire beach to sit down andlook and see.
Okay, are we blocking anybody'sview?
But they do it because that'swho they are.
(03:04):
You ever go into a movie theater.
It's not crowded and eventhough you had to select a seat
number which, by the way, Ithink is ridiculous because
everybody violates it and thenyou get somebody who's a rulesy
person and they're gonna get andsay, excuse me, I am D10 and
D11.
And then everybody has to getup because nobody paid attention
(03:28):
to the numbers.
But you go down, you sit in themovie theater it's yourself and
your friend, and it's going tobe a quiet movie because it's
been out for a few weeks, soit's not a crowded theater.
And then, all of a sudden,right before the movie starts.
And then, all of a sudden,right before the movie starts,
somebody else comes into thetheater and do they go to the
back?
(03:48):
Do they go five aisles behindyou?
No, they sit two seats next toyou or right in front of you and
decide to get on their phonethe entire movie.
I mean, who are these people?
Now I can continue on about amillion more incidents of
(04:09):
oblivious or downright selfishbehavior, but I'd start to sound
like the get off my lawn guyinstead, so I'll just leave you
with one parting sentence thatsums it up.
People, you know I might aswell stick with this theme for
the remainder of the episode.
(04:31):
This segment is Drunk.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Gen Xer on the golf course the other pros were going
out to the driving range goingwatch this and he's hitting the
ball 75 yards past everybody andhitting the middle of the
fairway with it.
But he was so self-destructivethat he could manage it to some
point Not too long ago.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I'm playing golf with my friend, cloudy Graves, one
of the more emotive lowhandicappers, with a southern
saying for just about everything.
I've only lived in the southfor 10 years and if you don't
count Florida as a southernstate which I don't well, that's
not true.
The ones that move to Floridaand then live there for a few
(05:22):
years and move up to theCarolinas, they're Southerners.
So even though I wasn't raisedin the South, after just one
round of golf with Cloudy I'vewitnessed a lifetime of sayings
for just about any situation.
So I feel somewhat baptized.
Baptized, and what that does?
(05:50):
It prepares me.
When we're paired up with adrunk Gen Zer and his dad to
play a round of golf, the outingon the links starts off just
like most we meet we shake hands, we share our names and then we
forget about their names, aboutthe time it takes us to get to
the first green.
I'm guessing the dad had to be,let's say, nearly 70.
(06:14):
His son in his 30s.
One of my downfalls when I playwith other golfers is I study
their swings.
I could just about describeevery one of my buddies' golf
swings, but I can't describe myown.
So, as we're playing with thesetwo golfers.
(06:35):
I see the dad is struggling.
I don't think he was much of agolfer when he was younger and I
think it stayed with him hiswhole life.
His son seemed like he was veryathletic and so I asked him hey
, did you ever play baseball?
And he said well, actually Iplayed pro baseball and
(07:01):
immediately I knew it.
You could see with his swing.
First of all, his practiceswings were so fast that you
could hear the club piercingthrough the air, and when he got
hold of a drive it was theloudest crack sound and the ball
flew farther than any driveI've seen other than going to
(07:22):
PGA tournaments.
So I thought this was going tobe a fun round.
This guy is pretty good, exceptfor one thing when he took his
club back, his elbow went outjust like a baseball player.
And when you stick your elbowout and you take the club back,
it is nearly impossible to tuckthat elbow in when you swing the
(07:44):
club, which means that thetimes you do get it under, you
are going to crack that ball andyou're going to drive it 300
plus yards.
But if that elbow stays out,you might hit it 300 yards, but
you're going to meet theneighbors, which he did several
times Now.
He rode with his dad and hisdad teed off with us and maybe
(08:10):
hit the ball 150 yards.
Sometimes he dribbled it off thetee box by the time we got to
the third hole, the Gen Zer,after his dad hit the ball,
would drive his dad to his balland then proceed to go forward
(08:30):
all the way down the fairway tofind his ball.
This means that he would drivepast where Cloudy Graves and I
hit our drives and he wouldstand there and wait for us to
hit our shots and make his dadwalk all the way up to him.
Sometimes he basically let hisdad have the cart and he would
(08:55):
run down the fairway looking forhis ball.
Now I've played with Cloudy andwe've been passed by this guy
who has an electric push cart,you know, the kind that you
could direct with remote control.
And this guy passed us in themiddle of one of our holes and
(09:15):
Cloudy did the right thing.
He went up to him and told himwhat he felt about this guy
interrupting our round of golf,you know.
But the funny thing is I haveplayed with Cloudy since that
event and something's changed,like he doesn't do that anymore
Now.
Is it because he got the cutestdog in the world Cash that he
(09:37):
takes on the golf course withhim kind of settles his nerves?
I don't know the answer, butthis guy is running up ahead of
us.
I look at Cloudy no reactionand I'm like can you believe
this guy?
Now?
The problem for us is now we'vegot to hit our second shots and
(09:58):
we got to hit it to the green orwe got a position or a par five
, and Gen Z is right in front ofus.
Let's call him z for the restof this discussion.
So now z's down the fairwayahead of us.
We gotta hit shots.
It almost reminds me of thetime at one of my favorite golf
courses when they were fixingthe bunkers and they had all of
(10:22):
these workers working on thebunkers, but they didn't close
the course.
So there are bunkers and theyhad all of these workers working
on the bunkers, but they didn'tclose the course.
So there are bunkers, sometimessituated right in front of
greens, and these workers weretold to stay in the bunkers and
work while people are hittingballs.
Well, you're 100 yards out.
You're 150 yards out.
You've got to hit a ball up andover their heads and land it on
(10:46):
the green, and if you're antsyor you skull the ball, I mean
you could take somebody's life.
So that's what this reminded meof, and every shot that I hit,
with Z in front of me, I get alittle nervous.
I didn't want to hit him and itwas making me crazy, but Cloudy
didn't want to do anything.
(11:07):
It's like this new Cloudy hasemerged amongst us.
I even said to him I go, hey,cloudy, I go.
Do we want to talk?
to this guy and he's like, no,hey, listen, man, let's let you
know, live and let live.
And I'm like, hey, that's not aSouthern expression.
You know, live and let live.
And I'm like, hey, that's not aSouthern expression.
But anyway I'm like, okay.
So we get to the fourth hole, wehit our drives and then we land
(11:33):
.
It's a par five.
We land them down in thefairway and then we go to hit
our second shots.
We decide we're a little toofar back to go, 230 yards over
the water.
So we both decide to lay ourballs up in front of this lake,
protecting this green.
But when you lay your ball upand you get it a little too
(11:55):
close, you kind of go over thishill and you can't see if the
ball rolled down the hill ontothis level area, maybe even into
the pond, you can't tell untilyou drive your ball up there.
So we hit our shots and ofcourse Z is running down the
(12:15):
fairway to find his ball,because he hit his ball there as
well.
Didn't have a great drive, buthe had a monster second shot.
So he's running down there.
His dad's got the cart Cloudyand I hit our shots and now
we're driving up to find it andwe drive up to the hill.
There were no balls there.
(12:37):
Now Cloudy was pretty certainthat he hit his ball perfectly
so that it didn't go in thewater.
And he looks over at Z, who hadjust moved over to the side,
who said, oh, I guess my ballwent in the water.
And he goes hey, z, did you seea tidalist there with three red
dots?
(12:57):
And Z said, yeah, I found itright over there.
It was right before the water.
Now, for any or all of youlistening to this and know
Cloudy, you're likely thinkingat what point did Cloudy
introduce one of his wittybromizer aphorisms to influence
(13:19):
C to stop driving in front of usbefore we hit?
You might be surprised to learnthe answer was never.
And Cloudy goes well, you know,that was my shot.
And the guy goes oh, here yougo.
And he throws it to Cloudy.
I'm waiting for Cloudy to getapoplectic.
(13:43):
Cloudy puts his ball down, hitsa great shot onto the green,
misses a birdie, but, but nochange in attitude at all and
I'm like what is happening?
So we get back in the cart and Igo to cloudy.
I go hey, what's man?
I go.
Have you been going to church alot.
(14:04):
Is that what this is all about?
And Cloudy goes hey listen, man, he goes.
When I'm in church, he goes,everything is great.
But the minute I get in theparking lot after church, I have
got to control myself untilnext Sunday.
So I'm like, okay, this guy'sworking on himself, but Z is
(14:27):
still bothering me and I justdon't want to see this guy work
on both my and Cloudy'simpatience.
So I go to Cloudy, I'm going totalk to this guy when we get to
the fifth tee box.
So we get to the fifth tee box,I don't want to embarrass him,
I don't want to make him feelbad, and I'm like, hey, z, you
(14:49):
got a second.
I pull him aside.
And this is kind of how theconversation went.
I said, hey Z, I'm reallynervous he goes.
Man, what's your and Z isdrinking, drinking, you could
smell he must have had fivebeers between the first hole and
the fifth, d bucks and he'slike man, what are you worried
(15:11):
about?
and I go hey, listen, I'm reallynervous.
I go, you have these monsterdrives and you hit that ball so
far that I know you're anxiousto go see where that ball is.
You want to hit it again.
And I said but when you do that, you're now between us and our
(15:32):
approach shots.
And what makes me nervous is ifI hit a bad shot and it hits
you, I am going to feel horriblethe rest of my life.
And he goes hey man, if you hitme, that's my fault.
I go, I know, but it doesn'tmake me feel any better.
So if you could help me outwith my anxiety and if you could
(15:56):
wait until we all hit our shotsbefore you go up to your ball,
I go God, that would make mefeel so much better.
And he goes okay, old man.
He said old man.
And I'm like I'm ready to dukeit with him, but he would take
me out in one punch.
So instead I'm like great.
So we go on for the next five,six, seven, we get to the back
(16:21):
nine and I am like God, I feelso good about myself for
communicating something to tryand help us and him at the same
time, but by the time we get tothe 13th, 14th hole, he's doing
it again.
And I just look at Glaudy andI'm like, hey man, let's just
(16:42):
get through the round and let'sget out of here.
So sometimes it doesn't matterwhat you say.
Certain people are just goingto be people, foot-dragging,
(17:05):
photo finders oh my god, willyou hurry up?
When I was a kid, before socialmedia or smartphones, we took
photos and had to wait for themto be developed before we got
the pleasure of recapturing themoments.
(17:28):
If the photos were taken onvacation or a special trip, my
dad would have slides made and,when developed, would put them
in his long rectangular slideholder to be inserted in his
slide projector for a night oflaughs and memories projector
(17:53):
for a night of laughs andmemories.
The carousel wasn't inventedyet and even if it had been, my
dad didn't have that kind ofmoney to buy another one because
he would say I mean, richard,why waste the money when we have
perfectly good projector righthere?
He didn't sound like that, butI thought that was funny.
Sometimes, when friends orfamily visited, my dad would set
(18:13):
up the projector and the whitescreen to share their vacation
with those not fortunate enoughto make the trips.
Or sometimes they'd have acouple's party where those
couples were also on the trip sothey could sit around and laugh
and call each other names andgo oh Marv, look at you, you're
eating again.
(18:33):
Well, because of theinfrequency of these slideshows,
people could put up with a30-minute show, particularly if
they were in the pictures.
Now, fast forward.
The digital age changed how wetake pictures, store them and
how we share them.
Those parties where people toget together and look at slides
(18:57):
of themselves.
That's over.
I mean, people have Facebook,people are texting photos.
People no longer get togetherbecause everybody is living in a
moment and that moment has todo with what we see now and
pictures we took yesterday.
It also allows us to humble,brag our lives and sometimes
(19:20):
send out dog whistles or batsignals to alert others that
we're in the same area, topossibly connect and find each
other.
Most of us store thousands ofphotos on our devices, which
causes that awkward moment whenthey want to share a photo with
us when we're standing next tothem, and it kind of goes like
(19:44):
this.
So I was at the Credit OneStadium the other night to see
Dave Matthews.
We were three rows from thefront of the stage.
Hold on, hold on.
You got to see these pictures,so they start flipping through
(20:24):
their picks.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
No, no, that's not it .
No, no, wait, wait, wait, shit.
No, it's got to be wait.
Hold on a second.
Oh, this is a no that's not it.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
30 seconds ensues and it feels like five minutes
still no photos, and which kindof brings up a bigger question
of why are we going to anentertainment venue standing
three feet from the stage andholding our phones up in the air
(21:04):
to record it?
I mean, how often are we goingto go back and look at that?
And how is that quality goingto be better than putting your
phone down and staring 10 yardsin front of you to see one of
your favorite musicians do whatthey do best and take in the
(21:24):
entire musicality of the event?
Do we get that much street credfrom posting these Like look
everybody, look where I wentlast night and if you went also,
look how cool we are.
How can we immerse ourselves inthe music if we're constantly
looking up to see that ourphones are focused on what we
(21:48):
want to focus it on?
Hey, and I am 100% guilty ofdoing this, I have at occasion,
in the middle of a concert,wanted to record it just to show
people.
Look at me, I'm not sitting onthe couch, look at me, I'm not
(22:11):
sitting on the couch.
And when did 2,000 viewers allof a sudden become the official
videographers for Dave Matthews?
So getting back to this, so myfriend is flipping through his
phone trying to show me thisphoto and, by the way, once they
find the photo or video to showus how close they were, I've
lost total interest and hope Idon't have to suffer through
(22:35):
another five minutes to seeanother lost pic of the concert
night.
You for your attention and thenscrolling and scrolling to find
a pick and then finally findingit, giving you their phone.
And, by the way, when they giveyou their phone it's timed out.
(22:56):
Now you got to put their facein front of the phone to open it
back up again.
There's something about it thatmakes me want to get on my
phone and start scrolling on mysocial media like a dinner table
of millennials.
What you think is somethingthat will connect the two of you
(23:17):
.
By waiting five minutes to findthat photo, it becomes a social
disconnector and, like I said,we all do it.
But I'm just saying let's allbe aware of it.
I just wonder if the chroniclook at my pick people are the
same people that stand in frontof you at Jenny's ice cream and
(23:41):
sit there and sample everyflavor, while 10 people behind
you are in line and they'resitting there on their phones,
probably looking for a photo,until you finally order that
scoop and maybe you're going toorder the special, but most
likely people end up going backto their regular flavor that
(24:02):
they like.
Look, it's okay to stand inline.
There's nobody in the shop andpeople that are scooping ice
cream.
They're fine with it.
You know they'll give you asmany flavors as you want.
They're getting paid by thehour.
They're not making commissionon their ice cream.
It's just when you have a lineof people behind you.
You just have to be a littlesensitive, just like if you're
(24:25):
going to ask somebody to look atyour pick, find it first or
know where it is, and that mightbe a really good conversation,
a laugh and a connection betweenyou and somebody else.
Otherwise, you just fall in theoutfield.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
DUI, dui, dui, dui.
What are you talking about?
Why is porn stash asshole?
What are we saying?
We want bodies.
It's his mom's name, oh wow.
It's his mom's name, oh wow.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Last week, a nameless Gen Z fan who heckled the
Arizona Diamondbacks secondbaseman, cattell Marte, was
thrown out of the Chicago WhiteSox rate field and banned from
all major league games for life.
There's no better place tounderscore my point about the
(25:50):
flip side of humanity's cointhan at a sporting event.
I mean, when you purchase aticket to a live sporting event,
or any event, what does it giveyou the right to do?
No, you can't yell fire, bringfirearms, incent a riot or cause
(26:11):
physical harm to others,although we see it in the stands
all the time.
Look, the First Amendmentprotects your rights to express
yourself without governmentinterference, but it does that
to a point.
But it does that to a point.
(26:35):
I mean, most of society is ourown guardian.
Anybody who's been punched inthe nose for questionable
behavior know that there areconsequences for behavior or
speech that insults, threatensor fiercely overreaches lines of
value.
And those who haven't beenpunched in the nose, like
Karen's or Ted Cruz theyshouldn't be, but they're always
(26:57):
surprised with the reactionthey get from people Just like
this, gen Zer, from Chicago, whoreminded second baseman Cattel
Marte about his mother, elpidiaValdez, who died in a car
accident in the DominicanRepublic.
This 22-year-old piece ofgarbage didn't have the sense to
(27:22):
know the difference betweenacceptable ranking and
unacceptable personal attacks,particularly in a public setting
.
I mean, if this kid were in aroom with Cattell Marte and said
what he said when he was in thestands, cattell would be on
trial for aggravated assault.
But most people in stands whenthey're drinking and yelling
(27:46):
shit are not the same peopleface-to-face with somebody,
because they all have one thingin common they're cowards.
And why does an alcohol-inducedpublic setting give some people
the courage to yell hatefulthings at pro athletes?
I don't know.
(28:07):
Have we bred that over time oris it just one thing?
People From the kids who wentto Hooters after school we're
all triggered and defensive.
We're all racist and we'resexist.
We all grew up watching SouthPark.
How are we offended Now?
Being fat is beautiful.
Name a thing that you can't do.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Jumping jacks run a mile, live past 42.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I think the common lane merge, where two lanes
merge into one, is another greatlitmus test for people.
If you ever go to the beachesin Charleston after 10 am on a
weekend, particularly a holidayweekend, you know that most
likely you're going to be caughtup in traffic Now we're not
(28:54):
talking LA, new York, dc,chicago or Philly traffic, but
for a small, albeit growingcommunity, it gets generally
congested at times, and that'sbecause the beaches have limited
parking.
So it's first come, first parkuntil all the spaces are filled.
(29:14):
Now the islands are spaciousenough to accommodate most
vehicles on most days, butholiday weekends, man, that's a
different story, and the longeryou wait, the farther from the
beach you'll park, and if youcarry chairs, shade,
refreshments, towels and readingor writing material, you're
(29:38):
going to want the shortestdistance from your car to the
beach.
I happened to visit the beachthe Sunday before July 4th,
thinking that it was five daysbefore the beaches got hectic
and it was a perfect beach day.
And boy was I wrong.
In my last episode I talkedabout my Camp Richie day this
(30:02):
Sunday, was it?
I was on a mission toaccomplish six things on Sunday,
one of which was to go to thebeach and write the last episode
of Tales Not just any episode,but the first in seven months.
So I was eager to arrive, setup my stuff and start the
process.
(30:23):
There are only two roads thatlead to Sullivan's and Isle of
Palms.
There is the IOP connector andthe Ben Sawyer.
That's it, unless you have aboat, you're not getting there
unless you go over either ofthose two roads.
So after I take care of Sammy,get her on her walk and do my
(30:45):
half hour swim not in the oceanbecause I'm still scared of
sharks I get my car.
It's around 10 o'clock, Idecide to go down this road off
of 17 called Rifle Range.
It's a small oak tree coveredroad that is parallel to the
beach, is parallel to 17.
(31:06):
And it will take you to thosetwo beach roads that lead on to
the barrier islands.
So I'm heading down Rifle Rangethinking I'm just going to get
to the IOP Connector, like Ialways do, go over the bridge
there and then decide which ofthe two islands I want to go to.
As I'm getting up to the lightto the IOP Connector Road, I can
(31:28):
see that it is bumper-to-bumpertraffic already and you're
talking about a three-mile roadfrom that point all the way to
the barrier islandbumper-to-bumper.
And then I looked over to theright cars coming from 17, also
bumper-to-bumper.
So I decide there's no way I'mgoing to Isle of Palms and
(31:52):
there's no way I'm going on theIOP connector.
So light turns green, I'm ableto cross the road.
I look to the right, I just seea lot of unhappy cars to the
right.
I see a lot of cars traffic tothe left and I keep going down
rifle range road and you knowwhat the traffic is moving.
So I'm thinking, hey, am I thesmartest guy in the world?
(32:15):
Probably not.
And I keep going, and I keepgoing a few miles.
Finally I get to the Ben Sawyerand this is the road that takes
you to Sullivan's Island, and Icould see there's a little bit
of traffic.
But as I get to the corner, Iget right up to the light and
I'm able to make a left-handturn far better than what I saw
(32:37):
in the connector.
As soon as I make the turn, Isee there are two lanes.
I know that one of them is amerge lane.
These merge lanes are humanlitmus tests.
To observe one, those whoeither think they're smarter
than others or are just in sucha hurry, and then those who
accept that traffic is going tobe what it is.
(32:59):
So get in the lane that ismerged into and don't be the
aggressor or the guy who playsdumb, rushing to the very end of
the merge lane and then startswaving to people to cut in.
Or the worst is, those thatdon't even acknowledge you and
just slip in.
You know what.
(33:19):
I have been guilty of both, andsome of us have.
It depends on who I'm drivingwith, how desperate I am to get
to the beach and how much coffeeI've had that morning.
On this particular morning, Ihad two cups of Cuban's Finest,
so I was really in a hurry.
All of this affected myjudgment.
(33:42):
I make the left turn onto theBen Sawyer which takes us to
Sullivan's.
It's slow and stop.
Traffic on the left and theright lane is a lot faster, so I
merge into that lane and then Istart passing cars on the left
(34:03):
Five, 10, 15, 20.
I'm starting to feel guilty.
I don't want to be that guy whogoes to the very end of the
merge lane and then starts tocut in.
Nobody likes that guy.
So I start looking for anopening, put my left blinker on,
(34:25):
open my window and start tomerge.
The SUV that I was merging infront of seemed to have a full
family of beachgoers.
When I saw the opening, Iopened my window, looked at the
SUV, asked to merge, but Iwasn't getting any response from
(34:48):
the driver, because it lookslike the driver and the co-pilot
looks like parents of the kidswere having some kind of
argument and the gap keptgetting bigger between them and
the car in front of them.
So I slip in, I do a thumbs upand I look at them to show them
(35:10):
I'm appreciative.
The dad sees me and basicallyshoots me the bird.
I'm like okay, guy's, not aCharlestonian, but I did the
right thing.
There was a gap.
I waved, I thanked, I did allof the niceties, albeit I was
(35:30):
definitely trying to jump inline.
So now the lane I'm in the leftlane is moving at a turtle's
pace and the right lane that Icame from was moving faster.
Perhaps this right lane was allturning right into this private
gate, guarded community MarshHarbor.
(35:51):
And, as I was looking forward,no, that wasn't the case.
They were just like me, buteven more aggressive.
They were shoehorningthemselves at the end of the
merge lane, 500 feet ahead, 500feet ahead.
At first I'm thinking,motherfucker, they must be
(36:13):
Northeasterners.
And as soon as I thought that,I realized, okay, I'm also one
of them I came to terms with therealization that I also skirted
down the road to the merge laneafter 30 cars.
So how was I any different?
I'll tell you how they had theballs to be inconsiderate for an
additional 30 cars.
So how was I any different?
I'll tell you how they had theballs to be inconsiderate for an
(36:34):
additional 30 cars than I did.
As the left lane was gettingcloser to the end of the right
merge lane, less drivers werebeing humane about helping their
fellow beach goers merge.
It's likely because theyalready witnessed too many
arrogant mergers shoehorn intotheir lane and then had the
(36:57):
nerve to let others merge infront of them.
Which brings up anotherquestion in my mind what is the
proper etiquette for the mergeeand the merger?
All right, let me share thedefinitions first.
The mergee is the car alreadyin the lane of traffic.
The merger is the car trying tomerge in to the mergee's lane.
(37:23):
According to most everythingI've read and my 50 plus years
of experience on the road, themergee has final decision on who
and when they let someone cutin front of them.
Once a merger enters the lane,they now become a future mergee.
(37:45):
That means that every car youallow cut in front of you now
has the same rights for allowingother cars to cut in front of
them.
Now there's no way to profilepeople when you let them in
front of you.
Usually, the reality is that acar you allow merge might pay it
(38:05):
forward to one car.
So if that's the case, whywouldn't the guy in front of me,
the guy behind me or evenmyself let any more cars merge
in our lane after I merged?
And I think there's a point ofthe merge lane where people just
take it too far and really tryand game the system.
(38:27):
So I say, screw them.
They're trying to game thepolite Charleston beach-going
population and I'm not going toparticipate in their rude and
selfish behavior.
And you might think, yeah, rich, but they let you merge.
And my response would be yes,yes, they did.
(38:48):
Another reason to loveCharleston People.
Thanks for staying to the end.
You've been listening toanother episode of Tales from
(39:11):
the First Tee.
I'm your host, rich Easton,telling tales from beautiful
Charleston, south Carolina.
Talk to you soon, thank you.
you're tuned into another episode of tales from
the first tee.
I'm rich easton telling talesfrom beautiful charleston, south
carolina.
You know just when I'mconvinced there's nothing else
(00:31):
to say, life rears its ugly headand I shake my head in
disbelief, or maybeacknowledgement that the word
people should be a sentenceFollow my logic on this.
Most every time a politiciangets elected to office, the
access to power, influence andmoney inebriate them to make
(00:55):
selfish decisions.
So here are some examples KwameKilpatrick, serving 28 years in
prison for racketeering,bribery and extortion.
William Jefferson, serving 13years in prison for racketeering
and money laundering.
Rod Blagojevich, serving 14years in prison for attempting
(01:17):
to sell Barack Obama's Senateseat when he ran for president
and I've heard him interviewedand he said hey, everybody's
doing it.
Six former world leaders fromGuatemala, panama and Brazil
prosecuted and jailed for years,and recently former Senator Bob
(01:39):
Menendez convicted of 16 countsrelated to bribery of a foreign
agent, $100,000 in gold barsand $486,000 in cash and a
luxury Mercedes Benz.
And that's just the stuff theyfound.
So it's like every time I reada headline from any media source
(02:02):
, I have this internal voicethat murmurs the sentence people
.
You know and I'm talking aboutcelebrities and politicians, but
it doesn't have to be them.
We're pro athletes.
Every day we leave the house wecome across somebody that cuts
in front of us.
(02:22):
Somebody that cuts in front ofus, that cuts us off while
driving.
Or tastes every flavor of icecream at Jenny's before ordering
a scoop of you name it vanillachocolate, something simple.
People that bring their familyto an open beach and then, right
(02:44):
in front of you, betweenyourself and the beach park,
their 20-foot shade device andmonster speakers where they had
the entire beach to sit down andlook and see.
Okay, are we blocking anybody'sview?
But they do it because that'swho they are.
(03:04):
You ever go into a movie theater.
It's not crowded and eventhough you had to select a seat
number which, by the way, Ithink is ridiculous because
everybody violates it and thenyou get somebody who's a rulesy
person and they're gonna get andsay, excuse me, I am D10 and
D11.
And then everybody has to getup because nobody paid attention
(03:28):
to the numbers.
But you go down, you sit in themovie theater it's yourself and
your friend, and it's going tobe a quiet movie because it's
been out for a few weeks, soit's not a crowded theater.
And then, all of a sudden,right before the movie starts.
And then, all of a sudden,right before the movie starts,
somebody else comes into thetheater and do they go to the
back?
(03:48):
Do they go five aisles behindyou?
No, they sit two seats next toyou or right in front of you and
decide to get on their phonethe entire movie.
I mean, who are these people?
Now I can continue on about amillion more incidents of
(04:09):
oblivious or downright selfishbehavior, but I'd start to sound
like the get off my lawn guyinstead, so I'll just leave you
with one parting sentence thatsums it up.
People, you know I might aswell stick with this theme for
the remainder of the episode.
(04:31):
This segment is Drunk.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Gen Xer on the golf course the other pros were going
out to the driving range goingwatch this and he's hitting the
ball 75 yards past everybody andhitting the middle of the
fairway with it.
But he was so self-destructivethat he could manage it to some
point Not too long ago.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I'm playing golf with my friend, cloudy Graves, one
of the more emotive lowhandicappers, with a southern
saying for just about everything.
I've only lived in the southfor 10 years and if you don't
count Florida as a southernstate which I don't well, that's
not true.
The ones that move to Floridaand then live there for a few
(05:22):
years and move up to theCarolinas, they're Southerners.
So even though I wasn't raisedin the South, after just one
round of golf with Cloudy I'vewitnessed a lifetime of sayings
for just about any situation.
So I feel somewhat baptized.
Baptized, and what that does?
(05:50):
It prepares me.
When we're paired up with adrunk Gen Zer and his dad to
play a round of golf, the outingon the links starts off just
like most we meet we shake hands, we share our names and then we
forget about their names, aboutthe time it takes us to get to
the first green.
I'm guessing the dad had to be,let's say, nearly 70.
(06:14):
His son in his 30s.
One of my downfalls when I playwith other golfers is I study
their swings.
I could just about describeevery one of my buddies' golf
swings, but I can't describe myown.
So, as we're playing with thesetwo golfers.
(06:35):
I see the dad is struggling.
I don't think he was much of agolfer when he was younger and I
think it stayed with him hiswhole life.
His son seemed like he was veryathletic and so I asked him hey
, did you ever play baseball?
And he said well, actually Iplayed pro baseball and
(07:01):
immediately I knew it.
You could see with his swing.
First of all, his practiceswings were so fast that you
could hear the club piercingthrough the air, and when he got
hold of a drive it was theloudest crack sound and the ball
flew farther than any driveI've seen other than going to
(07:22):
PGA tournaments.
So I thought this was going tobe a fun round.
This guy is pretty good, exceptfor one thing when he took his
club back, his elbow went outjust like a baseball player.
And when you stick your elbowout and you take the club back,
it is nearly impossible to tuckthat elbow in when you swing the
(07:44):
club, which means that thetimes you do get it under, you
are going to crack that ball andyou're going to drive it 300
plus yards.
But if that elbow stays out,you might hit it 300 yards, but
you're going to meet theneighbors, which he did several
times Now.
He rode with his dad and hisdad teed off with us and maybe
(08:10):
hit the ball 150 yards.
Sometimes he dribbled it off thetee box by the time we got to
the third hole, the Gen Zer,after his dad hit the ball,
would drive his dad to his balland then proceed to go forward
(08:30):
all the way down the fairway tofind his ball.
This means that he would drivepast where Cloudy Graves and I
hit our drives and he wouldstand there and wait for us to
hit our shots and make his dadwalk all the way up to him.
Sometimes he basically let hisdad have the cart and he would
(08:55):
run down the fairway looking forhis ball.
Now I've played with Cloudy andwe've been passed by this guy
who has an electric push cart,you know, the kind that you
could direct with remote control.
And this guy passed us in themiddle of one of our holes and
(09:15):
Cloudy did the right thing.
He went up to him and told himwhat he felt about this guy
interrupting our round of golf,you know.
But the funny thing is I haveplayed with Cloudy since that
event and something's changed,like he doesn't do that anymore
Now.
Is it because he got the cutestdog in the world Cash that he
(09:37):
takes on the golf course withhim kind of settles his nerves?
I don't know the answer, butthis guy is running up ahead of
us.
I look at Cloudy no reactionand I'm like can you believe
this guy?
Now?
The problem for us is now we'vegot to hit our second shots and
(09:58):
we got to hit it to the green orwe got a position or a par five
, and Gen Z is right in front ofus.
Let's call him z for the restof this discussion.
So now z's down the fairwayahead of us.
We gotta hit shots.
It almost reminds me of thetime at one of my favorite golf
courses when they were fixingthe bunkers and they had all of
(10:22):
these workers working on thebunkers, but they didn't close
the course.
So there are bunkers and theyhad all of these workers working
on the bunkers, but they didn'tclose the course.
So there are bunkers, sometimessituated right in front of
greens, and these workers weretold to stay in the bunkers and
work while people are hittingballs.
Well, you're 100 yards out.
You're 150 yards out.
You've got to hit a ball up andover their heads and land it on
(10:46):
the green, and if you're antsyor you skull the ball, I mean
you could take somebody's life.
So that's what this reminded meof, and every shot that I hit,
with Z in front of me, I get alittle nervous.
I didn't want to hit him and itwas making me crazy, but Cloudy
didn't want to do anything.
(11:07):
It's like this new Cloudy hasemerged amongst us.
I even said to him I go, hey,cloudy, I go.
Do we want to talk?
to this guy and he's like, no,hey, listen, man, let's let you
know, live and let live.
And I'm like, hey, that's not aSouthern expression.
You know, live and let live.
And I'm like, hey, that's not aSouthern expression.
But anyway I'm like, okay.
So we get to the fourth hole, wehit our drives and then we land
(11:33):
.
It's a par five.
We land them down in thefairway and then we go to hit
our second shots.
We decide we're a little toofar back to go, 230 yards over
the water.
So we both decide to lay ourballs up in front of this lake,
protecting this green.
But when you lay your ball upand you get it a little too
(11:55):
close, you kind of go over thishill and you can't see if the
ball rolled down the hill ontothis level area, maybe even into
the pond, you can't tell untilyou drive your ball up there.
So we hit our shots and ofcourse Z is running down the
(12:15):
fairway to find his ball,because he hit his ball there as
well.
Didn't have a great drive, buthe had a monster second shot.
So he's running down there.
His dad's got the cart Cloudyand I hit our shots and now
we're driving up to find it andwe drive up to the hill.
There were no balls there.
(12:37):
Now Cloudy was pretty certainthat he hit his ball perfectly
so that it didn't go in thewater.
And he looks over at Z, who hadjust moved over to the side,
who said, oh, I guess my ballwent in the water.
And he goes hey, z, did you seea tidalist there with three red
dots?
(12:57):
And Z said, yeah, I found itright over there.
It was right before the water.
Now, for any or all of youlistening to this and know
Cloudy, you're likely thinkingat what point did Cloudy
introduce one of his wittybromizer aphorisms to influence
(13:19):
C to stop driving in front of usbefore we hit?
You might be surprised to learnthe answer was never.
And Cloudy goes well, you know,that was my shot.
And the guy goes oh, here yougo.
And he throws it to Cloudy.
I'm waiting for Cloudy to getapoplectic.
(13:43):
Cloudy puts his ball down, hitsa great shot onto the green,
misses a birdie, but, but nochange in attitude at all and
I'm like what is happening?
So we get back in the cart and Igo to cloudy.
I go hey, what's man?
I go.
Have you been going to church alot.
(14:04):
Is that what this is all about?
And Cloudy goes hey listen, man, he goes.
When I'm in church, he goes,everything is great.
But the minute I get in theparking lot after church, I have
got to control myself untilnext Sunday.
So I'm like, okay, this guy'sworking on himself, but Z is
(14:27):
still bothering me and I justdon't want to see this guy work
on both my and Cloudy'simpatience.
So I go to Cloudy, I'm going totalk to this guy when we get to
the fifth tee box.
So we get to the fifth tee box,I don't want to embarrass him,
I don't want to make him feelbad, and I'm like, hey, z, you
(14:49):
got a second.
I pull him aside.
And this is kind of how theconversation went.
I said, hey Z, I'm reallynervous he goes.
Man, what's your and Z isdrinking, drinking, you could
smell he must have had fivebeers between the first hole and
the fifth, d bucks and he'slike man, what are you worried
(15:11):
about?
and I go hey, listen, I'm reallynervous.
I go, you have these monsterdrives and you hit that ball so
far that I know you're anxiousto go see where that ball is.
You want to hit it again.
And I said but when you do that, you're now between us and our
(15:32):
approach shots.
And what makes me nervous is ifI hit a bad shot and it hits
you, I am going to feel horriblethe rest of my life.
And he goes hey man, if you hitme, that's my fault.
I go, I know, but it doesn'tmake me feel any better.
So if you could help me outwith my anxiety and if you could
(15:56):
wait until we all hit our shotsbefore you go up to your ball,
I go God, that would make mefeel so much better.
And he goes okay, old man.
He said old man.
And I'm like I'm ready to dukeit with him, but he would take
me out in one punch.
So instead I'm like great.
So we go on for the next five,six, seven, we get to the back
(16:21):
nine and I am like God, I feelso good about myself for
communicating something to tryand help us and him at the same
time, but by the time we get tothe 13th, 14th hole, he's doing
it again.
And I just look at Glaudy andI'm like, hey man, let's just
(16:42):
get through the round and let'sget out of here.
So sometimes it doesn't matterwhat you say.
Certain people are just goingto be people, foot-dragging,
(17:05):
photo finders oh my god, willyou hurry up?
When I was a kid, before socialmedia or smartphones, we took
photos and had to wait for themto be developed before we got
the pleasure of recapturing themoments.
(17:28):
If the photos were taken onvacation or a special trip, my
dad would have slides made and,when developed, would put them
in his long rectangular slideholder to be inserted in his
slide projector for a night oflaughs and memories projector
(17:53):
for a night of laughs andmemories.
The carousel wasn't inventedyet and even if it had been, my
dad didn't have that kind ofmoney to buy another one because
he would say I mean, richard,why waste the money when we have
perfectly good projector righthere?
He didn't sound like that, butI thought that was funny.
Sometimes, when friends orfamily visited, my dad would set
(18:13):
up the projector and the whitescreen to share their vacation
with those not fortunate enoughto make the trips.
Or sometimes they'd have acouple's party where those
couples were also on the trip sothey could sit around and laugh
and call each other names andgo oh Marv, look at you, you're
eating again.
(18:33):
Well, because of theinfrequency of these slideshows,
people could put up with a30-minute show, particularly if
they were in the pictures.
Now, fast forward.
The digital age changed how wetake pictures, store them and
how we share them.
Those parties where people toget together and look at slides
(18:57):
of themselves.
That's over.
I mean, people have Facebook,people are texting photos.
People no longer get togetherbecause everybody is living in a
moment and that moment has todo with what we see now and
pictures we took yesterday.
It also allows us to humble,brag our lives and sometimes
(19:20):
send out dog whistles or batsignals to alert others that
we're in the same area, topossibly connect and find each
other.
Most of us store thousands ofphotos on our devices, which
causes that awkward moment whenthey want to share a photo with
us when we're standing next tothem, and it kind of goes like
(19:44):
this.
So I was at the Credit OneStadium the other night to see
Dave Matthews.
We were three rows from thefront of the stage.
Hold on, hold on.
You got to see these pictures,so they start flipping through
(20:24):
their picks.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
No, no, that's not it .
No, no, wait, wait, wait, shit.
No, it's got to be wait.
Hold on a second.
Oh, this is a no that's not it.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
30 seconds ensues and it feels like five minutes
still no photos, and which kindof brings up a bigger question
of why are we going to anentertainment venue standing
three feet from the stage andholding our phones up in the air
(21:04):
to record it?
I mean, how often are we goingto go back and look at that?
And how is that quality goingto be better than putting your
phone down and staring 10 yardsin front of you to see one of
your favorite musicians do whatthey do best and take in the
(21:24):
entire musicality of the event?
Do we get that much street credfrom posting these Like look
everybody, look where I wentlast night and if you went also,
look how cool we are.
How can we immerse ourselves inthe music if we're constantly
looking up to see that ourphones are focused on what we
(21:48):
want to focus it on?
Hey, and I am 100% guilty ofdoing this, I have at occasion,
in the middle of a concert,wanted to record it just to show
people.
Look at me, I'm not sitting onthe couch, look at me, I'm not
(22:11):
sitting on the couch.
And when did 2,000 viewers allof a sudden become the official
videographers for Dave Matthews?
So getting back to this, so myfriend is flipping through his
phone trying to show me thisphoto and, by the way, once they
find the photo or video to showus how close they were, I've
lost total interest and hope Idon't have to suffer through
(22:35):
another five minutes to seeanother lost pic of the concert
night.
You for your attention and thenscrolling and scrolling to find
a pick and then finally findingit, giving you their phone.
And, by the way, when they giveyou their phone it's timed out.
(22:56):
Now you got to put their facein front of the phone to open it
back up again.
There's something about it thatmakes me want to get on my
phone and start scrolling on mysocial media like a dinner table
of millennials.
What you think is somethingthat will connect the two of you
(23:17):
.
By waiting five minutes to findthat photo, it becomes a social
disconnector and, like I said,we all do it.
But I'm just saying let's allbe aware of it.
I just wonder if the chroniclook at my pick people are the
same people that stand in frontof you at Jenny's ice cream and
(23:41):
sit there and sample everyflavor, while 10 people behind
you are in line and they'resitting there on their phones,
probably looking for a photo,until you finally order that
scoop and maybe you're going toorder the special, but most
likely people end up going backto their regular flavor that
(24:02):
they like.
Look, it's okay to stand inline.
There's nobody in the shop andpeople that are scooping ice
cream.
They're fine with it.
You know they'll give you asmany flavors as you want.
They're getting paid by thehour.
They're not making commissionon their ice cream.
It's just when you have a lineof people behind you.
You just have to be a littlesensitive, just like if you're
(24:25):
going to ask somebody to look atyour pick, find it first or
know where it is, and that mightbe a really good conversation,
a laugh and a connection betweenyou and somebody else.
Otherwise, you just fall in theoutfield.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
DUI, dui, dui, dui.
What are you talking about?
Why is porn stash asshole?
What are we saying?
We want bodies.
It's his mom's name, oh wow.
It's his mom's name, oh wow.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Last week, a nameless Gen Z fan who heckled the
Arizona Diamondbacks secondbaseman, cattell Marte, was
thrown out of the Chicago WhiteSox rate field and banned from
all major league games for life.
There's no better place tounderscore my point about the
(25:50):
flip side of humanity's cointhan at a sporting event.
I mean, when you purchase aticket to a live sporting event,
or any event, what does it giveyou the right to do?
No, you can't yell fire, bringfirearms, incent a riot or cause
(26:11):
physical harm to others,although we see it in the stands
all the time.
Look, the First Amendmentprotects your rights to express
yourself without governmentinterference, but it does that
to a point.
But it does that to a point.
(26:35):
I mean, most of society is ourown guardian.
Anybody who's been punched inthe nose for questionable
behavior know that there areconsequences for behavior or
speech that insults, threatensor fiercely overreaches lines of
value.
And those who haven't beenpunched in the nose, like
Karen's or Ted Cruz theyshouldn't be, but they're always
(26:57):
surprised with the reactionthey get from people Just like
this, gen Zer, from Chicago, whoreminded second baseman Cattel
Marte about his mother, elpidiaValdez, who died in a car
accident in the DominicanRepublic.
This 22-year-old piece ofgarbage didn't have the sense to
(27:22):
know the difference betweenacceptable ranking and
unacceptable personal attacks,particularly in a public setting
.
I mean, if this kid were in aroom with Cattell Marte and said
what he said when he was in thestands, cattell would be on
trial for aggravated assault.
But most people in stands whenthey're drinking and yelling
(27:46):
shit are not the same peopleface-to-face with somebody,
because they all have one thingin common they're cowards.
And why does an alcohol-inducedpublic setting give some people
the courage to yell hatefulthings at pro athletes?
I don't know.
(28:07):
Have we bred that over time oris it just one thing?
People From the kids who wentto Hooters after school we're
all triggered and defensive.
We're all racist and we'resexist.
We all grew up watching SouthPark.
How are we offended Now?
Being fat is beautiful.
Name a thing that you can't do.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Jumping jacks run a mile, live past 42.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I think the common lane merge, where two lanes
merge into one, is another greatlitmus test for people.
If you ever go to the beachesin Charleston after 10 am on a
weekend, particularly a holidayweekend, you know that most
likely you're going to be caughtup in traffic Now we're not
(28:54):
talking LA, new York, dc,chicago or Philly traffic, but
for a small, albeit growingcommunity, it gets generally
congested at times, and that'sbecause the beaches have limited
parking.
So it's first come, first parkuntil all the spaces are filled.
(29:14):
Now the islands are spaciousenough to accommodate most
vehicles on most days, butholiday weekends, man, that's a
different story, and the longeryou wait, the farther from the
beach you'll park, and if youcarry chairs, shade,
refreshments, towels and readingor writing material, you're
(29:38):
going to want the shortestdistance from your car to the
beach.
I happened to visit the beachthe Sunday before July 4th,
thinking that it was five daysbefore the beaches got hectic
and it was a perfect beach day.
And boy was I wrong.
In my last episode I talkedabout my Camp Richie day this
(30:02):
Sunday, was it?
I was on a mission toaccomplish six things on Sunday,
one of which was to go to thebeach and write the last episode
of Tales Not just any episode,but the first in seven months.
So I was eager to arrive, setup my stuff and start the
process.
(30:23):
There are only two roads thatlead to Sullivan's and Isle of
Palms.
There is the IOP connector andthe Ben Sawyer.
That's it, unless you have aboat, you're not getting there
unless you go over either ofthose two roads.
So after I take care of Sammy,get her on her walk and do my
(30:45):
half hour swim not in the oceanbecause I'm still scared of
sharks I get my car.
It's around 10 o'clock, Idecide to go down this road off
of 17 called Rifle Range.
It's a small oak tree coveredroad that is parallel to the
beach, is parallel to 17.
(31:06):
And it will take you to thosetwo beach roads that lead on to
the barrier islands.
So I'm heading down Rifle Rangethinking I'm just going to get
to the IOP Connector, like Ialways do, go over the bridge
there and then decide which ofthe two islands I want to go to.
As I'm getting up to the lightto the IOP Connector Road, I can
(31:28):
see that it is bumper-to-bumpertraffic already and you're
talking about a three-mile roadfrom that point all the way to
the barrier islandbumper-to-bumper.
And then I looked over to theright cars coming from 17, also
bumper-to-bumper.
So I decide there's no way I'mgoing to Isle of Palms and
(31:52):
there's no way I'm going on theIOP connector.
So light turns green, I'm ableto cross the road.
I look to the right, I just seea lot of unhappy cars to the
right.
I see a lot of cars traffic tothe left and I keep going down
rifle range road and you knowwhat the traffic is moving.
So I'm thinking, hey, am I thesmartest guy in the world?
(32:15):
Probably not.
And I keep going, and I keepgoing a few miles.
Finally I get to the Ben Sawyerand this is the road that takes
you to Sullivan's Island, and Icould see there's a little bit
of traffic.
But as I get to the corner, Iget right up to the light and
I'm able to make a left-handturn far better than what I saw
(32:37):
in the connector.
As soon as I make the turn, Isee there are two lanes.
I know that one of them is amerge lane.
These merge lanes are humanlitmus tests.
To observe one, those whoeither think they're smarter
than others or are just in sucha hurry, and then those who
accept that traffic is going tobe what it is.
(32:59):
So get in the lane that ismerged into and don't be the
aggressor or the guy who playsdumb, rushing to the very end of
the merge lane and then startswaving to people to cut in.
Or the worst is, those thatdon't even acknowledge you and
just slip in.
You know what.
(33:19):
I have been guilty of both, andsome of us have.
It depends on who I'm drivingwith, how desperate I am to get
to the beach and how much coffeeI've had that morning.
On this particular morning, Ihad two cups of Cuban's Finest,
so I was really in a hurry.
All of this affected myjudgment.
(33:42):
I make the left turn onto theBen Sawyer which takes us to
Sullivan's.
It's slow and stop.
Traffic on the left and theright lane is a lot faster, so I
merge into that lane and then Istart passing cars on the left
(34:03):
Five, 10, 15, 20.
I'm starting to feel guilty.
I don't want to be that guy whogoes to the very end of the
merge lane and then starts tocut in.
Nobody likes that guy.
So I start looking for anopening, put my left blinker on,
(34:25):
open my window and start tomerge.
The SUV that I was merging infront of seemed to have a full
family of beachgoers.
When I saw the opening, Iopened my window, looked at the
SUV, asked to merge, but Iwasn't getting any response from
(34:48):
the driver, because it lookslike the driver and the co-pilot
looks like parents of the kidswere having some kind of
argument and the gap keptgetting bigger between them and
the car in front of them.
So I slip in, I do a thumbs upand I look at them to show them
(35:10):
I'm appreciative.
The dad sees me and basicallyshoots me the bird.
I'm like okay, guy's, not aCharlestonian, but I did the
right thing.
There was a gap.
I waved, I thanked, I did allof the niceties, albeit I was
(35:30):
definitely trying to jump inline.
So now the lane I'm in the leftlane is moving at a turtle's
pace and the right lane that Icame from was moving faster.
Perhaps this right lane was allturning right into this private
gate, guarded community MarshHarbor.
(35:51):
And, as I was looking forward,no, that wasn't the case.
They were just like me, buteven more aggressive.
They were shoehorningthemselves at the end of the
merge lane, 500 feet ahead, 500feet ahead.
At first I'm thinking,motherfucker, they must be
(36:13):
Northeasterners.
And as soon as I thought that,I realized, okay, I'm also one
of them I came to terms with therealization that I also skirted
down the road to the merge laneafter 30 cars.
So how was I any different?
I'll tell you how they had theballs to be inconsiderate for an
additional 30 cars.
So how was I any different?
I'll tell you how they had theballs to be inconsiderate for an
(36:34):
additional 30 cars than I did.
As the left lane was gettingcloser to the end of the right
merge lane, less drivers werebeing humane about helping their
fellow beach goers merge.
It's likely because theyalready witnessed too many
arrogant mergers shoehorn intotheir lane and then had the
(36:57):
nerve to let others merge infront of them.
Which brings up anotherquestion in my mind what is the
proper etiquette for the mergeeand the merger?
All right, let me share thedefinitions first.
The mergee is the car alreadyin the lane of traffic.
The merger is the car trying tomerge in to the mergee's lane.
(37:23):
According to most everythingI've read and my 50 plus years
of experience on the road, themergee has final decision on who
and when they let someone cutin front of them.
Once a merger enters the lane,they now become a future mergee.
(37:45):
That means that every car youallow cut in front of you now
has the same rights for allowingother cars to cut in front of
them.
Now there's no way to profilepeople when you let them in
front of you.
Usually, the reality is that acar you allow merge might pay it
(38:05):
forward to one car.
So if that's the case, whywouldn't the guy in front of me,
the guy behind me or evenmyself let any more cars merge
in our lane after I merged?
And I think there's a point ofthe merge lane where people just
take it too far and really tryand game the system.
(38:27):
So I say, screw them.
They're trying to game thepolite Charleston beach-going
population and I'm not going toparticipate in their rude and
selfish behavior.
And you might think, yeah, rich, but they let you merge.
And my response would be yes,yes, they did.
(38:48):
Another reason to loveCharleston People.
Thanks for staying to the end.
You've been listening toanother episode of Tales from
(39:11):
the First Tee.
I'm your host, rich Easton,telling tales from beautiful
Charleston, south Carolina.
Talk to you soon, thank you.
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