Clash to a line dance

There is a game played locally, most often at the corner of Main and Commercial in Berwick, though it sometimes seems popular at the south end of Commercial Street as well.

What happens is this: you approach the intersection on Main, heading toward the Larsen plant and signalling a left-hand turn toward the shopping district on Commercial as you slow for the stop sign. The driver (always male – only men do this) of the car coming from the Larsen plant is stopped at the sign. No signal lights are flashing on the stopped car. No car is coming from either direction. Obviously, he has the right of way, but he sits there until you come to a stop, then lifts a forefinger from the steering wheel and wiggles it in suggestion you go ahead.

The first time this happened to me, I shrugged and took him up on the offer. He’d had more than enough opportunity to boot it out of there before I got to the intersection in my car - and he had the right of way! The second I entered the intersection, he gunned his motor and tore across in front of me.

What game was this?

“Games People Play” – remember that pop psychology book? Some 50 years later, many of the original ideas of transactional analysis have found wide usefulness, while Eric Berne’s “Games People Play” was entertaining to read and left the reader with the impression that anyone could point a finger to the exact moment of discord, and somehow change a squabble into a conversation.

For a while, I considered the “Wave the Left-Hand-Turner Through” game might be a version of “Cavalier,” a kind of ladies-first showmanship. When you take the squealing tires into consideration, though, it could be a version of “Uproar,” except that is typically played by fathers and their teen-age daughters. The experience at the intersection was more that of some kind of passive-aggressive flavour.

I pondered some more.

Then, a few acquaintances took the finger-waver up on the offer - without rechecking traffic, only to have a totally innocent vehicle on Commercial Street kiss fenders with theirs! Perhaps this is the true goal, to start up a round of “Let’s You and Him Fight,” to call it by its game name. This seems to hold up under scrutiny.

Since those early experiences, I’ve stuck to the rules of the road. Oh, it irritates me a little when the traffic piles up behind me, but the satisfaction I get from hearing the scream of tires smoke through the intersection as that driver realizes I’m right and I know it – well, that’s worth waiting for! I suppose then he’s playing “See What You Made Me Do.”

As for me?

The glee I experience seeing the other driver react to my refusing to play along with the game is a strong indication I’m playing “Now I’ve Got Your Number.”

Well, that’s five of Berne’s games, all with someone pretty hot under the collar! Maybe not just anyone could, actually, put a finger on the unexpected move could convert strife to symphony.