September 7, 2025

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

Some of us passed the driver’s license test when, if you took it on a car with automatic transmission, your document was stamped with a warning that you could drive only that sort of vehicle. And if your test car had no turn signals, you had to demonstrate hand movement for right- and left-turns, stop and slowing down.

My first car, a very worn-out 1950 Chevy DeLuxe, had after-market turn signals, but I often used my hands, which I sometimes do today, probably confusing other motorists.

In the days of no turn signals, motorists usually expressed their intention in individual ways. There was a woman in my old hometown of Spring Valley, N.Y., who kept a handkerchief in her left hand and simply fluttered in when she wanted to turn, stop or slow down. Trouble is the wave was the same for any of those actions.

One local motorist had an English Ford with early-style automatic turn signals that leapt out of inserts between the side windows. If they did not retract after he parked, a pedestrian could walk right into them.

Today, in my neck of the woods, a suburban/urban area 20 miles from New York City, it often does not matter whether a vehicle has turn signals or not, or if the driver knows how to use hand intention, because I’d say 30-50 percent of the time, motorists do not signal, even when they make illegal u-turns on Main Street in local Nyack. And that includes some gendarmes.

What a turn of events I’d say (groan).

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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