I had been in Americus only for a few hours when the most unspeakable thing happened!

It happened, right at the stop sign at Taylor and Rees Streets.

Not one, but two cars just slid right on through without stopping and it was my turn to go.

Back where I come from, we call it the “California Stop.” Don’t ask me where the name came from. I didn’t make the slang name up. Sounds like some kind of dance, doesn’t it? Instead of “do the hustle,” say, “do the California Stop.”

The “California Stop,” as it was explained to me by my older sister, Tracey, is when a driver doesn’t totally stop at a 4 way or 3 way stop sign, but rolls right on through.

As a D-2 football recruiting assistant, I had the opportunity to travel(well, chauffeur the coaches) from the most eastern part of Mississippi to the most northern part of Georgia, and even one small town in Florida.

I have driven in torrential downpours, tornado threatening weather, the cloudiest of days, the sunniest of afternoons, and even through a freakish ice storm in the middle of March. I have made it through Birmingham and Atlanta before, during and after rush hours, and bounced along the dirtiest back roads in southern Georgia and western Alabama. I have been behind great Grandma and Grandpa on a Sunday afternoon drive on a Wednesday. I have had a harried businessman pass me on a double yellow line. I have seen aggressive drivers.

I have run red lights, crossed a railroad track just as the crossties were coming down, and even did a few California Stops myself. (Got stopped by a deputy sheriff twice because of doing the California Stop. We won’t talk about that.)

Amazingly though, I have never had anyone do the California Stop to me, and I have been driving since I was 18. (I was supposed to get my driver’s license when I was 16, but an incident during a driving lesson at 15 kind of scared my dad. That’s a whole other story we won’t talk about in print.)

According to my co-workers, this happens a lot in the city. In fact, someone told me that people just drive crazy, pulling out when they shouldn’t, and not taking their turn at a stop sign.

The first car only got a mumble from me. I started to pull forward, when the next car just slid on through. I couldn’t do anything but stop.

I started to wonder. Did my car smell funny? It couldn’t. My dad and I had just washed it before packing up to move. Was it because my car has a few dents? Or was it because my car is an older model Ford Taurus?

Does the fact that my car is different and older make it less special than their vehicles? Did the other two vehicles, a brand new SUV and a smaller, sporty version car, think that the word STOP didn’t apply to them?

Beep, beep, beep, beep. As I was pondering analytically the reasons behind the other drivers’ inconsideration, a long line of vehicles behind me were wondering the same thing about me.

A life lesson could be learned here. When you encounter a speed bump or someone does a “California Stop,” don’t sit, don’t stop, don’t ponder-just keep on rolling.