golly gee, I can admit I’ve got a problem, yes. It’s just that I’m driving along and I’ve got me blessed little Clarke riding shotgun next to me and there is absolutely nothing on the radio and next thing you know I’ve got six fingers wrapped around my sexy diamond painted love (sorry folks, but I actually LIKE the diamonds, they give her character) instead of the wheel which is being held precariously straight by the left knee. I’ve already kicked myself three times for doing this as it is simply INHERENTLY dangerous. But now I find that this is not a new offense, and there are probably quite a few who suffer in my affliction. I’ve found one solution, but must admit it can take some getting used to: I have to leave her in the back seat where I can’t reach her. Arrive alive, don’t whistle and drive…
Compared to what I saw yesterday, whistling while driving seems not too dangerous. I actually saw a woman back out of her driveway and drive away with a child in the seat next to her and in one hand she held a dinner plate full of food and in the other hand a fork. At least playing a whistle doesn’t require looking away from the road to fill up one’s fork.
For that reason I always make my whistles ride in the trunk . . . with my mother-in-law.
Whitey
~. . . . . .
(can you tell that I KNOW my wife will not be reading this message board?)
If we, as a whistling community, continue to abuse the use of whistles, it’s only a matter of time until they become a “controlled substance”. I wonder if they would fall under jurisdiction of the D.E.A. or B.A.T.F.? (the latter, I think…the BATF seems to get everything fun)
Just got rear-ended by a guy on a cellphone last Saturday night. He hit us, we pulled over and he jumped out of the car, STILL talking on the phone, said
“Doesn’t look too bad you guys okay” then started talking again before we could answer.
Thanks to those 5mph bumpers on older cars, we were okay with some later neck pain but damn…he was still talking as he followed us down the road and my girlfriend was sure he was gonna hit us again.
As we drove through the SOMA area of San Francisco, I noticed that nearly every person was talking on a phone (pedestrians). We had been stuck in a two-hour traffic jam to get about 20 miles (we were hour and ahalf late for dinner/concert), got hit and then this weird picture. It was then I figured out that we were in the MATRIX and everybody wanted out. Or maybe they were talking to those Crystal People I keep hearing whispers about…
Please don’t whistle (eat, cell phone, fingernails, makeup, crosswords, paradiddles) and drive, okay? Unless you live in the sticks where its just you and the trees (sorry trees)…
Tongue in cheek and neck brace.
The Weekenders
Sure! My son was forced on to the shoulder of the road one day as he was driving to school in Birmingham by a person on a cell phone who changed lanes and never even SAW him!!! It was worse for me to hear that than if it had happened to me!
I once followed a gentleman in Savannah who was eating a hamburger (one hand) and reading the newspaper (other hand) as he drove down the street!
Mary
Yeah, it’s becoming quite obvious that the roads are not quite as safe as they used to be.
However, when I drive, and my whistles are there, if I feel I have to play, I pull over and serenade the scenery for about five minutes, and then I go on. (or rather, that’s what I would do if I was ever in that situation). Mostly if I go somewhere with my whistles, I walk. Or someone else who’s going with me is driving.
even if you’re not driving you don’t want to give yourself an accidental tracheotomy. I think I’ve played whistle twice as a passenger and my imagination has since given me plenty of reasons not to!
Bottom line: “I hate driving, it takes away from valuable whistling time.”
I was a passenger that fateful day with Feadog in hand but the traffic jam put us in such a funk that I had stopped playing it when we were hit. Otherwise I might have needed a cranial-laryngeal whistlectomy and neckbrace.
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-04-24 14:31 ]
Yikes!
Yikes!
A gal I shared Chem. lab with in college had to drive 40 miles to school each day. As she would drive she would read her Chem. book. How it is that she is still alive and walking this earth is beyond me.
I used to work with a woman who’d put mascara on each morning on the way to work. I cured her of it, though…told her:
“You know, they still haven’t gotten a glass eye to look quite real.”
I was once run off the road while riding my motorcycle. The guy who did it to me was changing lanes on an interstate cloverleaf and reading a newspaper. I was lucky to end up with only a few bruises and a ruined boot. My advice is to ignore whistles, cell phones, reading material, combs, brushes, cosmetics and passengers and concentrate on the road. Pull over, let someone else drive, walk or take public transportation. Listen to a tape or cd of someone so good that you can’t possibly play along. An automobile is the most dangerous weapon most of us handle on a regular basis. If not for your own sake, then for the rest of us, be sensible!
I know what a marginal driver I am, so I don’t even consider whistling while driving. I rarely attempt anything more complicated than drinking from a travel mug or cup-with straw while on a straightaway.
Whistling as a passenger is another story. The main impediment THERE is that I live in a pothole-rich environment, and every time the car goes over a bump in the road it makes the tune go all funny.
Hey, everyone…Do I need to check into a program or something?
I got pulled over last night (for a broken headlight). Luckily I wasnt whistling when the cop saw me driving, but as I was sitting there with red and blue lights glaring in my rear view mirror while the cop wrote me up, my whistle called out to me, and in honor of this thread I pealed out a goodnloud rendition of Brian Boru.
Thankfully the cop didnt cite me extra for public nuisance or creating a disturbance.
When I am working I place my whistle in it’s case on the dashboard to warm it up. It sits there and keeps me company until breaks (if I remember to take them) and lunch. It gives the county a truck a more professional appearance 
. I have learned however, that when the sun does come out the heat of the whistle can become quite searing to the finger tips. I have also been reminded that playing the whistle at the water makes it carry for quite some distance. When you hit the upper octaves the echo coming back is quite intense. Especially when you look down the beach and see huge populations of homes…
I’ve been guilty of the sin of playing my GHB practice chanter while roaring down the road, and also of pennywhistling while doing the same. Thank the good Lord there’s not enough room to fire up the bagpipes themselves!
This confused me at first because my initials are DWW.
Hey. It’s all about me, isn’t it.
Dale
all bow
But of course, your whistleness!
