The cars in the traffic circle go round and round, round and round

ALL THIS TALK lately about a roundabout at Candelaria and Rio Grande brought about fond memories of a trip to New Jersey in the mid-’50s.

My husband and I were traveling there for service school at Fort Monmouth. We found ourselves at a traffic circle in Trenton, our first. One doesn’t hesitate in that heavy traffic so we plowed ahead into the circle — a three-lane I think I remember.

There we were in our beat-up old Chevy pickup with New Mexico plates and our stuff in the back. We went round and around several times trying to see where to get off but had to go so fast we couldn’t find the way.

Pretty quickly a guy in a city vehicle, a dump truck, got beside us and yelled, “Where ya going?” My husband yelled back, “Long Branch.” The guy answered, “Follow me.” So we did and stuck really close to him.

We had to go around again a time or two, but he finally got us on the right exit and away we went. What fun! Don’t tell me New Jersey people aren’t nice.

Moral: Be careful what you wish for regarding roundabouts. And that comment about every one “slowing down and playing nice”: Yeah, uh huh.

JOY GALLOWAY

Albuquerque