An Un-New Canaan-Like Experience

I grew up in the town of New Canaan. I attended the New Canaan Country School from K-9 and always enjoyed winter and summer breaks from school returning home to my cute little town that no other town could ever measure up to.

I have since moved away with my husband, but I enjoy coming back to visit my parents; driving the quiet streets, seeing the smiling faces, and marveling at all the great new stores.

Yesterday, however, I experienced an entirely different atmosphere to the one I have grown so accustomed to. While waiting at the light at the top of Elm Street, on my way to my parent’s home just outside of town, there was a truck double parked outside of a store in the right lane unloading some merchandise. This meant that all traffic from the right hand lane had to merge into the left. The car in front me of (in the left lane) did not seem to want to let another car in. This angered the driver in the right lane, who jammed on his gas, dangerously cut off the driver in front of me, all the while waving his middle finger violently out the window. I was shocked to say the least. Was this my town? Were these my people? That was something I had become accustomed to in Hartford, where I went to college, but I had always known the people of New Canaan to be far more courteous, respectful, and all around gentile. Before I could overcome reeling from the shock, the driver with the finger, once successfully in the left hand lane, put his car in park, got out of his car, and SCREAMED at the driver in front of me, “DO YOU WANNA DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, C@CKS*CKER??” – I could not believe my ears or my eyes. The man was dressed in a suit. He had a beard. He could have been my dad.

I’m not writing this for a call to action, some sort of “alert the media”, or anything of the sort, I would just like to address my lovely, perfect little town that I cherish so much as a part of my childhood and say this: Slow down. Take a breath.

Be kind to each other.