Sheepville

Most crosswalk buttons I remember were just that, buttons. Seattle has these huge steel domed "buttons". I thought at first maybe it was because people out here just had really bad aim since they killed all of their wildlife ages ago and can't practice shooting furred critters anymore. It's actually to give the "button" a chance to survive more than a week. I'm not sure if it's because the people out here are idiots or nuts (since this is a breeding ground for serial killers, I think it's more of the latter) but they can't handle a crosswalk button. I'm on my ten minute walk home last night waiting at a major crosswalk at the train station, and this average middle aged white collar white guy with a briefcase tries to operate the crosswalk button. You would think people would only push it once, maybe twice, just in case one of the other 75 people standing around hadn't already pushed it. No; he starts pounding on this button like my wife trying to put salmon in a can, and he continues to do so for the next 20 seconds until the light changes. I start thinking about Michael Douglas in the movie "Falling Down" and figure if he opens that briefcase, I'm jumping over the wall down to the tracks. This guy is destined to chop up his wife and kids one day and carry a gun to work and start shooting people. Probably the day after a trip home where a crosswalk button didn't work and put him over the edge.

The sad thing is this is a common...very common occurance in Seattle. What you would think might be otherwise intelligent people, just bang away on these crosswalk buttons. Usually not 20 seconds until the light changes, but "average" would be about 6 to 8 hard bangs on the things. Not a push, but beaten with the palm of their hand. I dunno, maybe they designed these things that way so people could have an outlet so more of them didn't turn into serial killers.