Comme Il Faut

[bcholmes]

Walking through the parking lot at the customer site the other day, I noticed that a car had left its headlights on.

When I was growing up, my father would commonly walk up to such cars, open the door, turn off the headlights, close the door and then continue walking. That was just The Right Thing To Do.

My car has doors that lock automatically when I wander away from it. But it also has headlights that turn off automatically.

Comments

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on all counts--except I remember when you'd just open the door, turn the lights off, and walk on. If I see the lights on in a mall parking lot, I'll take down the license plate number and see if the mall can announce the problem on a P.A. system. But I do find the whole thing symptomatic about how more security often means less help from other people.

Btw, we three discussed you when we talked about LJers we'd like to have write for here more often. Womzilla said, "She's spurty." Meaning you write a lot and then don't write for a while. But I still found the choice of words amusing.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I usually go into the building that the car is in front of and report it to whatever their closest approximation of a reception desk is.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I can't remember how old I was when I worked out the explanation of "Why is it that whenever you see a car with its lights on, its doors are locked?"

I still go over and try the doors, but haven't been able to help for years.

[tormenta.livejournal.com]

I'm young. It has never occured to me the doors could be unlocked.

Wow.

[purplesofa.livejournal.com]

The idea of opening a stranger's car door never occured to me either. How intrusive!

However, my family still does not lock car doors in their own driveway. For some reason, their little town feels safe from car theft. Now that I think about this, it's pretty dumb and the insurance company might have an opinion on it too.