Folks here in Sun City Center, FL, are sometimes too nice. I do appreciate their courtesies and good manners, but sometimes it’s time-consuming.

You approach a four-way stop corner and the rule says the car on the right has the right of way, but not here. If you’re a woman, you get to go first, at least that’s how the guys feel. So we all sit there waiting to cross the intersection. Everyone waits. Maybe we should get out and compare i.d.’s to see who is the oldest, who is female and who is male. And what do we do when encountering a 90-year-old male driver, if you’re a female in your 60’s? If age earns respect, do you give him the respect he deserves, or do you let him feel gallant and manly.

Same for doors… Men open them for women here – ALWAYS! That’s fine; but if you’re a woman, and you’re ahead of an older woman, I was taught you should open the door for her. Down here, often the opener is confronted by an openee who feels that it’s somehow demeaning and you’re treating them as infirmed. And as mentioned above, no matter how old a man is, he wants to show his respect for a woman, while I have been taught to defer to those who are noticeably older.

Grocery store carts are a problem at the corners in the store, sort of like four-way stops. But somehow it’s even worse. You all stand there waiting for someone to go ahead. Few collisions but sometimes it’s difficult to stay sane.

In Florida, marked pedestrian crossings have the right of way, but what if you’re close to the curb’s edge and there’s no crosswalk? It’s not unusual to have a driver stop mid-block and wait for you to cross, even if crossing the street at that time wasn’t your intent.

Sometimes the courtesies slow down the already leisure pace of life. Of course, is refreshing, but a bit of a challenge in our adjustment to Florida life-style.