The power of kinetic communication

So there I was, taking the road out of Crowborough towards Jarvis Brook, when on my right I saw a workman in a yellow helmet frantically flapping his arms, with what appeared to be two hand made signs.

I intuitively slowed down and upon closer scrutiny was amazed to discover the workman was in fact, a kinetic mannequin.

Making the incident even more thought provoking and surreal was that the two cards being waved communicated a very bizarre message: "If you let everyone walk over you......you become a carpet!".

Anyway, regardless of that, I continued my journey homeward and began to smile. I liked that workman for some reason, and the fact he was arresting enough for me to slow down made me realize just how powerful his image was.

Then I remembered a similar incident that occurred to me many years ago,.

There were 4 of us (2 male, 2 female) crossing France on holiday to get to Switzerland, and had decided to drive at night to cut down travel time. We were in the vicinity of Dijon and I was driving along a straight empty road, when in front of me I suddenly saw an illuminated handsome Christopher Reevesesq road-worker waving his arms, desperately trying to slow me down, beside him an accompanying road sign warning of road works up ahead.

I thought I was dreaming, and spontaneously woke every one screaming and pointing to this brave superman who been deployed to slow traffic down in the middle of the night. As we slowed down, we then realized that he was, just like his mate in Crowborough, a moving mannequin.

It was surreal to say the least, but I did slow down!

We carried on, and after about an hour later, his twin brother was alerting us to another set of roadworks. The event then took a rather bizarre slant when one on my female companions said that she actually fancied him! She then said that if there was another one along the way, that she wanted me to stop the car and she she wanted to touch him. And hey presto, it was in no time at all that were all out the car examining the other triplet in complete darkness..

Sadly, it was a huge disappointment to the girls because only the face and hands really resembled a human, the rest of him was made up of canvas and alloy. So their fantasies immediately evaporated. But interestingly, every time I saw these guys I automatically slowed down.

So I am really surprised that this form of road communication hasn't been deployed in this country. Either as road warnings or any other attention grabbing grabbing situation.

Back to my new best mate in Crowborough, I'm looking forward to seeing what other strange message he has on his cards for me next time!