Where we used to live in The Villages, Florida, everyone’s second car is a golf cart. Some put a bumper sticker on their car bumper to proudly say it …
Some residents play golf and drive their golf cart exclusively on golf courses. Others, like Robert and me, drove our golf cart any time, any and everywhere, and especially loved going on what we called, ‘our adventures’.
There are all sorts of golf cart paths throughout town that will take you wherever you need, or want, to go. There are cute little tunnels, too, that go under the major roadways to even more golf cart paths [and adventures].
Needless to say, nearly everything, i.e., banks, shopping centers, restaurants, grocery stores, even drive-throughs, are all accessible to The Villagers’ second cars.
Okay, that being said, there are two types of golf carts there: gas and battery-operated. The battery-operated, also called electric, will go between 25 and 40 miles on a full charge.
Robert and I had a battery-operated model —it came with the house we bought and we loved it and even named ours, ‘Lucy’. Some of the most wonderful conversations can be had, because Lucy’s motor was totally silent and she didn’t smell like the gas models do.
Sadly, neither of us is mechanically inclined. At the time our ‘dumb moment’ happened, we were newbies to The Villages.
We had just gone down into a tunnel and hit a couple of bumps when, “WHAAA-WHAAA!” Slack-jawed and wide-eyed, we stared at each other in horror.
What an awful sound! What was that? Oh dear, is there something wrong with Lucy?
We drove on in silence. After another mile or so, we came to a curvy section on the golf cart path with maybe two or three deep curves.
The first curve: “WHA-WHAAA!”
The second: “WHAAA-WHAAA!”
The last: Total quiet.
We exchanged a quick glance, wondering what was causing the sound, but mostly, why the sound was intermittent.
There was another golf cart coming towards us and we waved them over to ask if they had heard a sound like that from their golf cart.
“No. Can’t say we’ve ever heard THAT before.”
[Hmmm … were they snickering?]
Thanking them, we continued on our way. It happened a few more times before we got to our destination, definitely more often on bumps and curves.
After one last “WHAAA-WHAAA!”, Robert pulled off the cart path into the grass and called Mike at the golf cart service station we use.
After Robert described the sound, there was only silence on the other end of the line — a very long silence.
Then Mike said, “Ya know, I think you’re hitting the horn and that’s what the sound is.”
“No, Mike. We don’t HAVE a horn. Our steering wheel only has a clip on it, you know, for holding a score card for golfers.”
[Dead silence … again]
“Well, I’ll tell ya what Look down on the floor, behind and to the left of the brake pedal. What do ya see?”
“I see a silver metal button, like the high beam button we used to have in cars when I was young.”
[coughing and clearing his throat … probably from laughing.]
“Mr. Cosmar, THAT is the horn. You’ve had your foot near that button and on bumps and curves, you’re hitting it.”
“[sigh] Thanks, Mike.” That was nearly six years ago now. We bring it up every now and again to have a good laugh.
THAT was our dumbest moment.