July 1, 2015 Article

The Old Coot is running around in circles (counterclockwise).

By Merlin Lessler

I walked the half-mile loop at Hickories Park the other day. In a counterclockwise direction. The arrow on the pathway instructs you to go the other way (clockwise). It’s a safety thing. They want you to face traffic as you go around since cars share the loop with pedestrians, skaters and bicyclists. Most of us ignore the arrow and walk with traffic at our back. It just feels wrong to walk around a circle in a clockwise direction. I wonder why?

All track meets have the runners going counterclockwise, same with roller and ice rinks, horse tracks (except in Europe) and auto races. Any activity that goes around in a circle goes counterclockwise. Is this a right-handed thing? Do left-handed people feel uncomfortable going counterclockwise?

Or, is it a Northern Hemisphere thing, like water going out of the bathtub swirling in a counterclockwise direction as it goes out the drain. When you cross the equator into South America, the swirl goes the other way. It’s the same thing with hurricanes. The wind swirls around the eye counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s called the Coriolis Effect. The planet makes it happen that way. I guess it affects us too.

It won’t matter in a few decades; today’s kids won’t know what clockwise or counterclockwise means. All the clocks they are growing up with are digital. Tighten a bolt by turning it clockwise and loosen it by turning it counterclockwise? That instruction won’t mean a thing. Righty-tighty and lefty loosey will replace it. The transformation has already begun. 

The signs for circular tracks, rinks and the like won’t ever instruct users to go in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction; they will have to say, “Walk with your left (or right) foot closest to the center of the circle. Or, they’ll paint arrows on the pavement like that at Hickories Park. It doesn’t really matter. Everybody, except maybe lefties, only feel comfortable walking in a counterclockwise direction so that’s the way they will go. We’re a counterclockwise species. If you’re rolling your eyes by now, check the mirror to see in which direction they roll. I bet they are rolling in a counterclockwise direction. Or, to say it in modern terms, “Lefty loosey!”