Eric Jackel

To the editor:I've been a frequent visitor to the North Conway area for 30 years, and my family lives nearby in Glen. I was in town this past weekend, and had an extremely bad and somewhat humiliating experience involving a traffic guard that I felt should be shared with the people whose taxes are paying the salaries of these employees.It was Friday afternoon, and I was attempting to cross Route 16 at the crosswalk near Kearsarge Road. Unaware that the traffic personnel also cross people at the intersection, I waited for a break in the line of cars and proceeded across on my own. In all honesty, I thought they were just there to direct cars, not people."Get Back!" was the next thing I heard, accompanied by a dirty look and an accusative pointing finger. I looked at this kid, somewhat in disbelief, for a moment. He repeated, in an even harsher tone, "Get Back!" and took a couple of steps in my direction. "Get back?" I replied. "You know, you could be a little nice about it."This was meant as a suggestion but instead proved to be a mistake, and appeared to anger him even more. He proceeded to tell me, "This is my crosswalk, and I can do whatever I want!" Clearly I had touched a nerve. "If you have a problem, there's a police officer right over there," he added. I shrugged, not wanting to cause any further trouble, and returned to the curb. The guard then proceeded to get on his radio and called the officer over anyway.The officer, who was on bike patrol, was very kind. I simply told him what had happened and explained to him that I didn't think it was appropriate to be spoken to that way. He agreed, and essentially apologized for the young man's behavior. "It's hot out here," the officer said, "and you're probably not the first person he's had to deal with today." I was appreciative of his attention to the situation and thought he handled things very well. It was, however, witnessed by several other people, and I felt quite humiliated standing there talking to a police officer when it was obvious to everyone in sight that he'd been called over to deal with me. ( A half hour after the incident, another man came up and asked me what had happened, so I know that several people were witnessing this debacle.)Afterwards, I became more angry and wished I had at least gotten this young man's name so that I could have filed some kind of formal complaint. He didn't exactly put the "civil" in "civil servant."I wonder how you, the townspeople, feel about this kid telling visitors, "This is my crosswalk!" when you're the ones who pay not only for the crosswalk, but his salary as well. I understand that I unknowingly made the mistake of crossing on my own, but there's no signage to indicate that these guards are serving any other purpose than traffic management. Regardless, I don't feel people should be spoken to that way, with a lack of decency.And most of all, I wonder if other people have had White Mountain vacations marred by some smart-aleck kid who's had a summer job manifest into some kind of white glove, orange vest power trip. So much for mountain hospitality, I guess.