More nearside/offside

From: MR RICHARD T TRENK SR (GDWF22A(at)prodigy.com)
Date: Wed Sep 24 1997 - 21:45:18 CDT


John, you may be completely correct and your info. also reminded me
that going even further back into history.....
Men were and are generally right handed and in the days of sword play,
 they shook hands with the right hands to assure that no sword play
was going to occur.
Similarly, horsemen always passed "right side to right side" for this
same reason.

When horsedrawn chariots or wheeled coaches passed it was the same
and of course the English had that system in use from Roman times of
their occupation.
Naturally, when cars were invented and took to the UK roads, the
"drive on the left" system prevailed.

As I recall, back in France in WW-1 we had lots of English drivers
crashing their trucks, cars and ambulances due their difficulty with
the drive on right system used on the continent. I was once run down
by a Brit. driving a Rolls-Canardley model 4 one night near Verdun.
Fortunately only caused bruises and a gimp leg for a month. Could
have been worse as that model was very big and heavy as I recall. Got
me a nice vacation from the action though, so I had no complaints.
Dick T.



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