There is proably nothing more universal than the experience of hearing a cool tune in your car, turning up the dial and singing at the top (or bottom) of your lungs in unison with a song. We do this all the time by ourselves as a likely stress reliever but also just because that particular song gives joy on some level. Car singing is the same as shower singing without the fortunate acoustics high-ceilinged bathrooms provide. We all think we could become Christina or Nelly if someone could just hear us in our showers! However, cars are a different matter because once you start singing, you’re never alone. Occasionally while you’re in the midst of belting out “Ain’t No Other Man”, you’re jolted into the reality that there is another passenger in the car because they always start singing with you – out of the blue.

Shit, you’re thinking. Did I ask her to start singing with me? No. Just when it was you who decided to sing that tune because you knew the words or the song recalled some fun distant memory, your vehicular passenger suddenly becomes the other half of Wilson-Phillips. It is the most irritating thing in the world. If I had wanted my passenger to sing with me, I might have said “hey, do you want to sing this song together?” But do you think anybody would say that? No. They would not. Singing in the car is a personal thing, it’s never meant as an invitation to Camp Wewonka’s fun car sing-along. So as the tandem singing of my off-note seat-mate starts to bother me, I’ll inevitably stop singing. And. Then. They. Stop. Singing. So I’ll decide to start singing again because I like the song. And. Then. They. Start. Singing. I’ll stop. They stop. I’ll start back up. They start back up. It is a fact that if you start singing in the car, your seat-mate will inevitably start singing with you without any prior notice. And when you stop singing, they will stop singing as well. I know this does not happen for bonding purposes but why it happens I have no idea. Safety in numbers? I know this irritation occurs to everyone and if I were rich, I would offer a healthy reward to the person who comes up with the best line ever to hush Karen over there trying to keep with you and your version of “Big Girls Don’t Cry”.

I think I’ll probably just stop singing in the car when other people are present. Best to take that circus in the shower.