I pulled into the driveway of the supermarket the same way I have every Sunday for the last five years or so.

I drove past the giant one-way sign pointing in my direction and headed up the ramp. I also knew that the signs hanging over me said: “Go back, you’re going the wrong way.” I’ve seen them dozens of times while returning my shopping carts.

As I passed over the giant white arrows painted on the blacktop — also facing the direction I was headed — I noticed a backed-in truck getting ready to pull out.

Now, I don’t judge people who back into parking spaces. Really, I don’t. Sure, I’ve heard the “I can get out easier” line many times. But, I’ve also sat behind someone doing an eight-point turn to back in while cars at all three corners of an intersection wonder exactly what’s happening. And if that’s considered easier, then I really don’t know what to say.

But, I wasn’t in any hurry, so I waved at the truck to pull out in front of me. I had no designs on his space, but it just seemed the neighborly thing to do.

So, imagine my surprise when instead of pulling out onto the one-way street, he turned and headed right at me. He then squeezed his truck past me so closely I had to quickly move over to the right.

I lowered my window and said, “You’re going the wrong way!”

He lowered his window and said, “You’re in the middle of the road!”

“It’s a one-way street!” I retorted, pointing at all of the signs.

He gave me the middle finger and then headed off down the one-way street going in the wrong direction.

People often ask me these days, especially in regard to this column, whether I think people are getting worse. And my answer is: “I don’t think they’re getting worse. But, I don’t think they’re getting better either.”

The example I use is the freeway. Freeways function because by and large people do what they’re supposed to do. When people merge onto them, other people let them in. When people put on a blinker, people let them go. When there’s a zipper situation (one car goes and then the other goes), most people most of the time do that. And it works. Sure, there’s a fear of getting caught doing the wrong thing, but on the freeway where people routinely pass when you’re going 70 miles per hour, I don’t think it’s the prime mover. I believe it’s because on some level or another, we all know that for it to work at all, we must all basically follow the same rules. So, we do.It’s not the same at a bar, a concert or even a public bathroom. There, people will cut right in front of other people all the time. The other night, I had to point out that someone was in front of someone else and the person responded with, “Well, he didn’t go,” to which I had to point out that the person in question was blind.

“I didn’t know,” said the cutter. “He should have said something.”

The blind person also had a speech impediment. So, there was that. And after that was pointed out to him, the cutter simply stormed off.

President John F. Kennedy once said in a speech, “Civility is not a sign of weakness.” And I believe he was correct. Society only works with civility. But civility is hard to regulate, especially in a country that regards freedom of speech so highly. You can’t mandate manners, and there’s that select few who think just because something isn’t mandated, then you don’t have to do it. And that is where we find ourselves these days. Just because you can say something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. My grandmother used to say, “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” And that’s still sound advice.

Later, when we left the grocery store, some security guards were clustered around a damaged cement pylon.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Someone going the wrong way hit it,” said one of the guards.

“He didn’t even stop,” said the other guard.

Being non-civil can sometimes catch up to you, as one guy in a red pickup truck is probably going to discover once they review that security camera footage.

Leaving me with these thoughts:

• Civility is a two-way street.

• “Be nice or leave” read a sign that hung over the door at the very first bar I ever worked in.

• “Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present,” once said President George Washington.

• “Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It’s the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos,” once said President George W. Bush.

• I’m reasonably sure that “I didn’t know” is going to be that truck driver’s excuse. Just call it a hunch.

Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com