it was no waste of time to start picking up the american idiom again : the advertisements , the new car models and the prices of second-hand ones in the used-car lots ; the exotic pungency of the road signs : soft shoulders - sharp curves - squeeze ahead - slippery when wet ; the standard of driving ; the number of women at the wheel , their menfolk docilely beside them ; the men 's clothes ; the way the women were doing their hair ; the civil defence warnings : in case of enemy attack - keep moving - get off bridge ; the thick rash of television aerials and the impact of tv on hoardings and shop windows ; the occasional helicopter ; the public appeals for cancer and polio funds : the march of dimes - all the small , fleeting impressions that were as important to his trade as are broken bark and bent twigs to the trapper in the jungle .