It's hard to dislike people if they're nice to you
All right. I admit it. I met the parking checker, and he isn't as evil as I wanted him to be.
At the risk of sounding sort of ridiculous, a little background:
There are several places where I and fellow Gazette staffers park while we're at work each day. One spot is on Parker Place, where there's all-day free diagonal parking. Another is in the lot across Milwaukee Street from the Gazette building. The Gazette has its own lot as well, but you pretty much have to sign your life over to the company to get a spot in there.
Most days, I end up just parking on Milwaukee Street, next to our side employee entrance. It's convenient, because the door is right there, and I tend to get to work at the last second. (Hey, it's 5:30 a.m., OK? Punctuality is more difficult when you're basically asleep at the wheel.)
Anyway, the spot on Milwaukee Street is convenient, yes, but you're only supposed to park there for an hour.
The rules kick in at 8 a.m., and I always have every intention of moving my car, but inevitably we get busy here in the morning and suddenly it's 11:30 and I've forgot all about it.
Eleven and a half months out of the year, the police don't bother to check how long we've been parked there. But all of a sudden, like two weeks ago, they decided to start.
So recently I've gotten a few parking tickets. I won't say how many; it doesn't matter.
(OK, four.)
So when I walked out there on Tuesday and saw the parking checker standing at the car in front of mine, I almost didn't even want to talk to the guy. But I raised my head, walked up to him and asked if I could move my car before he wrote me a ticket.
"Oh, sure! No problem," he said.
Um... I had expected a much more gruff response.
"I think I got this car a few times," he continued, chuckling. "Yeah, I used to live in Madison and I used to get parking tickets all the time up there. Don't worry about it. Have a good day!"
I just sort of stood there, blinking, trying to figure out if this guy was for real. Here was the parking checker making me feel better for a problem that was entirely and utterly my own fault. I had braced for at least a good lecture. I mean, come on. Maybe he was an impostor, I thought to myself.
I wanted this guy to be a jerk so I could dislike him. And he was quite the opposite. And his kindness saved me a little embarrassment.
(Although, now anyone in the world can read this post and admonish me. Oh well, I deserve a talking to, even if it is from a guy in Zimbabwe.)
So, thanks, Mr. Parking Checker, sir. And you'll be happy to know that today I remembered to park in one of those free diagonal spots.
Aug 21, 2008 at 7:58 p.m.
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i live in beloit which has alternate side parking between 12am and 7 am. even side even day odd side odd days and trust me @ midnite the parking enforcers are out working their beat.
Aug 21, 2008 at 8:27 a.m.
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lakennedy: That sucks. I know how that goes. I had similar issue when I was at school at UW-Milwaukee.
Also, the first apartment I ever had, on Farwell Avenue in Milwaukee, was on a block with METERS. So that made things almost impossible. And at the time, my car was technically still owned by my dad, so it had Minnesota plates, and so I couldn't get a permit to bypass the meters from the city of Milwaukee.
It took me a few years to get used to it all. Saint Paul, where I grew up, has relatively few parking rules. I could leave my car on nearly any street for as long as I wanted without any trouble...
Aug 21, 2008 at 7:24 a.m.
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I'm glad to hear a positive story regarding a parking enforcer. I have yet to have such an experience with one. I'm up in Madison a lot of the time, and am constantly waging a "silent war" against the parking enforcers. It all started with a situation pretty similar to the one you wrote about, Adam. Only when I asked if I could move my car, the "enforcer" said: "You sure can! But, here, make sure you take your ticket with you and have a nice day." From that point, it was on. Everyday that I'm on campus, I walk along Langdon Street right outside the Memorial Library. This is an excellent area to park, but you have to be able to get to your parking meter every two hours, or else you WILL get a ticket. The "enforcers" there are the very definition of punctual. Anyways, everyday that I'm at school and have extra change, I wait until I see the "enforcer" show up, and I go in. I wait until he/she approaches a vehicle, looks at the meter to confirm that it is expired, and at that very moment, I put in two quarters. The "enforcers" just stare at me. Then I sit down and study for a couple of minutes, and follow the "enforcer" to the next car they're about to write a ticket for, and throw in a couple more coins. At this point, it is all worth it. The "enforcer" now understands that it isn't my car I'm protecting, but that I'm actually willing to donate my change to what I believe is a very worthy cause: annoying him or her. I'm not sure that they're actually ever annoyed. I do like to think they are, though.
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And yes, I understand that they are just doing their jobs. The original offending "enforcer" was just such a (you choose your favorite expletive), that I can't help myself. I'm searching for that perfect day when I run into him again at the meter.
Aug 20, 2008 at 8:46 p.m.
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Thanks for the article. I am sure there are lot of us that have been there. Yes, I have, so I had to chuckle!
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