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Your wife actually speaks to you in that disrespectful tone? In any event, I park like that all the time. I HATE backing blind into traffic, even with a camera. However I’d never heard the term “grannie parking” before but I have heard “that’s such a man thing”.
She was just teasing.
I’m not sure exactly what you man by “before-times”. At first, I thought you meant pre-COVID, but I’ve been driving in a place where nearly all parking is parallel parking since the 1980s - and curbscrapers have never been common.
I believe the before-times ended with the demise of whitewall tires in the 1970s. Even then, I believe curb scrappers were just an after market accessory like fuzzy dice.
Old timer but who is ignorant of curb feelers here.
How do they work? Do they just make a scraping noise? Is it loud enough to hear?
Were they supposed to prevent scuffing of those giant-ass white walls?
As a kid, I always figured contacting the curb closed a circuit and lit a light on the dash. I guess I was an engineer even then.
They just make a “nails on a blackboard” sound that’s impossible to miss. Wheels back then often had protruding hubcaps that could also be damaged by curbs whose heights weren’t as standardized as they are today.
And as the feelers were attached to the metal of the vehicle the vibrations transmitted nicely into the interior.
Todays alloy wheels can get severely damaged scraping against curbs. Those feeler dodads worked great.
OK, alright. ( Full instigator mode on ) After following this ever elongated thread with interest I just can’t ignore the enormous brightly colored elephant in the room…snicker snicker.
The OP’s poster desiring to keep the peace notwithstanding, I’m eager to hear said OP poster’s wife’s view/reaction to 167 posts, several from Michigan, that said posters have never heard of the term “granny parking”. “Everyone knows” indeed. 
What are you talking about, BrickBat? I thought this was a thread about curb feelers 
I always thought it was “Cop parking”.
And was asked if I was a cop when I drove a white Crown Vic…and yes I backed in ALWAYS at Starbucks because those caffeine deprived souls are B. S. crazy (<<==scientific term) before they get their coffee for themselves and their masses of co-dependents that they are texting on their phone while driving through the S’bucks parking lot.
I started parking that way at school decades ago because it was so much easier to get out when students are all walking by. Since I’m usually one of the first in the parking lot, it is no problem to take a wide looping turn until I can reverse into my spot against the wall. Since I started doing it a number of other teachers have as well.
And I’ve NEVER heard the term “granny parking” until this thread.
One place I really appreciate back-in parking is at a large concert or other event where everybody is scrambling to get out of the jam-packed parking lot at the same time.
I’ve never heard the term ‘granny parking’.
Roads and car parks tend to be smaller in the UK, so it’s often desirable to park facing out* to not give yourself a headache later.
This way of parking has no name that I am aware of though.
* I’m currently living on a street that has the wonderful combination of being a 15 degree incline and also a main city artery during rush hour. When I get home after work, I go into the driveway forwards because backing in while the road is busy would be a nightmare. Then, last thing before I go to bed, when the road is finally quiet, I go out and “granny park” it.
Thankfully I’m just staying there for a few weeks.
English isn’t my native tongue, so my saying that I have never heard the term “granny parking” will not count for much, but I haven’t.
I back into parking spots whenever possible, it’s so much easier to get out, and with routine, no more difficult than going in nose first.
Times I deem it not possible, is when there is much traffic in the parking lot or diagonal parking in an one-way street.
I will always pull through whenever possible, even when it means I will have to walk a longer distance.
This describes my practice almost perfectly, except I wouldn’t quite agree with, “and with routine, (backing in is) no more difficult than going in nose first”.
I’ve practiced backing in hundreds of times and have gotten much better at it. But nosing in is generally easier
But I still back in.
Semi trailer trucks always back in to load/unload. When I worked in a warehouse, I’d often see even experienced drivers sawing back and forth to line the trailer up with the door. Then when it came time to leave, they drive right out. It occurred to me that if businesses would paint a line out from the door, and curve it around so it’s parallel to the door, a driver could set his rear tires on the line and just follow it around to the door.
In my town “granny parking” is required on the main drag for a few blocks. I mean legally required - all the parking spots on both sides of the road are angled backwards. Signs tell you to pull ahead of the spot and back into it. The only way to park head first would be to cut across the other lane and make a 140° left turn.