So I’m walking home from work today, minding my own business. I’ve just gotten off the PATH train from NYC to Hoboken, NJ and I’m strolling down the street on my home when this girl approaches me for help.
Ok, I’m thinking…here’s another tourist about to ask me directions to the PATH station or the comuter rail or some such thing…whatever. I guess I’ll help because that’s the kind of guy I am.
Instead she asks me:
“excuse me sir, could you parallel park my car for me?”
as she waves the keys to what I assume is her Toyota parked at an crazy ass angle 4 feet from the curb.
Park your car for you? Hobokens an ok town and all but cars are stolen from here and taken to Jersey City or Newark all the time. Do you want me to watch your appartment for you while you’re at school or work or whatever it is you do? I may have had to steal this car just to see the girls face as I tear down Washington Street.
Hey, before I moved the the city, I was a total moron at parallel parking. It wasn’t even on the driver’s test where I grew up, because of course everywhere you went in the 'burbs had a parking lot bigger than the store. I’d occasionally come into the big scary city by car and FREAK OUT if I couldn’t find a garage or lot. Several times, we had to change where we were going, because there was just no non-parallel parking nearby.
Once I moved here, it took me about an afternoon of sincere practice to get it. Now I can zip into a space with half an inch to spare.
Except once in a while, when I get hit by 1920’s Style Stupid Rays From Space. And the stupid…car…just…won’t…go…in!
But I’d change plans before asking someone else to park it for me. Not out of fear. Out of shame. Deep, deep, shame.
OK, the way she did it was a little presumptuous, but is it really that bad that she asked someone for help in a task that she couldn’t do? Something that would have taken up just a few minutes of your time? Maybe she has a little more trust in people than others, sense of community an’ all that?
But again she sounds like she pretty much expected it, which isn’t exactly friendly. And then maybe she was hitting on you.
I learned to drive in New York City, so parallel parking was as much a part of learning as, say, putting the car in gear.
Here’s a tip for the parking challenged (learned this years back when I had a job driving a truck):
If you’re parking on a commercial street (i.e., with storefronts), you can use the store windows as a mirror to see how well you’re fitting into the space.
A few years ago my brother (who, at 35, is 6 foot 3 inches, about 230 lbs. of solid he-man and when he grows out his 'stashe he looks like a Hell’s Angel) and my mom had stopped at a gas station to get gas. Across the lot, there was a little old lady was attempting to pull up in her enormous Cadillac to get gas, only she was having difficulty getting close enough to the pumps. And she was on the wrong side with her gas tank. After watching for a second or two while filling my mom’s gas tank, my brother (who is actually a very nice guy) goes over to the lady and offers to help her. She hands him the keys to her brand new Caddy (by this time, she’d gotten out of her car and was completely bemused at how to put gas into the tank on the opposite side of her car), and my brother pulls it around the right way, and fills the tank with gas as the lady chats away at him about how nice he is and how much she appreciates his help, etc. As my brother finishes filling the tank and caps it, and begins to go back to my mom’s car, the little old lady calls out to him, “Wait, honey, here I want you to take this.” And she hands my brother something. He smiles and thanks her and goes back to my mom.
“What did she give you?” my mom asked him. He opened his hand.
No…you don’t get it… I have no problem helping out. It’s just common sense should tell you that you don’t give a stranger the keys to your car in New York City, or even worse New Jersey! This isn’t Mayburry!
Seriously, how does she know I won’t just take her car and drive it to Newark? Because I dress preppy?
And no she wasn’t hitting on me. I know when a girl is hitting on me.
I remember watching my friend and his GF trade spaces when parking. Apparently she couldn’t parallel park worth a damn so they’d crawl over each other so he could park.
I have a back up sensor so parallel parking is easy for me.
This happened to me once in downtown DC. I was walking down the street around midnight with a few guy friends when a young woman pulled up and asked one of the guys to parallel park her car – ironically she was also driving a Toyota! Come to think of it, should I have been offended she didn’t ask me to parallel park her car? I mean, did she think I must not know how to parallel park because I’m a woman? Maybe she was trying to hit on my friend, or maybe she was just so desperate to parallel park and thought it was safe to ask a guy in a group. I guess there is no use in trying to make sense of someone who would give her car keys to a total stranger in the middle of the night, in DC of all places.
“You hold this spot, I’ve got to get lined up.” Then you drive off – around the block. If you want to be truly cruel, stop and wait on the opposite side of the block for a minute or two.
Then come back and park the car. Maybe she’ll learn a lesson.
What lesson would that be? That all people suck? Even in a big city, most people aren’t out to steal your car or mug you or rape you.
I’m sick of people treating me like shit just to teach me a lesson. WTF lesson? I should start treating people like shit too, just because it’s a cruel world, and I can?
“Oh, you left your wallet on the counter so I took all the money to teach you a lesson.”
“Thanks buddy! First chance I get I’m going to steal someone else’s wallet, just to teach them a lesson!”
It’s easy to teach someone how to parallel park-remove the pressure. A girl I was dating could not take her daughter out driving without having a hissy fit. I threw a dozen empty drywall buckets (don’t own cones) in the car, Lauren and I went to an empty parking lot, and I set up the buckets to simulate other cars, and she knocked them down. Many times. But she got better, mastered it, we laughed a lot, and she felt good having learned.
You could have really taken the ball and run with it msmith537. Put on your best dirty old man leer, and tell her there’s a bus in your pants and her garage is lookin’ good.
Yeah – that might have been the best thing to do, if you had time: teach her how to parallel park herself. Personally, I didn’t have to parallel park to get my license (in Califiornia in 1979), so I didn’t learn until I was in my early 20s and in the Navy. I was stationed in Newport, RI and often had to drive a Navy vehicle (piece-of-shit Gremlin, believe it or not). Unlike California, there are lots of places in RI and Connecticut where you need to parallel park. We always drove in pairs and took it in turn to drive, so if I was driving and we needed to parallel park, I’d have to ask my shipmate to switch places and park for me – they were all from eastern states and knew how. Finally, one guy said, “Nope, I won’t do it, but I’ll teach you to do it.” And he did, right there, no problem. I think of Darrel whenever I need to parallel park.
But it wouldn’t have even occurred to me to get out of the car and ask a stranger to park for me! What an odd thing to do. Did you do it for her?
My 18 year old so doesn’t know how to parallel park – I’ll have to teach him before he leaves home. he would be mortified if a young, cute girl asked him to park her car and he didn’t know how.
And I thought (holding my finger and thumb 3 inches apart) this much was 8 inches.
Maybe she was trying to hit on my friend, or maybe she was just so desperate to parallel park and thought it was safe to ask a guy in a group. I guess there is no use in trying to make sense of someone who would give her car keys to a total stranger in the middle of the night, in DC of all places.