Parking Violations

Trumbull, Connecticut takes great pride in its parks, for good reason: they are beautiful and inviting, and the residents love everything about them . . . except when people from other towns try to use them. Hence Draconian parking restrictions (I used to joke that you had to submit DNA along with soil samples from your backyard to qualify for a town parking pass) enforced to the letter, and woe be unto you if you dared challenge the $25 parking ticket.

Parking and taking guests to the pool created all kinds of community stress, and one summer I happened to notice a post on the Moms of Trumbull (MOTS) Facebook group from a woman whose brother was visiting from out of town. He was disabled and needed to drive his van to the pool, but when they went to the Recreation Department to get a guest pass (for the pool--there was no such thing as a guest pass for parking), the woman working the counter told him he wouldn't be able to park his van in the parking lot without getting a ticket. His sister turned to the Facebook group to figure out what to do; she just wanted to be able to take him and her nieces to the pool.

I thought of my brother and his wheelchairs and modified vans with their mechanical lifts and other equipment; I thought of my old boss who signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Reading that post made me really, really mad--mad enough to look up the specific rules about parking in the ADA and post a link to that section in a comment on the Facebook thread, along with my own commentary: he can park that van pretty much wherever he damn well pleases. Tell the park ranger to call me if he has any questions.

Later in the weekend, she posted a photo of her brother in his wheelchair watching his girls splash in the pool and said they didn't have a single issue with parking. That still makes me smile.

Here are this week's prompts from 642 Things:

Think of a time you stood up for a stranger. Write a 10-line story about what happened and why you intervened.

Describe the first time someone relied on you, and how you felt.

Describe a place you've been to that's least like your hometown and explain why.