Q:I park my car in a suburban street close to a local shopping centre while I do my shopping. The spot is under a shady tree in front of a particular house. Last Saturday,I found a note on my windshield asking me not to park there anymore. Are they just protectingtheir parking spot?
K.B.,Highton,Vic
A: Of course they are. We’ve all done it. Glared through our front window at a car parked in front of our home and mumbled,“It’s that car again! In my spot! I should write a note. One day. But for now,I’ll just let that empty parked car feel the wrath of my glare-energy for a solid three minutes. Grrrrrrrr!”
It’s because we feel as if we own those front-of-house parking spots:that’s our disgracefully unmown nature strip,our withered,dying shade-tree,our oil stain on the bitumen from a 2007 Subaru with an anal-leakage problem. Hey,I won’t lie:I’ve been a park-protecting house-jerk myself. The same car used to park in front of my house every time I drove off,even if I was gone for just 10 minutes (I think it was waiting for me to leave,hiding behind a shrub across the street).
Then I’d have to park in front of a neighbour’s house,which meant the neighbour would have to park in front of another neighbour’s house,which meant we wound up with a whole street
of people,glaring out of front windows,thinking,“I should write a note. One day. Meantime … grrrrrr!”
But what all park-protecting house-jerks need to remember is,any driver can park in any legal spot on any public street – and leaving a note on a windshield is pathetic and ineffectual;it should be ignored.
My park-protecting solution was way more effective:I just stopped leaving my house. I won.
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