Salient

Thank God For Parking Wardens

By Yvette McCullough | 26 May, 2008

Once upon a time late on a Wednesday afternoon, a girl (me) decided to park her car at the Stadium car park and not pay. Her naughtiness received its just desserts for the parking warden fairy left her a loving gift – a $45.00 ticket. Even with the bountiful supply of parks at that hour, the girl knew she had done very wrong and she smiled to herself thinking, “parking wardens deserve more credit. Where would we be without them?”

Where indeed! Parking wardens and tow trucks are the cities’ silent guardian angels. Can you imagine the state of our traffic if they were not there? It makes me shudder! The roads would be in chaos with human nature’s colours of selfishness running the show unsupervised. I don’t suppose you’ve ever thought when pulling into a park it is only free because a caring tow truck man has removed the greedy person parked illegally there before you.

Parking police are also protectors of justice and equality. Nothing grinds gears more than competitors with gross advantages over others. Like during lollie scrambles, a child’s size gives them unattainable advantages. You have the tall kids who hog the lollies – in car terms these would be your big 4WD’s or vans that take up one and a half car parks. And you also have the short kids who can get to the ground faster and into tinnier gaps to source out the sneaky lollies – this would be your mini or hatchback that can squeeze into the most debatable of parking spaces.

Just the threat of parking police wrath is enough to scare us into submission. And the moral of the story is this girl (me) has become a better person and will never be so selfish again. Next time you get a ticket or see a parking warden giving one, don’t hurl abuse or say “get a real job”, or even mumble “oh well can’t blame them, they’re just doing their job”. What you should do is go up and shake their hand – scrap that – go up and salute them for all their help!