The Parking Ticket Story

                                                         The Parking Ticket Story

                                                                      1955

                                                            Written 12/2016

                                                             Howard Yasgar

In 1955, I was 16 years old and I had just gotten my drivers license.

It was an exciting time as I also went out and bought my first car, it was a beautiful green, 1940 Ford convertible.

I immediately went to Henry’s Auto Parts, and I purchased the noisiest Hollywood muffler I could find.

Henry’s Auto Parts was kind of a hangout for lots of us young wannabe hot-rodder’s. He carried all kinds of cheap car parts that young kids like me would buy.

Henry sold all kinds of junky things like steering wheel knobs and fake pin stripping decals, and yes he sold Hollywood mufflers.

My hometown of Westville was a quiet suburb of New Haven, Connecticut, it was quiet until I started racing around with that loud Hollywood muffler my car.

On the way to downtown New Haven, Henry’s Auto Parts was Located on busy Whalley Avenue, on the corner of Orchard Street.

So whenever I had an extra dollar, I drove down to Henry’s Auto Parts, and once there I always walked up and down the isles, trying to find some additional item that could put on my car.

Whalley Avenue was a main street, so I always parked around the corner on the less traveled Orchard street.

I would always try to park as close as I could to the corner of Whalley Avenue, where Henry’s store was.

One day to my surprise the city had newly  installed parking meters right where I parked on Orchard Street.

While the installation of the new parking meters was quite a shock, I still parked where I usually parked, but this time I had to put a nickel (5 cents) into the meter for 1 hour.

The hour went by quickly, because inside Henry’s store, I met with other kids like me that came there to hang out and talk about their cars.

On the day that the meters were installed, I had put my 5 cents in the meter for one hour.

Then when I  remembered that my hour might be up, I ran out of Henry’s just in time to see the meter click and a red colored flag appeared in it’s window.

I had my nickel in my hand, ready to put in the meter for an additional hour, but I was too late.

Standing there with his foot on my bumper, was a big fat Irish New Haven cop with a bright red nose.

He was just writing me a parking ticket.

I was speechless, I couldn’t believe it was happening. that cop must have just been waiting there for my meter’s time to expire, just so he could write me a $5.00 parking ticket.

As he put the ticket under my windshield wiper, I pleaded with him.

look I said, I have the next nickel right here in my hand. I was running here to put it in just as the meter expired.

I couldn’t believe it, but the big fat cop appeared to be listening to me.

He said, I always see your car in the neighborhood, and you appear to be a nice kid.

I breathed a sigh of relief as he reached over and removed the ticket from under my windshield wiper. He then walked over the storm sewer, tore up the ticket and threw it in.

I was so relieved, he had just saved me a $5.00 parking fine, which was money that I didn’t have.                       

I said thank you officer, and I put my 5 cents into the meter and went back into Henry’s Auto Parts store.

Turns out, about 60 days later, I received a letter in the mail from the City of New Haven. I was being fined $25.00 for not paying my parking ticket on time.

That fat cop had only torn up my half of the ticket, he had turned in his half.