While sitting at the stoplight Sunday, waiting for my left turn to get to the parking lot of the Gas Station Chicken Store, I hung my handicap placard from T-Hoe's mirror. It proved to be a good move. There was a guy on a big motorcycle sitting in my rightful handicap space beside the store. He looked over his shoulder, saw me coming, and started up his hog and drove away. Looped up and around the diesel pumps, and then out onto the road at the stoplight.
When I left there and continued over to 10Box, a black pickup truck backed out of the closest handicap spot right in front of me. I actually had to slam on the brakes. I don't know if that guy's woman in the passenger seat gave him bad info that the coast was clear, or if neither of the bothered to look. Anyhoo... I had to back up to allow him room to steer his truck along the area in front of the store. I then pulled into the space he vacated. It's one of the two there with the sign saying VAN ACCESSIBLE. The single space at the Backroads Casey's says that as well. Makes no nevermind to me. I rarely see a van parked in them. It's not exclusive to vans.
Anyhoo... I went inside and did my shopping. When I came out, I decided to put my five bags in the passenger seat area of T-Hoe, rather than in the rear. Easier to get out once I get home. As I was stowing away the last bag, another black pickup truck stopped in the driving lane. Huh. Maybe they were waiting for me to leave.
That's not my problem. I was there first. I am not an Olympic sprinter. I have to wheel the cart back to the front of the store, and hobble to T-Hoe's driver's door to get in. While I was doing that, the black pickup truck revved the engine a bit, then proceeded to pull into the empty handicap space on T-Hoe's left. It was perhaps six feet farther away. That being the width of the striped walkway between the two handicap parking spaces.
Since that truck had parked, and was no longer waiting, I used my time to write down my purchase in my checkbook register. The driver of the black pickup truck got out. Came around and opened the passenger door. Then went to the back. I'm no psychic, but her movements seemed to indicate that she was perturbed. Yet I clearly had my handicap placard hanging from T-Hoe's mirror. I was as entitled as she.
THEN the driver pushed a wheelchair up to the passenger door, and a tween/young teen got into it. The driver pushed him into the store. Again, not my problem. I have my placard entitlement to a handicap space. I can't see into the future to leave a closer handicap space for someone pushing a wheelchair. It's not like the kid had to do the shopping. The kid could have stayed home, or waited in the truck playing games on his phone.
Sorry/not sorry that I didn't rush to get into T-Hoe and vacate that parking space. I might have fallen if I rushed. Besides, there was no room to back out when that driver was parked there waiting.
I refuse to be handicap-shamed for something that I was not guilty of.
I sure hope the lady driving that pickup truck wasn't putting pressure on you to leave sooner than you planned to leave. She got a handicapped parking space a little more distance from the store but the hard part is getting that wheelchair out of the pickup, not wheeling someone into the store.
ReplyDeleteThere is no other reason she would park her truck there in the driving lane, blocking traffic, with an empty handicap space next to T-Hoe. She was wanting me to make a quick exit. The moment she saw me start walking the cart back to the sidewalk, she should have known that would not be the case.
DeleteI don't blame her for wanting the closest space. When I have encountered all handicap spaces full, and not a regular space available close enough that won't result in my door being blocked... I drive on by, park where I can watch for when a car leaves, and then go park there. I don't sit like a vulture, inconveniencing other drivers.
The kid's chair was mounted on the rear bumper of the truck. A motorized chair. I'm not implying that the kid had no right to go into the store with her. Only that there were solutions to her apparent disgruntledness about not getting my parking space immediately.
You shouldn't feel the need to get out of the way! You are in the right, with your placard displayed. The driver of the truck should be thankful that she was able bodied!
ReplyDeleteShe should be thankful there was an empty space next to me, just waiting for her! Maybe she didn't see my placard swinging from the mirror. Maybe she was judging me from T-Hoe's regular license plate, and wanted to give me a stern talking-to, then saw the placard, and her vitriol was spoiled.
DeleteI cannot imagine the impatient people. I hope the woman is more patient with the kid.
ReplyDeleteYes, I hope so, too!
DeleteYou did the right thing, being handicapped yourself and of course you had no way of knowing there was a wheelchair child involved. The driver of the other truck could have come and asked if you were going to be there much longer and explained his reasons. On the other hand he only ended up an extra six feet away, so that's not like way across the parking lot.
ReplyDeleteI can only move as fast as I can move. Once she had parked, I had no reason to leave immediately. She had her spot. I know it's hard to get that wheelchair off the truck bumper everywhere she goes. But she didn't really even "push" the kid once he got in. More like walking along with a hand on it, being motorized. So the extra six feet was not such a hardship.
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