"She Took My Place!"

This afternoon (11/26/12) as I was walking in a parking lot to my car, a large gray SUV driven by a 40 ish woman with her 10 ish daughter sitting next to her, was idling the engine. In this busy parking lot there was a parking place.

But with no turn signal clicking from this SUV, a young woman in a small gray sports car took the place apparently unaware this other woman wanted it, just as I too was unaware. Suddenly the SUV horn blared long and loud as its driver had a tantrum.

Her window was down and I asked her what was wrong. "I have a lot of things I have to do," she replied. "And she took my place! I was waiting for it and I was here first!" I knew instantly her sense of being wronged was really what this was about.

The young woman in the small sports car had frozen when the SUV horn blared and she was only partially into the parking place and blocking traffic. I motioned her into the place and she pulled into it, as I began speaking to the 40 ish woman.

With a soft smile, I looked into her eyes and said, "This is not that big a thing. And remember, you are setting an example for your daughter." I told her I was about to pull out of my parking place and she was welcome to it. I also gently touched her left shoulder, which seemed to have a calming influence on her.

I motioned her to follow me and she did. As I was pulling out, she began pulling into what had been my parking place and I smiled and waved goodbye to her. Crisis solved.

I hope she learned a lesson from what happened about controlling her temper and setting a better example for her daughter.

Dick