I Could Just Scream

I was in Coolidge Corner the other day for a doctor’s appointment. This is an area of the city where I’ve spent a good deal of time over the years.

It’s changed radically since the ‘80s when I lived nearby. It was slightly funky then -- there was a large and tremendous head shop just off Beacon on Harvard Street, a fab, down to earth, kosher deli with THE BEST kasha known to mankind, an Emack and Bolio’s ice cream shop (before they got famous-ish), my fav bookstore Brookline Booksmith, the fabulouso Coolidge Corner Movie House where I could see second run foreign and oddball films like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 8½ and Eating Raoul for cheap.

The area was safe, fun and comfortable. That changed. The Booksmith and the movie theater are still there but everything else has been replaced by chain stores like Baby Gap, Bruegger's and Starbucks, The Body Shop and ultra posh, prohibitively expensive ‘vintage’ jewelry and frock emporiums.

I miss the old place.

In any case, I parked Horace the Silver Beetle in one of those lots where there’s a central parking ticket dispenser. You put the ticket on your dash for the parking SWAT team members to see. I did. Upon returning, post doc visit, I found a $25 parking ticket under my windshield. I was, of course, stunned. According to my receipt, sitting right there in the front window, I should’ve had 20 more minutes before I was nail-able. I looked at the reason noted on the ticket. In a scrawl worthy of Frankenstein all tweaked out on meth, it said ‘receipt must be face up on dash.’ Mind you, I’m reading this AS I’M STARING AT MY FACE UP PARKING RECEIPT!!!

Protest this? Sure -- I’d love to BUT I didn’t have my camera (doh!), my cell phone camera was crapped out (merde!) and, even with this evidence, the parking fascists could easily say ‘Hey, your word against ours. You could have just flipped the receipt over to take that pic.’

Mega sigh.

The whole reason I drove into town instead of taking the trolley was because it’s actually cheaper to drive...as long as you don’t get a bullshit, someone’s got a quota to meet today, parking ticket.