Thursday, July 19, 2007

Really?

On my way into work this morning, a young woman stopped me on Main Street and asked where the courthouse was. I am very accustomed to this question because people often get confused between the federal and county courthouses, particularly because they are within two blocks of each other. She was holding a copy of a traffic citation so I pointed further down Main Street and told her the county courthouse was just in the next block. She said thanks and went on her way.

After a few steps, she turned and looked at me again. We had the following conversation:

Woman: Do you know what happens if you don't put money in those things?

Me: You mean the parking meters?

Woman: Yeah.

Me: They give you a ticket.

Woman: Really? Do you have to pay it?

Me: Um, yeah.

I have spent most of the morning trying to understand how a person does not know you have to put money in the parking meters.

3 comments:

Common Sense Dude said...

I too am sometimes aghast as to how incompetent people can be. The ticket thing I can understand she might have mistook that for a "warning" ticket. But parking meters; if they didn't expect you to pay for parking, then why put up parking meters. Duh!

Billy Dennis said...

I am surprised by nothing.

My job often requires me to get people's zip code and/or area code. I am amazed at how many people do not know the difference. And I am NOT talking about a momentarty lapse. There are people who Do. Not. Know. About. Zip. Codes.

Anonymous said...

I worked for a subprime lender in Florida, doing refinances, 2nd mortgages, things like that. I couldn't believe some of the things people didn't know. Examples:
Employer's telephone number
Income
Social Security Number
Full name of employer