Ever parallel park a stranger's car for them?

I admit, I love reading the Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times. It makes me homesick, but I still eat it up.

I just read one about how, back in 1963, a stranger parallel parked a lady's car because she was having trouble.

I've come close. Freshman year of college I came across a girl trying to un-parellel park her Saab 900. She was parked on the hill in front of my dorm and wasn't making progress. I guess I looked like I knew how to drive stick. Truth be known, I didn't have a car back then so I would have been fairly out of practice. She asked, so how I could I say no? I got in, figured out the little collar required to slip the lever into reverse, and totally pulled it off. Whew.

Anyone else?

I backed up a lady's trailer today. Watched her turn the wrong way and jackknife twice before I offered.

Tried not to mansplain how to do it...just said it's not easy if you haven't done a lot of it.

Not a stranger but I parallel parked my moms car for her from the time I was 14. Most times she could pull in but occasionally someone would have the spot behind her and she couldn't do it. Dad showed me how so I could do it for her.

After I tried (& failed) to direct a Chinese lady in a Lexus out of a snowy parking spot at the mall during the pre-Christmas rush, she put the thing in Park, got out, and basically ordered me to do it for her. Being Canadian, I chose to assume that her language and courtesy skills were a bit lacking because of stress rather than natural ignorance.

I had to REGULAR park a car once. It was for a older lady who must have been visiting family. I believe she was Chinese but it could have been any of China's neighbors.

Anyway, I am walking out of the local library and she had managed to get the car most of the way out of the spot but had hooked her passenger side front bumper on the older Wrangler next to her. The driver's door wouldn't open because she had somehow gotten too close to the car on the other side as well. It was a sight.

I had slowed my walk to inspect the situation and she flagged me down. Asked if I would help through a series of hand motions and very basic English. I proceeded to crawl over the center console, pull back into the space, then backed out in a normal fashion. Got out and she said thank you and drove off.

At the moment I had two thoughts. First, I could have easily car jacked her and likely she wouldn't be able to describe me past the basic tall white American, I would never do such a thing though. Then, more worrisome, is that lady is now out on the road. She almost certainly doesn't have a license in any country and I may have just enabled an accident. I didn't see anything on the news though so likely she made it where she needed to go.

Stealthtercel wrote: Being Canadian, I chose to assume that her language and courtesy skills were a bit lacking because of stress rather than natural ignorance.

I love that "being Canadian" is enough to describe your mental situation. If I said "being American" it would likely make people think I rode a 4 wheeler in wearing an American flag t-shirt, eating a cheese burger, and carrying an AR15. Maybe that is just how I see other countries seeing us.

I once helped a person get the ignition key out of a borrowed 70's vintage Toyota.

I had a high school friend that would simply stop next to the intended space and get out of the car saying "your turn".

She apparently only did that with me.

I don't get in random people's car though.

Yes for friends and strangers. Not a big deal. just a skill that not everyone has.

Other than my wife, no--but I have coached people through it, and two or three times moved people's cars when they were still learning stick. One time in a new car lot with the car he had just bought and couldn't drive--he wouldn't let me in, but I did coach him from outside.

I've unstuck stranger's cars that were stuck in the snow a bunch of times. There's an apartment building across my alley that has a fairly sharp incline on the driveway into their parking lot, and they tend to rent to people who have moved here from countries that don't have snow. The first few weeks each winter, there's a whole lot of "my wheels are spinning, so I guess I'll floor it and see what happens" going on over there.

just for my wife and a few of her friends, im not sure how most of them managed to even obtain a license. i thought my wife was scary until i took a drive with her friend to try and diagnose a noise.

singleslammer wrote: I love that "being Canadian" is enough to describe your mental situation. If I said "being American" it would likely make people think I rode a 4 wheeler in wearing an American flag t-shirt, eating a cheese burger, and carrying an AR15. Maybe that is just how I see other countries seeing us.

Pretty much, eh?!

Never parked a stanger's car, but I've driven it up a snowy hill for them. Took just a sec to recognize the column shift was a 3-in-the-tree not a PRND2L.

I pushed start a car for a girl once. After a couple of failed attempts, I had to do it for her...she did the pushing.

My MIL asked some random person to parallel park her van once.

With my teen-age wife and her friend still in the van!

She also refuses to pump her own gas and would drive from Vancouver to Portland, in rush hour, to have her gas pumped for her.

She is the definition of "Princess"

Nope. You need to learn. Find an empty parking lot and practice. If you still can't or refuse to get it, then pay a parking garage and walk. You do know how to walk, right?

Having someone drive you over the 'Bay bridge' in Maryland kinda counts? Not me but I've heard about it.

I was in the car with a buddy and we came up on a guy trying to back a long tractor trailer into a loading dock. He obviously had no clue and he was completely blocking traffic. Kept hitting a fence in front of him and there was no way he was getting the truck in there without pulling out and starting over. My buddy finally got so frustrated he got out and started yelling at the guy. Big argument ensued and I thought the truck driver was going to pummel my buddy, but the argument ended with my buddy getting in the truck. He pulled it out and backed it into the dock in one try. When he got back in the car, even he admitted he got lucky hitting it first try. His father was an owner operator truck driver, so as kid, he got to play around with his dad's trucks in the yard which included getting to back them into the parking space between the house and the neighbors fence.

My son did it for a lady in NYC. She was all over with it, he asked if he could help, maybe watch the back for her, she jumped out of the car and asked him to do it. It was a big 5 series Benz.

He did it, she was embarrassed she didn't carry any cash in the City but gave him a 15" tall pink Flamingo pen.

He still has it.

That was stupid! How easy would it be for him to just drive off?

I was a parking attendant in college, so yes.

Now I just back the van into the garage for SWMBO every damn night so she doesn't have to back out in the morning. To be fair our driveway is shaped like a crooked funnel, with a fence on one side & tree/shrubs on the other, so it's definitely not a straight shot.

I am currently the only one in my household that can do it. Swmbo doesn't have the spatial awareness and swmbo jr is content waiting til she's 18 to drive, so she's not had drivers ed. Not that they teach it anymore anyway, but I doubt she'll ever learn.

I offered once. Sort of.

I left for school on a snowy Flint, Mi morning in the dark. In the road, perpendicular to the flow to traffic, and not near any side street, was a bus. He was spinning the tires backwards and forwards and clearly had the thing super stuck.

I was on my Huffy.

I went over the the driver and asked if there was anything I could do. He said no, so I went to school.

It isn't there now, so apparently he got out somehow.

In High School I used to valet for wealthy parties in a very wealthy county.

I got to drive all kinds of things, but usually only a couple hundred feet.

There were more than a few times I got in to someone's car and seriously considered the fact that the pay for a valet was not enough to offset the opportunities created by a simple act of grand theft!

...even with the tips.

I did, however, understand that I might have trouble avoiding suspicion crossing the Mexican border driving a Bentley.

I did drive a car out of an intersection for a very attractive girl who had borrowed a friends car but had never driven a manual before. She was quite humiliated though which took the fun out of it. But she was at it for a good five minutes stalling and grinding gears before I took over out of a need to get to work.