
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 13, 1995                   TAG: 9503140041
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAKE THAT

THAT WACKY "Seinfeld" show. There, last Thursday night, was Jerry's pal George, crowing at such length about his skill at parallel parking that by the time he started backing into a space, another car had come up behind him and started to pull in front-end first.

This clown, of course, turned out to be another friend of Jerry's, and the whole hip New York gang (meaning "group of friends," rather than "group of thugs," in this context) spent the evening locked in a stalemate over who was going to pull out and cede the space to the other. Those New Yorkers! Are they crazy, or what?

Or maybe it's a generational thing. Young people today. The spoiled, self-absorbed twits.

Ah, but you're thinking, that was just a TV comedy. Nobody is that bullheaded really. Not even Yankees who are twentyorthirtysomething or somethinglikethat.

We're not qualified to speak for the behavioral norms of that demographic. We're more worried, actually, about the parking maniacs closer to home.

And we're not talking about Roanoke's Civic Center on nights featuring multiple events, some of them in parking spaces around the center. (Note the letter to the editor on the subject in today's letters columns.)

In Williamsburg last week, a 73-year-old gentleman was charged with assault and battery after he was accused of hitting a 61-year-old lady with his umbrella and pushing her car door into her during an argument over a parking space. At the public library.

His version is that he hit the roof of the car - probably just tapped it - with his umbrella and held her door closed so she couldn't get out. The woman was flushed and cursing; he was fearful for his safety!

Witnessing this were two small children, passengers along with the woman in a car driven by a younger woman.

My, my. Did George's folks act this way when he was a kid? Is that why he's such a jerk?

We're hoping to read in a follow-up story that both parties were not regular Williamsburg library patrons but were just visiting. From New York.

by CNB