How I managed to never get a parking ticket at ASU

It's been quite a while since I was a student at Arizona State University, but every once in a while I wonder if the parking there is quite as challenging nowadays as it was when I was going there.

When I visit Tempe, I see big parking garages, which of course weren't there back "in the day". Parking was a tricky thing, as some parking lots were for students, and some weren't, and some streets were OK to park on as a student, and some would get you a ticket. But if you'll excuse me for bragging, I never got a ticket. No, it wasn't that I knew the Dean personally, or the police commissioner, or whatever, I did something that at the time I took for granted, and in later years realized wasn't all that common.

I could read, and comprehend. Now calm down here, I know that everybody can read, but taking that information and putting it to practical use isn't all that common. Since you're reading this, you're probably in that rare category of people who can look at words and turn them into some sense, so it may be difficult for you to imagine that most people can't. I wouldn't have learned it if I hadn't become a teacher.

It's impossible to exaggerate what a dope I was at that age. My life up to that point really hadn't been much bigger than my neighborhood in Minneapolis, and my high school. When I attended ASU, I wan't an "International Man of Mystery", I was just about as green a greenhorn as you could imagine. But I did have the ability of reading comprehension, and I always wore a watch.

There were signs everywhere. They might say, for example, "No parking weekdays between 7 am and 8 pm" (I'm making that up). So I would need to be able to look at those words, know what day of week it was, and what time it was. As I recall, parking was more challenging for me than most of my classes were (well, I was just a Fine Arts major!).

My ability to read and comprehend, thanks to my parents who encouraged me, always gave me an edge professionally, especially when I had to learn computers. Most people, of course, prefer to have someone sit down with them and show and tell, but I could take written words and make practical use of them. Most of the classes that I taught, much later in my life, were based on things I'd read, and I just expanded them into "show and tell", thus creating the classes. At first I thought that it was kinda sneaky, but people really did appreciate it.

Now don't get me wrong here, just because someone isn't good with reading and comprehension doesn't make them a bad person. In fact, in my experience it's been just the opposite - people who prefer show and tell for themselves are much more patient when doing show and tell for others. People who can read and comprehend are more likely to say, "Can't you read the sign?!"

Photo at the top of this post, in a loading zone behind the Art Building at ASU. You could park there for the time specified on the sign.