Since we’re dabbling in Eastern philosophy today, how about that other great automotive equalizer, karma? I shot this Valiant parked in the handicapped zone, but waited until its very functional-seeming driver got out and sauntered into the Wally-World. OK; I’m not going to try to judge whether he may have had some legitimate disability or not. There are larger forces who we can leave that to:
Just a week or so later, as I’m pulling into the Delta highway, who do I see sitting on the shoulder, broken down? And in the rain, no less.
Or is it BECAUSE it was in the rain. Wet weather was always a challenge for my Mopars of that vintage.
I can hear it now: “na-rayre, deer, deer, deer”…endlessly until the battery runs down, then a clicking noise…then…nothing!
No, no, it’s not the driver, it’s the car that has disability, you see? The fact that it broke down later just prove the point.
X2 on that.
Disabled parking for a disabled car.
Or, of course, it may be that the driver’s disability was not physical but mental. As in, lacking the sense required to drive an old beater as his primary car…
Viva la Schadenfreude!
What really amazes me is that he is driving around with a huge crack in the windshield. This vehicle would not pass inspection in Pennsylvania for that reason alone. Is Oregon more lenient in that regard?
As for the handicapped placard – there are some diseases that don’t always manifest themselves in an obvious way, but do entitle the person to use these placards. (In Pennsylvania, a doctor must approve it for the person to receive the placard.) I’m thinking of the early stages of multiple sclerosis and emphysema.
I work in a state senator’s office, and one constituent called and said that she was being treated for anxiety and depression, and she wanted us to pressure PennDOT to grant her a placard because looking for a parking space at the local shopping centers made her both depressed and anxious.
I thought it was a joke at first, but she was completely serious.
There is no regular safety inspection in Oregon; which explains partly why CC picked it for its corporate campus. I suppose a cop could write him up though, but they seem to generally have other priorities. Oh, and no smog inspection in most parts of Oregon too. If you can get it running, it’s fair game to take it out on the road. And our registration is some $30/yr. Helps explains all the beaters out here, along with no rust.
I may have to move to Oregon, apparently it’s the Tennessee of the West!
Geeber, you need an avatar!
I’m glad I bought my 67 with electronic ignition already installed. It was seemingly replaced with another rain problem where it gets through the windshield seal and drips on my feet, though.
Re ..Handicap parking…I believe that if you park in a blue spot, sticker, or not, a spot that you really don’t qualify for, your tempting the gods, whatever you percieve them to be..
Like.your 50 lbs too heavy,and the extra walk won’t kill you,maybe the “big guy” figures “hey if I give you a massive stroke, maybe ya can park there all the time”
To thine own self be true.
Just sayin.
Recent article: THOUSANDS of disabled stickers belong to cars registered to dead people! perhaps this explains the dead Valiant?
IIRC, you can get all kinds of conditions turned into handicapped parking permits.I’ve known people who are hard of hearing and have gotten handicapped parking permits.
I have arthritis in my feet, I wear inserts to deal with it, have been for about 5-6 years now. When my podiatrist told me I was eligible for a handicapped sticker, I told him to keep it. I’ll take one when I’m in a wheelchair, but as long as I can move of my own volition, no blue permits for me.
I think of my sister in her wheelchair (due to stroke) and how much she struggles to get around, particularly due to folks who have a handicap that isn’t as profound, but still use the permit to park in the parking spaces.
I’ve seen what appears to be clearly able-bodied people pull right up to the blue spaces and walk into the store.
I’m not judging, but it sure seems like a lot of people have no issues taking advantage of that blue permit…
I have a real problem with those disabled placards. I see ‘way too many abusing that privilege.
I only dawned on me that my dad was handicapped after he died. Back then, if you weren’t on crutches or in a wheelchair or 150 years old and couldn’t walk anymore, that was being handicapped. My dad had a crooked arm from a dynamite blast buiding roads in Oregon during the Great Depression in the CCC. He never complained, but could no longer be a full machinist – just a machine operator. He had other problems, too, but he would have thrown one of those placards in your face if you ever tried to give him one.
I say (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) make a special placard for the people who weigh a ton-and-a-half, park them at the very farthest point in any lot and make them walk and disable their scooter chairs!
My 1969 Valiant Signet coupe looked a lot like that before I got it painted. Cracked windshield excepted…. And it leaked water through the wiper seals too – I suspect that every A-body Mopar did. There was no rustout in the front floor though – hurrah for western Washington!
We had a handicapped placard lying around for a while after my mother died. My wife used it a couple of times the first few times she drove during her recovery from a knee replacement. It wasn’t long before it was forgotten though.