People with small children love this time of year for many reasons as we inch closer and closer to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. One of the things they love about this time of year is that it's a time those children tend to be on their best behavior.
All it takes is saying 'Santa Claus of watching you' and for some reason those children's attitudes change quickly. They don't want to get moved to Santa's naughty list right before Christmas Eve.
Well Santa Claus doesn't just watch small children. Over the past few weeks I've watched a lot of naughty behavior with people parking in handicap parking places that had no business parking in those spots.
It goes on all year but seems to pick up right before Christmas because there are more cars filling up parking spots. This week and last I watched several people turn into the handicap parking places at Walmart and at the Food Giant in Century only to see them jump out and run into the store.
It's probably a little more tempting this time of year to get that spot so close to the door instead of having to walk an additional 75 feet.
But have you ever stopped to think that someone who really needs that handicapped parking spot may be forced to park half way across the parking lot because of your laziness?
Handicap spots are marked in blue and are made wider than other parking places to allow someone with a wheelchair to have room to exit and enter their vehicle. When those handicap parking places are full, they have to go to the end of the parking lot to find at least two empty slots to be able to get into their wheelchair. A lot of times they have a hard time finding a parking place because other naughty people are too lazy to take their shopping cart either back inside the store or at least to one of those holding areas in the middle of the parking lot.
I witnessed that a few years ago at Food Giant in Century where a man in a wheelchair had to park across the parking lot to get his chair out because the handicap spots were taken. I saw one person push a buggy full of groceries out the front door and load them into one of those vehicles, push his cart onto the sidewalk and drive off.
I haven't been to Pensacola but I can imagine what the parking lot looks like at the malls. This time of year you have to park about a quarter-mile from the store, if you are lucky. So, it's tempting to whip into one of those handicap parking spots, especially when they are so close to the front door and especially if you drove grandma's car to the mall because she has a handicap sticker.
I know there are handicapped people who don't use wheelchairs, but it amazes me that they can walk a half-mile through the mall shopping but not walk 200 yards from a regular parking spot.
The other day while I was at Walmart in Brewton I saw three different people park in handicap parking places who got out and walked briskly toward the front door when there was a regular parking spot available about 10 cars down.
I hope the next time you feel the lazy urge to take up a handicap parking space you don't really need that you stop and think someone who really needs that spot may be arriving a few minutes later. I also hope you stop and think that one day you may actually need that handicap parking spot but you can't find one because people like you took them up before you arrived. Maybe then you will realize that you were lazy in your younger years and didn't think about people who were in more need than you. Picture yourself in a wheelchair trying to shop for groceries, visiting the pharmacy or buying presents for your grandchildren and how you would feel if you saw someone slide into a handicap parking stop in front of you and run into the store.
Have a Merry Christmas.
