Life Lessons From Memaw
"May I see your rental agreement?" "I threw it away." "Oh, boy." "Oh, boy, what?" "You're f**ked."
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When I was young and living with Memaw, we would have snowstorms quite often. We would get Lake Michigan effect snow and would be snowed in for days. Living in the country, it would take some time before they plowed our roads and we also would have drifting snow because of the winds coming across empty fields. It was always fun, being snowed in, sitting by the fireplace, and not having school!
Over Thanksgiving break this year, I watched "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" for the first time. I know--what took me so long?? I always knew about the movie but didn't know it was a true Thanksgiving movie. It basically starts with a snowstorm in Chicago--a true John Hughes film:)
As I am sitting here, writing this blog, we are in the middle of a snowstorm. I now live in the suburbs of Chicago, but after I graduated from college, I moved to the city of Chicago. It was fall and beautiful. After the first snowfall, I was in a for a major surprise.
In the Chicago neighborhoods, people live in apartments or homes with no driveways or garages. Therefore, street parking is the thing. However, if you park on some streets, you cannot park from Dec. 1st to April 1st if there is two inches or more of snow. This is because they need to plow. On other streets, you can park during the snowstorm but know that the snowplows are coming through and will bury your car.
To combat this, people will move their car, shovel out that space where their car was, and then park there again. However, most people need to use their car, and they don't want to give their shoveled out space to someone else and have to find parking that has not been shoveled out. Now we have the "Dibbs" program.
People spend a lot of time and energy shoveling out their space, and they don't want to give it up. So, they call "Dibbs". How do they do that? Well, most of them simply put a lawn chair in that space. That is how Chicagoans communicate to other Chicagoans that this is "my" space. Here is a picture of a typical "Dibbs":
If you see this, you cannot park in that spot. What if you do? What if you get out, move the chairs, and then park in that spot? Well, you better figure out a way to protect your car when you are not around, because people get ANGRY when this happens. Can you get a ticket or get into legal trouble? Nope. "Dibbs" is not sanctioned by the city. If fact, the city discourages "Dibbs" but the cops don't do anything about it--they are too busy for this penny anny stuff. But it is real and people will dole out their own type of justice. Even though Chicago "discourages" it, it is always written up in the paper after the first snowstorm and some even have t-shirts made about it...
Most people respect the program and even have a little fun with it....
I know that it is not just Chicago who does the "Dibbs" program. Other cities, like Boston, has something similar. It is just city life:)
Whatever your "traditions" are during a snowstorm, have fun and be safe. I'm sure other cities, who do not have snowstorms, have some type of traditions during heat waves. Right now, a heat wave would be nice....
Blog Website: https://www.lifelessonsfrommemaw.com/
