I remember when I was in my early twenties and out with a friend who was stopped for not having a light over her back license plate.  She got a $30.00 ticket and although she tried to explain to the officer that while the law for a backlight plate may be enforced on those who have an Iowa driver’s license, she was an Illinois resident, had an Illinois drivers’ license and thus, a light over the plate wasn’t required because Illinois didn’t (and as far as I know, still does not) require that the back license plate be illuminated.

The officer insisted on writing her a ticket, she signed for it and instead of paying said ticket, we both made an appearance in court on the scheduled court date.   When her name was called, we both approached the judge, he read over the report, asked to see her drivers’ license and insurance and the charges were dismissed immediately as in right then and there.  She was not a resident of Iowa, possessed a legal Illinois driver’s license and the law couldn’t be enforced. The whole thing took less than three minutes in fact, we sat for over two hours waiting in the courtroom for her name to be called when we shouldn’t have been there in the first place.  Looking back on the situation, I’m sure the police officer must have known that giving her a ticket for the supposed infraction would have resulted in the same outcome; however I’ve always believed that he thought she would just take his word for it, slip a check in an envelope, mail it off and never be the wiser.  Unfortunately for him as well as that particular city, she wouldn’t be giving her money to them anytime soon she was a smart girl who did her research. 

A few months later, as I was attempting to parallel park on a city street, my rims became entangled in another car’s curb feelers.  Does anyone remember curb feelers?  If not, curb feelers are wires which are mounted behind the front and rear wheels and act much like the whiskers of a cat they allow the driver to know when they are getting too close to the curb during parking.  Back in the 1950′s these things were all the rage, but this was 1982 and curb feelers were about as cool then as a Rubik’s Cube is today.

How my rear rim became entangled in this front curb feeler I’ll never really know, but believe it or not, it did.  I was able to remove the wire from my rim, but it was pretty mangled up by then.  With nobody around, I left a note on the windshield, went to the police station and filed a report. Sure, I could have just left the scene and forgot about it, but I figured someone may have had the time to write down my license plate number while I was struggling to free my car.  I certainly didn’t want to be arrested for a hit and run or something worse.   The owner of the vehicle could have easily accused me of all sorts of things including all kinds of damages.  Either way, I figured protecting myself was the best way to go.

Well it turns out I was right.  Two days later they phoned me and wanted me to pay $500.00 in damages, but they didn’t want to turn it into their insurance company; instead, they just wanted me to hand over $500.00 and be done with it, otherwise, they were going to call the cops.   When I told them I had already filed a report with the police and they were more than welcome to go down and take a look at it, they abruptly changed course, hung up and I never heard from them again.

The purpose of today’s post is to remind everyone that’s it’s perfectly okay to stand up for yourself, especially when you feel you are justified in doing so.  As women, we are often made to feel guilty or somehow sub-par for asking questions, striving for the right answers or requiring more information.  A good portion of the philosophy behind Cars for Girls is empowerment, so remember to give yourself a well deserved pat on the back today for being who you are and for all you do.   It’s important we recognize our strengths – especially when no one else seems to.

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