Up until I moved to Illinois in 1969, I had never lived in any place longer than five years. Life started in Florida in 1947 but my father died in an industrial accident before I was old enough to remember him and my mother moved us back to her home in Floyd County when I was five.
Three years later, we would move to Farmville when she remarried. We would return to Floyd County five years later after Prince Edward County closed the public schools in defiance of a federal order to integrate.
True to form, five years later, I left Floyd County for Roanoke, working for The Roanoke Times while attending college. Didn’t make it five years in Roanoke, leaving four years later for a job in Illinois.
Alton, Illinois, became a period of relative stability. I stayed there nearly 12 years. Amy and I married in 1979 and we moved to Arlington in 1981, where we remained for 23 years before moving to Floyd in 2004.
Alton was my first long-term home and I keep up with what’s happening there with regular visits to the web site of The Alton Telegraph, the newspaper I wrote and photographed for during that stay. Amy grew up in nearby Belleville, Illinois, and we keep on top of news there through the web site of The Belleville News-Democrat.
Since leaving Arlington, we stay on top of news there through the metro section of The Washington Post and The Arlington Connection but find that blogs in Arlington provide a better source of news According to Backfence.Com there are 102 blogs in Arlington County. One of my favorites is CSI: Arlington County which crusades against the gestapo-like tactics of the parking enforcement laws of the county.
So I park in Arlington (All May Park, All Must Pay) and put my quarters in the meter. I anxiously watch the clock at my meeting, knowing that when the meter tolls, it tolls for me in Arlington.
Arriving back at the meter, I’m relieved to see a few minutes on the meter…but appalled to see an Arlington parking ticket on the windshield. Pulling it off I see my charge – failure to display license plate. $65 plus “court costs” – $25
Walking around the car, I find that the front plate has been broken off, leaving the plastic tabs attached to the bumper. Someone must have bumped me when backing out of their space. Looking under the car – there it is.
I retrieve the plate and head to the Arlington admin. building. After a long wait, I’m ushered to a cubicle where a bureaucrat dutifully hears my story…and informs me that the plate was not on the car, the fine stands. Please pay $90.