I did a spot of car parking the other day. Obviously I do that most days, but this involved parking other people’s cars. Or rather telling them where to go in the car park of a classic car show at Bradenham sports day.
It was fun. Mostly, though, it was for a good cause. The point of all this was that if people don’t volunteer to do things then nothing good will ever happen.
For us Autocaristas we won’t get to see one of the largest collections of military vehicles I’ve ever witnessed outside of a museum. Plus there were commercial vehicles, tractors, motorbikes and cars. Top quality stuff.
It was jolly good of them to turn up, of course, but we had to do something with all the modern rubbish that ordinary motorists turn up with. That’s where me and my mates came in, or rather stood around. A farmer kindly loans the field where visitors park.
It was decided that this year, as well as welcoming the drivers to our village, pointing out the event entrance and reminding them to be careful where they walked – yes there would be cowpats – we would ask for money. Well, a voluntary contribution.
Some people gave the shrapnel out of their pockets, a few poked fivers in and one lady – who fell for my charms of course – thought it was all very wonderful and poked ten quid in the bucket.
Some looked at the bucket, then me and pretended they had not heard me or seen it. But it was voluntary. So long as they spent some money at the fête, it was a result.
Just for the record we took more than £500. It was split 50:50 between the Air Ambulance people who loaned us their buckets and the village hall itself. I think that’s astonishingly generous of everyone.
It’s great when the sun shines and the cars come out, but car events only work because of people’s generosity whether it is their time, money or vehicles.
So have you done a bit of car parking or marshalling? And if you went to an event was it helped or hindered by an amateur jobsworth like me?
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I like the ' car parking