Pickles by Brian Crane for September 07, 2020

I know someone who got into the wrong car, and, when the key didn’t work, called AAA.

Scares the crap out of me to say that I have done that!

I don’t need no car to go to the grocery store where I work; it’s roughly one block’s walk. As for the church, a half-hour’s walk. Parents’ house: an hour’s walk, but a few minutes’ bus ride (that is if I go to their house Monday through Friday as the route isn’t operational on Saturday and Sunday).

I’ve done the reverse — drive to work and walk home. The next day, I thought that my car was missing.

My car has an electronic key. If I can get within about 50 feet or so, I can make it flash its lights. The rest of the trick is to be advertent enough to memorize which section of the lot you parked in. Or you can leave a trail of something the ducks and pigeons won’t eat.

Sometimes I have to find it by the Jackinthebox clown on the antenna but often my normal car is hiding between two giant SUVs or pickups!

I’m bad but not as bad as those two guys- thankfully.

I always fix the car in place in my mind before I walk away. Back when I went to shopping centers, coming out meant you were presented with a mass of cars, almost all the same colour and not much to distinguish one from another. I had counted light standards from the edge of the lot and I knew where my car would be. If the light poles had letters on them that was so much to the better.

Earl has the old bullet nose Studebaker, that should stand out in the lot!

It looks like you both forgot your shoppings bags at the checkout too…

The only time that happened to me is when I came out of the store and some moronic cretin slammed into me on his bicycle that was too big for him.

I banged my head on the pavement and took awhile to get oriented.

Had to search the whole parking lot row by row to find my car.

We used to live a half block from the grocery store and usually walked. Sometimes when downtown in the car we would stop by the store on the way home. Then habit would take over and we would walk home. The next day our car would be missing. Our daughters left their bikes at the store several times.

If you live in certain parts of the country at this time of year, it’s best that you drive wherever you go, Earl!

You caught a ride with Clyde, Earl.

Always make a mental note where you parked……and pray you remember it coming out……

Must be the reason Walmart numbers the lanes of the parking lot ….

I hope that Roscoe or Muffin are not in the car .

At work we have two tandem axle box trucks, built 1 year apart. The keys are absolutely identical.

Sounds familiar

It was Christmas time at the mall I decided to take some gifts back to my car so I would not have to carry them around while I did more shopping. I had a Ford Tracer at the time, I opened the trunk to put the stuff in and there was things in the car I did not recognize. My key worked on the Mercury equivalent of the Tracer. The cars were the same color.

My dad was wandering the parking lot looking for his car, and passed Mum’s car. “Oh, Audrey’s here’ I’ll catch a ride with her.” A split second later it dawned on him he’d driven her car to the store.

My wife worked at a mall. Customers would enter a store from one side door and not noticing exit from a different one. As a result, they couldn’t find their car until they realized their mistake.

Did I just see this a comlc strip or did I dream it last night?

That can’t be us, we are too far from anything to just walk.

Take a cell fone foto of your car with the aisle/row/lot numbers.

Hit the panic button. Then follow the sounds of honking.

Variations of these comments have happened to me. Here’s some advice which could be useful in many situations, if you are fortunate enough to have a phone with a camera. Even if you don’t have a way to take a picture, taking a few seconds to jot down parking location info can save lots of wasted time and energy. Maybe on your shopping list?Take a photo of the section marker, the mall entrance, or the level where you have parked when you are in a multilevel parking lot. When hiking and I come to a fork or other cross, I turn around and take a (mental) photo of which way to go on my way back, using an unusual rock, branch or other feature to identify the way back. This was before we had cellphones.Good luck everyone!

Been there, done that more and more as I age.

I used to referee HS basketball. I would occasionally do the JV game. When you pulled in, there were no cars in the lot. When I came out, the lot was packed and it was dark. I wondered around more HS parking lots than I care to remember.

Sounds about right, park car then spend time looking, and find out wrong part of parking lot. I remember living in a small town there was a car looked identical to mine, parked next to my car, I accidentally got in that car tried my key did not work, inside looked like my car, then looked over, there was my car, I felt foolish.

I got in the wrong car and the key did work! Only realised when my passenger found stuff not ours

It’s not just seniors who forget things like that. When I was 26 and in college (I went back after a divorce) I had to attend a class in downtown San Diego. My car wasn’t the best so I borrowed my mothers’. About 10 PM when class ended, we all walked to the underground parking area. I could NOT find my car. The instructor, a few students and I walked and walked looking for it. We were just about to report it as stolen when I saw my mothers’ car. OMG! Talk about embarrassed!

I put flag decals in the top portion of my rear door windows. Makes it a lot easier to find.

I always parked in the same spot at a local mall. One night I came out just about closing time at the mall, and my car was gone. The lot was almost empty, and my car wasn’t there. I called the police and they came out and took the information on the car. A few minutes later they said they found it around on the other side of the mall. That’s when I remembered I had brought my sewing machine in for repair and parked in front of the Singer store instead of in my regular parking spot. REALLY embarassing!

Years ago in Arizona, I was coming out of my neighborhood supermarket when a rather distraught lady approached me and asked if I owned a St. Bernard and if I did, could I please get it out of her car.

The lady owned an AMC 1976 Gremlin almost identical to my wife’s.

I’d walked to the grocery store and the dog had apparently followed me. She saw the car, and thinking it was ours, climbed in the open window, and made herself comfortable in the back seat.

Darn near gave the lady a heart attack when she went to put her groceries in the car.

I used to be in a dorm a 1¼ mile from the main campus. Sometimes I’d go to the dorm parking lot, and find my car wasn’t there. I’d then catch the shuttle to find my car at the main campus.

Seems I sometimes had driven to the college gym, forgot I drove, and took the shuttle back.

I have been known to push the panic button on my remote so I can hear and see which car responds.

I love my handicapped tag for exactly that reason. I can park my car where I can see it from the door, and push the button on the key to be sure it’s the right one, since there are a huge number of cars like mine on the road.

At my age, (73) I always make a special effort to see where my car is parked before heading into a store. But have been doing that for ages, anyway, lol!

My daughter lost hers in an arena parking lot of 10,000 cars. Though pressing the horn button on the remote would help….til hundreds of other people did the same thing. Now she takes a photo of the light standard with the lot ID number when she leaves the lot.

Earl, how hard can it be to find a Studebaker in a parking lot full of late model cars. If you can’t find it you must have walked.

Yup. It’s completely embarrassing.

Decades ago, I dropped my wife off at Dallas airport, and wandered around the multi story parking lot for about an hour in VERY hot and humid conditions before I found the car. It was very unpleasant. Now I write the letter/ number down where I park. Except…..

Last year flew out east to join her and my daughter. We flew back a week later. YES, I wrote the info where I parked down, and we could not find the car! I called the parking attendant, who was able to confirm the car was still there! It turned out there were two parking sides to “D 20” and we were on the wrong side.

A recurring question. “Did I or didn’t I?”

THIS! This is the reason why when I go to a large store like the grocery store or Target, let alone the nearest mall, I ALWAYS try to park in the same location in the parking lot even if it means walking further. I’ve wandered around enough parking lots looking for my car (and with three cars, sometimes trying to remember which one) that I knew I had to come up with some kind of system.

I used to work at Renaissance Faires. At the end of the day, the parking lots were full of “wanderers”, who could only remember they had parked next to a white van.

There’s a phone app that lets you press a button when you park, then it will show you where your car is when you come out.

I’ve had this happen EVERY TIME I go to the airport, which is rare. But I use the car alarm to find it.