Barbie Got a Ticket

Living in the "flats" of Avalon can require some occasional vehicle finagling. You must move your vehicle to the approved side of the street on certain days before 9 a.m to accommodate the street sweeper. Of course, you can also plan ahead and park on the acceptable side the night before, if there's a spot available. So, by 9 a.m. one side of the street is often empty of vehicles while the other side is full.

I'm quite absent-minded and usually preoccupied with other busy thoughts. My neighbor Brian has saved me hundreds of dollars in $38 tickets by giving me advance warning to move my vehicle. Once he figures out there's little chance I'm going to remember on my own, he reminds me. He's an amazing neighbor. I feel touched and grateful for his courtesy. I'm sure he doesn't understand why I can't keep track of such a regularly occurring event, but he would never mention it, he's so nice.

Returning from our morning walk, on the side of the street that should be empty, parked in the red zone, we saw this:



A Barbie Cadillac Escalade! All alone at the curb.

I like living in a community where a Barbie luxury vehicle is as welcome at the curb as any other vehicle, without fear of theft or any other indignities. Space is at a premium and there are typically so few good spots to park your golf cart (or any of the other uniquely "island vehicles"). Barbie would certainly be exempt from complying with the usual DMV rules anyway.

A pink toy car at the curb reminds me what a special place this island is, so I decided to go back and take some photos. It was just so cute, and so "Catalina. "

As I approached the front of the toy I saw this:

Uh oh! What the? That can't be true! It's got to be a joke. The code enforcement officer is a lovely, caring person. I think she's great, despite the many tickets she's issued to us while we learned the rules of the streets of Avalon (Brian can only do so much). She's got a job to do and she does it well. She'd lift the Barbie-mobile and move it to the sidewalk if it was a problem.

Upon further investigation and a closer look at the ticket:

Real ticket, wrong everything else. Someone celebrated in the New Year by getting their first parking fine for 2009. The proud five-year-old who owns this vehicle has not run afoul of the law just yet.

Islanders never miss an opportunity for a laugh, and most are jokesters and joke tellers. Someone made good use of their parking ticket from a few days before. It was good for a laugh, and I laughed. Not only that, it's still a cute image...maybe even cuter.

It's definitely an image unique to Catalina Island and one more reason to say, "Only in Avalon."