[ddubois]

Sorry, my stories come with long, detailed intros. The "How much would you pay" thread reminded me of this incident:

When I was 16 I had a job as an ice cream truck driver during the summers. I did this two years in a row, so by the second summer I knew enough to know that a certain park on July 4th would have a ridiculously massive throng of potential customers arriving to watch the display. Planning ahead for this event, I arrived at the park many hours in advance. I found the ideal parking spot, right next to the primary sidewalk entrance into the park, such that most of the crowd would pass me and see my wares. Well, it wasn't ideal, as it was an illegal spot, so I lived in fear that some cop might make me move. It was bordering the handicapped spots, over diagonal yellow stripes indicating the area was not to be parked in. My plan was to be there the next 7 hours or so. I had even called my parents in advance, and asked them to come by later, so I would be able to take a bathroom break. IIRC, on a normal night I might make $30-50... good for a 16 year old kid in the late 80s. On this night, I would make almost $400.

At the apex of the crowdedness of the park, right before the fireworks began, a man approached me. He indicated he was driving with a handicapped person and asked me to move my vehicle. I hesitated for a second and then pointed out: "This is not a handicapped parking stall". He pushed the issue no further, instead immediately storming off while saying something like "I hope you never have to know what it's like <something something>...."

How much of a louse am I / how guilty should I have felt?