First Parking Ticket Issued In 1935
In August of 1935, as it is every August, it was hot in Oklahoma.
The Reverend C. H. North, of Oklahoma’s City’s Third Pentecostal Holiness Church, drove his car downtown, and parked at a spot in front of one of those new-fangled devices called the Park-O-Meter.
The Park-O-Meters had just been installed the month before and had created sort of a hub-bub around town over those past few weeks.
North stepped out of his car, and wiping sweat from his forehead stepped into the hot and dusty street, walked to where the meter was planted in the cement in front of his automobile, and read the gadget. It demanded 5 cents to park there.
The good Reverend checked his right pocket, and then his left. A few pennies, a dime, a quarter and a few silver dollars, landed in the palm of his hand. But there were no nickels.
North sighed and then trudged into the nearest store, a grocery, to get change for the meter, not knowing that at this very moment he would make history.
Because when Rev. North walked back out into the street a few minutes later, he saw a piece of paper on the windshield of his car. He picked it up and peered at it curiously. It was a ticket for an expired meter.
He didn’t know it at that very moment, but Rev. North became the very first person in the United States, in the world in fact, to receive a parking ticket for an expired meter.
A few weeks later in court, Rev. North explained to the judge what happened and how he had left his vehicle briefly in search of change. At this moment Rev. North made history again as the first person to use the “I just went to get change” excuse to fight an expired meter violation.
The judge dismissed his ticket.
First parking ticket for an expired meter, not the FIRST parking ticket for any motor vehicle ever.
Was happy to find this information. I was a meter maid in Riverton, WY from January 1972 to June 1991. I am currently writing a book on those memoirs. I have 6 scrapbooks of notes, letters, newspaper article and stories about those years. I don’t have the first ticket I wrote but I have the last one. For a small town I had written over 200,000 tickets. I am currently retired but working on writing the book.
Jan Erhart
Hey Jan,
I will only speak for myself, but The Parking Ticket Geek would LOVE to read excerpts from your book or stories from your past experiences.
If you send them to us, I’ll post them.
Thanks!
[…] take three weeks before another big first in American history, as it took until August 6th for the first parking ticket in America was issued to Rev. C. H. […]
sorry… I forgot to ask. Do you have information regarding “private” parking tickets (e.g., Diamond Parking “Penalty Notices”, District Parking) both the type issued on private parking lots and on government parking lots (under vendor lease).
I love this story! I have heard it told in several versions but the story told here is true. Charles H. North was my grandfather. On that day he had his daughters in the car (one being my mother) they were to tell any policeman their dad was getting change. The didn’t recognized the man who greeted them as a policeman, and they thought the ticket he placed on the wiper blade was an ad flyer. Oh the innocence of children. 🙂