I’m sitting in the car on a sunny afternoon, waiting for my wife or a daughter to emerge from the supermarket.
I watch a young woman pace nervously (am I being redundant), then climb on the trunk to look around or perhaps be seen by someone. She repeats this several times.
Finally, I break the ice, offer to make a phone call or help in some other way. She laughs and declines the offer.
“I’m waiting for some guy,” she says.
Oh, yes, I should have known. I think of all the other times I was waiting for some girl or woman. We know it’s a common scene.
And then he pulls up, much older than I’d expected. He goes to the driver-side window, waves a coat-hanger, and goes to work.
So it wasn’t just some guy, after all. So much for the romance that usually accompanies the story. Unless that happened somewhere down the road once she got going.
A coat hanger?
Commonly used to open a locked car… BUT that works poorly on most cars sold in the past 15 years. Other interpretations are possible.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t think what else to call that flat blade they use, but the effect was the same.
Still, the experience of locking the keys in the car is probably universal.
My wallet has a spot to hang an extra car key, and that’s saved my butt at least a handful of times in the last quarter-century. First time was in New Jersey, back when I was living in Maryland.
And then we’re back to that common expression, “waiting for some guy.”