Dear Paul Revere

Updating our greatest fleeting guest on the most important details in modern life in Medford

Dear Paul Revere,

The snow is melting here in Medford. I spend at least ten minutes every morning sipping my tea and judging the reduced height of the once elephant-sized snow pile to the left of my driveway. I just realized you might not know what an elephant is, so let's just say it's a quadruped mammal about eight times the size of a horse. It is also grey and I can make a really good impression of the sound they make using my arm as an accentuation. Both of my kids give it a 10/10.

Speaking of horses, back in your day when there were big snows, was parking an issue? I understand you had stables at home but what if you went out to the dry goods store, patriot rally, or local tavern? Even though all of those things were probably happening in the same building, I imagine that at least some of the usual horse storage spots out front got eliminated by large snowbanks. When that happened, did you have to do some sort of jockeying for the remaining, limited space?

That’s what happens here, and it’s a real feather in our modern caps that parking our cars might be the most important and lasting impact of any big Medford snows. We have some pretty real rules governing which side of the street you have to park on, when you have to move your car, and where you can shovel snow (often ignored). But what isn’t encoded in the books is when you can take (steal?) one of the precious few vacant spots that might open up on the street.

Can you save your spot? That's like asking "can you turn left from Mystic Valley Parkway onto Main Street?" Answers vary and context is key. Though not officially endorsed by any local municipality, people use things like chairs or stolen traffic cones to guard their vacated spots. Technically the street is public property so no one owns any spot, but this being a society, there are some unwritten rules that you are better off following than otherwise.

Basically, if you see something in a shoveled-out spot, it’s probably best to leave it alone unless it is an emergency or you deem it an egregious overreach of space-saving. Understandably, judgment dictates that latter piece, especially as the density of cars goes up. One of my neighbors puts a chair out in the morning and returns promptly at 5 p.m. every day to reoccupy the spot. I’m not touching that thing, especially because she would instantly know it was me because she knows the car I drive. Conversely, I’ve spotted a full coat rack guarding a spot a few streets over and I’m almost certain no car has parked in that space in over a week. In a pinch I might move that one.

Anyway, no matter what, weighing the feasibility of taking a spot or making your neighbors mad is a constant mental negotiation. Even if you have no idea what I am talking about, we can both agree that it’s a good thing the snow is melting. Also, I’ve seen some people just use their trash cans to save spots and that is pretty clever.

Your winter beleaguered friend,

Nate in the Heights

Nate Rubright is a Medford Resident.