Vashon Verité
A candid slice of Island life, from short feature digests to guess-where snapshots.
How to anger a Vashonite: cut at Fauntleroy
August 13th, 2010 at Fri, 13th, 2010 at 8:43 pm by heidiskrzypekDon’t anger a Vashonite. And by that I mean do not even THINK, let alone ATTEMPT to jump the line. Friday, Aug. 13 (4p-ish) was a fitting day for one of the longest Fauntleroy car ferry lines of summer. I was stuck in it, all the way back to The Kinney, which is well north of the gas station.
Jockeying around parked cars was bad enough, but we poor suckers in cars figured it out. I crept to the curbside at a corner where a woman put on her blinker to turn (she was parallel on the left side of me in the road), but she didn’t turn into the corner. Instead, she jumped in the ferry line in front of me. I laid on the horn. She didn’t flinch. The cars behind me did the same. My kids were saying “no way!” at the audacity of this woman in front of me. They said “maybe it’s because she has a handicap license plate,” to which I quipped that doesn’t mean she is mentally incapacitated. If she thought that license plate was going to land her a sympathy spot in line (yes, this thought also crossed my mind) this was not going to be her day.
I consulted with the car in front of the offending driver and then the one behind me. Both corroborated her “cut.” I then went to her.
Me: You jumped the line and you need to go to the back.
Her: I’m sorry. I was just confused. I never take this boat.
Me: (Noticing her Bremerton framed license place) Then you know now, and need to go to the back of the line.
Her: (Shrug. Shaking head no.) I”m sorry.
Me: You cut all those cars. GO TO THE BACK OF THE LINE NOW, OR LATER.
She looked dead ahead and tuned out. I got in my car, wrote down her plate #, my cell # and sent my son for a walk to the patrol officer at the front of the line to flag her once our fleet arrived (me, her and two witnesses). About 45 minutes of staring at her Bremertonian framed plate (gold Honda Civic) seething with sentiments of how unfair this crap is, the patrolman SENT HER PACKIN’ TO THE BACK OF THE LINE!
I have seen a few cutters get away with this. Not this time. There is justice in the world sometimes, even if the victory is this small. It is integrity. It is the principle. This is not anarchy.
Just don’t do it. And don’t let people get away with this. If there are exceptions, that’s for these folks to take up with the ferry and WSP workers.
heidiskrzypek Island mom and wife. Gainfully employed Seattle copywriter. Vashon forager. Emerging swimmer. Fan of dancehall reggae, good cooking, shallow reality TV shows, and public radio.
More articles by heidiskrzypek >
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