Tow Zone

This story takes place shortly after I had graduated high school and the details are a little fuzzy. I drove from Redlands to one of the small concert venues in Hollywood. It could have been the Roxy Theatre, The Whisky A Go Go, or perhaps The Troubadour. I was meeting a girl and some of her friends for the Alien Ant Farm record release concert. My biggest attraction for going, other than the girl, was the fact that I had the same drum teacher as Mike Cosgrove from Alien Ant Farm. It was one of the first times I had driven myself down to Hollywood and since I was short on money I parked at a nearby grocery store.

When the concert ended I walked back to the grocery store parking lot to discover my newly painted blue Ford Ranger was missing. My heart began to race as I automatically assumed it had been stolen. Then I noticed the signs above a couple of the parking spaces noting that it was for customers only and all others would be towed.

I called the tow company from a pay phone and confirmed they had picked up my truck. The man on the other end of the phone warned me in a gruff voice you'd expect from the proprietor of a tow yard that the office was only open until midnight and if I arrived any later there would be a $100 after hours release fee. It was already past 11:00 PM and I had no ride because the girl had left a half-hour before I did.

Now racing against the clock, I darted across the street to chase down a taxi and told the driver my destination. The cab driver was making his way from Hollywood to the tow yard which was located somewhere south of the Interstate 10 freeway. For those of you unfamiliar with the greater Los Angeles area, this isn't a great distance but in a completely different part of town. As the cab fare continued to climb I now had a new fear as I rummaged through my wallet to realize I only had $14. The meter was now over ten dollars when I explained to the driver my limited budget. I asked him if they accepted credit cards but he quickly rejected that possibility. We were getting close to the tow yard but the cab fare was crossing $14. Perhaps he felt bad for me but he almost got to $15 before he stopped and let me out. He pointed me in the direction of the tow yard which was still about a mile away.

Now I was on foot in a completely unfamiliar and what appeared to be unsafe neighborhood. Trying to beat the clock while also attempting to avoid getting mugged for my now vacuous wallet I ran as fast as I could to the tow yard. I was about five minutes past the midnight deadline and I can't remember if the $165 I had to put on my credit card included the after hours storage fee but I really didn't care at that point.

This may sound odd but I soon felt the greatest sense of relief I had felt in my life up to that point. When I finally got into my truck and made it onto the freeway on ramp I was overwhelmed by a sense of euphoria that can only be experienced after you have overcome some kind of obstacle.