You're a girl!

So, I've been a tow truck driver for just over two months, and it ceases to amuse me. I joked that I should do a photo essay on people's expressions when they see me coming to their rescue, but honestly maybe I should!

Today I pulled up on scene of a 79 year-old woman whose Buick refused to start. I punched myself on location in the computer before jumping out. Standing about twenty feet away, she lifted up her sunglasses just high enough to squint with her naked eyes and exclaim, "Are you a girl?" Fortunately she was rather excited by the prospect, shaking her fist in the air with a "good for you!"

Before that I backed myself into a narrow driveway, loaded up a Chevy Blazer, and welcomed the owner into my passenger seat for the 18 mile tow. His opening line once inside my truck was, "Do you have nine children?" Any hope of a tactful response was shocked right out of me and I looked right at him with a, "WHAT? Where the heck did that come from?" Apparently the last AAA driver to pick him up had nine children, so he assumed me to be the owner of those unfortunate child-bearing hips. All I can say is, thank God for living far outside the realm of trucking stereotypes!

A few days ago I loaded up a Chrysler minivan (notice a trend here? Don't buy American!), which to my surprise was driven by a 24 year-old man. His mother and sister were there to help him, and good 'ol mom just couldn't stop exclaiming, "You're a girl truck driver! Look, she's a girl!" She took the cigarette out of her mouth to shout it to her daughter who managed a pre-coffee "Yeah, girl power!" with a shake of her fist. I loaded the minivan while dodging their apparent family drama. Then mom told her son, "Chris, you have to go with her. She's a GIRL!" "Yes, Mom, I can see that, thanks."
So I had the pleasure of driving him back to their house while giving him as little info as possible to all his personal questions, and trying to stay neutral while he went on about how guilty he felt making me (a girl) crawl under his van. "I should've been doing that for you!"

The best is when I arrive at repair shops. I always head straight for the service desk to ask where they'd like me to off-load their latest paycheck. However, despite my uniform and reflective vest, an overwhelming number of them assume I'm a car owner dropping off my own vehicle and they tell me to come fill out paper work and explain what's wrong with my car. I have to tell them, "No, I've got a car on my truck for you, where should I drop it?"

A few repair men have stared at me, smiled and said, "When did AAA start hiring attractive women?" I reply, "It's part of our new customer satisfaction program."

For one drop-off at a repair shop, I grew an audience. A woman stood with her two little girls in the parking lot watching the whole darn thing. After I finished she told me her girls had stopped her saying, "But mommy, she's so pretty" fascinated at how I could be driving a truck.

And of course, there are the men who stop at nothing to let me know they're single. Although, ironically, the first phone number I got was a woman's! Christine and her Golden Retriever, Ugo were passengers, and she urged me to join her dog walking group which took hikes on weekends.
After that, a mechanic asked me how many phone numbers I'd gotten, thinking I was hit on all the time. I told him, just one woman's. He handed me his and said, "Just so you have a man's."

Since then I've been invited to watch a guy play with his band, a couple invited me to their St. Patty's Day house party, a Kenyan spent 60 miles discussing American politics, I've backed up into two parked cars, changed a woman's tire whose car was so dirty I couldn't find the emergency brake, been told I "rock", offerred a job delivering large repair trucks for Verizon and Comcast, been winked at, called "hon", "sweetie", and "beautiful"...the list goes on.

If I ever had self-confidence issues, working in a job where the typical employee is thought to be a hygenically-challenged, intellectually inept, gruff bully with a beer gut and missing teeth has resolved them all!