OK Solberg: 00:00

I want to again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, You're looking forward to the weekend? Get your cup of coffee, glass of iced tea, bottle of water. Hunter, how you doing down there? Let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:11

Spring wheat $6.72 a bushel. I don't have a 550lb steer calf, but I do have 33 head of steer calves that weighed 447lbs. 33 head, 447lbs each and they brought $4.75 a pound at PAYS in Billings on September 2. And on August 31 I see a 104 head of lambs weighing 88lbs at PAYS for $3.27 a pound. But guys there's more much more.

OK Solberg: 00:52

Okay. Today today, I have an interesting story for you that I found online. You know, I like to do some searching. I like stories of history. I like stories that, well, that we don't hear too often. So I found one for you today.

OK Solberg: 01:08

But 1st, our bible verse. And if you're paying attention, you'll recognize this verse. I've used it twice before in the past couple of weeks. Listen now, it will and might become a favorite of mine because it fits a number of topics to the tee.

OK Solberg: 01:27

And the bible verse is 1st Corinthians 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order. Right? 1st Corinthians 14:40 We all like things done decently and in order. Listen how order was brought to the streets of an Oklahoma town one day back in the 1930's.

OK Solberg: 01:52

And this story that I found for you is simply titled The Parking Meter. The next time you put a coin into a parking meter or a credit card nowadays, remember this. That little machine was invented because people were parking their cars for too long of a time.

OK Solberg: 02:14

Back in the early 1930's Oklahoma City had a problem. Downtown workers would arrive in the morning, park their automobiles along the curb, and leave them there all day long. Then the customers who came downtown to shop later in the morning, well, they couldn't find this parking spot.

OK Solberg: 02:35

So Carl Cc Maggie no. It's McGee.

OK Solberg: 02:41

Carl C Magee, a newspaper publisher and chairman of Oklahoma City traffic's committee went looking for a solution. And Magee didn't just have an idea, he filed a patent. His 1932 patent application, Magee explained the problem. Cities already had laws limiting how long automobiles could park.

OK Solberg: 03:08

But how did they enforce the law? An officer would mark the automobiles tires when it was parked with a piece of chalk, Then he'd have to come back later and look at the tire again.

OK Solberg: 03:21

If the car was still there beyond the legal limit, the officer knew someone had overstayed their welcome. McGee pointed out that this took officers time and money. And there was another problem. A driver could simply erase the mark from his tire or he could drive away and come back wiping out the evidence.

OK Solberg: 03:42

McGee's answer, let a machine watch the car. He proposed a mechanical timer that would record how long the automobile occupied the space and eventually a coin operated meter that would charge the driver for the time. His patent was granted and the meters were built.

OK Solberg: 04:05

And on 07/16/1935 Oklahoma City installed the world's 1st parking meters. The price? Guess what, 5¢ an hour. And the purpose wasn't really to make people pay, it was to make them move.

OK Solberg: 04:25

A worker couldn't occupy that valuable parking space all day. One customer left and another customer could take his place. And here's a wonderful little piece of history.

OK Solberg: 04:36

The 1st meters were installed on only one side of the street. Well, they worked so well at creating parking turnover that according to the company's history merchants on the other side of the street soon asked for meters on their side of the street as well.

OK Solberg: 04:56

Of course motorists weren't exactly thrilled but shop owners loved the new invention. McGee himself had predicted that the public would like his invention because the gadget treats all alike.

OK Solberg: 05:12

Well, history tells us that the public had thoughts of their own, but the parking meter survived and that little machine born out of a downtown parking headache became a fixture fixture in cities all across America.

OK Solberg: 05:27

So the next time you're standing beside a parking meter, remember, it wasn't invented simply to collect your nickel. It was invented to make you move. Don't stay there all day.

OK Solberg: 05:42

Charge people money for anything and they will think twice about digging in their pocket again. It was invented because a newspaper man looked at a row of cars sitting on a downtown street and asked a simple question.

OK Solberg: 05:55

How long has that car been there? Before the parking meter, someone had to come back and look at the tire. After the parking meter, well, the machine did the watching.

OK Solberg: 06:08

The end, I like that history, and I also like that we don't have parking meters in Malta, Montana. So let's all shout hallelujah for no parking meters and hallelujah. The weekend's almost here.

OK Solberg: 06:22

So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.