Is it common for senior citizens to forget where they have parked their car in large parking lots?
This is inspired from the question about knowing our direction. I am good at that when the sun is out or by seeing the mountains here in Oregon. However, if I park in a large parking lot at the mall, I guess I wasn't concentrating when I parked the car, and when I went out of the mall, I forgot just where I had parked it. I had my grandson with me and he said, "Grandma you parked by that tree with the red (it was Autumn) leaves. Now, I take note of what row and how many cars out I am from the store entrance and type it in the notes of my cell phone. As far as directions East and West, I am okay as long as there is sun and shadows and our mountains, but parking lots, not so good.
2013-03-25T17:14:31Z
Oops! CO! I didn't see you asked the same question! ;-) I had answered your question about sense of direction.
CO the Old Dog2013-03-25T17:11:56Z
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It happens to the best of us and at any particular age - not just us SCs. Football & Baseball stadium parking lots are usually filled with people wander around looking for their cars after a game especially the night games... I confess to that one too.... LOL
It is not an age thing for me I have always had this problem ever since I started driving when I was 16 years old. When I first moved to the Portland, OR area I went to Washington Square Mall in Beaverton. I had lived the last 5 years in Klamath Falls, OR and had forgotten how to drive the freeways, and park at a mall without losing my place. I wandered around for 1/2 and hour of so then I think someone drove me around in their parking lot guard cart until I finally found it. It was at that time I realized I needed to do the same thing I do at Disneyland where all the parking lots identify with a letter and a number. All you have to do is right them down and stick the note in your wallet then voila the tram picks you up and drops you off in exactly the right place. So at WA Square I have to consciously make note of which entrance of which store I walked into. Such as Nordstroms 2nd level, young men's department where the jeans and tie dyed shirts are. If I am not sure I will remember I will write it all down including the fact that I parked in the 3rd row on the left side of the entrance, about 10 cars back. If I don't do this I could be on the wrong level without even knowing it and nothing will look familiar. It is also very important that I notice the actual items of clothing that are displayed closest to the door I entered. Now they have so many different areas where they are selling clothing for boys, young men, or grown men and sometimes on different floors too if I don't pay attention there is a good chance I may have to wander around that store for a very long time just to find the door that will lead to where my car it.
I was 26 the first time I "lost" my car. Had to go downtown to the court house and ended up parking several streets away with the meter running. When I came out, all the streets and tall buildings looked alike! After several passes around lots of city blocks, a policeman took pity on me and drove me around till we found it. Since then, I have made a point to note landmarks and sometimes jot down my location. Worked very well. Now at 60, I recently went back to UTA and parked in the south forty. Thought I had marked my location pretty good, but when I came out, the lot was full of cars. Spent 40 minutes locating it. The key thing didn't work for me (not loud enough). Since then, I have picked a better landmark, but farther away.
It is common for me since I was about 40! I am now twice that and make sure to park within sight of a store entrance so that, if push comes to shove, I can stand there with my shopping buggy/cart and slowly pan across from left to right until I spot my car's snoot. Another help is to put something bright and even silly on the antenna...a big fake flower works for this. I have added a bobble-head dog on the dash, visible thru the window, in case my ambiguous plain gray car-snoot seems too vague that day.
Yes, Because it is easy to get lost in a parking lot and even in the mall we usually park near the entrance of the store we want to go into so we know where we have parked our car at.