Wait Tires Winter-Ready Motorists
The half dozen expressionless customers in the tire store’s no-frills waiting area looked like they had been sitting there 10 hours.
They resembled potted plants. They had almost forgotten to blink.
Wedged between stacks of all-weather radials, one sleepy woman read the newspaper. A couple of men gazed at a television that had the sound off. Others just stared into space and waited. And waited.
Welcome to tire-changing season.
A friendly guy at this downtown Spokane store had said on the phone Friday that they were so busy he couldn’t make appointments to put on snow tires. You just had to come in and take your chances.
But Saturday morning, shortly after 9 o’clock, there wasn’t what you would call a crush of activity. That was probably because the weather, foggy but not frigid, wasn’t setting off seasonal alarms in drivers’ minds.
This was the lull before the storms.
Still, people kept coming through the door. Some bought new winter tires, choosing from among the approximately 150 kinds available. Others already had theirs and just wanted them slapped on.
A long-haired customer at the service counter was starting to make his case that he was something of a tire expert when the store clerk politely interrupted him. “Is that your truck out there?” the clerk asked. “You left your lights on.”
From out in the garage, where the tire-changing took place, you could hear the intermittent bursts of the power lug wrenches. BRAAAAAP. BRAAAAAP. And that old A Flock of Seagulls song, “I Ran,” swirled out of someone’s radio or tape player.
“All right, you’re out of here,” a clerk said to a waiting man whose white Honda was ready. The customer, who looked to be in his 50s, seemed to not comprehend at first. It was as if he was about to mumble “I don’t understand … you mean the governor called … there’s been a pardon … I can go?”
At another tire store a couple of blocks away, a fortyish man in what looked like an expensive sweater stood out in the garage and watched as winter tires were mounted on his Jeep Cherokee. If this annoyed the young guy actually doing the work, he managed not to show it.
BRAAAAAP. BRAAAAAP.
At a third store, another bored cluster of customers sat facing a TV. It might have looked like they weren’t doing anything. But in truth, they were getting ready for winter.
And when, any day now, they hear a forecast calling for the white stuff, there’s a chance one or two will break into satisfied smiles.
It’s true. Good things come to those who wait.
, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that looks at gatherings in the Inland Northwest.