Written by Tiane Davis \/\/ Graphic by Ben Evans<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The usual parking violation at Harding is $25. Receiving and paying parking tickets is a common complaint among students, and most would like to avoid paying them at all. For alumna Ellen Brumley, however, the story was different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little over two weeks ago, Brumley said she was looking through old yearbooks with a friend when a slip of paper fell out of one of them. The slip of paper was a Harding traffic violation ticket from December, 1971. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I guess I need to pay that because I sure want to go to heaven,\u2019\u201d Brumley said with a laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t know how I got by without paying that, unless I really paid it and just kept the ticket.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brumley said her first concern was that Harding sometimes held transcripts and degrees if someone had an unpaid violation. She also said she wanted to \u201chave a good time\u201d with it and make sure all her debts were paid. When she brought it to the business office, the workers asked if she had received the ticket recently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI told them, \u2018Look at the date,\u2019\u201d Brumley said. \u201cOne of the girls in the business office said, \u2018Oh my goodness, this ticket is older than me.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dean of intercultural education David Collins, who works in the same office as Brumley\u2019s daughter, Mary Ellen, witnessed the interaction and decided to take the $1 payment to the International Programs office to be kept there. Mary Ellen Brumley said she was not surprised her mother tried to pay the ticket when she heard about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy mom is a very honest person, and she doesn\u2019t like things hanging over her head,\u201d Mary Ellen Brumley said. \u201cShe\u2019s always been like that since I can remember.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alumnus and former Executive Vice President Jim Carr said he and Brumley were close friends when they were students at Harding. He said she is \u201ca person of impeccable integrity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe would not want to leave anything undone that could be repaired or fixed,\u201d Carr said. \u201cI\u2019m surprised she had an unpaid parking ticket, and I bet she paid it twice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior Alyssa Dodson, who said she paid a parking ticket last semester, said she felt it was her responsibility to follow the rules and pay it but that she was surprised to hear someone had made sure to pay a parking violation over 50 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf parking tickets were $1 today, I would also probably intentionally break the rule,\u201d Dodson said. \u201cI knew what I was signing up for when I parked in a faculty parking spot, but that didn\u2019t make it more fun to hit submit on the payment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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