I owned my restaurant, La Strada, for 27 years.

At some point I really needed a second little car for two reasons: one was for deliveries.

Over the years I had taken food in my own car for catering orders, or for donations such as to Ronald McDonald House. But no matter how careful I was, I always spilled some amount of sauce somewhere in the car. And it was impossible to totally clean it. I wanted to have a car where I would not have to be so careful.

The second reason I wanted a little car was for parades. Yes, parades.

We were in our local holiday parade every year, the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade. And one year we also began participating in the Long Beach Pride Parade. Having our own vehicle meant we could carry our own sound system, with our own playlist. And it would be fun to add our own decorations to the car.

I decided to get a little red Fiat, it was Italian after all, just like my restaurant. I got the most basic model they had.

I had never before named a car I was driving. But I decided to refer to this car as “Zippy.” I even got one of those vanity license plates with my name on it – I had never done that before either.

Zippy was with us on all parades after that, and she was a great addition. She also was very handy during the pandemic of 2020, and we made delivery after delivery of pizzas and pasta dishes from my restaurant.

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There was one time though, when I left Zippy in a parking lot of a strip mall about 3 miles away and walked home. I just wanted to get in more exercise, and I decided I would walk back to the parking lot in the morning. And I did.

But when I returned the next day, Zippy was nowhere to be found!!

I had no idea if the car had been stolen or towed.

I walked into work around 4:30 that day and told my employee, Miguel, about it. “I don’t know if she was stolen or towed.”

Miguel is so smart. “I’m sure it was towed Lisa. It’s probably at A & A Towing on Cherry. Would you like me to call?” He reached for the phone. I had the nicest staff.

“Do you have a red Fiat there? Yes, it has a white stripe. Yes, the license plate is ‘Lisa’.”

He hung up. “It’s there Lisa. They close at 5. Would you like me to go get it for you? They may not release it to me though.”

I thanked Miguel and told him I would have to go the next day – I had a catering order I had to deliver.

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Poor little Zippy. There she was just sitting there in the parking lot being all pretty where I had left her. Then the big bad tow truck guys came along and took her away!

The next day I took an Uber over to the Towing place. I probably wasn’t that nice to the man there.

I said, “So you stole my car? I heard it’s here.”

The man did not look happy. He must have to deal with a lot of miserable people. I showed him all my proof of this and that and then paid the awful bill. The man mentioned that he thought I was coming yesterday after he had talked to that nice young man. He was going to wait for him.

Ok, now I felt bad again.

“I’m sorry I made that comment about you stealing my car.”

“It’s OK,” he said.

“You must get that a lot.”

“I do.”

He took me into the garage. There was Zippy.

She didn’t look so happy; she had to spend more than one long dark night in that garage with those big guy-cars on either side of her.

And later on, I noticed her sign was upside down!

What?

Hmmmmm - maybe she had been having a good time in the dark after all. It looked almost like she had had to put on her clothes awfully fast, and kind of messed it up.

Believe me, I understood these things. There may have been a time or two when I had to do the same, so no judgment there.

Before I drove off, I told the man that it was nice to meet him, but I hoped not to see him again very soon. “At least not here!” he said and smiled. I sent him a gift certificate to my restaurant as a thank you. I still felt bad about my snarky comment.

I took Zippy to the car wash and got her all straightened out, and took her home where she was safe.

And I learned my lesson to never ever leave your car overnight in a parking lot!