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# Another day in traffic court
- URL: https://www.dashhouse.com/200628another-day-in-traffic-court-html/
- Published: 2006-02-08T03:52:17.000Z
- Updated: 2022-08-15T15:33:49.000Z
- Author: Darryl Dash
- Tags: Blog, Life, #DashHouseCom, #wp

When I was in school – I can’t remember which grade, but it must have been 25 years ago – they scared us one day by taking us to court. We got to meet the judge in his chambers, and then we sat in the public gallery and watched a few trials.

I forget exactly what the charges were – maybe they spat on a sidewalk or didn’t return a shopping cart after they loaded their cars – but we sat stunned as we watched the underbelly of society stand before the law. Maybe they were trying to deter us from a life of crime, and I guess it worked. It was the eighties version of a reality show.

Today, I went to court. Nothing major; it was just traffic court. I was filing a motion to appeal my [conviction](https://www.dashhouse.com/darryl/2005/05/busted.htm), after allegedly failing to *completely* stop at a stop sign in 2004.

I never stepped in a courtroom today; that will have to wait another 18 months or so, long after the [demerit points](http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/driver/demerit.htm?ref=dashhouse.com) are stricken from my record. (What’s the use? I asked myself today.) But I’ve sure seen a different side of people.

People take a number, and wait for their turn. They go up to the window and, quite often, get agitated with the clerk on the other side of the glass. You could run a sociology class in that room.

I’m thinking of becoming a chaplain to the traffic court. Just throw on a collar and hang around, looking for people who are about to blow a blood vessel.

I’ve seen drivers hauled away in handcuffs. (I was called up next by the way. Lucky for me, I got off a bit easier.) I’ve seen people brought in by police in cuffs. I’ve seen young guys fined $15,000\. I’ve seen old men who can barely walk try to communicate their anger in a second language. I’ve seen it all.

Chaplain to the traffic court. That just may be my next calling. I’ve heard of stranger vocations.