Parking tickets are usually placed under a windshield wiper. “We’re going to have to get rid of that windshield wiper on the car. I found another parking ticket in it today” was a joke printed in 1954.
“One time a windshield wiper will work perfectly is when holding a parking ticket” is a jocular statement that appears to have first been cited in print from 1955 (credited to “S. Brood”) or 1958. Windshield wipers have technologically improved since the early 1950s, but the old joke is still popular on many websites.
2 December 1954, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, “The Girls” comic strip by Folger, pg. 17, col. 3:
“We’re going to have to get rid of that windshield wiper on the car. I found another parking ticket in it today.”
(A wife speaking to her husband—ed.)
Google Books
The Antique Automobile
Antique Automobile Club of America
Volumes 19-21
1955
Pg. 38:
One time a windshield wiper will work perfectly is when holding a parking ticket (S. Brood).
Google Books
Hospital Management
Volume 85
1958
Pg. 124:
One time a windshield wiper will work perfectly is when it is holding a parking ticket.
4 February 1971, Ada (OK) Weekly News, “Strayed From the Herd” by Connie Nelson, pg. 4, col. 4:
One time when a windshield wiper will work perfectly is when it’s holding a parking ticket.
Google Books
Dictionary of Proverbs
By Glenville Kleiser
New Delhi: A.P.H. Publishing Corporation
2005
Pg. 149:
One time a windshield wiper will work property is when it is holding a parking ticket.
Google Books
Laugh Out Loud:
Stories to Touch Your Heart and Tickle Your Funny Bone
By Women Of Faith
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
2008
Pg. 127:
FACT OF LIFE:
The one time a windshield wiper will work properly is when it’s holding a parking ticket. —AUTHOR UNKNOWN
DarkZtar
AliaSky
01-09-2008
I found some giggles…
(...)
“One time a windshield wiper will work properly is when it’s holding a parking ticket.”
—Unknown
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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