I’ve had the occasion to park in the Tech Village ramp a few times in the past week, and while I was able to exit promptly each time (unlike others’ experiences), I did notice something odd about the machine that takes validated tickets as you drive out.

When you drive up to the exit gate, a man’s voice automatically emits from the ticket-taking machine, asking you to “please insert your ticket, magnetic stripe up and to the right.”

It’s an odd voice – hard to describe, but my best (and OK, probably slightly exaggerated) description would be that the guy sounds like Droopy Dog slurring his words. After a few days in a row hearing this, I wondered who decided, “that’s just the voice we need for our parking ramp computer!” And I sort of wondered how that poor guy was doing – he must have been having a rough day when he recorded that clip.

But that’s not the end of it. After you insert your ticket, a different, more energetic man’s voice emits from the speaker as the gate goes up, telling you thanks (and have a good day, too, if I recall correctly). That guy is a bundle of vim and vigor compared to the previous voice.

I started imagining some being living inside the machine who subsists on validated tickets. He’s been starving, waiting for someone to come along, woozy and almost unable to get out those magnetic stripe instructions… and then someone inserts a ticket, reviving his spirits and voice just in time for the peppy farewell.

Anyhow, I also started thinking how it would be kind of cool to have a local celebrity be the voice of the parking ramp. As for who that could be – let the discussion begin….