\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back when I was a kid ( about 26) I had a unique experience with\u00a0the County Sherrif’s officers that gave me a rather grey look into the black and white letters of the law.\u00a0 I was a serious Ballet student, and had just come home from my 2 & 1\/2 hour morning class.\u00a0 My husband at that time (an X-husband for 30 years) and I were sitting around the round table in our living\/dining\/what ever room drinking coffee, when we heard what sounded like a loud speaker, spewing unintelligible talk seemingly coming from our front yard.\u00a0 As I was up and pacing, hyper-active nut that I always was, I took a look out the front window\u00a0 and noticed about 6 uniformed men ( in uniforms I did not recognize as lawmen of any kind,\u00a0 Austin\u00a0 Cops wore dark blue uniforms and\u00a0these were khaki-tan (sort of like Air Force Officer Summer Uniforms) pointing high caliber rifles in the direction of our house.\u00a0 This I took to be a rather unfortunate way to spend such a nice Spring morning;\u00a0 however, being (as I have bragged about many times here)\u00a0a Military Brat, when seeing serious looking Uniformed Men in firing stance with high powered rifles pointed your way,\u00a0while giving directions such as ” come out of the house with your hands up,” it is best not to have a debate with one’s partner or even hesitate in doing what was clearly suggested.\u00a0 So I opened the front door in my brown leotard and brown long skirt having my hands up in fifth position (kidding) even though I didn’t know who these guys were– and they did not inform us\u00a0who they were, until after the fact–that they were county sheriff’s officers.\u00a0 You got to remember that this was back in the stone ages, and not too long after Charles Whitman pulled his famous routine;\u00a0 so for all I\u00a0knew this could\u00a0have been a whole bunch of\u00a0Eagle Scouts gone terribly wrong.\u00a0\u00a0 My (at that time) husband followed me out, after his coffee hit him and reality sunk in.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We were told to lay on the the ground so they could cuff us\u00a0( like a couple of Spring Pigs.)…( Oh ,the disrespect of\u00a0 non-removable grass stains on my off-white tights, to say nothing of the dignity lost with the neighbors, not that we held the esteem of said neighbors even with out\u00a0that unfortunate\u00a0display.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the time we had a serious watch dog, a German Shephard\u00a0 named “Mule.”\u00a0\u00a0 He\u00a0was infamous\u00a0among the local hippies, as he would guard the house, or truck, or what ever he was in charge of– as though he were Genghis Khan with more serious teeth.\u00a0 Well, of course old Mule wasn’t having any intruding Eagle Scouts\u00a0in his domain,\u00a0and was barking, growling, and showing those\u00a0infamous teeth of his in his fiercest stance\u00a0as he stood point\u00a0inside of\u00a0the screen door.\u00a0\u00a0 There was some talk\u00a0among those lawmen of shooting him, until I managed to sit up and request that the let me handle\u00a0the situation and “my dog” by giving a known command that I\u00a0figured he would follow, regardless of the presence of these\u00a0courteous, friendly visitors.\u00a0 They discussed this and told me to try it, but if he went for one of them, he’d be shot.\u00a0\u00a0I shouted in my loudest most serious voice: “Mule, get in the truck.”\u00a0And told the cop closest to the door to get behind and open the screen door, which oddly enough he did.\u00a0 Must have been the volume I could produce back then, those where the days when I sang on the street with no mike, and was young and \u00a0in good physical shape.\u00a0 Lucky for me that I knew how to give and take orders, as in my child hood I remember\u00a0waking up to\u00a0 the familiar loudly cadanced ” attention for the orders of the day, detail for tomorrow…”\u00a0 for about 17 years, when my Dad felt like getting things moving in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mule followed my directions as I followed him with my eyes and then said ” Good Boy”:\u00a0Mule was no bodies fool\u00a0,that’s for sure;\u00a0 who wouldn’t rather be guarding the truck than sprawled out and\u00a0‘hogtied’, at that time cuffed on the ground, and for what reason I had no idea—(-maybe these guys were Dance critics?)<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Actually some prisoner from the county jail escaped on these fine guy’s watch. Unfortunately for us, he had coincidentally parked his company truck in our drive way, then ran for it around the back of our house and\u00a0down to the woods that lead to Lamar Boulevard, which he could cross and be in an even more dense and remote forest.\u00a0 Any way, as he was found to not<\/strong> be hiding in our little house, and he was no where in sight, they very officially changed their mode, and un-cuffed us,\u00a0after which we were\u00a0told what had gone down.\u00a0 They gave me Sheriff Frank’s card and told me ”\u00a0if ever the sheriff could do any thing for you, don’t hesitate to call,” etc.\u00a0 So they unchambered their\u00a0rifles and gathered like grackels to talk about what had\u00a0happened, and what to do now, etc.\u00a0 I noticed two very young officers among that group were\u00a0still shaking from the adrenaline rush, or what ever…one of those younger guys\u00a0had me “covered”, and I’m sure I must have\u00a0looked pretty ”\u00a0bad-assed” with my ballet bun, and turned out stance.\u00a0 I remember ‘reassuring that guy’, and saying some thing like :”Say man, every things cool now, huh?”…to which he just met my eyes and kind of muttered, ‘Yeah, I guess.’\u00a0 I think they were looking forward to target practice on the weird-os, but I could be wrong.\u00a0 At least they apologized and didn’t shoot the dog.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But that was a long time ago, when Austin was a nice smallish “college town”, where you could walk around at night with out pepper spray.\u00a0 I had some personal dealings with the county lawmen, and the city cops lately, and\u00a0this new generation of cops\u00a0are not nearly so open to suggestion, as they were in those days, to say the least.\u00a0\u00a0Must be the age thing, and some where during all these rough shod years I lost the Sheriff’s card along with my nerve.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back when I was a kid ( about 26) I had a unique experience with\u00a0the County Sherrif’s officers that gave me a rather grey look into the black and white letters of the law.\u00a0 I was a serious Ballet student, and had just come home from my 2 & 1\/2 hour morning class.\u00a0 My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R4qt-g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/the-octoberfest-in-austin-from-the-sauerosa\/","url_meta":{"origin":16,"position":0},"title":"The Octoberfest in Austin from the Sauerosa","author":"Kay Buena","date":"October 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Though I can close my eyes and remember how Fall\u00a0looked and seemed to me\u00a0in New England, and other foreign spots north of the Rio Grande, here in Austin, Fall looks pretty much like Summer, but with the school-aged kids rounded up like they're supposed to be, unseen nor heard,\u00a0for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/again-whats-wrong-with-this-picture\/","url_meta":{"origin":16,"position":1},"title":"Again, what’s wrong with this picture?","author":"Kay Buena","date":"August 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday I wrote a piece on what ever it was, but it offended my husband; And in-order to promote cordial cooperation and an ambiance of a positive nature, I \"scrubbed it.\" (That's 'space kid' talk for cancelling what was written, as this was the phrase used when a launch\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/pianos-i-have-known-and-loved\/","url_meta":{"origin":16,"position":2},"title":"Piano's I Have Known and Loved","author":"Kay Buena","date":"September 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometime between the age of 2 and 4 years old, my parents got me a toy piano.\u00a0 It was white and shaped like a baby grand, but only had two octaves (from\u00a0 G below middle C---to G above middle C).\u00a0 I thought this was the most wonderful thing, although thinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/tribute-to-bill-ducker-gone-but-never-forgotten\/","url_meta":{"origin":16,"position":3},"title":"Tribute to Bill Ducker, Gone but Never Forgotten","author":"Kay Buena","date":"October 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I first became acquainted with Mr. Bill Ducker back in the early 70's when times were not exactly prosperous or even ironically amusing for me and his then girl friend (later to become his wife), Claire.\u00a0 We were House mates at the time.\u00a0 She had divorced her husband and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/betty-janes-laundry-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":16,"position":4},"title":"1. Betty Jane's Laundry Day","author":"Kay Buena","date":"August 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Betty Jane is the kind of doll that most kids can tell is a doll to \"play with\" and not just look at.\u00a0 My mother gave me the dubious and questionably intelligent Betty Jane, on my 4th birthday.\u00a0 At first\u00a0with her\u00a0long blond hair and a surprised look, and prim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "(The) Betty Jane Chronicles"","block_context":{"text":"(The) Betty Jane Chronicles","link":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/category\/the-betty-jane-chronicles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Betty Jane","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/technologists.com\/photos\/2004\/sm04S00BettyJane.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/im-getting-a-tad-sick-of-this-maudlin-kiddie-crapbring-back-the-snoop-dogg\/","url_meta":{"origin":16,"position":5},"title":"Bring Back the Snoop Dogg Picture; it's a total Winner, if I do say myself.","author":"Kay Buena","date":"April 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Song of the Day: \"Moon Rise \" Lyrics, Music,Vocal, Rhythm Guitar, Slide\/Country-Slack Key Guitar: Kay Buena (AKA) Caroline Abbitt Sauer:- Bass Guitar, Recording Engineer: Dr. Charles Sauer,(PHd.comp.sci.):- Drums: The Honerable Jerry Barnett. Recorded back in 1986(?) \u00a0Oh, great swami of the computer Empire of the network here, please bring back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snoop Dogg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kaybuena.com\/images\/tn20080124SnoopDogg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}