I am 60 years old, I grew up in "another time", where things were a bit more civil, but not without problems (civil rights, Vietnam War, 1968, etc.)
I was raised in a town of about 25,000 north of Boston.
Mom stayed at home until 1972, Dad was an Electrician who was also a P.T. cop in our town. In his spare time he was going to college to get a teaching degree.... which is why he turned down a FT position on the local PD in the early 70's... but I digress.
I knew most of the cops, because in the days of walking routes you would actually see them on the streets, unlike today where you have no casual interaction because they are all in cruisers... and with 2 man cruisers ( we had a "north car" and a "south car" to supplement the 5 beat cops) sometimes Dad and his partner for the day would stop home for lunch on the weekend shifts, a 1967 Blue ford station wagon with a bubble gum machine on the roof parked in the driveway...
I got to know a few cops well enough that they cut me some slack in my teen years...
My Mom is in a "rehab" nursing home... Mom is pushing 90, Dad has been gone since 1992. All the old cops are gone... including the one who issued my my FID when I was 18, and an unrestricted LTC when I was 21.
It turns out the widow of one of the local cops is in the same facility. Her husband, who I will call "Officer Bill" was the beat cop in our section of town, walking what was known as R-3. Officer Bill, to a 6 year old, was the cop who was in front of the school every morning manning the crosswalk. He was the cop we all knew, and the reason half the kids wanted to be cops when they grew up.
Officer Bill was a great guy and a good cop.
The years go by, time does what it does, and Officer Bill retires, and in retirement he became legally blind with a couple of medical issues.... sometimes when the scanner stopped on 46.06 with a box alarm for medical aid at a certain address, 38.90 would kick in next with the desk officer saying medical response to XXX street, Officer Bill's house.... and that got guys moving
I always had a lot of respect for Officer Bill, I never got to tell him so later in life, and eventually it was too late to do so.
So today when the nurse said that my Mom, who has the same first name as Officer Bills last name, met Mrs. Officer Bill, and they exchanged war stories about husbands being cops, in a small town where The Barbarics MC had set up shop ( I have a funny cop story for another day on that subject) , I had to ask what room Mrs Officer Bill was in.
I knocked on the door and went in, introducing myself. I told her how many fond memories I had of Officer Bill, from my youth, well over 50 years ago.
She told me how they met in the Carolina's, when he was in the service, and she was visiting friends... she was from The Bronx.... and how after he got out of the service how he would take the train to NYC to visit with her, and how they eventually ended up in the town where Moby Dick is still rumored to be in a lagoon.
It was nice to finally express my gratitude to Officer Bill, not to him, but to his wife. She said she would tell her children
For those who are currently wearing a badge, or for those who may have at one point, hopefully you won't have to wait 55 years for someone to tell you thank you for all you did.
I was raised in a town of about 25,000 north of Boston.
Mom stayed at home until 1972, Dad was an Electrician who was also a P.T. cop in our town. In his spare time he was going to college to get a teaching degree.... which is why he turned down a FT position on the local PD in the early 70's... but I digress.
I knew most of the cops, because in the days of walking routes you would actually see them on the streets, unlike today where you have no casual interaction because they are all in cruisers... and with 2 man cruisers ( we had a "north car" and a "south car" to supplement the 5 beat cops) sometimes Dad and his partner for the day would stop home for lunch on the weekend shifts, a 1967 Blue ford station wagon with a bubble gum machine on the roof parked in the driveway...
I got to know a few cops well enough that they cut me some slack in my teen years...
My Mom is in a "rehab" nursing home... Mom is pushing 90, Dad has been gone since 1992. All the old cops are gone... including the one who issued my my FID when I was 18, and an unrestricted LTC when I was 21.
It turns out the widow of one of the local cops is in the same facility. Her husband, who I will call "Officer Bill" was the beat cop in our section of town, walking what was known as R-3. Officer Bill, to a 6 year old, was the cop who was in front of the school every morning manning the crosswalk. He was the cop we all knew, and the reason half the kids wanted to be cops when they grew up.
Officer Bill was a great guy and a good cop.
The years go by, time does what it does, and Officer Bill retires, and in retirement he became legally blind with a couple of medical issues.... sometimes when the scanner stopped on 46.06 with a box alarm for medical aid at a certain address, 38.90 would kick in next with the desk officer saying medical response to XXX street, Officer Bill's house.... and that got guys moving
I always had a lot of respect for Officer Bill, I never got to tell him so later in life, and eventually it was too late to do so.
So today when the nurse said that my Mom, who has the same first name as Officer Bills last name, met Mrs. Officer Bill, and they exchanged war stories about husbands being cops, in a small town where The Barbarics MC had set up shop ( I have a funny cop story for another day on that subject) , I had to ask what room Mrs Officer Bill was in.
I knocked on the door and went in, introducing myself. I told her how many fond memories I had of Officer Bill, from my youth, well over 50 years ago.
She told me how they met in the Carolina's, when he was in the service, and she was visiting friends... she was from The Bronx.... and how after he got out of the service how he would take the train to NYC to visit with her, and how they eventually ended up in the town where Moby Dick is still rumored to be in a lagoon.
It was nice to finally express my gratitude to Officer Bill, not to him, but to his wife. She said she would tell her children
For those who are currently wearing a badge, or for those who may have at one point, hopefully you won't have to wait 55 years for someone to tell you thank you for all you did.
