My wife thought it would be a good idea to take the kids to the Hastings' Rivertown Days carnival tonight. She was wrong, as I could have told her, if she had asked, and this I knew before I knew that we were going to forget our stroller at home causing me to have to carry the car seat full of my baby while my sturdy four year-old rode on my shoulders. My wife's hands were full- she carried a bottle of water, bless her. In all honestly, and I can only write this because my wife is no longer standing behind me, rubbing my shoulders, it wasn't a bad time. The people watching was top-notch. I especially enjoyed watching the junior and senior high school packs, who hadn't seen each other in a month. I entertained myself by trying to figure out which one of the kids was me, which was my group; which one's were cool, jocks, on drugs, drunk. I was struck by a few things. Firstly, if I watch a group of adults, it doesn't take me long before I have a pretty good idea what's going on and who is who. But kids are such good actors, and in many cases, don't know themselves what the hell they're doing. Secondly, I realized that it is dangerous to stare too long at a bunch of kids. Maybe I'm a little safer with a baby on an arm and a kid on my shoulders, but still...
Which brings me to the police. The street that leads from the main road down to the carnival grounds was closed, not surprisingly. As we were leaving we walked past the sign indicating as much and the two cops who sat in a golf cart next to it. Just then, an SUV attempted to turn left, onto the closed road. It was a bone-headed thing to do, but clearly was a simply mistake. There were cars and people and signs everywhere. It didn't take too much imagination to realize that the driver, in his (and it was a man, with a woman sitting next to him and kids in the back- a poorly put together criminal enterprise, if that's what it was) attempt to avoid all the cars and people and dogs had not seen the sign. One of the cops yelled, "NO!" The SUV kept coming. Again, it doesn't take much imagination to realize that the driver didn't hear the cop or didn't know at whom he was yelling, "NO!" Now the cop is mad. He's got to get up. He runs out into the road, yelling at the driver, "What part of 'No Left Turns' didn't you understand? Now I've got to run out into traffic..." And this is all I heard. We had walked out of earshot. But I heard plenty. Why do some cops have to be such pricks? I know they deal with a lot of crap, but that's the gig. If I know that, and I'm not a cop, then they should have known that too, before they became cops. And what were the cops doing sitting there? They were there because they knew full well that at some point during the evening, somebody was going to try to turn down that road and they would have to stop them. And now this cop is acting surprised, can't believe someone would try such a thing. And this is it in a microcosm (and yes, I know I'm generalizing.): Cops know full well that they are going to have to deal with criminals and jerks, day in and day out, and many of them act surprised and personally offended every time.
My husband fails to note that I was also carrying the four year old's half-eaten blue raspberry sno-cone (from which she said I could not partake although I was clearly struggling with all I had to do) and a pair of hot pink sunglasses that clearly did not belong on my face but I was left with no other choice....
ReplyDelete