Tocky on 20/8/2019 at 04:26
Ron died. Ronzo. Ron Shapiro. He was an Oxford icon and legend. He came here by way of Jackson Hole, Wyoming following a girl he had met from here. His first job here was at the only legal pot farm in the US at the time. This obvious hippy with a bowler hat and pony tail had a military secret clearance and they hired him. Hell, me and Richard smoked a doobie with him in the small projection booth while he ran a film and it was so small that when one of us dropped it nobody could bend enough to pick it up. He brought us movies we would have never seen like The Last Temptation of Christ and Rocky Horror Picture Show and I certainly would never have seen Deep Throat had it not been for his midnight showing. But it was more than just a place of movies where you could bring in an iced down cooler of beer with you. He had world famous authors who hung out there regular like Willie Morris and Barry Hannah just to be there. It was so bohemian. Blues musicians played there for the hell of it. It was the place to be if you had any weird in you at all.
The Hoka cinema died in 1997. Such a shame. It broke a lot of hearts and my wife and I went to the final celebration there. I got to tell him how I took my wife on our first date there and how I first kissed her there the first time. In a weird way I owe my life to Ron. Who knows how things would have turned out between us if not for the Hoka, this former cotton warehouse made of tin turned movie house. The whole town owes him, certainly us hippies, but maybe I owe him most of all. He was a great guy. The sort to offer you a place to stay if you were down and out and not be joking. He loved everybody and everybody loved him. Some have even brought up the possibility of making a statue to him on the old Hoka site. I will donate to it. He already has an award in the local film festival named for him. The Ronzo. He was one of a kind.
I urge you to watch this short documentary about Ron and his movie house we loved so much. It's interesting, it's funny, it's my past and so many others who came through this little burgh. Just now it breaks my heart.
(
https://vimeo.com/2236933) https://vimeo.com/2236933
I'm going to miss this crazy fucker.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/LCGG1ZG.jpg
Tocky on 23/8/2019 at 04:54
I've been in a bit of a blue funk since Ron died. They aren't making any more like him. Our time, the age of freedom is over. Maybe in pursuit of fun we went too far at times. But did we deserve the world we got as punishment? Oxford is nothing but condos full of rich assholes. The common guy or gal, the fun ones, the dance till sweaty and dizzy, the tell loud stories and do crazy things just for the story ones are fading away. Will anyone climb the side of a bar just to dance on the roof anymore? Can you walk down the street with a lit joint and ask the first person you see if they want any only to find out they are passing you theirs? It's all gone to obnoxious preps and their well heeled and heeling bow heads. There is no bohemian element anymore. Or that's how I feel. Maybe I need to take my wife dancing. It's been a decade or better since I've even been in a bar. I haven't even been in my buddy's Diamond Back biker club in that long and he keeps sending me notices of what band is playing this week. Not that it really has to be a bar. Maybe just doing something crazy with friends would work.
"Don't look back. If you do it will pull at your heart so much all you can do is look back." So said Scarlett. But that's all I've been doing here isn't it? The older you get the more you look in the rear view. The more you lose too. Aubrey died. That's another thing I learned at the class reunion. He is the one on the far right in the motorcycle pic above. I should have kept in better touch, but then, that works both ways doesn't it? Cancer. He smoked more than anyone I know. First thing when he woke up even. Freedom is a double edged sword eh Starker? But you and me knew enough to quit. We were made of sterner stuff. Yeah. I don't know how you did it but I stayed drunk for a month. Every time I wanted one I took a drink instead. One habit beaten down with another. Not so certain mine was strength.
Boo hoo poor me. Hell with that. Here is a story where we went too far. Sean was my sister in laws first husband. The youngest sister in law. He was good looking and funny and went too far which was fine by me. Anything for a laugh. Troy was the one who married the middle sister and he was anything for a laugh too. All us brothers in law had gone out for a good time together. I had just gotten my camcorder fresh after they put them on the market in the eighties. I had been filming mostly family stuff so it was high time we went filming crazy stuff. At some point we were in the grocery store. I think we had orders to pick up something. So Sean finds a sweet potato shaped like a penis. He walks around with it hanging out his zipper while I film the look on peoples faces. It works as you think it does. He asks them have they never seen a sweet potato before and pulls it out to show them it's just a potato. He even tries to scan it still poking out his crotch at the checkout. Cheap laughs. Everyone is cool. No cops called.
So we went to the police station. Up to the main desk. We want to report a potato flasher. Sean does the bit and gets a weak smile. Cops buddy comes up and gives a bigger one before he ambles on. Then Sean starts taking the desk sergeants lack of humor as a personal challenge and lays on the cop stereotypes. That gets no smile. I'm filming all of this with the heavy shoulder mounted VCR thing and he is doing the donut thing. What kind do you like? I bet it's the one with the hole in the middle. Come on bet with me. And other equally lame stuff. Only he is going on and on with it and I see the cop is getting annoyed. He is asking what kind of donuts they have back there and guessing so I just interrupt with "well what kind of restaurant is this anyway?" which gets another half smile so Troy and I drag Sean out while we are on top.
Then we pick up Sean's car from the mechanic as he tries to pay him with potatoes. Somewhat amusing. Next to that place is a telecom thing that has a wide obelisk of TV's playing. In front of it is dog poop so he takes a stick and flings it on the window saying there is nothing but crap on TV tonight. That was getting lame again but I gamely chuckled. If the store had been open it would have gotten us in trouble but it was the weekend.
Troy needs to go drop off some reels at his uncles. I ride with him and Sean picks up my wifes brother Bubba who is still in high school at that time and we all head out to the country at stupid speeds. We pass each other at various points and try to keep each other from passing. There is a lot of trash in the floor of Troys old truck so I get the idea to give them something to think about as Troy swerves to keep them from passing us back. Styrofoam cups and McDonalds bags and half burgers weeks old hit their windshield. It was grand fun. Until they passed us back. Then we got to see what trash they had. We even got to see what they had in the ash tray. Unfortunately they ran out and began throwing pennies which could have pecked our windshield so we backed off. So far so good. Nobody has run off the road or anything.
So I get this idea about running off the road. We are passing his uncles corn field. I've always wanted to ride through a field of stalks in a vehicle. It's dry stalks left after the picking so no corn on them. Why not? Turns out Troy has too. So off we go into the field at breakneck speed. It was glorious. Tappity scratchity plunk flap whackery as we mow them down. We do figure eights and donuts and follow our trail and veer off and it's all I thought it would be. Sean has followed our lead and is doing the same in his newly fixed car. Only we can't see each other except as disappearing stalks so it's a near thing a time or two as far as missing each other. That just adds to the fun with sudden swerves to avoid each other. We finally drive out with over half the stalks down and it not being as much fun anymore. I bet you thought we were going to head on crash.
Then we pull up to his uncles and he comes out to meet us madder than hell. He has two of his shirtless overall wearing big ole boys with him and one has a shotgun. What the hell? Did you just run through my corn field? I look back at a stalk hanging from the tail pipe. Uh... yes... it was just stalks left after harvest right? Yeah but they were for gathering so the pigs could eat them. He berated us a bit for being stupid. We volunteered to go pick them all up but he was too mad to let us. He wanted money. The fuck you say. Yes, money. We each had to pay eighty bucks over that. I still don't know why we couldn't have just picked them up and taken them to his barn or whatever. It was fun but not eighty dollars worth. Still, it was a story. I've not forgotten it.
Nobody forgot what Sean did either. Turns out he wasn't as funny as we thought. He had a paranoid evil streak when it came to women and held my sister in laws head under water yelling at her to admit she was cheating on him. You would just have to know this girl to know how ridiculous that was. Her sister yeah. That wouldn't be so hard. But not this one. She was loyal and sweet and hadn't a cheating bone in her. Turns out he was insane. Me and Rena moved her out one weekend and she never went back. We never let Sean near her again. She has a good husband now. Not so exciting maybe, but a decent guy.
Maybe we went too far sometimes. Maybe we didn't respect property or laws. But we didn't mean anything bad. We paid for our deeds. And when one of us turned out to really be an asshole we turned our backs and protected the ones really at risk or hurt. That counts for something right? I like to think we didn't deserve a bunch of rich bastards moving in and putting up a buttload of condos anyway.
Tocky on 26/8/2019 at 05:57
Oxford held a little easy style New Orleans parade for Ronzo today. It's just the sort of thing he would have loved.
[video]https://www.facebook.com/thelocalvoice/videos/712462262531072/[/video]
You may have to have facebook to see it. I don't know. Also don't know that anyone cares to but I thought it was cool.
Tocky on 1/11/2019 at 04:10
It's Halloween. My favorite time of the year. Leaves turn. The air has a bite. Spooky shit doesn't seem so far fetched. I've had spooky shit happen. Room 137 was the worst/best. But I've had more than my share. Most don't
have one story to share and I have several. To be clear, I believe in science and only science. I can't discount what I've experienced with my own senses though. If I'm insane then so be it. I can't deny I like the strange things that
happen. They make life less mundane. The shadow that passes between my bathroom and unused bedroom down the hall my animals make note of. My wife has seen it. My dog and cats may perk up when it happens but mostly it
can be ignored. It doesn't bother me. The roll of tin foil that managed to slide out long ways from the top of a cabinet to fall end first on my right hand three times in a row while I was cooking can be discounted as vibration
movement over time. The CD that flew off a shelf next to my computer to hit me in the chest is a little harder but what the hell. Not much has happened in the last ten years.
What happened on the land is something I'll never forget though. When you are alone in the woods miles from anything at night things stand out. I've told the story before. It really freaked me out but time and distance have a
way of flattening the peaks of experience. It becomes one of those things that happened. You know they did. You recall them perfectly well. But you can discount dispassionately over time. Ha ha you are a freak and you don't
believe yourself anymore than anyone reading this does. But you can still remember. That's the hard part. How do you fit that into what you know without just admitting you are crazy? Am I even afraid of being crazy? Not really.
So much of our every day lives is so disconcerting and so much of what people believe is so nuts. Crazy is codified into the system. Religion is in no way logical and quite frankly batshit crazy. If I'm crazy then I'm just another in
the vast majority of lunatics and a nice one who means no harm. I won't even force you to believe as I do.
So I owned a hundred acre wood. I called it my Winnie the Pooh woods. I worked there clearing trails and building a small cabin of cedar logs on the weekends. It kept me in shape. I had an idea of cutting a key way and
building a lake. I had a guy come out and bulldoze so that I could survey the possible water level. I used a bobcat dozer myself to clear some trails. There wasn't a neighbor for miles and I liked the solitude of working hard and
alone.
I was doing that one evening. I had hauled a culvert in the back of my truck down to the creek bed where I had to tie it off to a tree to pull it out of my truck. Then I pushed it in the deep cut the creek ran through with my
bumper. I had thirty acres on the other side I needed to have access to so I spent the rest of the day shoveling dirt around the huge culvert. It was so big of a cut that I had to come back the next day and do the same only I left
the truck up at the gate that time. I can't recall why. The road was solid if a bit washed out in places. Maybe I just liked the walk down the long dirt road knowing it was all mine.
I worked all day. I didn't even stop to eat, just to drink water. Every so often I would look around just because it was so quiet but I would soon go back to shoveling and tossing. By sunset I was patting it solid with my shovel. I
would gather some stones to put around it later to reinforce against a strong rain current. It would wash out anyway but I didn't know that then. I gathered my shovel and pick weary but happy the job was done. On my walk
across the pasture to the woods proper I noticed the whippoorwills. They were gathered on both sides of the road in the dark trees. There must have been a hundred singing a strident whistle, all asynchronous. It seemed the
sound of madness. So urgent. So many. I had never heard anything quite like it and marked it as a marvel in my mind. I made my way to the top of the hill where there is an open area and turned to look back. They all stopped at
the same time. It gave me the strangest feeling. For as out of sync as they were to suddenly all stop at once was odd.
I crossed the open area with remnants of a logging operation in scattered piles to the other side where woods and brush closed in near the road again. I guess I didn't want to give up the day. One more bit of work wouldn't
hurt. I gathered a pile of logs and brush and set them ablaze. Since I feared the dryness of the area I put them in the already clear road with no crisp grass ready to catch. I let that burn down and gathered more. My thoughts
wandered looking into the fire. Things said and did long ago, people parading before my minds eye, regrets and joys. Suddenly a loud POW issued from the dark outside the dome of firelight. Incredibly loud. I stared in it's direction
wondering what could have caused it.
Do you understand how strange that is? You think yourself alone and the most improbable sound happens? After a few minutes I began to doubt myself. It was so improbable I wondered could I have imagined it. There is
nobody for miles and no sound of traffic. No sound beyond the mellow hiss and crackle of fire. Just when I thought I would never know it happened again. This time a few feet to the right. Could it be a gun? It was loud enough to
be a 45. I didn't think so. To me it sounded like a large limb bent until the point it breaks. When it did it again a few more feet to the right I assumed it would be a trend and looked to where It would next happen. All I could see
was darkness and I was well aware how clearly whatever it was saw me as I stood in the firelight.
I didn't move though. Only enough to track it's progress. I thought of calling out for it or them to leave because they were trespassing but the advantage wasn't mine. The situation was surreal enough to leave me paralyzed
with curiosity and wonder. There was a touch of horror to it as well, but mostly the curiosity. I understood the idiot who follows the blood trail then. I wanted to know what the hell it was. I couldn't charge it out in the heavy brush
and sloping rough terrain but it would soon cross the road and I could charge it there. When it sounded near the edge of the road I simply stood there though. I thought of all the implications of charging into the dark and before I
knew it had sounded on the other side of the road. My chance gone.
But I would have another. It went in a circle like the numbers on a clock. I didn't think to count the number of times it made that loud crack but twelve sounds about right. I listened intently. There was never any sound of
movement. I watched intently. It always stayed maybe ten feet beyond the limit of firelight. It was always around four minutes between echoing cracks. I never caught any glimpse of it though I strained where I thought it was
moving and where I would soon hear it again. Was it someone who owned land nearby? Perhaps they thought I was the trespasser. Were they trying to scare me off? I heard it near the road on the other side. Three quarters of a
circle so far. I could charge it now. Now was the time. The only time. But what would I be charging into? Despite my rationality I couldn't help but feel the presence of something supernatural. That held me. It wasn't the possibility
of a gun. I hadn't seen the slightest hint of muzzle flash. I was trying to think while being held in thrall. When it cracked again beyond the road I knew I would never know.
There was never the slightest sound until the sharp sudden pow, full of force and dominant. It kept up the deliberate pace until it was one space from connecting the circle where it had started. I listened a long time but the
connection never came. The fire burned down without my moving. The light dimmed as it turned to red coals and near total dark. There was just enough light to make out my shovel and pick. I could have grabbed my shovel when
I charged it, if I had charged, but never thought to. Then again suppose I had lanced a friend being a dick in the dark to scare me? I was still under the spell of it. Listening. Listening to nothing.
I cleared any debris near the fire and once again looked for any twig ends unburnt like any woodsman would but there were none. I kicked a bit of loose dust around the edges and pissed into the heart of the coals. Maybe that
sort of precaution seems out of place under the circumstances but I was determined not to show any fear in case it still watched. I picked my pick and shovel up onto my shoulder and gave a resentful swing like a batter until they
were on my other shoulder. Then I walked off. After maybe twenty paces I began to speed up and then to run. I gave completely to the creeps I had been feeling. I didn't stop until reaching my truck where I threw my tools in back
and shut and locked the door.
The next day I got up early, before anyone in the house, and without coffee drove fast to the land. I would find evidence of who had done that to me. There would be tracks crossing the road in the dust. There were none. There
would be limbs broken or something dropped. There would be some sign. There was none. Only my own tracks.
PigLick on 2/11/2019 at 06:14
Its like you write this expecting no one is going to read it.
Editing dude, editing
and I dont mean the content, just whole block paragraphs are really hard to read, at least for me.
Tocky on 2/11/2019 at 19:56
Yyyyyeah. Why don't you show me how that works with a story of your own?
PigLick on 3/11/2019 at 02:53
touche
Tocky on 28/3/2020 at 05:54
I told my daughter about this page. I had given her a CD she really liked and told her a lot of the music came from this forum. Then I told her, though I wasn't feeling particularly croaky, to check out this thread were I to actually
do so. It tempts me to go back and change things to make me look less of a harsh flighty slut but the truth is sacrosanct. It happened. To change it now would be to pretend I'm not who I am, though she may be a bit surprised.
Somehow it worked out. I truly was always looking for the one. It just took a while to find her. And thank heaven I did. We made an absolutely beautiful person both inside and out in my daughter. She will soon illustrate a children's
book on autism. My heart spills to overflowing.
This then is the story of her birth. I have kept most stories of my family out of this forum. They are just too personal. Likely I could not convey the emotion I felt over mundane and small moments that mean the world to me. Some
things just cannot be passed in words. What you shoot for is the safety of the normal and humdrum. You hide those you care for away from the tumult and hazard of a rough world. You make a sort of world of your own which isn't
as bad for them and yourself. A nest of sorts high from predators. You make it with holidays and traditions and as much love as you can feather it with.
So we came home drunk from a Christmas party. Things got heated and we conceived on the floor never making it to bed. I'm near positive this was the time. Sorry Sam, not rose petals and harps exactly. Rena had me go with her
a couple months later to the doc and afterward we waited anxious and fidgeting in the anxious and fidget room. I think we held our breath the entire time. Not sure if they killed rabbits back then to tell but they had time to saute
and serve it with pearl onions by the time we heard back. The nurse came in and asked what news did we want it to be. Just tell us already. Positive. For just a second I wondered did Rena want to have a kid and she was
searching my eyes for the same thing. I busted out laughing and picked her up swinging her around before I thought better of it and set her down gently. I carried her to the car in my arms because it had been raining. Yeah I
wanted.
Our prenatal doctor was Batman. That isn't a joke. Her name was Dr. Batman. We went to Lamaze classes. I had to if I wanted to be in the room for the birth. It was required. One of my old girlfriends was in it. I took the whole
thing very seriously. I wanted so much to be there when she came into the world. Alas she was breach. Dr. Batman had Rena standing on her head. That isn't a joke either. She thought perhaps it would get our baby to turn around.
It didn't. She was stubborn. Rena spent a lot of time against an ironing board upside down for nothing. Somersaulting embryo's Batman! Whatever shall we do?
They thought perhaps they could turn her in the hospital as well. They couldn't. She was a large baby. Rena had quit smoking the day she found out she was pregnant so she would be a healthy kid and it worked almost too well.
She was also late so they decided to induce labor on the day after labor day. Not HER labor day but THE labor day that everyone in the US gets off. I wasn't allowed in the delivery room because it was going to have to be C section.
I had to wait with my parents and the pastor and his wife, brother Jackie Barnard. He was a cool guy. Reminds me a lot of the character in the Stephen King novel "Revival". He always spoke his mind. Which is why the church I
used to go to got rid of him and we never went back to it. Anyway, we all held hands and prayed in the waiting room. As they prayed a sensible sort of prayer for things to go well I was bargaining with God to take me if it had to be
anyone.
All throughout her pregnancy I had smoked but on the day of her delivery Rena told me I had to quit right then on that day or she would start back afterward. I did. I think maybe she was punishing me for her having to go through
this. It was hard to be that nervous without the crutch of cigs to lean on but I did. Maybe she didn't think I would so she could start back. A few years later she began sneaking on the sly and got caught so we both started back
anyway. That day all I could do was pace about and sit a bit willing things to go well then pace about again. A lot of please please I promise to be good the rest of my life if you just let them live God stuff.
Then we heard it. It was like an English siren. My daughter has good lungs. She wailed both on intake and exhale. Oh she was alive and not at all happy to be out. Directly a nurse was wheeling her by the waiting room doorway like
a tiny bobby chasing a crook in a movie. She never quit wailing. Brother Jackie said "what are you waiting for? go after her". We all went after her. I caught up and asked the nurse about the delivery and how my wife was.
Everything was fine. Should be able to see her in an hour or so. We followed to the window room. My daughter was so beautiful. I asked everyone who passed by wasn't she the most beautiful baby they had ever seen? I was
asking a nurse that and she agreeing when she said the doctor was passing so I ran him down and shook his hand thanking him profusely and if ever I could return the favor to let me know. I was crazy happy. Babbling happy. I
had the most beautiful girl in the world. She still is.
I recommend having babies. Have dozens. It is the most thrilling wonderful thing ever. Maybe not for the mother but for the father it's great.
Pyrian on 29/3/2020 at 05:55
Two kids. We got to stay together with our newborns both times. The first was thankfully very normal, it's like having a kid is hard enough without any complications. The second one caught us off-guard both in conception (ooopsy) and labor. My wife had a few false labors, so when she woke me up early in the morning at first I didn't believe she was really coming out already. We ended up dropping our first kid off at daycare on the way to the hospital, lol. ...But forgot the tyke's shoes.
"Um, is it okay she doesn't have shoes?"
"No, we don't allow - wait - how's your wife?"
"In labor in the car outside."
"Just go. We'll deal with it."
Tocky on 2/4/2020 at 04:01
An astute daycare worker, Pyrian. Alas we didn't both get to stay home with my daughter. No family leave for the US. My wife found new work after six months or so and I just worked straight through. She did most of the getting up
with her at night with the exception of right after she came home because the C section was rough. However there were times when we both were up. The following story is one of those nights.
After you have settled down and things are stable in your life you don't expect to be held naked at gunpoint by the police. How could you? You work hard and come home and almost never drink or smoke or take hallucinogens or go
anywhere except to a friends home for conversation mostly. You are a family man. Things are routine. You have dinner, you watch TV, on the weekend you mow or fix things, you play with your kids, you go to the zoo or something. The
days of having to hide your baggie of pot between the seat cushions of the cruiser on your way to the station to be tested for DUI are over. Those are the rules we expect to be adhered to. Most of those things only sound like interesting
stories anyway. They too have a certain sameness after awhile.
Well anything can happen and it often does. Even when you are a young man under the yoke of a steady job just trying to get by. Your daughter gets an ear infection and you have taken her to the doctor and you have drops every so
many hours and medicine by spoon so many times a day and at night you just want to get some sleep and please please no more fever. Fever in a baby is scary. If it stays at 103 for longer than thirty minutes you are calling the doctor
and ready to run them to the emergency or run a tub of ice water. You worry. You sit up with them while they cry and you rub their little wisps of hair back from their faces and try to reassure them with soothing words you don't feel
that everything will be fine if they just sleep now that the fever has broken. You would gladly take all their pain if only you could but you still need sleep. You have to work tomorrow. Those doctor visits don't pay for themselves.
So we got her to sleep about one AM. Sleep for us was easy at that point. Dead to the world as they say. Dead to cops who have the wrong house too. They like to do drug raids in the wee hours. It catches folks in. So we did not hear
when they banged hard enough on the front door to scar the wood. Our bedroom was in the back of the house. The back door opened on it, when it isn't locked, which it always is at night. They were banging on it and trying to force it
open which is what woke me stumbling out of bed groggy and heart racing. I slept naked in those days. Later I would change that as my daughter wanted to sleep with us when she had bad dreams. As I stood there reaching for the gun
I used to hang on the bed post at night (till I wised up and stowed it more safely) lights played up and down my body from the side and door windows. I let the hand drop when it was still a foot away from the handle. Nobody but cops
could be this much of an asshole.
At some point as I was pulling up my pants and shouting for them to hold on a minute my daughter woke up crying again. It wasn't until then that I heard them announce themselves as police. Okay okay stop beating on the door and
I'll meet you around front. My wife was out of bed in her panties and bra going to pick up my daughter and the damn flashlights were on her too. I turned on the room light. I might as well. There was no modesty left and I sure didn't
want anyone shot. GO TO THE FRONT AND I'LL MEET YOU THERE. Jesus. I had to calm my dog down when I got there.
I let them in. Four of them. One stayed on the porch. Immediately it seemed crowded. I explained about my daughters ear infection and how we had all just gotten to sleep. They could hear her crying. What on earth did they want at
this ungodly hour anyway? They wanted me to prove I wasn't a guy named Red. Hell, they had seen I'm true black haired all over. Seriously? Isn't his last name on the mail box down the road from me? Yes but nobody was home there.
Wait, wait, nobody was home at the house with his name on it so you came here? Yes. Okay, well here is my license, check it out for yourself. I noticed two of them had gone further into my house. Hey don't wake my son up too! Shit. I
could hear my wife talking to one of them. I started toward the hall and was told to stay put.
Yes I knew Red. His brother and I were in the same class and we all rode the school bus together. What is this about? They couldn't say. Are there any drugs in the house? What? No, of course not. How long has it been since you saw
him? Maybe six months? Not a sign of anyone in the house down the road since then either. I think it was just his sister that stayed there mostly anyway. Jody got it for her after his settlement with the trucking company that killed his
wife and son. I don't think Red owned it at all. His brother got him a Corvette. I didn't mention Red had wrecked it when he became airborne trying to make a hundred before the big hill in the middle of town. I told them I thought he
was a decent guy. He always had been to me. At that point my whole family came into the living room, my wife in a robe carrying a fussy daughter and my son in his underwear.
They asked my wife the same questions they had asked me. Then they asked me had we noticed any suspicious activity there. No. We have a garden back there and talked over the fence as neighbors do. They are good people. They
have lived around here all their lives and their family had before that. I was starting to get pissed. They were all questions and no answers. Look, we let you in, you even snooped around my house, you have no warrant, how about you
wrap this up so we can see if we can all get some sleep because I have to work tomorrow? Alright then. They gave me a card to call if I saw Red. Sure. But I wasn't feeling particularly cally.
The next time I saw his sister Sue she apologized for what happened. She knew because I had written a letter to the editor about the whole thing leaving out the names but being pissed at the shotgun approach they used and
speculating about what would have happened had I grabbed my pistol in my sleep addled state. She said they wanted Red for selling pot. I let her know I didn't hold it against her or Red. I smoked a little myself on occasion and I
considered them good neighbors. She was embarrassed and I tried to put her at ease. I hope I did. As far as I know they never caught Red with anything. He was always a step ahead of them. I can't imagine that would have been
particularly hard given my experience with them.