Saturday, February 24, 2007

Town police chief's toll gate

Our town had a typical small country town police force - a chief and a few officers to cover all shifts. High crime in a rural community was not a great a problem back then so there were always interesting little events to remember about interaction between the town's police, fire and support staff and community residents.

The town police chief was a man of many hats. He was the police captain, a member of the all volunteer fireman team and even drove the fire truck at times. He was vigilant in his police role but at times exhibited peculiar personal quirks not seen in modern times. He was an alcholic so on occasion was observed to be a bit drunk around town no doubt from the stress of wearing so many hats.

One day while at work under the influence on a hot Saturday afternoon, he decided to set up a "toll gate" on the sidewalk in front of downtown businesses along the sidewalk near the fire station. For at least part of that day, he demanded pedestrians "pay a toll" in order to walk past the barricade. He continued in his role as police chief and after I later moved away from town I lost track of him but always laugh when stories are told of the police chief's toll gate on the sidewalk a long time ago.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

john- was this bagwell?
-warren

Carolina Bits said...

Indeed it was! I actually saw this being done one time...