But I’ll have to say that after going through an old box of papers, I have formed a different opinion of what was normal. These are papers I left behind at Smithwick when I moved on to start the “calmer period in my life”, when I got married, that my mother so carefully archived for me.

I look back on my early “growing up years” and think that I was a fairly normal boy. I got into a few things, but nothing much that I was ashamed to admit.

The following photograph is a vast array of traffic tickets I received during those formative years. They appear to be from 1970 and 1971. Some are badly faded so the dates and infractions are completely illegible.

Ironically this letter from the Texas Department of Public Safety resides in the box with all the papers. I was a little shy about meeting new people, so I never went to meet with Mr. Frank V. Fisher, as suggested in the letter. They were nice enough to not follow up with revoking my driving privileges either.

Cruising the UT Drag

The story directly below didn’t involve a ticket, just a letter having me come in to the Austin Police Department, oh well it’s in that story.

The spring of 1971 found me and Jimmy Frasier(Feline to his friends; not because he was a cat) in Austin one Friday afternoon. Probably for no other reason than hoping to find some excitement.

I had a new Chevrolet pickup and we decided a drive down to the Drag was in order. We got as far a 34th street on Guadalupe, heading south when we encountered a red light. A couple of pretty young UT types were in the right lane, with us in the left.

Paying more attention to the girls than to driving, when the light changed as they eased off so did we. The only obstacle was the old woman in a Chrysler New Yorker that was in my lane, stopped, waiting to turn left on 34th.

This beers we had sitting up on the dash (why were they sitting up there ?) dumped right back on both of us. We had a full case of beer sitting in the seat between us.

Things weren’t looking too good for the Marble Falls boys about then. The old woman, very well dressed, got out, carrying her little poodle dog seemed more concerned about the pooch than anything else.

She said she needed to go get her husband (they owned a business just a couple of block north of there). So Jimmy and I were in charge of the scene. She ran down the sidewalk to get her husband. I can still see her running with those rather large hips swaying, tight knee length skirt with high heels on, carrying the dog.

I looked at Jimmy. I could tell we were of one mind. Everyone had gone on with there afternoon, it appeared, so we both headed for our respective seats in the pickup, waited for an all clear from the traffic and made a quick right turn across and down 35th.

I never realized how many back streets and roads there were getting the heck out of Austin. Somehow we weaved and dodged our way and came out on RM 1431 at Lime Creek Rd. We hadn’t had the good sense to ditch the case of beer, not wanting to waste it I guess.

We made our way to Lago Vista. We both had worked up a real appetite by that time, so I pulled in. There was a nice steak at a restaurant that was next to the old country store. In typical Jimmy Frasier fashion he caused a bit too much confusion and they tossed us out of that place and threatened to call the law. Not wanting to take a chance of an encounter with the cops I got him loaded and we were soon back on our home turf.

Two or three weeks later I was passing the Circle Inn out on my way home from San Antonio in the late afternoon on a Friday and pulled in to see who all was out and about.

There was my buddy Frasier. We sit and told the whole bunch that was gathered around the table about our close call in Austin a few weeks earlier. Everyone seemed to get a leg slapping laugh out of our antics.

Afterwards I made my way on to Smithwick. When I came in my mother handed me a letter that had arrived a couple of days earlier. It was official looking, from the Austin Police Department. 

It was a notice for me to come to the police department, no later than a date, the next Wednesday I believe and to have with me my drivers license, the insurance policy and the plates off of the 1971 Chevrolet Pickup. Nervously I didn’t wait until Wednesday. On Monday I called and spoke to the Sargent that I was told to contact. I arraigned a time for later that day and went in for a visit.

He was really nice. He wanted to know why I had fled the scene that Friday afternoon. My best explanation was I thought it was such a light tap and didn’t think it did any damage and I thought the old woman was just being hysterical. When she ran away, I thought maybe I needed to leave in case her husband was as crazy as she was.

He seemed to understand my point but just asked me to in the future to stay around until an officer arrives. I told him I certainly would if it ever happened again.

He went on to say that when his officer got there and I had left, he was called. He said he actually hadn’t personally seen enough damage to warrant all the fuss. He took my insurance information and I was on my way.

When leaving there I knew he had picked the right line of work. I don’t think he had the critical eye to have ever been an auto-body man. I remember the back quarter panels on that new New Yorker having a considerable amount of wrinkles.

A sure disaster avoided.

The next story was a little earlier and involved a citation being issued, but I settled it “out of court, as they say”.

A Minor in Possession

It was 1969 and the weekend of the rodeo in Burnet. Saturday afternoon rolled around. My “68” Red SS 396 Camero had the beer iced down in the trunk. It was too early to head out to Burnet so I was cruising the streets of Marble Falls.

Roy Jackson, of the Smithwick Jackson’s flagged me down. Roy was the age of my dad. He had kids my age. Times had been hard on Roy, he was without transportation. Drinking had cost him almost everything. “Boy, run me out to Fuzzy’s Corner”. I tried for awhile to make excuses to not take him, but I finally gave in. I figured by the time I took him out to Fuzzy’s at Buchanan Dam, that I could drive slow and go directly to Burnet and then the others would be there by that time.

So we took the road out through Kingsland and when I got to Fuzzy’s I was going to pull up front and drop him, then go. Roy said no, “pull around back and let me finish this beer because they won’t let me bring it in”. That may or may not have been his real reason, but I pulled to the back of the place. We set there for a pretty good while. A Llano Deputy drove by slowly and then went on toward Burnet. I finally got Roy out and decided since the cop had just headed toward Burnet I’d take another route, so pulled out and headed back to Kingsland.

Llano County was much different than Burnet Co, so we knew not to mess around there, if we wanted to stay out of trouble. I got no more than a mile down the road and another officer pulled me over. I think I was being double teamed.

Being a kid in a Red Camero, sitting in the back of Fuzzy’s was very suspect. When I explained that I wasn’t there getting beer, like they thought, I was only delivering Roy.

I guess I wasn’t very convincing. Before they were done, two cops were there and treated me like a common criminal. They took my ice chest and beer, then wrote me a ticket for Minor in Possession of Alcohol.

That spoiled any hopes I had for a fun night, so I headed on back to Marble, forgoing the rodeo all together. When I got to town I found our local City Marshall. I knew he had been a Llano Deputy prior to coming to Marble Falls. I told him what had happened.

He told me to look him up in a few minutes, so I did. I was told to be on Top of Kingsland Mountain at the scenic pull off at 11:00 PM and have $100 with me. And come alone, he said.

I had to run around borrowing a little here and there to come up with the money. The City Marshall, One of the Llano Deputies and I met. I handed over the money. With the transaction complete I ask if I could have my ice chest and beer back. I was told “get on out of here”.

I guess they already had plans for the beer.

This story, that I wrote a few weeks ago is probably one of the tickets in the pile.

The Motorcycle Cop

I was just a kid, maybe 17 years old. Nelson Lewis had a big Cadillac Sedan and wanted me to take it and drop it off in downtown Austin for him. I was barreling up Trinity Street, a few blocks east of Congress Avenue. Just as I approached 3rd street, there was a motorcycle cop turning from 3rd and was going to head north on Trinity, the same way I was going.

I saw him keep edging out in the intersection, like he expected me to stop and let him go ahead of me. I didn’t see any flashing lights, so I presumed he was more playing chicken with me, so I didn’t give an inch. I rolled on passed him, and I think I even gave him a nod, like better luck next time.

He immediately turned his red lights on me and indicated that he expected me to pull over. Which I did. When he approached the door, I said “what’s the problem officer“. He indicated that he was less than pleased that I’d almost ran over. When I explained to him that I didn’t think it was very safe for him to keep edging out in the intersection like that.

That’s when he wrote me a ticket for running a 4 way stop sign.

I’m not sure there was an actual ticket issued in this case below. I don’t remember ever seeing one.

When Dean Came Home From Boot Camp

Dean and I ran around together. My brother and his sister dated throughout much of high school so that connection threw us together. They eventually married after high school. Dean was a little older than me so he had left school to join the Army when he became eligible but I was still just sixteen years old and a sophomore in high school.

After completing basis training Dean came in on leave. He and several of our friends came out and picked me up to celebrate his return. It was a Saturday afternoon around 2:00 PM. They were in Larry Joe’s little Mercury Meteor. Besides Dean and Larry, there was Jimmy, JW and another one or two. We were packed in that little car.

Jimmy was older than the rest of us, but still was a ways from being legal age to buy liquor. But he looked older. We headed straight for Johnson City, the closest place to purchase liquor back then. All the others had him get them vodka or rum or something that would make good tasting drinks. I said “get me a fifth of Old Crow” and Dean said the same for him. Wanting to press Dean a little I said “and also a pint” and Dean said he wanted another pint also. Maybe we brought out the worst in each other.

As we drove across bridge at the Pedernales River, leaving northbound out of Johnson City, I threw the empty pint bottle out. Dean did the same, shortly thereafter. As we got back to Round Mountain, a 15-mile trip, I was finishing off the fifth. I guess you could say I was a showoff. I am not sure why I was in such a hurry, but I guess I didn’t want some Army boy thinking he could out drink me. We turned down a little country road, just for some good out of the way partying. It must have been 4:00 PM by that time. I remember a few miles down the road that we made a pit stop. The whiskey must have hit bottom about then, because I don’t remember anything until just before daylight the next morning.

When I woke up, I had a very strange feeling that I was in a place very foreign to me. As I swung out of my bed, my feet hit a cold metal floor. My underwear was wadded up around my ankles. That was all I had on. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was in jail. But where? The door to my cell was left unlocked. So I made my way to a window in a larger enclosure. The streetlights below lit the Town Square. But nothing looked familiar. I had never been at that vantage point. Later I found out that I was actually in the Burnet County Jail. Yes, Sheriff Wallace Riddell’s jail. The main confusion for me was why do they take young boys pants off when they put them in jail? But I had more troubling things than just that to worry about. I was really sick.

A little later that morning, when the Sheriff came up to discuss my current situation with me, I posed that question to him. That is when he delivered the news to me that I was in that condition when I arrived there. I don’t think that made me feel any better. He asked who he should call. I ask him to call my Dad and please tell him I needed clothes. He told me that Dean, was also in there, but had arrived with his clothes on. Knowing Dean was there too brought some measure of happiness to me. I guess I didn’t to be the only one. But him arriving clothed and me naked didn’t make me feel much better.

I was served a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I wasn’t very hungry. I just set it aside. For some reason, I was coughing up little gravels and sand. The same substance was packed in my nostrils and ears. I also had welts and stings on every inch of my body. Later I found out the reason. Soon after I lost consciousness the car load of us ended up down by the river up from Marble Falls. My friends, taking care of me in my drunken state, took me out of the hot car and left me on the ground, not noticing that I was lying in a red ant den. After a while, when someone noticed I was covered with ants, they removed my clothes and threw me in the river, hoping to rid me of the ants. I guess they thought that may help sober me up a little. I sank to the bottom. Luckily, the water was shallow, with a sandy gravel bar coming up to the edge of the water. They were able to find me lying there on the bottom and pulled me out. Perhaps, not thinking to get my clothes, they put me back in the car. Dean had passed out long before also. Not wanting to drive around all night with us in the back seat, they drove up to the roadside park overlooking Marble Falls and got in with someone else.

The City Marshall, noticing that the car was left sitting there, he got out to inspect. When he found us, were loaded into the back of the police car a driven around town attempting to identify us. After finding someone that knew us, we were hauled off to Burnet. The Sheriff lived on the bottom floor of the jail, so when a prisoner was brought in, they entered through the living quarters. They were having a family get together when we were brought in. Two drunk teenagers, one naked. He was not happy with the situation.

After he got the call my dad and brother brought clothes for me to wear. Dean’s dad picked him up and we all had to go to the Marble Falls City Hall. We were charged with several offenses each and me one extra one. A deal was struck for the charges be dropped if we didn’t get into trouble again. I never did have any problems related to that incident. Either there wasn’t really a record kept or it was overlooked in the future.

I did get teased a lot when I got to school that Monday and for a long time afterwards. But it wasn’t all bad. I today’s terms, I received a lot of street creds. I have never been able to stand the smell of whiskey. That was probably a good thing. The ant bites went away within a few days. An irregular heartbeat I had for a while finally became normal.

The strangest thing was, when they arrived in Burnet to pick me up, my dad wasn’t really upset, but Kenny had smoke pouring out of his ears. He thought I must have been the stupidest kid alive and the embarrassment he was going to endure. Some years later, while talking to Wallace Riddell about that incident, he made me understand why my dad was as understanding as he was. When he was a teenager, Wallace found him naked swimming in a stock tank at the edge of Burnet. He was totally inebriated and Wallace hauled him over to his place for a night upstairs.

My real punishment was when I got home and I had to look my mother in the face. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to. I could see the concern in her face. Before I was grown, I saw it many more times. I think she just silently prayed that all would work out and it did.

Why in the world did my mother keep all these things? Was it so one day she could show me that I wasn’t a perfect angel of a son? Actually, I think she saw me as being just another wild kid that grew up in Smithwick. I’m glad she saved them. They help bring back a lot of memories.