Out of the Mouths of Babes

 

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Time – mid 1965

Place – Albuquerque, NM.

Our favorite older son, John runs to the door and opens it to greet our friend, Jack McNett. He’s a fellow attorney with my husband at what was then known as the Atomic Energy Commission and he’s also in the army reserves. Jack is in his full regalia and is picking up my husband for a reserve meeting. The uniform must have triggered something. Seeing him, John says, “you know what, Mr. McNett, cops is fuzz!” To this day, we haven’t the faintest idea where that came from. Anyway cops may be fuzz everywhere else, but not here in Santa Clara!

I’ve lived in Santa Clara for the past 39 years out of the 60 years I’ve been in the bay area and have complained about Santa Clara that long. Why are abandoned vehicles allowed? Why is new construction so ugly? You would never see this in the neighboring town of Sunnyvale, the All American City! Why are food stores closing? There are no restaurants left! And now of course, the new kvetch, “the 49ers are running the city!”

But…….our police officers! They embody everything one hopes their police to be. My first encounter, many years ago was when I slid through a stop sign. I was stopped and I said in a rather cavalier way, “I guess it was a California stop” and the officer said, “yes and now you’re getting a California ticket”. Wow, a sense of humor.

Another time I inched forward at a traffic light, while digging in my purse for my sun glasses, coming to a stop 2 inches from the car in front of me. The driver of that vehicle stormed out of his car and accused me of hitting him and took down my license plate number. And, as I expected, later that night a police officer came to my door, to let me know that he had already inspected my car and saw no evidence of impact. Of course, this news was good, but the best was that he was so apologetic for the disturbance.

Another little meeting occurred not too long ago. My son, John – yes one and the same John who at age 3 called police fuzz. He is now 63 and called the police to my house for a wellness check. I had left my cell phone in another part of the house and my emergency number friend was here with his partner was but without his phone. We were having dinner and the wine was flowing when the officers came to the door, answered by my friends and the officers wouldn’t leave until they were sure I was okay. I was okay and flounced out, glass in hand. I was embarrassed and I apologized profusely! The officers were understanding and gracious. I think they had good relationships with their mothers!

Now, I live in a townhouse on a cul-de-sac that runs parallel to a busy street, a street which appears to hold an attraction for RVs. Not lived in RVs but RVs just stored on a public street with 72 hour restrictions. Restrictions blatantly ignored. Grrrr...sometimes coming out to said street is quite thrilling, not being able to see oncoming traffic and taking your chances. Certainly gets the adrenaline flowing.

I’ve had a great experiences with Officer B and more recently with Officer RJ. The patience these guys showed to me was over the top. They listened to an old lady complaining about a first world problem (RVs stored on the street) and actually took action and got the stored RVs to be permanently moved.

What a pleasure to go out in the morning to pick up my Chronicle and see clearly across the street. No more RVs blocking the view. No fuzz in Santa Clara – just really nice guys. I think they might be able to solve global warming!

Thank you Officer B and Officer RJ!