"More of times gone by."

From The Hickman County Times 11/12/14

 Another good friend I got from my dad was Red Mays.  Red was a captain on the Mississippi and my dad loved the river.  Dad kept up with where the boats, the locals were on at all times, with his marine radios.  Wives and mothers would call him to see where their sons an husbands were.  He would hear them when they called ahead to a port to request a food service or fuel boat to deliver.

Red called me one time and wanted me to bring my bass boat to Columbus and paint the name on a new boat the company he worked for.

I drove down and painted the name on both sides and used my boat to paint the name on the stern of the tow boat.

When Red bought his own boat he called me to paint it for him.  I took a tour of all the boats I painted and like the others I could tell that Red was a stickler for cleanliness on his boats.  You could eat a meal of the pilot house or engine room floors.  Everything on board was immaculate.  Not exactly what I was expecting for some of them were not so new.

Red called one day and he had bought his own boat and it was being used in the construction of the new interstate bridge at Dyersburg, Tennessee.  He told me I would have to put my boat in at Cottonwood point and run from there to Dyersburg by boat.  I said that I appreciate him offering the job to me but he could get it done cheaper in Dyersburg for I would have to charge extra for the distance and using my boat.  Red was almost indignant that I mentioned it.  He said, “Robert Templeton if I wanted someone else to paint it I would have called them.  Everyone charged a fee just to get on the boat and you never held a gun on me at Columbus.  I want you to paint it.”

I stopped by my father in law Cecil Williams in Hickman on the way to visit a minute and grab a cup of coffee and he decided to go with me.

We put in at Cottonwood point and was surprised at all the miles of sand the river had left there after it went down.  It was the same time the washout formed below Columbus and left all the sand below that.  They had graded the road and sand was several feet deep on both sides of the road.

We put in at the ramp and headed south.  I did not have a chart so had no idea what was ahead of us but there was one long sweeping curve between there and Dyersburg and that was where I met the towboat The United States.  I did not know but it had just met the towboat The America.  At the time I believe they were the two biggest on the river though there are bigger now.  There we were in the stern wash from both boats coming from opposite directions.  All I could do was throttle back and ride them out by power trimming back when at the bottom of the swell and goosing over the next one.  We were both plenty scared.

From then on whenever I got on the river I made sure I had navigation maps.  When we got there painting the sides of the wheel house was easy for they had it prepared.  Painting the stern took a while as I must have picked the busiest day of the year to paint it for the river traffic was heavy and I had to wait until all the swells subsided to continue painting from my boat.  I never did tell Red again that he could get it done cheaper somewhere else.  It was always impressive to go aboard one of his boats and see how fresh and spotless they were regardless of age.

It is strange how many state policemen I have had as good friends.  Mike Ward was the first.  He and Sis lived in a big two story house across from us on North Washington Street.  Mike bought one of the first TV sets in Clinton and had an ideal roof for an antenna.  They invited us over nearly every evening to watch very snowy tv with them.

My Mom decided to get her driver’s license one time and Mike gave her the written test and she passed it.  He wrote out the license and signed it handing it to her.  She asked, “don’t I have to take a driving test too Mike?”  He said, “Doris you live across the street and I have been watching you drive for 8 years.  I know you can drive.”

Lawrence Gresham was another.  I asked him once why he did not hassle teen drivers.  He said he would rather see us drive a little over the limit in front of him than try to kill ourselves when he was not around.  He judged by traffic and road conditions.  He was a stickler for running stop signs though.  Once I asked him why and he responded that his first wreck was a car load of kids who pulled in front of a coal truck after ignoring a stop sign.  He followed me from Fulton once and I never did slow down to the limit.   When I decided it was not police he threw the lignts on me.   Now he did this where I had to pull in to Piper druve in where all my friends were.  No ticket but the embarrassment taught me a lesson.  He once told me that state police serve and protect while state troopers write tickets and make money for the governor.

Another that I had a lot of respect for and was a long time friend was Richard Meshew.  We were in the Lions Club together and worked together on many club projects.  Richard once told me that he owed his kids an apology.  He said he had realized that in his job most of the teens he saw were the ones in trouble and it was causing him to not trust his own kids.  I think that is true for most cops causing a us against them mentality.  We were friends since our teen years and were always pulling something on each other.  When he retired he went to work selling cars in Fulton.  I bought a car from him and stopped at my brother in law Richard Williams store when I got to Clinton.  I called Richard and told him I was stranded on the hill going into Latta bottom and the engine and transmission had fallen out and I had the road blocked both ways.  I said the traffic was backed up a mile in each direction.  He was near speechless but managed to say he would get a wrecker on the way fast.  When I started cackling he knew he had been had again.  He swore he would get even.  I miss Richard and his sense of humor.

Not a state policeman but I will never forget when Stanley Hopkins was sheriff.  He worked the Mrs. Maud Davis brutal murder and it really got to him and shook the whole county.  He had a suspect who had disappeared.  Stanley bought news ads and ads in crime magazines seeking the suspect.   He was found way up north and brought back for trial and conviction.  Mission accomplished.

One thing I found out through these friendships is parents should teach kids that the police are their friends and not threaten them with cops like was common years ago.

George Bell is another good friend and retired state police.  One timem George rode with me to the cabin for some target shooting.  When we got home he told Frieda the next time he saw me on the road he was going to give me a ticket for driving too fast.  One thing I do remember was his receiving an award from KSP for his use of restraint in an arrest.  An armed man had threatened a state road crew and George talked him into surrendering and all the time he had a shot gun aimed at George.  Nearly any law man would have shot after one warning but George gave several warnings.  He saved a man`s life that day.  I asked George to give Debbie a warning on tires once so she would get new ones.  I had offered to even pay for them.  George did give her a warning so she would have to get them.  Her tires were not slick but she was running all over the country interviewing for jobs and they were not OK for sustained fast speed.

Again parents I beg you to teach your little ones that  police are their friends and do not threaten them with arrest if they do not eat or something.  We hear about the cops who go bad but I assure you most of them are there to protect and serve.