Love & Law Enforcement

Under licence for free use by Creative Commons credit to wackystuff

My career in law enforcement was about as successful as my first romance. Oh yeah, they were actually at the same time!

It was fifth grade. I was selected to be a crossing guard the next year as it was the privileged domain of sixth-graders. The last week of school we received our training from the out-going sixth-graders then had one day on our own when they went to the Seattle Center for their year-end extravaganza.

The power rush was real. There was a belt with a badge just like in the picture above. There was also a red flag with "STOP!" diagonally in white - and a helmet. It was so cool! And to make it even more exciting, I sort of had a girlfriend. She made the guard patrol too.

She will stay anonymous so I don't embarrass her after all these years. She was a cute blonde. We talked and laughed and were so excited to share the same corner at the bottom of my street. I really liked her. I think she liked me because we talked and laughed and were excited to share the same corner. We never touched except for maybe an "accidental" thrill of a rare brushing of hands, arms . . . . We were in Fifth Grade after all.

Sixth Grade was somewhat of a disappointment on both fronts. While fully trained as guard patrol, they had moved us in the Sixth Grade to portable classrooms up at the Junior High School due to suburban population explosion. We were too far from the elementary school to serve. I don't know who ended up being the crossing guards that year, but it wasn't us. My "friend" and I ended up not even talking or laughing or anything else as things were happening around or maybe even in us that made that really embarrassing and uncomfortable.

Wearing that belt and badge may have influenced my decision to go into government service. It's been a long time since I felt that kind of excitement, though. I mean about being a patrol guard with great power along with great responsibility.

I still get excited about a girl. It's been 33 years that we've been together and it sure is different in so many ways from the good times with my patrol guard friend. It's even changed a lot over the years we've had together. I was going to attempt a blog on the philosophy of s-e-x. But I'm not sure I understand it any better than I did in the Fifth Grade. At least my wife and I still talk and laugh and are excited to do things together.