Things I Have Learned - Lessons from a tough night

Today’s Wisdom: “Wounds heal; the memory of them fuels her journey.” –Virginia Woolf

By Bill D. Ward

I have a very old memory of a night back in my police days. I was dispatched to a bar late in the evening. Arriving, I found a few folks milling around a car parked on the street in front. As I approached, I noted that the car windshield had a three-foot gash down its center.

It didn’t take a trained detective to figure out that the pool cue laying by the car was the likely weapon of choice of whoever had taken out their rage on the windshield.

I made the assumption that I was dealing with a typical bar fight. I found the car owner in the crowd, but expected that the other guy was likely long gone by the time I got there.

I was surprise to learn, though, that the perp wasn’t a guy. It was the car owner’s girlfriend, one of his employees. Evidently it had been a tough night for both of them and she had chosen to end the relationship with an exclamation mark firmly imprinted on his windshield, her version of the mark of a scorned woman.

The very fact that I recall this event now some 49 years later must mean it had left some sort of an impact on me. The things Never air dirty linen in a public place. Never date an employee because the mess gets too complicated. Never tick off a girl when there are weapons present. Don’t park directly in front of a bar that you’re not supposed to be at. Choose your closest companions wisely. There may even be more, but that’s a good list to start.

I might also have learned a good line or two had I been able to be present when the fellow explained to his wife how he got a pool cue in his windshield while he was “working late.”

I could note here that I’m sure none of my readers today have any similar experiences in their past, but I was in law enforcement. I know better. Is it time to share your good stories? The statute of limitations has likely run out. It’s probably okay now.

The other thing I recall from that event was that life goes on and things work themselves out. I knew both of the parties in this incident. The young lady eventually married one of my fellow police officers. I wonder if she has ever shared her story with her family. Then again, perhaps it is most appropriately left in the distant past. I’m just sayin’.