I sold some squash to some guy going from Lamesa to Pecos and then had to go back to Odessa. We chatted about how hot and ugly it is. He thanked me and went on his way. Same thing with a man who had been working in Rankin and was headed up north of Lamesa. I sold a couple bucks worth and was starting to get hot which marks my ‘closing time’. Then Sherriff drove up and asked if I had my pistol with me.
The first thought I had was “Dang it, Brandon is going to give me the ‘I told you so’ lecture.”
I have this problem of being too trusting. I really don’t think of it as a problem at all, but apparently it is. According to the Sherriff and Brandon anyway, who both requested I be packing when selling my veggies. I suppose I live in this little world where everyone is nice and polite and raised by mommas and daddies that made them say please and thank you. Guess it isn’t so much that way anymore. Kinda sad.
I know when I was growing up no one locked their house and most certainly not their cars when they were at their house. Heck we never even took the keys out when we pulled up to someone’s front door. Now there are more water and oil trucks passing by our place than farm trucks, and you can pretty much multiply the traffic by 50 to what it was 10 years ago and get a rough current estimate.
So I guess I need to be a little more careful than carefree while I’m getting my tan and selling my squash. I’m still going to go about life thinking most everyone’s good hearted. Otherwise I think it would be pretty depressing. I’ll just take my blinders down a bit. However, I still don’t know about a pistol, but I’m a pretty dang good shot with a .22.
Now I’m going to tell a story about someone that is usually trustworthy, but she did set off security alarms and get pulled over by the cops the other night. My sister, who in high school none of this would’ve been too surprising but at 30 and two kids it is a little more out of the ordinary, got caught headed out of Brownfield after escaping from a farm chemical company’s parking lot.
Ok, so maybe it was a little more innocent than that sounded, but it still makes for a good story.
Rusty told Katie to pick up some chemical while she was in Brownfield getting groceries or something like that. Well, I don’t remember why but she didn’t get it that day but she told Rusty she was going back that night so he called the chemical company and they said they’d just leave it by the door out back and she could come by and get it whenever she could that night. See, some things are still done the old school way around small towns.
So Katie went to a River Sista party, which is altogether another story in itself, and around midnight on her way home she stopped to get Rusty’s chemical. She pulled up out back, went to the door and no chemical. However, she did manage to set off the alarm system which kicked on every light on the yard and blare out enough to wake up half of Terry County. Guess the chemical company dropped their blinders some too.
Katie jumped in her car and called Rusty, who was way more concerned about her not getting the chemical than tripping the security system. She asked what she needed to do and he told her to just come home, they knew she was coming and was supposed to leave the chemical so it’s their problem.
After debating it, she headed back to Day Ranch, only to see flashing red and blue lights in her rear view mirror. After getting questioned about knowing anything about the disruptance of the security system, she explained what happened and was allowed to go home. But I’m pretty sure she’s still on the Brownfield Police ‘watch list’.
