A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE...
It's funny how stuff you haven't thought about in years pops into your head after a trigger.And todays trigger is COPS on the USA network.Specifically the morons who try to run. They never get away,they end up slammed to the ground by really pissed off cops who apply liberal doses of knee and elbow. Serves them right.
That part reminds me of the old days on the crisis intervention team,when I was playing the cop role, when someone runs from you in your charge,two things go through your mind:why are they running? and I have to stop them. I have chased many, none got away,and I have administered the knee and elbow treatment liberally.
But what I remembered watching the skels run on cops today was running from the law,and getting away.
Me and some buddies were hanging out at the Armadillo world Headquarters as we frequently did.AWHQ was at the corner of Barton Springs and So.1st Street. Directly across the street was an apartment complex called the willows at the time,one block south of that was Timber Creek,where my best friend lived.These apartments were separated by a creek that had a trail along it leading to the back of Timber Creek,near my buddies apartment. I had walked that trail many times.
Anyway...we were leaving the dillo and headed home on foot when it started to rain,the guys I was with lived on down the road,I was going to my buddies apartment at Timber Creek. We stopped under the first floor of the willows to wait out the rain,talking and smoking on the sidewalk between 2 apartments, the conversation was about the nights events...foosball,the band playing,beer drinking and the drugs scored.I had a marlboro box FULL of white crosses...about a hundred.
Apparently,someone in one of those 2 apartments wasn't impressed with us and called the police.
The rain stopped,we walked out to the street and were saying our goodnights when 2 police cars pulled up,one headed north,one headed south...They jumped out of their cars and cried "hold it"! Which to 15 year olds holding drugs means run for your life...and I did...down that aforementioned trail,in the dark,as fast as I could,with a uniform in hot pursuit. I was way ahead until I hit the branch...about 3 inches in diameter and growing across the trail ankle high. One minute I'm running like the wind,the next I'm airborn...flying like superman,and all the while this cop is breathily yelling "halt police"!Yeah right,I'm gonna hold it with 100 hits of speed in my top left pocket.
I hit the ground hard,and in what can only be described as a Jackie Chan moment (culture jump here,but you get the drift) bounced up,on my feet,and continued running.
I cleared the trail and tossed the pack with the speed in it under the first car in the lot and ran the rest of the lot to my buddies apartment.
I pounded on his window,and he raised his blinds to see me,terrified,eyes as big as softballs,screaming let me in over and over and over.
He let me in,and we hid in the dark for what seemed an eternity.His mom worked the night shift and wasn't there thank god.She would of turned us both over.
We peeked out the window and saw cruisers cruising the parking lot for about 45 minutes...when they left,we smoked a bowl and crashed.
The next morning I retrieved my cig pack of speed and hitch hiked home,never giving it a second thought...it became the buzz story at school on monday.
The gravity of the situation never occurred to me until much later in life...
When I'm watching COPS,and someone runs...I say to the television...Ha motherfucker,I got AWAY...HAHAHA.
And I did get away,from all of that,eventually.
And as much as I understand the wrongness of it now,it still makes for good stories and great memories.