Cop Shooting Continued

          Now, to continue where I left off in my previous post.

           On this particular occasion, one of the guys had knocked on the door and ran away. My mother and I became became quite frightened. That is when my mother went to her room and got her .25 caliber hand gun to protect us. She had said to me, “I have had enough of these guys getting away with this crap. Let’s go outside and wait for them to come up again. We will hold them until the cops get here.” We stepped out on the front porch and moved over in front of her car parked in the driveway just a few feet away. We noticed a vehicle pull up in front of a house several doors down with the lights off, just like Russell and Gilbert had done earlier. We were kneeling down in front of my mother’s car when we saw someone walking up into our yard towards our door.

            As we stood up, a shot rang out that deafened my right ear. I was standing next to my mother and we were both blinded by a bright light in our eyes. I could barely hear out of my right ear but heard very clearly out of the other. Someone telling my mother, “Put the gun down or I am going to shoot.” She replied, “You have done this for the last time. The cops are on the way. You are finished messing with me and my family.”

            The light that had been in aimed in our direction had moved just enough for me to see that it wasn’t Russell or Gilbert, but was a police officer instead. I had also noticed that the voice I heard was not theirs either.  Again, I heard, “Lady, lower your weapon or I’ll shoot.” I said to my mother, “Mom, that’s not Russell. Put your gun down.” She was threatening to shoot again and the officer was threatening to shoot if she didn’t put her gun down. I just knew that we were going to be shot. I finally convinced Mom that it was a cop and she slowly moved towards the front door, all the while the officer saying he was going to shoot if she took another step. I was scared to death to move.

            Once Mom put her gun down, the officer immediately called on his hand-held radio for back-up and said, “Officer down, officer down,” That is when I realized my mother had actually shot him. In a matter of just a minute or two, there were nine police cars and an ambulance in front of my house. They took my mother to one side of the yard and took me to another. I explained to the officer asking questions just what had led up to her firing her gun at the officer.

            The Captain of the officers came to our house and questioned my mother and then questioned the officer she shot. I was told that she shot the officer in the ear. The Captain told one of the officers to take her handcuffs off. She wasn’t going to hurt anyone now. They put her in a police car and took her to jail. The Captain then told me, “I wouldn’t be taking your mother to jail if she hadn’t shot the officer.”

            My mother was out of jail a few hours later. When she went to court, the judge asked her about that night and why she shot the officer. Then the judge asked me what happened. Once we both explained about the endless phone calls, things thrown at the house, knocking on the door and running away, and the police being called on numerous occasions, he wanted to talk to the officer that she had shot. He wasn’t in court that day. He was suspended, I don’t know for how long, because he got out of his car without his uniform hat, didn’t identify himself as an officer, and hadn’t called for back-up on a prowler call.

            The judge was ready to sentence my mother.  Before he did, he asked me to stand. “Young lady, I hope you have learned what NOT to do if you are ever in this type of situation again.” I said, “Yes, sir. I have. Never take the law into your own hands. But, your Honor, my mother taught me, no matter what, you always protect your family. That’s exactly what she did.” After several more minutes of contemplation, the judge asked my mother to stand to be sentenced. She stood and the judge said, “I sentence you to two years of probation, with one stipulation. You are not allowed to possess a hand gun within that two years.”

            That night, back in 1976, was incredibly scary but also taught me about the type of person I wanted to be. I wanted to be just like my mother. She was a strong, God fearing woman who raised three children almost on her own. She taught us to be honest, strong, treat others how we want to be treated, and to protect our family at all costs. I believe that is the type of person I have become.

Cop Shooting

        I was sixteen years old the night my mother got arrested and was taken to jail. Police officers were everywhere in our yard and inside the house. The officers had us separated so they could question us on just what had happened that night.

            The day started out just like any other. My mother went to work like she did every day. My brother was at work and I was home alone. The phone rang and I picked it up and said, “Hello?” No one answered but I could hear them breathing and then hang up. This had been happening for about a month. I had called the police and the phone company several times to see if they could stop the phone calls and they said, “There isn’t anything we can do but you can change your phone number.”  The phone rang again. I answered, “Hello? Hello?” The person on the other end said, “I’m watching you. You’re going to pay for what you did.”

            It was about a month earlier when I broke up with my boyfriend, Steve. I few guys from his neighborhood, Russell and Gilbert, used to hassle us all the time. Russell would ask me to break up with Steve and be his girlfriend. Of course, I said, “No.”  Now that I had broken up with Steve, he thought I would go out with him. When I told him no again, he said, “You’re going to be sorry.”

            Russell and Gilbert would drive by my house every day and throw things at my mother’s car or towards the front door. Items they would throw were beer bottles, cans, and rocks. Naturally, we would call the police and they would send an officer out to investigate. When they would get there, they would tell us, “We can’t do anything unless we catch them in the act.” I would said, “But, I know who it is doing this. I can tell you where they live.”

            That particular night, my mother was home from work and had answered the phone several times when Russell called. On the last phone call, she told him, “Stop calling my house and threatening my daughter. The police are aware of what you have been doing and if you don’t stop, you’re going to go to jail.” All he did was laugh and hang up.

            It was about ten minutes later, we noticed a car drive by the house very slowly with the head lights off. A couple of minutes later, someone knocked on our front door. My mother went to answer it, but no one was there. She closed and locked the door. Within a minute or so, we heard something hit my mother’s car. I got on the phone and called 911. We were hoping that the police would get there and catch them this time.  TO BE CONTINUED...

          

           You will have to wait until my next post to find out what happened.

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

       Do you believe in ghosts? Well, I do. You see, I grew up in a house that had a ghost. I know you think I'm crazy, but it is true. In this house lived my mother, my brother, and myself.
       When I was about 10 years old, I noticed that there were things happening in my house that couldn't be explained. Lights would go off then come back on. Not the same light and not in the same room. Sometimes the light in the living room would go off and after a few seconds it would come back on. Then it might be the kitchen light. My mother had the wiring checked. There were no problems found with it.

       Then doors began to open and close themselves. One day it would be my bedroom door, then next day it might be the laundry room door or the door to my mother's bedroom.
       We had a clock with a pendulum that hung on our living room wall. It would chime every half hour. We had this clock for years. One day the chime started going off, but it wasn't on the hour or half hour. After about 30 seconds, the chime stopped. This started happening more and more until we got tired of the chime going off. My mother stopped the pendulum so that the clock would not tick, the hands would not move, and the chime would not go off.
       When I was 15 or 16 years old, I would skip school with a few friends of mine. We would hang out at my house because I knew my mother would be at work. My friends and I were sitting in the living room and all of a sudden my bedroom door shut by itself. Then the light in the living room came on. By this time, my friends were are all looking at each other and wondering what was going on. I said, "It is just the ghost that lives in our house." They began laughing and poking fun at me. That was, until the clock began to chime.
       You see, even though my mother stopped the pendulum from winding the clock two years earlier, the clock would still chime. So, she took the pendulum out of the clock and removed the chime mechanism so it couldn't chime any more. When I told my friends about the clock and that  there was no way it could possibly work, they all got up and left and we never skipped school at my house again. Maybe someone or something was telling us not to skip school or maybe didn't like my friends making fun of me telling them about the ghost. I guess I'll never know.

College Student

     I am going to tell you a little bit about me and I hope my story will inspire others that think that they are too old or are afraid to go back to school.
      I dropped out of high school in eleventh grade. I was not interested in school but I was interested in smoking pot. I skipped school all the time and when I did go to school, I was busy getting high. I never gave my education much thought. You didn't have to have a degree to get a job back then. Well, you did you wanted a good paying job. At the time, I didn't care about a good paying job. So I quit.
     Over the years I have thought of getting my GED just so I could say I finished high school. I was never very good in school, so to think I could pass the GED tests was out of the realm of possibility for me.
     It wasn't until 36 years later and I was 52 years old that my husband of just four years convinced me to go back to school. My son had just graduated from high school and was starting college at Davidson County Community College in the fall of 2011. I thought it would be great to take GED classes and attend the same school as my son.
     After only two and a half months I was finished with all my classes and passed the GED test with flying colors. I was so proud of myself for achieving this particular goal I had set for myself. I couldn't wait to wear a cap and gown and walk across the stage to receive my diploma. I had waited a very long time.
     After my graduation, my husband said, "Now that you have completed high school, why stop there? Why don't you take some college classes? Set a new goal for yourself."
      Well, here I am, a 54 year old college student. I attend DCCC and I am in my third semester studying Early Childhood Education and have a 4.0 GPA. That is something I am extremely proud of. So, if you think you are too old or not smart enough to go back to school, think again. I am living proof that a high school drop-out can go back and finish school and do it quite well.