Thinking back over years of jobs

How many jobs have you had? I was going to add "in your lifetime", but what other time period could there be? Why be redundant?

Back in 2003 I wanted some advice about some issues and conferred with a wise therapist in Crystal Lake, Joe Canevello. When he asked me what my career had been, I told him that I didn't think I had had a career, only a lot of jobs. Joe said, "Maybe your career was getting jobs..."

How right he was.

This morning I was thinking back over some of the types of work I've enjoyed the most, and I'd have to say being a motorcycle cop was the best. Too bad I never pursued that as a "job".

In Denver in the mid-970s I was a reserve deputy sheriff with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department, which is located just south of Denver. The Sheriff's Posse had several divisions: Patrol, Communications, Mounted, Jail, Motorcycle. There may have been others.

The Posse was composed of volunteers who performed all the duties of the employed deputies. We were sworn peace officers and had all the police powers of arrest. We did everything except get a paycheck. If we made an arrest, we were expected to take time off from our jobs and appear in court.

When I started, there were no openings in Patrol, so I was assigned to Communications and worked in dispatch. Right away I raised the bar (and upset the women who were the full-time dispatchers). When a deputy made a traffic stop and called in a license plate number, I immediately ran the plate to learn if the vehicle was wanted. That upset the women dispatchers, because their habit was to wait for the deputy to request them to run it. From my viewpoint, it was important for the deputy to know ASAP if the car was wanted. That information could save his life.

Within a few weeks there was an opening in Patrol, and I transferred there. I was able to qualify for solo car privileges quickly and did so. I filled in for deputies who were sick or if they were out of service for an extended time due to a lengthy call.

The best "work" was motorcycle patrol. When one member of the Posse put his police-equipped Harley-Davidson up for sale, I bought it. I'd go on duty on a nice summer morning and work right through the afternoon and into the evening. I recall one Saturday night at shift-change when a fire was reported in the far end of the county. Although I was almost at the Department parking lot to turn in my portable radio, I volunteered to take the call, since I was the only one still out on the road. The fire was about 40 miles away, and it was a great ride on a nice summer night.

I never wrote a lot of tickets. If I thought a courteous roadside "conversation" about the violation an d a warning would solve the problem, I didn't write a ticket. About once a year a driver would "talk me into" a ticket.

It's too bad that philosophy is not followed today.