Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Speeding Tickets

Now that I'm closing in on a hundred, I am a more careful driver, but there was a period of a few years when you might easily catch me driving too fast, roughly in my twenties and early thirties.

  • In 1964 a Texas state trooper lit me up for doing 85 in a 75 zone, on the way from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to the Texas State Fair in Dallas. He gave me a ticket on which he identified the offense and showed me a series of items on the ticket, a checklist from which I could choose several options. I was to check one and submit the ticket by mail.

    One of the items was to pay the fine and end the matter. I could send the ticket and check to Waco County Justice of the Peace Joe N. Brown. Making payment being by far the simplest option, I searched the ticket for the amount I should pay and found . . . nothing.

    I wrote to Mr. Brown explaining the situation and promised that if he would only tell me what the amount of the fine was for doing 85 in a 75 zone I would send him a check.

    After a period of silence, I assumed that the mills of the Texas justice system must grind very slowly and that eventually someone would let me know. Ha!

    Several months later I got a call from the Orderly Room (company headquarters) informing me that there was a state trooper there with a warrant for my arrest and ordering me to report immediately. By then the ticket had disappeared from my thoughts and I had no idea what this was all about.

    Well, the state had issued the warrant, and it was for non-payment of the ticket. I was flabbergasted. I explained to the trooper that the ticket had no amount information and I had written to the JP, yada yada yada. He laughed and said "This happens all the time. The JP's do not get any postage money from the state and when they get a letter like yours they just pitch it." (A first class stamp was five cents in 1964. However, with Texas declining to provide ticket amounts, I can imagine that JP's might have received a *lot* of letters like mine.)

    On my promise to mail payment immediately, the trooper informed me of the amount, tucked the warrant in his pocket, and departed.

  • In 1967, on returning from Vietnam, I drove from Corpus Christi, Texas, to New England for a 30 day leave. With me was my bridge playing friend Dolly, and we took her car. I had to drop her off in the D.C. area, and we drove across the bottom of the country and then up the east coast.

    In South Carolina a state trooper jumped right out of my trunk and stopped me for doing 80 in a 70 zone. Really, I have no idea where he came from I didn't see him as we approached wherever he was and I didn't see him get on the highway behind me. He was just *there*, suddenly.

    He asked for my license and the car's registration, which I provided. He frowned, looked at me, and asked, "What's this 'APO' in the address area?"

    I explained that it stood for "Army Post Office," that I had returned from Vietnam a couple of days earlier, and that I would change it in about a month, when I got to my next post, in Arizona.

    But *this* trooper wasn't saluting any flags, and as he handed me my ticket he said, "Mr. Hendricks, you were safer in Vietnam than you are out here doing 80 miles per hour on our highways."

  • In 1975 I got a break from a state trooper, not in the form of forgiveness, but in the form of breaking procedure. Driving north at night on I-95 in South Carolina (again!) I was stopped for speeding. I have no idea now what the limit was or what my speed was. The trooper told me to follow him and we drove to the home of a Justice of the Peace.

    We pulled up to the house, the trooper walked up to the front door, and I waited in my car. After a minute the trooper approached me and said, "He's not home. Now what I'm *supposed* to do is drive you to the jail and keep you until the JP gets home. But if you'll tell me that you will pay this fine then I'll give you a ticket and you can mail it in."

    I did, he did, and I did, you betchum, Red Ryder.

  • Several years later - I can't place it exactly - I got the only speeding ticket I didn't pay. I was driving south on I-95 in Maryland, on the way to visit my brother, when I got pulled over for speeding. I don't remember the numbers but my offense was not particularly egregious, as I was not in the passing lane and was just doing whatever the traffic was doing.

    Parked at the side of the road was a string of cars and several cruisers. All the cars had plates from states other than Maryland. I'd been caught in a speed trap set for out of state drivers only, and those with Maryland plates were allowed to drive at speeds for which we were stopped and ticketed.

    I accepted the ticket silently and held on to it for a week or so, until I had returned to Massachusetts. At that point I just tore it up.

10 comments:

Dramlin said...

Dude -- it's not THAT long since you got a speeding ticket, as I remember! As for 'safer in Vietnam" -- what WAS that man on?
Gad.

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

Umm, nothing's coming to mind. You and I met on the BB around 1999, and I'm reasonably sure I haven't had any since then.

Refresh my memory. Wot're you thinking of?

As for the trooper, I think he was just telling me to wave the flag somewhere else. Ah ha ha ha ha ha. I'm OK with that.

Dramlin said...

Well I definitely remember us being pulled over in the middle of the night -- maybe you just got a warning lol
I also remember something about the trunk of the car too...

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

I think the being pulled over thing must have been with D. You and I were seldom out at night, and I have *never* had a speeding ticket in the Chicago area.

The only trunk "issue" I recall is that J had a love/hate relationship with my car. She hurt her back getting in and out of the back seat - her idea, BTW: "Guys in front, girls in the back, OK?" - but every time I opened the trunk she gushed about how much room there was.

A while back I emailed her twice, with no response. I know that she had lost a *bunch* of weight, DH wasn't doing well, and that Little Miss Sunshine had straightened out, got a job, and was working her way through a local college. Mebbe I'll try her again.

Dramlin said...

It wasn't in Chicago, it was somewhere between there and Pennsylvania when you were on your annual pilgrimage and dropping me off at J's place. Or heading back to Chicago, can't remember which one.
As for the trunk -- you just didn't want the cop to open it lol

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

I really think you have hallucinated this whole thing. Ah ha ha ha ha ha.

But I suppose anything is possible . . . .

TGiotio1 said...

The only reason you didn't get a speeding ticket in Chicago is because the school got in the way of your Cadillac.

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

Hi, Tom.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha. That is an *unmistakeable* reference to an event from more than 25 years ago. I had thought that was forever buried and forgotten by now.

Yes, if that school hadn't been in the way I'd probably *still* be backing up.

I guess they tore that school down during the time I was in Virginia. John Thompson promised to get me a brick from it, but John being John . . . .

So who are you, behind that TGiotio1 (formerly TGiotio) ID? It would seem that you must be someone I know.

TGiotio1 said...

Yes, I am someone you know. Will reach out to get back to a regular lunch schedule once I can track down your phone # that got lost.

Tom

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

Ton,

Cool. I b'lieve I know who you are, although not how "Tom" comes into it.

Sending the phone number to the Link Monster.