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• 1 2017-06-26T14:20:29-07:00 The Police 33 plain 2019-02-21T18:37:01-08:00

  
  
  
  
  
  The police could come patrolling through the reserve several times a night. And if your lights are on, they come right to the door: “Why are your lights on?” In those days it wasn’t even electricity. It was, like, a gas lamp or a coal-oil lantern. Come knock on the door, check what you’re up to, why you’re up that time of the night. So you can’t be up late at night without causing the police to be suspicious. There was no street lights. There was nothing. So quite often people, when they started and if they wanted to party or socialize, cover the windows with heavy blanket and – so that the police don’t come and check. A bunch of fugitives. [laughs] They’d come right in and look around. If there was any booze, they had the right to take any liquor that’s around the house if there’s any.

  We were over visiting Rose and Alec, and they were logging buddies. They were always talking logging talk and that. So I’m sittin’ in the main living room with Rose, and we’re visiting, and Alec and my husband were sitting off in a room – there was a bedroom there, and they were – they’re sitting there talking and visiting. Next thing you know, a police officer comes through the door. And there was just a curtain on the door. There was no door, just a curtain to cover the doorway. So hearing the police come in, I guess they put their bottle on the windowsill – window ledge – in that little room. And the lights are on, of course it’s dark. Yeah, “What’s going on in here?” That’s how he used to be. The police would just walk in: “What are you guys up to?” And it’s like you’re scolded or, you know, rough – it’s not anything like “Oh, how are you today?” kind of thing. You know? “I was just passing through, checking to see if you’re okay.” No, it was “What are you up to?” and “Where’s your husband?” Right away Alec came out of the bedroom and, “Oh, officers.” And by then he’s kind of jagged already. In the meantime they had put that bottle on the ledge, and there’s a curtain. So officer went there, I guess looked around, didn’t see any bottle there or anything. So left and went out through the kitchen and around the house, and there was, like, a walkway going down by the house. I guess when you looked like that at that window, you seen this bottle on the ledge. Comes back in, goes stomping into that bedroom, grabs that bottle, and walks out with it. So of course Alec and my husband were really upset by … they took away their bottle of whiskey. Followed the police officers outside, and they’re jabbering away like a couple of magpies. They’re, “You can’t do that to us,” and “That’s our right. We paid a lot of money for that bottle!” and blah, blah, blah. Officer just ignored them and went in his vehicle. So they kind of went around the vehicle – Alec’s on one side, and Dad’s on the other side, and they’re nattering at the officer from both windows in the police car. “You can’t do this to us. We’ve got our rights,” Alec was saying. “I was in the Army. I served in the war.” And what did he say he was? He was – oh! “I was in the 47th brigade,” he said. [laughs] I don’t know if he knew what that meant. And the officer was standing there, and I’m over on one side. I’m telling my husband, “Come with me, let’s go home.” In the meantime the officer had spilled that whiskey right on the road by the vehicle – upended the bottle, spilled all that whiskey out. And he said, “Now you go home.” He was telling that to us, like, me and my husband were standing there.