Scripture comments below:

Final installment on Dalton:

After our history making breakfast, Sarge had the next couple of days off.  My days off corresponded with Jack’s.  We had Friday Night and Saturday night off.  The day that Sarge came back he had me come back into the office and work with Dorthea.  A little later in the shift he had me come into his office and gave me a number of books.  He said that in years past they used to receive a monthly publication called “Key Notes.”  “Key Notes” was designed for continuing training; to be read by the officers and for roll call training by the departments.  These books were actually a compilation of those monthly publications.   This was basically the training received by the officers of our department as they started working several years back, there were no roll calls so the officer learned from the publication.  The rest came with an occasional class on law given by the District Attorney and by the FBI that would come into our area and hold classes for surrounding agencies.  Things had changed considerably since then, now there was an academy and more formal training was available.

The “Key Notes” publisher would choose a theme/situation for the month and then write the options and proper methods of handling the situation.   The publication was either one or four pages long, written on both sides.  They were actually pretty well written with good advice.  While most of it is out dated now, back then they were considered the best thing around.  During the next few days I read all the ones given to me by Sarge.

The one publication that sticks out in my mind was one dealing with strangers and suspicious people on the street late at night.  The publication discussed various reasons they would be there, none of them legitimate.  The proper way to stop the person, how the officer was to stand, things to look for and questioning of the subject were all covered.  I took that to heart, after all those late nights were what I was working.  Therefore, anyone out walking the streets was a suspect and should be questioned.

What I did not think about, was that most of the individuals that were out on the street during our shift were known to everyone who worked the shift.  Many were working and/or going to work and they had been stopped by new officers several times over the years.   Since that interfered with their work, they were not happy.  The Sarge would sometimes hear about it.   Thus the admonition I heard over breakfast, “leave the railroaders alone.” 

Because I had experience as a Reserve Officer I was assigned my own car in a matter of a couple of days.  I still had a training officer, but unless we were short of cars or he wanted me to do certain things, I was on my own.  One of the first things I did the first night I was out by myself was to stop a couple of rough looking characters that were walking down the street.  When I saw them that training key just leaped into my head.  Here was just exactly the situation the training key talked about.  It was almost like it had been foretold and I was forewarned.   I was ready.   I used all my “training” received from riding as a reserve and those special “Key Notes.”   I pulled up behind them and radioed where I was and what I was doing to the office.  I got out of my car and called them back to me, careful to stand sideways with my gun side away from them.  I had my flashlight under my left arm with my notebook in my left hand.  The men turned around and looked at me half disgustedly, but they came back the few steps to where I was standing.   I was in control.  I was doing my job as a Police Officer on Graveyard.  I was going to help keep the population safe from burglars. 

I asked them why they were on the street and was getting ready to ask for identification when they told me they were walking to work; at the train depot; they worked for the railroad.   They were, of course, in fact “railroaders.” 

While I am not the brightest person around, it didn’t take me but a second to realize I had just done something I had been told not to do; by the hardest sergeant on the force; by my sergeant who would be listening to this on the radio.  I immediately said, “thank you, sorry I bothered you, you may go.”  As I walked to my car, around the corner came the Sarge in the sergeant’s car.  He was doing what we all did, backing up an officer on a stop; however, I also knew it was a little more than that.  He just looked at me as he drove on by.  He never said anything, he didn’t have to, his look was quite sufficient.

I made a point to look a little more carefully at who was on the street.  I never again stopped a “railroader.”  They really were not that difficult to identify.  While they did not have a uniform, they were dressed in similar clothing, jeans and flannel or wool work shirts with work jackets on in the colder climate and heavy work boots, and they walked on 2^nd street from the motel to the station.  It was almost always at the same time in the morning.  I don’t remember much about the other training issues, but I will never forget that one!

Sarge retired in April of my first year as an officer.  A few weeks before he retired he called me into his office.  He asked me what the Oregon Police Academy monitor did.  At that time the academy was on National Guard property in Clackamas, Oregon.  Trainees attending the basic academy were not allowed to leave the property during the week.  Trainees would arrive for classes on Sunday evening, stay all week and leave on Friday afternoon.  During the week we did all our training, studying eating and whatever recreation we could find within the fence line.  We stayed in Quonset huts; we housed about 10 to a hut.  There were several huts set up in two rows.  The front doors faced each other and were divided by a paved path that led to the showers and restrooms on one end and the paved road that went the full length of the property on the other.  The mess hall and classroom was along that road east and north of the huts. 

There was a rec hall with a ping-pong table and a few card tables.  There was a path on the inside of the fence that most of us used for jogging.  On our own time we mostly swapped what stories we had and studied the material for the Friday afternoon test.  To be sure everyone checked in and to be there if we needed anything they had an Academy monitor.   When I was at the academy it was a retired police officer.  While I don’t know what all his duties entailed, his main responsibility was to be there.  I don’t know if he had any authority to discipline for infractions, etc.  I am sure he had duties and responsibilities I was not aware of, but the job did not appear stressful or difficult.   I conveyed all I knew to Sarge, he had never been at the academy.

When Sarge retired he was hired as the Academy monitor.  He was one of ours.  When recruits from our department went to the academy they would spend time in the evening with him.   All the recruits liked him, even those from other departments, and he told a lot of stories.  He never told stories that would allow these recruits to disrespect our current department members, but I am sure there were some good ones told through those weeks.   He was of the old breed brought up in police work during the time that you used call boxes to find out if you were needed anywhere, because there were no such things as radios in cars, he retired as the department had just purchased portable radios so that every officer on duty had one.  There was over thirty years of experience and he really had loosened up.  It was a good fit for him and I was happy that he had found it.  His retirement after all those years only amounted to $19.00 a month, so he needed the job, but it also kept him young and fresh.  Art :-)

Psalm 103:11-12 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

It is too easy for us to forget that once we confess our sins God forgives them and then God forgets our transgressions; satan reminds us of them, however, and we allow them to hinder our testimony to others.

That others remember us for some of our misdeeds also hampers our witnessing we know we have made mistakes, and we know there are those out there that will tell others about our sins.  Often times, though, that fear of ‘being called out’ as a hypocrite or phony, is more in our minds than actuality – but satan knows how to play with our minds.

When we worry about how others will perceive us because of past indiscretions, then satan wins.  Yes, it may be embarrassing and may keep others from listening to us, but God will still use us to get His message of salvation to others.

How do you think Peter felt when he failed Jesus on the day He was arrested?  He denied Christ in public – and Jesus had said those that deny Him, He would deny to His Father.  David, when he committed adultery and caused the husband to be placed in a position where he would be guaranteed to be killed and he lost his son – he knew he had disobeyed God, yet, he too picked himself up and served God.

The Bible is full of such stories, they are meant not only to educate us and give us the history of the Israelites, but to encourage us, letting us know that He is God and He forgives and uses all that will ask for that forgiveness.

Revelations 3:19-21 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

²¹ To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

There are times when we have been disciplined by God and think that is the end of our ability to effectively serve Him.  We are discouraged and overcome with our own failures, so His discipline feels like a life-long sentence to a cellar of non-service for Him.

But He disciplines us because He loves us; so that we will learn and come back to Him.  As a child, who can do whatever he wants, soon gets into trouble, so do we without the guidance of our heavenly Father.  He wants us to be perfect, even as He is perfect and we cannot do that without focusing on Him.

But when we accept his chastisement for what it is, a show of love from God to get us back on the road to perfection, we will move forward and refuse to look back.  God wants us working for Him, not hiding under a rock in our shame.  He wants us proclaiming His salvation, proclaiming His Love and Grace.

What was done is done.  God has forgiven, now it is up to us to forgive ourselves and refocus our life on Him.  We must overcome satan’s temptations, but fortunately we don’t have to do it by ourselves.

Mathew 28:20-21 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

No matter our condition, no matter our fears, no matter the circumstances, Christ is with us.  We may feel that we can never overcome our past our even our problems right now, but when we turn our focus from ourselves to Him – and that is what His chastisement is telling us to do – He will use us for His Glory.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again