My home town

I grew up in the township around a small town not too far from Pittsburgh. There were about 300 people in the town itself but a few thousand (probably) in the township around it. There wasn't much extra money for things like police or a mayor. When I lived there, there was one policeman and he was pretty old. My mother worked in the drug store and the policeman would walk the ladies to their cars at night. He didn't have bullets for his gun. My mother and the other woman that worked in the drug store called him Barney Fife (behind his back). After he retired, a younger fellow took the job. He didn't have bullets either and he didn't have a police car, either. But he liked catching people for speeding (I'm told by one of my cousins). He would hide behind a tree or another car and jump out and nab the offending vehicle when they slowed down to make a turn. I don't know if he had a radar gun (I doubt the town could afford one) or just "judged" that the offender was going too fast.

The mayor at the time was also the town plumber. And the postmaster was also the pastor at the Methodist church. Later, a friend of mine from high school became the mayor for a short time. He worked in his father's real estate business. The town had a newspaper for a while where you could get mentioned on the Society page if you had a big enough birthday party. There wasn't enough money for a fire department, either, so there was a volunteer fire department. They had a big fair every year in the summer to raise money for equipment. The fair lasted for a week and there was always a big parade during that time. It was huge. There would be fire trucks from all the surrounding communities and an amazing number of marching bands and drum and bugle corps. I'll bet there where 20 - 25 bands in the parade as well as majorette groups and other organizations. There was always a carnival at the fair, too, and lots of food. The local churches always had booths set up and those were fun, too.

One final story before I go. This one is about the township police. There were a few of them and they had cars (they had a much larger area to patrol). One of my parents' friends was pulled over by the township police for hauling a trailer that had a light out (or something minor like that). My parents' friend knew the policeman and tried to talk his way out of it saying they'd never stopped him for it before. The policeman wouldn't bend and gave him a ticket. When the policeman went back to his car, he found he'd locked himself out of it. Luckily, my parents' friend hadn't left yet and had to help him get into the police car. He didn't get a break on the ticket, though.