ME AND THE CHIEF, DEALING SWEETS

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted July 25, 2005)

On Sunday, I asked a probing question to Police Chief Ronal Serpas.

Here's what I asked:
"Say, you're driving along in your car, and you stop at a red light.... and the light stays red..... it just won't turn green for you. How long would you sit there before you finally pull out into the intersection and run the red light?"

I asked the question because it's something every driver faces from time to time.
In fact, it had just happened to me the night before. I sat at an intersection through 3 cycles of light changes (for cross traffic), while my light stayed red. I finally ran the red light, with a sense of relief that I didn't see blue lights.

I figured it would be helpful to hear how the man in charge of law enforcement would handle this not-uncommon dilemma.

By that point, I was also feeling relieved that the Chief had not brought up, or remembered, that I had posted a picture of him in these Notebook essays a few months ago called KINFOLK.... OR SEMI-CELEBRITY LOOK ALIKES??, in which I compared him to a member of the old Our Gang comics from half a century ago.

Whew! Maybe he never saw it.

And, by the way, if you've never encountered Chief Serpas, he's a surprisingly tall man -- about 6'6", I'm guessing.
He's also quick to fill you in on the impressive soccer accomplishments of his delightful (though slightly embarrassed) daughter, as any proud parent would.
He's also quick witted and youthful looking. (Hey - it never hurts to point out good stuff about the police chief).

Ronal Serpas and I were among dozens of so-called "celebrity scoopers" for Free Ice Cream Sunday at the Belle Meade Mansion.

Lisa Spencer and Nancy Van Camp were also part of our shift of scoopers.
The delicious ice cream was provided by Purity, but was frozen solid when we started scooping.
By the time our shift was through, each of us had painful cramps in our hands from scooping.

Matter of fact, it's probably a good thing today that Nancy and Lisa have all that fancy electronic weather graphic stuff, because drawing a straight line with an ink marker (like in the old days) might be tough to do with such aching hands.

Oh...... the answer Chief Serpas gave concerning when he'd finally run the red light was this..... as best I recall.....
"I'd sit there all night...... or until something gave me a reason to run it."

Hmmmmm.
I suppose a valid "reason" might be -- to come after ME, for running it in the other direction!

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