LOL!

Well, Dylan and the cops both had the sense to stay cool and not get upset. That might be a lesson for the rest of us, hmmm?

But, Crow Sister, it actually is getting kind of unusual (in a sort of general sense) for people to just go for "a walk" in North America. It's not done nearly as much as it was done in my father's and mother's youth, that's for sure. With the universal advent of the TV and the automobile this has become a more and more sedentary society. So a person who is just out "going for a walk" to pass the time quite likely may seem suspicious to some observer who's peering out her window or some cop who's on patrol.

Example: I like to go for walks at night sometimes. Why? Because it's quiet out there at night (I live in the country, outside a smallish town). It's peaceful. I like to look at the night sky. I enjoy the solitude.

So, one night I took a walk down our laneway and over to the main road. Everything was still and lovely, a gentle breeze blowing. I decided to cross the road and take a stroll through the parking lot beside the storage units that are over there. Why there? No particular reason. Just felt like it. All of a sudden a cop car comes flying up the highway at high speed and whooshes into the parking lot. I realize it's because of me. ;-) He's probably expecting me to run for it at that point, but I just stand there calmly and wait for him to get out of the cruiser. He does so, watching me very closely, and begins asking me what I'm doing there. I tell him I'm out for a walk.

I can see him saying to himself, "Yeah....right!"   He doesn't think it at all likely that anyone would just be out for a walk at around midnight.

So I get out my I.D. and show him that I live right across the street. He questions me at some length, calls up the station to check if I have a record, eventually decides that I must be out for a walk after all, strange as it is to him that I would be. Why am I not at home, glued to a TV or a computer screen???

He advises me that it's probably not a good idea to go for walks after dark, because people might think I was up to no good. I thank him for his "assistance" and I walk back home.

I have since restricted my night walks to just our own property and the laneway right by my house. It's getting weird out there. ;-)

When I think of the freedom people used to have and how different things used to be around here in this beautiful North American land, it makes me sad. The boundaries keep narrowing with every passing decade, even every passing year.