Jail

I did spend a night in jail once.. it was a little town in Oklahoma, just over the Texas panhandle. My boyfriend at the time, his name was Mike, we were both sixteen, we were on our way to the drag races in Oklahoma. Drag races were big in that part of the world, and indeed in Cheyenne there were drag races every weekend which we always attended.  We weren't arrested, the cops just saw the license plate (Wyoming), thought we looked a little young and pulled us over.  Now this was Oklahoma and they have pretty heavy accents down there. The officer kept asking us "do you folks know where you are?"  We kept saying yes because we thought he was asking if WE knew where we were.  Turns out "you folks" were actually our parents.

Anyway, they stuck us both in jail since they probably didn't have anywhere else to put us, separate cells of course.  Filthy, two-inch thick mattress, no blanket, no pillow.  They called our parents and his folks drove down to get us next day.  I didn't get in trouble, mom just asked me what we were doing and I told her, driving to Oklahoma for the drag races. She mentioned how she thought that could be a little dangerous for people our age and next time please tell her before I decide to make any journeys like that. 

I never got in trouble for anything when I was a kid, mostly because seriously I didn't do anything wrong.  Well, when I was eight I stole a candy bar out of the grocery store in Lake City. Mom asked me where I got it because I stupidly left it on my dresser and she knew I had no money. I told her. I was driven to the grocery store, made to stand in the checkout line, tell the clerk what I had done, give her the candy bar AND a quarter (my next week's allowance) to pay for it.  Quite possibly the most humiliating day of my life to that point. Result though, I never stole another thing in my life. 

Why didn't I just lie to her and say someone gave it to me? Well, in my mind even way back then lying was about the second worst thing next to murder.  I figured anyone who would lie would do anything and time has proven that to be a very astute observation.