Tuesday at 4PM

I  heard huge thudding and banging at my garage, behind my house. A group of four kids were kicking my garage door. I went out.

"Hi guys! Could you please not do that?"

They were eating dry raw spaghetti! They each had a pound of dried pasta in their hands. 

"Where's your husband?" they asked.

"He's teaching. He teaches high school."

"At this high school?"

"No, a technical high school in Massachusetts."

"Do they have culinary?"

"Yes, and automotive and 16 other subjects to major in. Woonsocket has technical schools too. Which school do you go to?"

"Hamlet middle school."

"Do you know officer Velino?"

"Yes."

"Isn't he cool? So chill. No drama."

"Yeah. We were brought down to Woonsocket Police Dept recently."

"Did you get fingerprinted? Locked up?"

"No! They called our mothers. I pretended I didn't speak English and then I gave his mother's phone number."

"Really?" I asked, laughing. "You guys have fabulous careers ahead of you!"

We all agreed Officer Velino is great. So he saved the day even without being here!

**********

I refuse to be a scary grownup when it comes to dealing with kids. As a kid all adults were scary to me including my parents. The kids respond well to my asking please don't do that.

I wrote to Detective Velino, the Middle School resource officer.  I also shared my note with Police Chief  Tommy Oates and Captain Cunanan who ran the Police Academy and Captain Picard who takes care of our neighborhood and runs the uniformed officers.

I attended the Citizens Police Academy in the fall. It was held at Hamlet middle school on Wednesday nights from 6PM-9PM for 10 weeks. It was well worth the effort for moments like this. It takes a village!