WALKING ROUTE 66

This Is How I Ended Up In Police Custody

Without handcuffs, and with a clean record.

The plan was to walk from the South end of Springfield to Auburn, Illinois. It would be a 16 miles trek.

Before I left Chicago, my cousin Nadir gave me his antique MP3 player loaded with old songs. It had both Indian/Pakistani music from the 60s and 70s and English songs from the 70s and 80s.

I finally took it out. I had been on the road for three weeks, so I was feeling at ease with the daily walk. I listen to some of my favorites, and Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” really put me in a great mood.

I got to Auburn around 1 PM. I learned about a nice local restaurant called Tony’s located behind the Subway on the main road. Every meal came with a bowl of soup. Stuffed pepper was the soup of the day. It was yummy and complimented my hamburger perfectly.

Curiosity got the better of the waitress. She wanted to know about my t-shirt. Pretty soon, the three occupied tables in the place knew about it. The little man got a balloon, which made the young couple jealous. They wanted one too.

I got enough in tips and donations to pay for the meal and tip the waitress generously. I called the town hall, and they said that I absolutely could not spend the night in the park.

Virden is 6.5 miles away. I figured I could make it there by 6 PM and look for a place before it gets dark. I would have a couple of hours of daylight to do so.

A police vehicle from the opposite direction stopped ahead of me as soon as I entered the city limits. The officer rolled his window down as I got closer. He inquired about my wellbeing. Satisfied that I posed no threat to his community, he wished me well.

“Oh, is there a place in town where I can crash for the night?”

He said something into his shoulder mic and stepped out of the SUV and crossed the road.

He was polite, but it’s a tiny community, and there are no inns or motels in town. I don’t need a motel, a place to roll out my sleeping bag will do.

Another vehicle with flashing lights stopped behind me. The two officers had a conference. The Town Square outside the police station is available if I don’t mind sleeping out in the open. It works for me.

There was some whispering among themself. Would I like hamburger or chicken strips for dinner? It’s on the house. And oh, it’s not very roomy, but I am welcome to use the lobby at the police station, it will be cooler inside.

I walked a couple of miles down to the Town Square, and officer Troy Parish met me at the door. I’ll have to leave my stroller outside. He didn’t think anyone would try to break into it.

They unlocked the officers’ restroom for me to freshen up and change if I wanted to. The chicken strips and fries were perfect.

When I asked if it was okay to retrieve the sleeping bad and the pillow from outside, he apologized for being unable to get a cot for me, though he tried.

Will you stop it? I grew up sleeping on the floor on quilts made out of clothes that were no longer fit for wearing.

If you ever have to spend a night in police custody, that’s the way to do it.

As I reflect back.

I didn’t realize at the time how fortunate I was, not just for receiving the royal treatment, but for the fact that I walked over 22 miles that day when I was contemplating giving up the whole idea just a week earlier.

Like the song, I was listening to earlier in the day says, “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, it’ll soon be here. Yesterday is gone.”

I learned that officer Troy Parish retired last year after a long career in public service. To Serve and Protect was more than a motto for him. We are still Facebook friends and chat once in a while.

And to think, this was before the rhetoric of MAGA, and America was already great then.

Day 21: A Good Night’s Sleep (Original blog post)

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Here are a couple of earlier stories:

Rasheed Hooda is a published author, and a regular contributor and editor for ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium, where writers support each other.

He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Get the Newsletter)

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