4400
Our county sheriff is known throughout this nation for his honesty, outspokenness, toughness towards crime and criminals, and plain endurance. (He joined the Polk County Sheriff's Department over 50 years ago)!
Perhaps his most famous (or infamous) interview took place after one of his deputies and his K9 companion were murdered by an absolutely horrible hombre. After this criminal was tracked down by a horde of deputies, and "rendered lifeless," one reporter asked Sheriff Judd,
"Why did your deputies shoot that fellow 68 times?"
To which our sheriff replied,
"Because we ran outta bullets!"
I first met Sheriff Judd at a retirement party for our Winter Haven Police Chief, whom I know very well. At the time I served as a counselor for a residential ministry for women newly released from prison; a ministry which the sheriff at least informally co-sponsored.
As the sheriff walked up and engaged me in conversation, including his invitation to contact him, if I needed any assistance or guidance, I greeted him using his predecessor's name, Sheriff Crowe. I immediately recognized my verbal typo, and, no doubt, Sheriff Judd did as well, but he didn't bother correcting me. (I later sent him an email, and apologized for my gaff).
Fast forward a couple of years.
Today I had lunch with a local pastor at a local eatery.
As we stood in the buffet line, I looked behind me, and recognized, (you guessed it), Sheriff Crowe, I mean Judd. I vowed if I ever saw our illustrious law officer again that I would not repeat my memorable mistake. And since the good sheriff was a few paces behind me, and preoccupied with directing the server to give him chicken and mashed potatoes, or steak and turnip greens, as the case may be, I just "went about my business," completed my order, paid my bill, and returned to my seat.
Well, as it fell together, I was blessed with one more opportunity to massacre the good man's name. For you see, as Sheriff Judd walked past our table, he paused momentarily, and said,
"How are you guys today?"
In the space of a micro-second, I thought,
"You better get it right this time!"
And with this, I smiled and simply responded,
"Okay. Thanks."
(It's hard to mess up with such an innocuous response as that one. Now, I breathed a sigh of relief, and returned to my meal).
by Bill McDonald, PhD
No comments:
Post a Comment