Memories of Athens

 

     I woke this morning and found an email notification saying that Donnie Weller had tagged me in a picture on Facebook.  Donnie was one of my best friends on my shift when I was a police officer at the Athens Clarke County Police Department.  We have both since left the department, I train dogs now and Donnie is a executive protection contractor in Iraq.  Any how, I opened up the old Facebook and was greeted with a picture of a slightly younger me sitting on a silver Harley Davidson holding my shotgun.  I believe this picture was taken on my last day at work there.  The motorcycle belonged to my Lieutenant and I was posing on it as a joke.
   My last day was supposed to be all fun and games.  We had all gone out to Sons of Italy the night before to eat pizza and drink a few beers.  Needless to say, some of us had a little too much fun.  The highlight of the evening was watching Kane do the robot dance on top of our table with his very angry wife watching.  That was followed by a ride back to Donnie's apartment in the back of a truck.  Fortunately we did not have to be back at work until 1:30PM so I was able to sleep in, grab a little Chick Fil A and roll on into work.  The plan was for me to spend the day hopping between several of the restaurants we frequented and my shift mates would catch my calls and hang out with me in between.  Well, after we looked at the line up I quickly realized that my slacker party was probably not going to happen.  I was assigned to zone 2, the busiest zone on the west side, and we barely had enough guys working to cover all our zones.  We went into service with calls holding and within 30 minutes I had one of my favorite young thugs at gun point.  It seemed like we just got busier from there, I missed my dinner break and I don't think we slowed down until around 9:00 pm.   I spent the remaining few minutes of my shift sitting with my friend Mike and his trainee at the Jittery Joes reflecting on our day and my time in Athens.  At about 9:45pm we started to make our way back to the precinct to turn in our cars at the end of the shift.  At about 9:50pm I heard my Sargent come over the radio and request a signal 46.  Signal 46 means dispatch asks all available units to return to the precinct and they hold all calls for the next shift.  After a long day, it is music to your ears because you know you are not going to get stuck with a late call and if all your paper work is turned in you can go home.  My buddy Ryan was dispatching that night and as I drove down Atlanta Hwy he came over the radio and asked if I would do the honor of calling the Signal 46.  I thought that was pretty cool so I keyed up and said, " 2386 (my badge number) to all west side units, signal 46, all 10-8 (in service) units return to precinct for 10-42 (out of service)" .
      At that time it hit me, I would never be here doing this ever again.  As I drove in I thought of all the long days and crazy calls but most of all I though of all the friends I was leaving behind.  When we worked together we would take care of each other no matter what, period.  I remember Donnie and I were working a domestic and we heard another guy come over the radio and yell for help.  Without hesitation we told the people they were going to have to get along and we ran out.  No second thoughts, no hesitation, that was just how we did things.  The knowledge that no matter what was going on, my friends were on the way to help made some scary situations a little less scary.  Regardless, I knew that those days were over for me.  I would never patrol those streets again and I had put on my ACCPD uniform for the last time.
    Looking back I now realize that the time I spent there has had a profound effect on the person I am today. I learned what hard work was and what it meant to be part of a team.  I learned to overcome adversity and I did and saw things I would have never imagined.  I wouldn't trade my experiences and memories for the world.  Regardless, those days are over now and I  have traded in my crown vic for a mini van that smells like dogs.....and I couldn't be happier.