Tonight my girls were gone to a football game and my wife was up the hall grading papers as she normally does this time every evening and I was following the football game via a twitter account.  I got to thinking how it was when I was in the band at their age and things that happen after I graduated.

The year after I graduated high school I remember driving back to the school after a football game to pick up my younger brothers who were in the band during this time.  I pulled up to the school to find some other teenagers already there.  I had assumed they were there to pick up someone but after a few minutes after I arrived I found out they were up to no good.  They were there to steal gas and batteries and I had interrupted them.  They came up to my car and wanted to know what I was doing there and I told them that I was there to pick up my brothers.  They encouraged me to leave and let them get on with their business.  I didn’t hesitate to do so.  I didn’t go home, I went to the nearest neighbors and called the sheriff’s department.  They were there within minutes but the thieves had already took off.  I went to the store across the street and called 911 and talked to the dispatcher and gave her the description of the vehicle. The thieves were caught with all the extra gas cans full of gas along with the several batteries that they had taken that night.

When the band busses pulled up in the school parking lot the sheriff department was still there asking questions.  They had already apprehended the thieves and were bringing them back to be identified.  All the kids on the bus wanted to know what was going on and of course me being the hero of the night I couldn’t wait to tell my story.  After I got home my dad reminded me that these boys wouldn’t stay in jail long and after they got out they may come to hunt me down.  After my discussion with my dad, I didn’t feel like a hero much anymore.

I never heard anything else from those boys.  I was a hero for the rest of the season but I was always looking over my shoulder.

“Life Goes On!”