Citizens felt safe in Breckenridge in the 1940s and 1950s.\u00a0 The town had three policemen (no women in those days), a chief of police, and one patrol car.\u00a0 I believe the chief also had a car. There was a designated parking space for the car at the intersection of Walker Street and Breckenridge Avenue.\u00a0 The space was on the west side of Breckenridge Ave. beside C.R. Anthony department store.\u00a0 It was across the street from the Sager Hotel. There was not a dispatcher.\u00a0 There was a box mounted on a telephone pole with a telephone inside.\u00a0 When not patrolling, the car parked beside the pole and waited for the phone to ring.\u00a0 At the end of a shift, the policeman on duty filled the car with gas, did any other maintenance needed, and took the car to the city yard.\u00a0 The shift changed, and a new cycle began.<\/p>\n
One policeman seemed to enjoy harassing the teenagers.\u00a0 Ken and some of his friends had Model A cars.\u00a0 Several boys were in his friend D.B.\u2019s car during high school lunch break.\u00a0 The policeman stopped them and said they were speeding, going 40mph.\u00a0 Ken was in the front seat, and said, \u201cThis old thing wouldn\u2019t go 40 miles per hour being pulled on a trailer.\u201d\u00a0 D.B. turned his head toward Ken.\u00a0 The policeman thought D.B. was the one \u201cpopping off\u201d his mouth. \u00a0When D.B. looked back at the policeman, he got a stern lecture on talking back to the police and being disrespectful.<\/p>\n
In those days mischief was not mean or hurtful.\u00a0 A few boys divided the town into areas.\u00a0 One boy would set off firecrackers on one side of town.\u00a0 Someone would usually call in about the noise.\u00a0 The policeman would go check it out.\u00a0 By this time, the boy was \u00a0home. Another boy would wait for a period of time and set of firecrackers in his area.\u00a0 The patrolman would be off to check that area.\u00a0 Ken\u2019s area was the west side of town. He would set off his firecrackers, drive the few blocks home, and go to bed.\u00a0 None of them were caught.<\/p>\n
One night Ken was standing on the overhang of the Palace Theatre changing the marquee. He heard a commotion below him.\u00a0 He looked down to see a young policeman, new to the force, trying to handcuff a drunken man.\u00a0 The drunk told the cop he would go with him to jail, but he would not be handcuffed. \u00a0\u00a0The scuffle got to the edge of the curb and the drunk took a swing at the cop.\u00a0 They ended up rolling around in the gutter at the edge of the street. \u00a0A shadow appeared. Police chief Ollie Jackson approached.\u00a0 He called out, \u201cxx get off him.\u201d\u00a0 The drunk scrambled up letting the cop up. Ollie told the policeman, \u201cJust go on home.\u00a0 Meet me in my office in the morning.\u201d\u00a0 He looked at the drunk, said, \u201cCome on xx,\u201d and started walking toward the jail.\u00a0 Ollie was a large man and took long strides.\u00a0 The drunk was short and had a pegleg.\u00a0 Kenneth watched in amusement as the shorter man almost ran to keep up with Ollie, his pegleg tap, tap, tapping on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
A teen activity was \u201cmaking the drag.\u201d\u00a0 This involved driving the main street (Walker Street)\u00a0 from one side of town to the other.\u00a0 Ken\u2019s older brother was making the drag. He was waiting for the light change at Walker Street and Breckenridge Ave. when a friend pulled up beside him.\u00a0 They decided to race to the hilltop at the east side of town.\u00a0 The cars had standard shifts.\u00a0 His friend took off, started to shift from first to second gear, and in haste hit reverse instead of second.\u00a0 The transmission locked. There he sat.\u00a0 There were no tow trucks in town then.\u00a0 There was nothing to do but leave the car where it was. This was in 1947.\u00a0 The car was safe there overnight.\u00a0 The next morning, the boys got another transmission from a local junk yard.\u00a0 They changed the transmission in the middle of main street and went on with the day\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n
Ken was not so lucky.\u00a0 Main Street was also US highway 180.\u00a0 East of town there was a Y.\u00a0 Highway 180 went to the right and on to Mineral Wells. The highway on the other side went to Graham.\u00a0 A store was located between the two highways.\u00a0 Ken made the drag one night and pulled into the parking lot of Baccus Grocery at the top of the hill on the east side of town. He was driving his Dad\u2019s 1946 Buick.\u00a0 A policeman pulled up beside him.\u00a0 The patrol car was a new 1948 Plymouth.\u00a0 They were talking when the policeman asked, \u201cHow is that old Buick running?\u201d\u00a0 Kenneth told him it would outrun the Plymouth any day.\u00a0 The challenge was on.\u00a0 There was no traffic to be seen.\u00a0 They agreed to race to the Y.\u00a0 They got to the Y about the same time, sat and talked for a while, and the policeman said, \u201cWell,I had better get back to the telephone.\u201d\u00a0 They drove leisurely back to town.<\/p>\n
Ken went home, walked into the house, and there sat his angry Dad waiting up for him.\u00a0 Someone had called and told him that Ken had tried to outrun the policeman.\u00a0 Ken knew there was no trying to explain to his Dad. His Dad would not have listened.\u00a0 Ken took his punishment and said nothing. News traveled fast in Breckenridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Citizens felt safe in Breckenridge in the 1940s and 1950s. The town had three policemen (no women in those days), a chief of police, and one patrol car. I believe the chief also had a car. There was a designated parking space for the car at the intersection of Walker Street and Breckenridge Avenue. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[276,275,149,277],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-days-to-1955","tag-breckenridge-texas","tag-small-town-policemen","tag-teen-mischief","tag-teenagers-and-model-a-cars"],"yoast_head":"\n