Raccoon Stories
By Peter
M. Zoernig
Chapter Five
In Which Raccoon And General Junk Go To Jail
I have been
reminded by the recent trials and tribulations of a certain errant heiress, of
another unforgettable adventure that I had with Raccoon in 1985, prior to the
Missouri Rainbow Gathering. We were on a dumpster diving expedition to
All together, we
looked like a fairly disrespectable bunch, though we were up to nothing more
sinister than recycling garbage. We had a pick-up truck full of scuffed
watermelons, dented but still fresh, loaves of bread, and a good load of other
perfectly serviceable foodstuffs when it was starting to get dark so we called
it a day and we were heading out of town when Wanderin'
Willy wanted to hit the McDonald's dumpster to supply his “Dog Kitchen” at The
Rainbow Gathering. Actually a brilliant idea, as dogs are often neglected at
The Gathering, and will form packs that can tear through a supply tent and
totally ruin the day at a Rainbow camp. Wandering Willy had organized a dog
kitchen to be sure somebody was looking after the dogs before they raided
supply.
We pulled into the
parking lot next door to McDonald's, and before I shut off the engine and
exited the vehicle, I noticed a police vehicle behind me blocking me in. I got
out and went up to the police car to ask what the problem was. We were not
drinking, nobody was doing anything illegal, I was licensed and insured, and it
didn’t occur to me that we were in any trouble. “I’ll have to see your ID’s,”
said Officer S.E. Allen, (I will never forget that fat little Hitler mustached
twit’s name) and the shakedown began. He ran all our ID’s and there were no
wants or warrants on anybody. The owners of the fruit market parking lot we
were parked in came down and declared that none of the contents of the truck
was stolen from their business. For a couple hours they had brilliant
spotlights lighting up the open parking lot, four cop cars with the lights
flashing the whole time, a very thorough search of my pickup and all of us was
conducted, and just when I thought they would let us go and we’d have a good
laugh about it, a paddy wagon showed up and they hauled us off to jail. I had
never been arrested before, and in my naiveté, I thought that we would be able
to explain to somebody that no crime had been committed and of course they
should let us go, but shortly after we got to the jail, I found out it was a
holiday weekend, meaning our first chance to explain anything to anybody would
be on Tuesday morning. This was Friday evening.
Without much say
in the matter anyway, we all decided to be somewhat good-natured about the
whole thing. I was assigned a cell with Dirty Dan, and the first thing he did
when we got locked in was he pulled out his dentures. Dirty Dan was 25 years
old, and I wasn't expecting the toothless grin, but he explained that he'd been
in a fight or two or three over the years, and that he hadn’t necessarily won
all of them. Dirty Dan’s first words upon our being locked in were, “What kind
of bird doesn’t fly?” I dunno... what kind of bird
doesn’t fly? “A jailbird.. har har har!!!”
I could have done worse for cell-mates, but Dirty Dan loved the fact that I was
a “virgin” where incarceration was involved, and he made it his mission to educate
me on a few things. We had one pack of cigarettes and half a book of matches.
Dirty Dan showed me how to split the matches in two and get two lights out of
one match.
On the other hand,
in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of loud smacking lips and I found
him finishing off what appeared to be my breakfast, (a half cup of slightly
orange colored room temperature water and a still half frozen microwaved sausage and egg biscuit.) If you should find
yourself a guest of the constabulary, don’t overlook the possibility that your
cell-mate might steal your breakfast if you should chance to be sleeping when
the jailer shoves it through the slot in the steel door. Dirty Dan had actually
stashed my breakfast under the bunk, and I am happy to note that I have not had
occasion since then to utilize those valuable lessons he taught me there in The
Springfield City Jail.
Raccoon was next
door locked up with Wanderin' Willy, while Hop-a-long
Tom was cell-mates with a stranger. We played chess somehow, I recall, using
pieces made of paper. He had his and I had mine, and we yelled out the moves.
We had sing-a-longs and Wanderin' Willy surprised us
with baritone harmony. We had the whole jail singing “Amazing Grace.” But I
guarantee you, it gets old fast being in jail, by the third day when they
finally took us before a judge I was not particularly amused anymore. The jail
was not a nice place at all, the sink and toilet were
one fixture, and the single faucet gave slightly warm water for twelve hours,
and room temperature water the other twelve hours. It smelled like it had never
been cleaned in years. There was no TV, no radio, no
reading material. Nothing. A trustee, on the third
day, gave me a stack of Zane Gray westerns, and I found myself in a powerful
position as other inmates negotiated for a book, slinging cigarettes and pieces
of candy, matches, whatever, over to me in exchange for me slinging a book I’d
already read over to them.
I was still naive
enough to think that we would get the chance to explain to reasonable people
that no crime had been committed, and that people don’t get arrested and locked
up, just for not bathing recently, in
The judge, not
amused, gave us a contemptuous look and announced “Trial August 30th, bail set
at $200.” The gavel banged down loudly. This was in mid-June, meaning that
between us we were required to cough up $1000 then and there, or be led back to
jail, presumably to be held for almost three months awaiting trial for the
alleged crime of “trespassing.” Just then Hop-along Tom had to get in his two
cents worth, muttering aloud “We just got fucked!” Just as the bailiff prepared
to render his opinion of that, the shocked silence of the courtroom was treated
to a well-timed addendum, as Hop-along added ruefully, “NO GREASE!” To the
sound of a fair amount of not very well suppressed laughter in the courtroom,
the judge disgustedly waved us off to be led back to our cells, and the bailiff
looked truly horrified that we were not all further charged with contempt.
Back in the jail,
the cops allowed me to make a phone call to my bank to have some money wired in
to get myself and Raccoon out of jail. I was only very casually acquainted with
the other members of our entourage and fairly certain that none of them would
be in attendance at our trial, so I was disinterested in posting bail for the
whole crew. They let us rot in jail for one more day while they held the
position that someone had to actually come and bail us out, they were not
obliged to drive me to the bank to get my money. Knowing I had the cash waiting
at the bank, they insisted that somehow we had to have a family member or a
friend drive to
Finally, on the
next day I discovered a nasty ulcer on my leg, which had developed from
sleeping on a hard iron cot not quite long enough to stretch out, with my leg
hanging off the side. (Like Hop-along Tom, I have a disability, my own from a
spinal cord injury that left my legs partially numb and paralyzed.) I actually
stuck my gamey leg out the slot of the cell door where they put the food trays
in, and kept it there with my open draining wound in their face, demanding that
they release me or they would be liable for denying medical care. They released
me within the hour, and even gave me a ride to the bank, though they insisted
it was above and beyond their responsibility. “We are not a taxi service,” they
said. I bailed Raccoon and myself out, and they let me leave a carton of
cigarettes and a box of matches for Wanderin' Willy,
Hop-along Tom, and Dirty Dan. When I retrieved my pick-up truck, almost all of
the food was rotted, and naturally we were eager to just get out of town and
back to the Gathering.
They released the
others the next day on their own recognizance, provided that they pled guilty
to trespassing and promised to pay a $250 fine within 30 days. Ha! As I learned
later, Hop-along actually stayed in
Raccoon and I
showed up for our “trial,” with photographs of the “crime scene” proving that
it was not only devoid of any “No trespassing” signs, but that it was also a
completely open public parking lot. Also in attendance were the owners of the
fruit market, who had apparently followed the case and had come down to testify
on our behalf. The police did not bother to show up to testify at all. Based on
the clearly written statute which specifies that trespassing consists of
entering a fenced in area that is posted “No trespassing,” as well as the
testimony of the fruit market owners, the prosecutor declined to present a
case, stating that there was no evidence to present and that she was baffled as
to why we had been detained and charged in the first place. The charges were dismissed;
they actually apologized for our trouble and gave me the bond money back. I had
always said that if I ever got tossed in jail I wanted it to be something
utterly ridiculous just like that, as generally speaking I am a law abiding
citizen and have a healthy respect for the law and law enforcement. I got my wish;
I’ll never forget my “prison experience” (as my father called it thereafter.) I
wish I had taken a picture of Raccoon wearing the white suit Bessie had bought
him for the occasion, but suffice to say that in those days Raccoon cleaned up
well and presented a very dashing picture in the courtroom, in contrast to the decrepit
appearance we all offered on the occasion of our arraignment.
The real moral of
the story is very simple - during daylight hours, Raccoon and I had been
interviewed many times by the police all across the country, from