Herb and his "friends with the blue lights"

When I was growing up, and up into the 90's, Dad had a lead foot when he drove.  Never reckless but about 20 over the limit on open roads.  Mom knew it and when she was peeved at him about some thing, she'd needle him.

"Herb slow down!"  Dad's response was always the same.  "What?" as though Lorrain has just accused him of doing the impossible...like having two heads.  Mom would then turn to me and say " he should have been a race car driver ."  She would then make car noises and say "zoom!".   

When Matt was little he'd ride with the folks on trips.  Upon their return on one occasion I  asked how was the trip?  Matt replied "Great!  We met Peep's (this was the boys' nickname for grandfather) friend with the blue lights!"  Seems that that was how Herb explained the traffic stop, saying "Oh how nice, my friend wants to say hello and he's signaling me with his blue lights".  Dad would then go back and have a nice chat with his "friend."

Dad would never ask me to defend him on any of his citations.  He would just quietly pay them and never bad mouth the officer.  Mother was quite different in her approach.

You see, Mom never felt she was guilty.  And she would tell you so with all conviction.  Then she would hand me the citation saying "take care of this".   Once I asked her "what do you mean, take care of this?".
"We'll, just tell them I'm not guilty.  You're a lawyer ...they'll believe you".  Right.  I never did tell
her that most folks thought the exact opposite.
The second to last ticket she gave me to "take care of" was for using the emergency turn-around on the interstate near Mountain Home.  This occurred when they were in their 90's and Dad was driving. As always, I interviewed my client with the hopes of establishing a defense.
Seems they missed the turn to Sun Valley and needed turn around.  Seeing an ISP trooper parked across the interstate didn't deter Mom;
"Turn right here on this gravel road" instructed Mom.
"Lorrain, you can't do that.  It's for emergencies"
"No it isn't.  It's a nice graveled turn-around and if they didn't want you to use it they wouldn't have put it in".
So, Dad turned onto the emergency access and went back toward the Fairfield exit.   Again, right in front of the ISP officer who had someone else pulled over.
About 5 miles down the road Dad saw the lights and pulled over.  The officer stayed in his car talking on the radio and writing for a few minutes.
The officer then walked up to Mom's side and handed her the citation.  And she hadn't been driving.  "Here, sign this" he said.  Somehow the ticket was properly filled out.  Her name, DOB,  address, everything was correct.  What did Mom do?
"I signed it".
I looked at the ticket.  There was no signature there.  "Where did you sigh it" I asked.   "Right there...I drew a 'frowny face'"   Sure enough.
There was a mean lookiing frowny face on the signature line.
"So what did the officer do when you drew the frowny face?" 
"He grabbed it away from me and then, looking past me over at Herb, said, 'Mr. Carlson, you have a nice day' and drove away.

Leaving the house with that citation I had to laugh.  The ISP officer must have watched Mom gesturing at toward the emergency access and pressuring
Dad to turn in there.  I ended up paying the ticket myself even though, legally, Mom should not have been cited.  Later, Mom asked about the ticket.  "All taken care of Mom" I told her.  "Good" she said, "they never should have put such a nice turn-around in if they didn't want people to use it."

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