“What EVER You Are Doing, Do TODAY”
On the Late Shift
On another evening, Lee called me to see if I would have dinner again and ride around in the district on patrol?
The one place we would have dinner was on the east side of Grand Avenue and very close to the “Water Tower” in the north Saint Louis area.
I believe that the businesses in the area wanted police officers to come to their place, gave them a sense of a little extra… security.
After dinner, we drove around, of course Lee was checking on places and activity… of which I was unaware of, at the time.
Then, when we were in the area of the “Tower Lounge” on the corner of Florissant and north Grand, we pulled into a parking place very close to the door on the corner.
When you walk in to this “Lounge” – it is always full of people – very crowed. Lee introduced me to the bar tender, and he told him what to fix me.
Above and behind the bar was a Piano Entertainer – he saw who I was with… and ask if I wanted anything special to be played?
Since my nickname is “Mickey” – I asked him to play “MICKEY.” And… sure enough, immediately he started to play, “MICKEY.”
Evidently, Lee was to meet with someone there – someone who would have information for him, so he had me sit at a nearby table and said, “Stay here, and do not get up for anything – no matter how long it takes!” “I will be back – just sit and wait!”
So that is just exactly what I did. I cannot now even remember… how long it took Lee to get back – but of course I knew he was on duty and police business comes first and foremost in his life.
While I was sitting and waiting the Piano Entertainer was doing a wonderful job of entertaining everybody, and I sure enjoyed just being there to enjoy all of the wonderful music and what everybody was doing. This was a new scene for me – something I would not go out of my way to do… on my own.
Sometime later, Lee was back at the table and sat down – he had a drink in hand – and seems to be preoccupied with something going on in the back of the Lounge. Lee said he has to meet with his snitches from time to time to receive info on what he is working on, and all of this type of activity is not for me to know about or see.
So, early on in dating him, I did not ask too many questions about cases… he would be working on. The “Newspaper” would from time to time have stories and with Pictures of Lee and other Detectives … and I would clip some … just collecting stuff about Lee and what he was doing.
Years after being married, Lee said he wanted me to write about some of the cases he was working on, as he was filling a scrap book with articles from the newspaper and photos of case recovered items – cases solved! The only bad thing about the whole situation he died too soon and I never went through the material with him – to get the point of view he wanted me to take in the write up of his cases.
Never put off for tomorrow – what you can do today! You never know if there will be a tomorrow? It is always “Today and only today!”
Posted in Family, Grandma, Today and tagged "AL R. ALDRICH", "Mickey McLaren" -" herself"with 2 comments.
The way you tell these stories I feel as if I am there myself. The last part hits close to home. You are absolutely right. Never put off tomorrow what you can do today.
“Never put off… for tomorrow … what you can do today.” As one gets older and slower and unable to do all that they had planned to do in LIFE… leaves us feeling like we miss the boat… along the way…. Must remember …. this moment … right NOW is the time to do….”Tomorrow” just does not exist”