From the Sheriff’s Office to the Green Room

November 2022

Talk about a crazy week. Retirement is never dull.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office offered a quarterly crime prevention presentation to the public. And my curiosity got the best of me. So, I signed up. Note to self. Never bring knives into the front door of a police station. Oops. I hurried back to my car and unloaded my arsenal of self-protection items. My ability to embarrass myself knows no boundaries.

Staff led other citizens and me to a large meeting room. I only knew one person. The Sheriff himself, Chip Simmons. If you’ve heard of Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, then you’ve probably also heard about Chip Simmons. They are both innovative and tenacious in fighting crime, using grants to save the taxpayers’ money, filling all the deputy positions available, and giving concise and informative briefings to the press.

The following four hours covered all aspects of crime prevention, from personal safety away from home, whether shopping or attending school, to home safety tips and neighborhood watch programs. Videos covered various police agencies’ response to the Pensacola Naval Base shooting on December 9, 2019, as well as mock school and mall shooting incidents. The one lesson I learned was to leave the location entirely. More and more criminals are doing damage and then running outside to take more lives. The police therefore don’t know the bad guys from the good guys. Get in your car and go home.

My only complaint about the seminar was that the room was only half filled. Citizens should have been fighting to attend. As if to prove my point, the following morning a lady made a comment on the NextDoor app. “Why doesn’t the sheriff do something about the rising crime?” I wanted to ask why she didn’t attend the seminar which was advertised on NextDoor? No sheriff has a magic wand to stop crime. We are the deputies’ eyes on the ground.

The next afternoon, I drove author Pat Black-Gould to WSRE, a PBS television station that is located on the grounds of the Pensacola State College campus. She had an appointment to tape an interview about her book, The Crystal Beads, Lalka’s Story.

The receptionist led us into the “green” room to await her debut. (Only the rug was green though.) A TV played a PBS show while we waited for a well-known interviewer, Jeff Weeks. He’s the type of person who immediately puts everyone at ease. We then went to a studio with a balcony lined with comfortable chairs to the left, and the raised stage to the right. There were three cameras, each at different angles. The room was dark, the lighting directed at Pat and Jeff Weeks, with a screen as a backdrop that flashed pictures of the book’s illustrations.

Pat’s experience as an actor/director helped dissolve any visible stage fright. As the cameras rolled, the interview could have taken place at home in her living room. Jeff clearly had read the book, asked the right questions, and let Pat tell the story about the Holocaust from a child’s point of view.

The interview won’t debut until January. I’ll post the date. If you, like me, don’t have cable TV, you can still find the PBS shows on Roku. To watch this and more of Jeff Week’s interviews, select PBS Pensacola on the “streaming stations” list on ROKU.

UPDATE: PBS Pensacola will run Pat’s interview on Friday, January 6th at 10:30am, Saturday, January 7th at 3:30pm and Sunday, January 8th at 11:30am. There will be broadcast dates likely during 2023 and on the PBS Video app as well.

The Crystal Beads, Lalka’s Journey, is available on Amazon in both hardcover and paperback. The book has already earned a Gold Medal Award. My suggestion is to read the book from cover to cover. There are gems after the actual story, including the “paper clip” Tennessee school project. That’s the part that always has me in tears.

The next day, bright and early, Pat drove me to the eye doctor for a preop appointment for my cataract surgery.

After Thanksgiving, the fun continues…. Busy, busy, busy. Retirement doesn’t have to mean sitting around doing nothing.