Toilet Papered House

I had a “brief conversation” with someone lately that mentioned in jest that “it would be funny to TP” someone’s house. I laughed as it brought up this memory. I was a good girl WAY back when I was in high school. However, I was not beyond normal high school pranks and foolery. I got talked into going on a toilet paper spree one night, very much against my will… and the target was the “mean ole’ man” that lived on the main drag of our town. Now, this man was despicable. He was MEAN, he liked NO ONE… he would yell at you when you drove or walked by his house, he was the PERFECT candidate for a good old fashioned TPing of his trees, house, car, etc. Well, we did. Well, DUH…don’t TP a house on the main drag of a small rural West Texas town, as you will GET CAUGHT. The police USED to care about kids, and try to make a difference. Well, our police did, and I learned lessons on two sides of a fence that night. The cops drove by, we got caught running, and we were BUSTED. As usual, the cops had to have all three cop cars they owned in our small town all parked in front of this TP’d house, lights going, and radios in full gear. We were instructed to walk up the long sidewalk to this VERY NICE HOME and ring the doorbell at a very late hour. The scary old man answered the door, and I was sure we were done for. We had to speak by instruction of the LAW, and yep…you guessed it…the one that DIDN’T WANT TO do this in the first place got chosen to tell Mr. Scary that we were responsible for… This scary old man looked out his door at one hell of a mess, and quietly stated, “Well, ya know officers…I was out of toilet paper anyway. These kids saved me a trip to the store.” He shut the door, and I never saw him again. I cannot tell you what kind of a lesson I learned that night. We stayed on, and cleaned up all the toilet paper, and thought of that old scary man from that day forward as one of us. We never met him, or spoke to him outside that day…but he made a difference. Old scary man on Hickory Street earned some true friends that evening, and his house or property was sacred ground from that day forward.