WHERE I LIVE
Recently, New Hampshire was voted the "most-livable" state in the union by some prestigious organization. This has happened before and will probably happen again. It's a dubious distinction by any measure because the very term "most-livable" is expansive and could mean almost anything. The best emergency medical care? The cleanest air? Lowest per-capita fatal pedestrian accident rate? I'm not sure what it means, but as a second generation New Hampshire native, I was recently reminded what it means to me.
I often lament to friends, and strangers for that matter, how my town has changed since I was born. Growing up here, it was a very small town, hard to get away with much as a teenager, but also full of those communal ties which mean so much without you ever knowing it. For my mother, also born here after her parents settled here from Sicily, the changes must be surreal. The Bales School, a mostly unused older school building in town, where I went to fourth and fifth grade, is the same building that my mother went to high school in. Now it is used mostly for administration, and my boys have their basketball games there. There is something reassuring in the continuity of it all. Still, it is often that locals discuss how we have all the same problems as small cities across the country. Drugs, violence, robberies, all stuff that was once unheard of is now part of the landscape.
The town next to us, Wilton, where my aunt and uncle lived when I grew up, and my aunt still resides there, is smaller still and has, for some reason, escaped some of the "citification" of Milford. This struck me recently while reading the "Police Docket" in our local weekly paper. It also reminded me why I still love this area. So, for this weeks column, please enjoy with me, a small sampling from the Wilton, NH Police File from a few weeks back.These are verbatim except for comments of mine which are in parenthesis. Fasten your seat belt.
March 11th: Received a report of a plastic tray in the roadway on Forest Road causing a road hazard. Police located the tray and removed it from the road. (Talk about some exceptional detective work. Someone is up for an award. And how about that Good Samaritan reporting an obvious hazard and having the good sense not to stop and remove it themselves. Could be an I.E.T. Improvised Exploding Tray.)
Received a motor vehicle complaint from a Burton Highway resident concerning a vehicle speeding past her house. Police spoke with the parent of the operator who said she would speak with her son.
Located a subject on Maple Street who was believed to have a court-imposed curfew. The subject admitted he had a curfew as part of his bail conditions, but that he had recently been thrown out of where he was staying. Police told him to find a place to stay.
March 12th: Received a report that there was a large animal organ lying in the roadway on Dale Street near Pead Hill Road. Police located the unknown organ and referred the call to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Officer. (Imagine getting this call in the middle of the night. "We need you to drive to Wilton and remove a Fisher Cat testicle from the roadway". And, once again, the detective work in locating the unknown organ...just stupendous. The good thing about organs? Very slow runners.)
March 13th: Responded to a Town Farm Road residence for an unwanted subject. Police spoke with the subjects who had been in an argument. Police mediated the dispute, provided courtesy ride to the male subject to his parents home in Greenville. (Talk about accommodating! I hear that sometimes, they even let you keep the used rape-kit as a souvenir!)
I could go on and on, but to have mercy on the reader I will save the rest. One of you is already thinking of a crime-series, I'm sure. "CSI Wilton", I suppose. Still, I have to take some comfort in the fact that I live and raise my family in an area where "unknown organs" are still a reportable crime. In Detroit, "unknown organs" are probably what you have in your glove-compartment.