Story by Donna Swagerty Shreve
It was September 1984 and Dad (Floyd Swagerty) was slowly losing his fight against prostate cancer. He did a lot of reading and found out about a macrobiotic diet that helped the body fight cancer. Dad had been on this diet for a while and now he had an opportunity to meet the author in person. The problem was that the man in question was holding a workshop in Connecticut. Attendees would be “housed” in tents and Mom did not want to go. I offered to go but it was during my first week of school. Dad refused to let me go as he thought being in the classroom was more important than going with him.
It was decided that Mom and I would take Dad to the Sacramento airport and he would go by himself. He was weak at this point and had a change of planes in Chicago. I was afraid he would fall asleep waiting for his next plane. Mom had her own anxieties.
We arrived at the airport and parked. When we got to security, Mom hesitated and asked if she could leave her purse at the security point to pick up later. At this time we could go with Dad to his gate and watch him board. When Mom was told she could not leave her purse, she placed her purse on the belt that went through the x-ray machine. Almost immediately Mom was detained, and a gung-ho security guard got quite excited. He phoned for back up. They had found a gun in Mom’s purse.
I was incredulous, and told Dad it seemed it was best I stay with Mom while he went to the gate by himself. When the sheriff realized I was with Mom, he quickly searched my purse. Maybe he was looking for bullets, as Mom’s gun was not loaded. We were then both escorted out of the terminal to a waiting sheriff’s car.
Never having been in a sheriff’s car before, I was shocked at how little room there is in the back seat. It was rather warm and I tried to roll down the window but, of course, there are no handles for anything in the back seat doors. We were driven through a gate in the back of the terminal that required a code. For a few years I could tell you that code as I watched everything very carefully.
We were taken to an office where we were separated and Mom was interrogated. They didn’t take a mug shot, which surprised me, but she did have to have her fingerprints taken. The officer, who was with me, spent almost all of his time examining the gun. It was from the Chicago Arms Works which was no longer in business and it turns out the gun was a real prize. I had a feeling that gun went home with that officer. He was quite enamored with that relic. I was told that if it had been loaded it could have blown up as it wasn’t aligned very well.
I finally was able to talk to the officer and say that my mother was a retired English teacher and librarian. My father was dying of cancer and obviously my mother was panicking. He said he wished he knew that before. Mom was given a court date and we were released. I then asked Mom what on earth she was thinking and where did she get the gun.
When Dad taught in Linden, California at the beginning of his career, he was the high school P.E. teacher for everything. A local policeman gave that gun to Dad to use as a starter pistol as it had been taken away from some criminal. Dad had forgotten about it but Mom found it in the back of a closet when they were moving out of the 3304 Dwight Way home. She hid it just in case she would need it.
I asked why she thought she needed it. She thought if a bad guy saw two women alone on the highway and tried to way-lay us, she would pull out her gun. I was appalled and gave her my opinion that if that very unlikely scenario happened, a pulled gun would guarantee a bad end for us.
John agreed to take her to her court date in Sacramento in October. Dad was too weak to drive to Sacramento and back. The date was October 11th and it happened to be a holiday and court was closed.
I saw our family lawyer, John Harris, out and about and told him our story. After he stopped laughing, he said he could help. About a week later, Dad and Mom went to John Harris to update their will. John Harris asked Mom if she should be searched before their appointment. She was horrified and he laughed and told her he knew the story. John Harris had a friend attend court for Mom at a future date and Mom was given a 5 year probation where she had to promise not to bring a gun to the airport.
Mom was not thrilled when she realized that along with everything else, she had become a humorous family story.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 