Guess He’s Not Getting Invited On Any More Dates

My mother was in her last year of high school in 1986, the very same year that New Orleans changed its legal drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. With this change clearly on the horizon, my mother and her friends naturally decided to make the best of the night of their senior prom by taking a trip down Bourbon Street. 

Being that it was prom night and my mother attended a (Catholic) all-girl school, this meant they were also joined by all of their dates. Most of the guys were fairly close to the group of girls, but there was one date, [Guy], who was basically a stranger to the whole group except for the girl who brought him. 

At some point during the night, they all came across a freshly waxed car. In their half-drunken state, they all decided it would be a wonderful idea to start drawing things in the wax. Naturally, they were quickly caught by a cop. It’s important to note that this cop was Black and my mom’s entire group is white.

Initially, the cop was planning to just give them a stern warning since, while that is apparently considered vandalism, it’s not really permanent vandalism… until he walked around the back, where the N-word was very prominently written.

Cop: “Okay, never mind, you’re all coming with me.”

Friend: “Wait, what?! Which one of you did this?”

Guy: “Uh… It was me.”

Before any of the rest of them reacted, my mother spun around to face him and slapped him across the face!

Mother: “WHY THE H*** WOULD YOU DO THAT!?”

The cop immediately separated them before they could escalate and pulled my mother aside. 

Cop: “You know, I really should arrest you for assault for that, but I think that was pretty deserved. Don’t do it again, though.”

They were still all brought in for vandalism and spent the next several months trying to hide the trial from their very religious school so they could graduate! My mother always told me this story when I was younger to make sure I didn’t do any of the stupid things she did when she was a teen.