[Harp-L] getting arrested for sucking on harps?

[Tom Ball <havaball@xxxxxxx>]

It's 1967. I'm 16-years-old and riding around one morning in Santa 
Monica with a few pals in a purple VW van with flowers on it. <Stop 
laughing! It was the '60s!>  Cop pulls us over.

Cop, sniffing inside the van:  "What's that smell? You boys been 
smokin' marijuana?"
Us, in unison:  "No, sir!"
Cop, looking into my eyes: "Then how come your eyes are bloodshot?"
Me:   "Ummm.. Saltwater?  I was surfing."
Cop:  "Then where's your surfboard?"
Me:   "Umm.. I was bodysurfing."
Cop:  "Then where's your swim trunks?"
Me:   "Umm... I just wore my jeans."
Cop:  "Then how come they're dry?"
Me:   "Umm... they dried out?"

Cop searches van. Finds nothing illegal.

Me:   "Umm... do you have probable cause to search this car?"
Cop:  "What are you, a Philadelphia lawyer?!?"

Me:  <takes out harp, plays "America The Beautiful.">

Bottom line: The other guys got let go, I got taken to jail. Sat in 
the juvi-tank for the afternoon. Then they made me sign a paper that 
I had been "Detained, not arrested," and told me to go home.

So in answer to your question, nope, never been *arrested* for 
playing harp, but I *have* been "detained" -- albeit only for an 
afternoon.  Ah, the Summer Of Love...  :)

cheers,
TB