Back in the Day

Back in the day my Grandpa was a police officer. Once, I accidentally referred to him as a "cop," and I was immediately and severely reprimanded. 

"A cop is a constable on patrol; They can be found in England. I am a police officer," he explained. He was always very proud of the years he worked as a police officer in Detroit. 

A friend of my father's came across this photograph while perusing an article on the history of the Detroit Police Department. My dad's friend noticed the caption: "Detroit Police Officer Reyniear Staats addresses students in the Chalk Talk school programs at Nichols School in Detroit in 1940." All the images in the article are interesting, but this one caught his attention because he recognized my grandfather's unusual name. So, just for fun, I searched for my grandpa's name on Facebook and the same photo came up. Down the rabbit hole I went. After a bit of Googling, I found this photo from March of 1968:

Apparently, after Grandpa retired, he got involved with AAA (The American Automobile Association.) In this photo he's posing with an Albion Police Officer who attended a bicycle safety seminar put on by AAA. 

I tip my hat to the lovely people who wrote on the back of those old pictures. Otherwise I would have never gotten to see them...