THE STORY BEHIND THE POEM COASTER GIRL
.
It was PNE time again.  The PNE, for my friends from the U.S., is a 100 year old tradition, that is similar to one of your State Fairs.  Because of the massive influx of people, it becomes like its own little, city within a city and generates its own crime rate.  As a result, every year there is a squad of 12 police officers and a Sergeant assigned to patrol the grounds.  This is generally a fun assignment.  As per tradition, uniformed members end up riding the rides and playing the games.  The ride operators love it because the sight of uniform members on the rides, draws people over, who then also ride.
.
On this evening, Carla Webb and her partner Richard Chalke decided to go off and ride the Giant Roller Coaster.  This is a large wooden structure, and is rated as one of the largest wooden coasters in the world.  Getting into the Coaster cars is a really tight squeeze, especially in uniform wearing a gunbelt full of equipment and radios.  The PNE Squad, using our new digital radios, were operating on a channel called Ops 2A.  Well, it seems that during this tight squeeze and subsequent wild ride, Carlas emergency button got pushed, which automatically switches her radio to the patrol Channel 2.  The radio operator, and all of the District 2 patrol units were shocked to hear a police woman screaming for help, and all the noise in the background.
.
Thinking she was being beaten, tortured, or worse, the radio operator switched to Ops 2A and advised PNE 51 (Sgt Copp) that one of his units was in trouble.  Bill had been standing with Carla minutes before, and new exactly where she was and calmly advised radio that she was safe.  This must have caused some confusion for awhile, that a Sergeant should be so calm when an officer was apparently "in trouble".  When Carla came off the Coaster, we were all standing waiting for her, and told her of her exploits on the radio.  Carla immediately blushed a bright cherry red colour, and so the poem was born.
.
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO POEM
.
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO INDEX OF POETRY