RIDING IN A POLICE CRUISER
How many people do you know that left their wedding reception in a police cruiser? Well, I did!
This photo shows Tom and me shortly after our wedding on this date many years ago—in the back seat of an Athens police car with two officers in the front seat.
Tom was notorious for playing pranks at his friends’ weddings over the years and some of them were downright embarrassing. Since he feared retribution was being planned, he made elaborate efforts to hide away the new Chevrolet his parents gave us for a wedding gift. After scouting around, he asked my great-aunt Julia if he could hide it in an arbor behind her old Victorian house near downtown. Sure no pranksters would find it, he relaxed.
At the reception he began hearing rumors that old friends were going to “get even.” There could have been a simple solution—but not if you’re an Eaves. My brother Easy had spent years as an FBI agent in the hills of Kentucky and he immediately took charge of the situation.
After I was dressed in my “going away” outfit, Easy sent word that he’d hidden Tom in the church basement and called for reinforcements. I threw my bridal bouquet, then sat with my nephew George and niece Emily on the front steps of the church—in heels, white gloves and this ostrich feather hat I loved.
Soon there were flashing blue lights and the local police car pulled up. Easy rushed upstairs with Tom, I grabbed my Samsonite cosmetic bag and we got into the car. The driver picked up his CB radio and informed headquarters, “we’re on a call to Keith Memorial Methodist Church—taking Sally Eaves and her husband to their car.”
I wasn’t sure whether it was embarrassing or hilarious—and decided hilarious was the answer. They drove us to the arbor behind Aunt Julia’s house, our new car was totally fine, and we drove in the moonlight to our honeymoon cabin in the mountains.
Seeing a story 