I try to never miss an opportunity to say something random to keep people on their toes. Once the randomness gets unleashed you never know where the conversation is going to go.

On Friday night, I was at a traffic collision when I asked a male in his mid-50s what happened. The male said, “I was just cruising down going home.”

It was at that moment a Chuck Berry song popped into my head. With total randomness  I said, “So, you were just riding along in your automobile like Chuck Berry?”

“Yeah.”

“With no particular place to?”

The driver recognized what I said and I was rewarded with a big laugh.

After I was done, I told the guy I had never worked Chuck Berry into a traffic collision interview before. He laughed some more and seemed to appreciate my attempt at obscure humor. 

I next went to the other driver and asked, “Which way were you going? Wait, do you know who Chuck Berry is?”

He gave me a weird look and replied, “No.”

I turned to a lateral officer in training and asked, “Do you know who Chuck Berry is?” He nodded and replied he did.

I turned back to the young driver and said, “Pull out your phone and Google it,” You could tell he wasn’t sure what to think, but he was a good sport and got his phone out. I think part of him wanted to know where this randomness was going.

Once on You Tube, he typed in Chuck Berry and asked me which video. I pointed to “No particular place to go” and he clicked on it. The video started playing as Chuck Berry sang:

Riding along in my automobile
My baby beside me at the wheel
I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile
My curiosity runnin’ wild
Crusin’ and playin’ the radio
With no particular place to go……..

After we were done with the musical history lesson,  I was standing with a cop and a civilian report writer when another lateral officer trainee walked up. Since he was younger, I decided to ask, “Do you know who Chuck Berry is?”

He gave me a quizzical look and said, “No.” The look on his face and how he answered made us laugh. That’s when he asked, “Why, do I look like him?”

We laughed even harder now. I looked back at the Hispanic officer and replied, “He’s black.”

Priceless……….