Not quite a native Ripley Countian - she attended only her last year of high school in Doniphan though she taught in the R-1 system for 32 years - Teresa (Pearson) Lee delights in surprising readers and herself with anecdotal observations of life in general. Maybe you can blame her St.Louis roots for a quirky humor and some slightly-askewed opinions, but never doubt she writes from the heart.

A Traumatic Teen Tale

Posted Thursday, June 16, 2022, at 9:01 AM

I feared there was a set headed my way.

(For Close to Home - May 11, 2022)

A recent storm rattled my brain with the startled awakening. So far I still have all my marbles, though a few are never still, as though they are magnets reacting to an unseen force. That’s thanks to a shoplifting incident in my early adolescence.

Diane was having a birthday party, so Tina and I took the bus to downtown St. Louis. (Names changed to protect the innocent. I was innocent, too, though I’ve not felt that way since). We ate lunch at Katz then purchased our gifts at Famous & Barr. To fill time before the bus ride home, we headed toward the bargain basement

As we stepped into the elevator, there was a guard conversing on her walkie-talkie. The topic was a group of girls acting suspiciously. We saw them when we started browsing, but the guard vanished.The guard reappeared as I looked at belts and Tina looked at purses, ordering us to ‘accompany’ her to a different sort of elevator that took us even lower than the Famous basement.

“I want the silver bracelet,” she asked incessantly, keeping us separated. Tina was strip-searched (I learned later) while I was directed down a hall lined with photos of faces and profiles. A gentleman handcuffed to a guard winked at me as they shuffled by.

Waiting in a space barely larger than a restroom stall, I felt sure my photo was being taken secretly. I offered to empty my coat pockets and dump my purse to prove I had no bracelet, but no one cared to see.When Tina and I reunited after what seemed like hours - really just long enough to miss the bus - we made frantic pay-phone calls to our parents. One arranged a taxi home.

Angry phone calls, flat apologies from the guard, unproductive consultations with attorneys, two $25 checks for our trauma (that we did NOT spend at Famous)…None of that erased the fear that I did something to look like a thief. That worry has never disappeared. Attempting to look less like one might actually draw more attention my way.

I want to keep all my marbles as long as I can, but if those holding on to that teen incident could go hide for a while, that would be fine by me.