Sheriff John

By Sled Smith

I don’t think I will ever forget, “Sheriff John”, Blalock. A rather unusual man who was clearly gifted with a myriad of knowledge and skills far beyond the average law enforcement professional. Never had I seen anyone who instantly commanded the respect of almost every new trainee at the station. This simply by his jumping onto a table in the briefing room, marching back and forth while discussing the pros and cons of some one of the numerous subjects he was extremely conversant with in a carefully developed command voice.

The very first time I ever saw Sheriff John use his multi talented skills as a psychotherapist was at a family disturbance. The head of the household and his better half were standing inside their modest home surrounded by their progeny yelling both halves of their children’s first word at each other. John knew instinctively just how to use the Blalock method of psychotherapy. He went over and sat down at the dinner table picked up a fork and started masticating everything on the plate. Suddenly the center of attention turned toward Sheriff John who was eating the grits, greens accompanied by chicken backs and necks with glee while grinning from ear to ear. He had many years of training and experience as a mental health semi-professional. Sheriff John knew just exactly what to do to disarm the participants in the heretofore conflagration that had been raging. Everyone was calm and mama wanted to know how he liked her home cookin.