The Windsor Fuzz

This next occurrence takes place in Windsor, Ontario sometime in the 40's. There was a war on and everyone was a bit jittery about strangers and things they didn't understand. There were spies everywhere, or so they thought and people seemed overly suspicious and edgy.

It was the weekend and after a gig this musician was walking through town to catch the last bus to go home. After a bit of a stroll a police cruiser pulled up rather abruptly beside him and two big burly cops came towards him. Probably the senior of the two blurted out in a menacing way, "Okay buddy! Stop right there! Put down the package and don't make any sudden moves!"

The petrified musician wasn't going to argue with this show of force and put down his case. Cops didn't need "probable cause" to stop you in those days and besides, as I mentioned, Canada and the United States were on "full alert." It was wartime.

The cop opened the case gingerly and to his embarrassment and surprise discovered... a saxophone and not a machine gun (alto sax to be exact). After some lame apologies from the police the musician was allowed to continue on his way. He pondered the scary events of the evening and later came to some dubious conclusions.

He figured that the cops had been watching too many gangster movies with Edward G. Robinson, George Raft and others of this ilk. Hiding a weapon in a music case was a ploy used by Hollywood writers in those "black and white" days. He also concluded that the cops obviously weren't musically inclined.

 In other words, "What's a saxophone?"

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