Genoa City

Driving home from a wedding in Lake Geneva at 2 AM last night, I was trailed for a few miles on Rte 12 and eventually pulled over by a Genoa City WI policeman. Dating back to the time a younger drinking age was in force in Wisconsin than Illinois tales abound of unfortunate traffic stops in this area. I'd had a few drinks, but I've been stopped in a lot worse stages of impairment, and never even been asked to perform a road sobriety test, so I wouldn't have been very nervous except I'd left home without my wallet. A back up squad car arrived as the officer approached my window. The policeman said he'd stopped us for a faulty brake light, and asked for my license, which I explained I'd left at home. He took my name and Janett's driver's license and went back to his car to run a check. He eventually returned and asked if I knew my license was expired. I told him no, but that my birthday was 3 days ago, so it was possible. He was being pretty low key about it, so I still wasn't getting very nervous. It was a relief, though, when he said that he and the other officer would be leaving and no tickets would be issued, and it would be left to my judgement whether to continue on the road. I said thanks, adding that I would like to get home, and he repeated that was up to me. So we drove on home.

I could have been charged on several counts, including the brake light thingy, and could have been subjected to the sobriety test, which might have been disagreeable (though I do occasionally practice reciting the alphabet backwards). Without a license to surrender for bond we would have had to go into town and I probably would have been in the lock-up for a few hours til Janett could recover enough to drive to an ATM for my bail, all in all a real nightmare. So I was grateful for the young man's discretion and forbearance.

This morning I googled "Genoa City WI police" to see if there were comments indicating if others had the same kind of positive experience that I'd had or whether I was particularly fortunate. I found links to several blogs and facebook pages of surprisingly attractive 20-somethings. And they mostly recounted traumatic life stories involving bad romantic choices and mysterious deaths. What had I stumbled across? Was Genoa City the 21st century Spoon River? Unfortunately, no. I eventually linked to a site that identified Genoa City as the fictional setting for a soap opera named the "Young and Restless", and the blogs and facebook pages are apparently for the benefit of aficionados of the series. Mixed emotions again since for a moment I'd felt like maybe a visit to the lock-up in the small Wisconsin town could have been very interesting.