I went to sentencing for a misdemeanor and all I took in my pockets were like 10 quarters for the phone because I knew I was only in a couple days or week max but they let you out when they feel like it. My girlfriend was going to come get me when I got out. This wasn’t totally before cell phones but I didn’t have one at the time.

They took my quarters when I got to jail.

Break for Pro-Tip: if you know you’re going to jail, even just for the night or until you make bail and not gen pop, don’t take any money if you can avoid it. They call it the “jail fee” and steal all your paper money (or quarters in my case). I once hid my cash in my sock when I knew I was going to drunk tank and the guy was going through my wallet. He asked me where was my money. I told him I threw it out the window of the police car. Back to the story.

I couldn’t believe they took my fucking phone quarters. They let me out in the middle of the night in December. There were two COs getting off work and I tried to beg a couple quarters to use the phone. They just laughed at me. I didn’t bring a jacket or anything, it was warmish when I went to court. By now it’s about 40 degrees. Lucky I guess, back then it got a lot colder a lot more often.

So I start walking. It’s 10 miles. Try to hitchhike for a while then give up. It starts raining. This is the point where I considered laying down in the ditch to die. I realized it would take too long to die and kept on. Nobody walking on the road. This is a state road that runs beside the highway and doesn’t have much on it. I went into a gas station to try to use their phone and they told me to fuck off. I went into a McDonald’s and they let me get a free water. I ended up walking to my girlfriend’s apartment which was about 16 blocks closer than my place. I walked in, climbed into bed and she woke up saying what the fuck why didn’t you call me?