I managed to speed through most of this trip as we were doing the James Brown turnaround version of a road trip – there and back in 72 hours. At one point, I was driving about 90 mph, which the truck does effortlessly, and I thought about roadtrips with my family. My father, who had an unnatural love of uniforms and all icons of authority such as diplomas, had a badge in his wallet and a red siren on the dashboard. His obsession with police accessories is odd since he subscribed to the Latin view that laws are merely suggestions. I’m not quite sure where he got this paraphanelia from but he was always quick to flip out the brass badge when he was stopped for speeding along in the middle of the night.
A family friend who knew my father when he was a young man in Havanna told me that when they were teenagers dad got his hands on a uniform from the Cuban military and used to wear it around. An unnatural love for uniforms stayed with him the rest of his life – a doctor’s lab coat, an army jumpsuit, shellacked diplomas covering multiple walls, badges and business cards of every stripe in his wallet. For a man with an imposing real life character, it’s amazing he felt the need to accessorize so much.