“Playing Cops” shares stories of another time

What Gary Eustice remembers most is not how his father was killed, but how he lived. “My dad worked really hard to build a sense of community across all backgrounds.

 

“He wanted to see people get along and support each other.”

 

Gary is the second of nine children born to Don and Esther Eustice. A 1969 graduate of Waseca High School, he was 26 and living away from home when his father, who was in his third term as sheriff of Waseca County and year 23 with the sheriff’s office, was killed on the job in 1976, shot while serving papers on a man known to be mentally unstable.

 

While still living at home, Gary and his older brother Doug not only knew about their father’s dedication to service, they were part of it.

 

In 2020, Gary published “Playing Cops,” a book which shares stories of many different times he, Doug, and sometimes members of their sports teams were called in to assist with law enforcement and especially emergency response tasks.

 

Gary will be among three authors offering their books for sale during the “Teen Canteen” event scheduled at the Waseca County fairgrounds beginning at 10 a.m. and going into a dance with live music the evening of Saturday, Sept. 5. (An advertisement elsewhere in this edition provides a list of events.)

 

Many of the experiences summarized in the book, Gary points out, could simply not happen today. He mentions that, at that time, the county jail was in a building shaped more like a house than an office structure. Although his father did not, many sheriffs lived in their county’s jail buildings. The Eustice family station wagon was frequently used to respond to calls and even transport injured individuals from an accident scene to the hospital.

 

 “My dad was always on call,” Gary describes. “We might be driving to a family picnic or going to a ball game, and he would get an emergency call. Suddenly we were witnesses to whatever was going on. It became part of the lifestyle when we got older; Dad would purposely call on us.

 

“When I look back on it, at least on my part, I saw it as an opportunity to spend time with my dad.”

 

Now in his 70s, Gary is retired from a career in counseling and as a licensed psychologist. The vocation started when, looking for a job during his college years, Gary followed his father’s advice that he get a job at a local boys’ home. His work led him to Hibbing, where he still resides.

 

He says he always felt as if the stories from his youth should be preserved. Remembering Esther’s deep interest in genealogy and family connections, he says, “I wanted to pass the stories along to the next generation of Eustices.”

 

The push that got the ball rolling occurred in the 1990s. Gary describes that he was volunteering with an Iron Range public radio station when, one winter, everyone agreed to write a Christmas story to be shared on air.

 

Gary wrote about being hired as a roving Santa for the business district of Waseca, and then accepting a few offers of extra pay to visit some city homes and be seen by families on Christmas Eve

 

Don offered to be his driver, dropping him off in front of the homes, then circling the block until he reemerged. The night was going smoothly enough, until Don received a call about a vehicle in the ditch outside of town. Of course, “Santa” had little choice but to accompany him…which turned out be something of a godsend because the occupants of the car were a mother and her children who had left home abruptly when the man of the house had become abusive.

 

As the driver and children spoke with Santa, Don backed the car out of the snow. All returned to the family’s home, where Santa joked with and comforted the children, then helped shuffle the drunken perpetrator off to jail.

 

After airing locally, the story was picked up and played by Minnesota Public Radio, whose producers encouraged Gary to write more.

 

The two dozen or so essays having to do with the Eustice family are a mixture of heartwarming, humorous, and harrowing, including the time Gary, his older brother Doug, and the members of the high school wrestling team were called upon to drag Clear Lake after the 1967 tornado because it was believed a woman’s body had been blown into the water. A laugh-out-loud essay describes how Don dealt with a motorcycle gang which had disrupted county fairs elsewhere and then turned up at Waseca’s. Readers are given an in-person look at the tensions which arise during the search for a dangerous fugitive as Gary describes unexpectedly finding himself at the edge of a cornfield holding a stick.  

 

Along with the many varied stories in “Playing Cops,” Gary says a few more are likely to be published in a second book he is currently in the process of writing, although he offers no anticipated publication date. For now, interested readers, if they wish, can satisfy themselves with a signed copy of the book available on Sept. 5; sale price will be $20.