Not a long, long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away…actually, it was 45-ish years ago in downtown Vancouver, when I was a fledgling actor that was just cast as a uniformed Vancouver police officer in a TV cop show.
The day’s filming location was inside a below street level restaurant, thus no windows. So, when filming broke for a lunchbreak, most of the cast & crew headed back up to street level to soak in the sunshine and fresh air.
While I was roosting atop of a concrete planter overlooking the busy sidewalk and major downtown intersection, a thought crossed my mind. I mentioned this thought to another actor, whose costume was also that of a uniformed Vancouver Police officer.
I said, “I wonder what the public’s reaction would be if it saw us, dressed as two of ‘Vancouver’s finest’, just standing there on the corner enjoying the afternoon sun…while holding hands.” We laughed at the imagery and quickly decided that we were both too chicken to actually try it, fearing some sort of reprisals from the TV production company, or worse, the Vancouver Police Department. Reprisals be damned…suddenly it was ‘game on’.
So, there we were, two uniformed police officers, casually standing side by side on the corner of a busy major downtown intersection, holding hands and just enjoying the day. Not everyone noticed, at first, but those who did, gave some pretty puzzled double takes as they skirted around us.
When the ‘walk’ signal lit up, we looked at each other and silently confirmed that we had the same thought. So, we stepped off the curb and casually sauntered across the road in the crosswalk, gleefully swaying our interlocked hands forward and backwards between us.
When we got to the other side, we about-faced and stood waiting for the traffic lights to change for our return trip. By now, we were getting many more puzzled looks from pedestrians and drivers alike. At the next ‘walk’ signal, we headed back to where we started. This time, however, we both could no longer contain our laughter, so, giggling like little school girls and still holding hands, we skipped gleefully for the final steps, and headed straight back inside the underground restaurant.
That afternoon of filming eventually wrapped and not one person mentioned anything about our escapade, and there were no ‘real’ uniformed VPD officers waiting to cart us away. So, it was a good day at work after all. A very good day, indeed!