Because a good friend went to work for the California Highway Patrol and got assigned to a CHP area office near our residences, I was granted ride-along permission and started riding with him about once a month on Saturday nights.

Long story short: I got the CHP bug, resigned from my assistant branch manager bank position, and entered the academy in Sacramento in 1969. Graduation placed me in the East Los Angeles area office, then transfers took me to the Santa Fe Springs area office (LA area), and to Fresno from where I retired in 1992 as a traffic officer.