Sept 28, 2011

Bailing Ty Kermit from Jail

One night around 10 pm I received a call from the Utah County Jail. Since we had Caller ID on the phone and I could see that it was from the jail I couldn’t figure out why they would be calling.  Well it ended being my nephew Ty Kermit Poulson. He was one of the four grandsons who had been given that name of Kermit as a part of their full; given name. None of them however had actually decided to go by that name except for Ty.

Marie decided to go with me to the jail and to take Ty home after we had bailed him out.  We arrived at the jail and having never been there before had to take several minutes to find the actual entrance where we needed to go. We finally got the right door and I informed them that I was there to get Ty Poulson. The jailer looked at me with a strange look and said that they didn’t have anyone there by that name. I finally told her to check for a Ty Kermit and then she acknowledged that he was there indeed. He came out and I was shocked when I saw what he looked like. His hair was pink and standing straight up into the air down the center of his head. He had very tight leather pants on and a tight strangely colored shirt and a lot of chains hanging down. I took charge of him and we left. After we got to the car and as we were letting him in he pulled out the arrest papers and showed them to me. I was appalled to see his name written as Kermit Poulson with no mention of the name Ty that we had called him all the years that he was growing up. The thought far worse than that though was that a man whom I dearly loved and whose complete name was Kermit Poulson  was on that sheet. I was sick because of the connotations that would have to future generations who might not know that one of their Grandfathers was not the person on that paper and was one who was just the opposite in his actions from the person whose name was on that paper but only in part. The rest of his name that would have identified him distinctly different from my father was no where to be seen. I felt betrayed in a way by one who had received Dad’s name or the name of his Grandfather because of the love we had for him and what he stood for during his life. We took Ty home to Provo that night but I must admit I felt more like returning him to the jail and letting him think about it a little longer. I did express my thoughts to him though and that no matter how innocent his act had been that got him taken to jail I was still offended by the fact that the arrest papers represented only the name of the father that I had loved so much and that had taught me to obey the law.