stop her or anyone else, so he leaned over to touch her shoulder. “Excuse me, madam,” he said softly. “I'm Deputy Rudulski, and no one is going to bother you. I just need to ask you one question.”
Rudy asked her why she was walking. He did not even know where the question came from.
The woman didn't stop, but she turned for just a moment to look into the deputy's eyes. Her eyes were as bright and blue as the ocean Rudy had seen in his
National Geographic
. If he could have jumped right inside of her at that moment, that is exactly what he would have done. Gone swimming right into those blue eyes of the woman with the Kmart shoes, as if he had planned it for fifteen years.
She put up her hand and walked backward for just a minute or two, and Rudy realized that he would have to stay in his car and follow the walkers. This woman was smiling and he smiled too, and then he stood there in the middle of the road for a long time until the woman disappeared over the hill. Then he turned his head to the southwest, right toward the spot where he was certain the sun would set like a big, beautiful red rubber ball that looked as if it were on fire.
Rudy couldn't take his eyes off the horizon. He was thinking about these women and what must have brought them out here like this. Suddenly that thought, something he would never have bothered to bring to the front of his mind an hour ago, seemed as natural to him as waving his hand in the air.
When he got back into the car, Rudy examined his own eyes in the car mirror. They were dark, and small white lines ran from the corners out toward his ears. “From squinting,” he told himself, laughing, just laughing in his police car as the footsteps grew softer and softer until they were gone, and Rudy had to pull ahead slowly to keep up. He had to protect the women, the walkers, and there were other things, hundreds of other things that he had to do.
Deputy Rudulski was still smiling as the women vanished around the corner just before the Stackowski farm. He fumbled for a piece of paper so he could jot down all the thoughts inside his head—places he wanted to go, the people he wanted to see, experiences he wanted to try. Then he slowly inched the cruiser forward again, just a few feet at a time.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
Dec. 14, 1974
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
STREAKER STALKS NEWSPAPER PAGES
by Gina Halkin
Everyone put your ear to the ground and get ready to hear a whole bunch of deceased newspaper editors roll over in their graves.
When the
UWM Post,
the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, ran a full-page photo of a streaker in this morning's paper, that's most likely what happened.
The black-and-white photo caught a rather large man on the bounce as he was running buck naked across the campus outdoor concourse.
The man did have a stocking hat pulled over his face and was wearing track shoes that helped propel him from the end of the concourse and into a waiting and hopefully warm car.
UWM Post
editor Chris Boyer said people might be surprised to know that the staff did agonize about whether or not they should publish the photo.
“Believe it or not, even though we like to have a good time down here, we are all serious journalists so we debated this issue for hours before we decided to run with it,” she reported. “And no, we did not consult administrators on campus, because we are an independent newspaper.”
Boyer said she was tipped off about the streaking incident about a week ago and decided to send a photographer to the concourse with a wide-angle lens just in case the streaker showed up.
“This year streaking is a big fad, and it hasn't been unusual to be sitting just about anywhere when suddenly a naked person comes running past,” said Boyer. “It's happening in a public spot so it's news.”
The
Rudy asked her why she was walking. He did not even know where the question came from.
The woman didn't stop, but she turned for just a moment to look into the deputy's eyes. Her eyes were as bright and blue as the ocean Rudy had seen in his
National Geographic
. If he could have jumped right inside of her at that moment, that is exactly what he would have done. Gone swimming right into those blue eyes of the woman with the Kmart shoes, as if he had planned it for fifteen years.
She put up her hand and walked backward for just a minute or two, and Rudy realized that he would have to stay in his car and follow the walkers. This woman was smiling and he smiled too, and then he stood there in the middle of the road for a long time until the woman disappeared over the hill. Then he turned his head to the southwest, right toward the spot where he was certain the sun would set like a big, beautiful red rubber ball that looked as if it were on fire.
Rudy couldn't take his eyes off the horizon. He was thinking about these women and what must have brought them out here like this. Suddenly that thought, something he would never have bothered to bring to the front of his mind an hour ago, seemed as natural to him as waving his hand in the air.
When he got back into the car, Rudy examined his own eyes in the car mirror. They were dark, and small white lines ran from the corners out toward his ears. “From squinting,” he told himself, laughing, just laughing in his police car as the footsteps grew softer and softer until they were gone, and Rudy had to pull ahead slowly to keep up. He had to protect the women, the walkers, and there were other things, hundreds of other things that he had to do.
Deputy Rudulski was still smiling as the women vanished around the corner just before the Stackowski farm. He fumbled for a piece of paper so he could jot down all the thoughts inside his head—places he wanted to go, the people he wanted to see, experiences he wanted to try. Then he slowly inched the cruiser forward again, just a few feet at a time.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
Dec. 14, 1974
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
STREAKER STALKS NEWSPAPER PAGES
by Gina Halkin
Everyone put your ear to the ground and get ready to hear a whole bunch of deceased newspaper editors roll over in their graves.
When the
UWM Post,
the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, ran a full-page photo of a streaker in this morning's paper, that's most likely what happened.
The black-and-white photo caught a rather large man on the bounce as he was running buck naked across the campus outdoor concourse.
The man did have a stocking hat pulled over his face and was wearing track shoes that helped propel him from the end of the concourse and into a waiting and hopefully warm car.
UWM Post
editor Chris Boyer said people might be surprised to know that the staff did agonize about whether or not they should publish the photo.
“Believe it or not, even though we like to have a good time down here, we are all serious journalists so we debated this issue for hours before we decided to run with it,” she reported. “And no, we did not consult administrators on campus, because we are an independent newspaper.”
Boyer said she was tipped off about the streaking incident about a week ago and decided to send a photographer to the concourse with a wide-angle lens just in case the streaker showed up.
“This year streaking is a big fad, and it hasn't been unusual to be sitting just about anywhere when suddenly a naked person comes running past,” said Boyer. “It's happening in a public spot so it's news.”
The
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