I did the border crossing to Houlton, Maine in 2002 with my sister. They did a full search of her car and found a small container of craft beads. They grilled us over plastic beads and treated us like dangerous felons and ran full security checks. I vowed never to return. Now it's even worse.
Oh no! Not BEADS! Did they try grinding them up and snorting them?
As a beader myself, I can attest that beads are HIGHLY addictive!
One can only hope!
I haven’t been since 1999, when a security guard put his feet up on his desk and read my whole entire journal because he was mad that I was headed somewhere to volunteer and that was stealing unpaid work from Americans. 🙄 They ran security checks on me too. I was 18 and terrified. Never gone back.
The whole bus was held up because of me, but thankfully they waited. When we arrived in Buffalo in the very, very early morning, everyone got off the bus and gave me a group hug. It was surreal. 😄
(Sorry, I don’t know why I’m sharing this all, just that your story reminded me of mine…)
I'm glad the other people on the bus had such empathy.
I swear, it's all about revelling in their power and self-importance, and playing God for these people.