Cheryl: My grandfather, Norbert E. Tuck was the sheriff here in Laramie County for about 20 years. And he was killed while he was transporting a prisoner, in an automobile accident. But before he was killed, my dad took my sister and I to the jail. In those days, we're talking [about] the 1950s, they had people that were prisoners that they called trustees because they could trust them to do [some] work in the jail. Well, this one trustee was a good chef or baker or something. And he called my dad and said, “Would you like some donuts?”  

He had made donuts and [so] my dad took my sister and I to the jail. I'm probably eight years old at this point. My sister's maybe 10. It was an old jail that, of course, doesn't exist anymore. But we went up the steps and we saw this dark room and I said, “Well, dad, what's that?” 

He says, “That's where the women prisoners go.” 

It was the first time in my life I knew women could be prisoners. Then he takes us down to the basement where the kitchen is. And at that time, they were building a new jail and so there were no prisoners in the basement. We looked in this one room where the doors open and here's a half wall. 

Hanging on that half wall was some long underwear. My sister and I, you know, big eyes we're saying, “Dad, what's that?” 

“Well, go look,” he says. 

He closes the door on us! And we're screaming and yelling, “Dad, let us out!  Let us out!” So, he finally lets us out. Then we go down this dark hall, and in the dark hall we see this big room. On the front of this big room are these strips of metal, all across it in squares. There were these little squares you could see through. And we said, “Dad, what's that?” 

He says, “That's where the young children go when they misbehave.” It was the juvenile part of the jail. 

And he told us about juveniles going to jail. We did get donuts that day, but I'll tell you what. That framed my life so much that when I went to UW and this was the seventies [there was, you know] a lot of drugs around that time. Big partying, you know how that goes.

But when I would go to one of those parties where there were drugs and so forth, I left right away. Simply because there was no way I wanted to go to jail. Ever. It was really a big deal in our lives.  

Grace: So that was like a big foundational experience? 

Cheryl: Huge foundational experience.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.