It’s a busy night on U.S. 29 in Spartanburg County. Corporal Philip is getting writer’s cramp from all the tickets he’s issued.

He spots Hapless Harold weaving from lane to lane. The corporal pulls Harold over and gives him the field sobriety test — which he fails, miserably. The worst part is, Harold’s three-year-old boy, Eddie, is in the car with his daddy.

The corporal learns that Harold and his son were visiting relatives in Georgia, and are headed back home to North Carolina. "My wife’ll kill me if she finds out I was drinking with Eddie in the car," Harold confesses.

Corporal Philip has no choice — he must arrest Harold for drunk driving and take him to the Spartanburg County Jail. But what about little Eddie?

The by-the-book method of handling such cases is to call DSS. The boy will be picked up by a social worker and placed in an emergency foster care home until the father’s case is resolved.

The corporal telephones his wife and they talk for a few minutes. Then the corporal turns to the sheriff: "How would you feel if I took this boy home with me for a couple days?"

"No problem as far as I’m concerned," says the sheriff.

Eddie arrives at the corporal’s home in a state patrol car. Sarah, Philip’s wife, welcomes Eddie into her home and promptly gives little Eddie a bath and a hot meal.

Eddie stays with Philip and Sarah for about a day and a half until the child’s mother arrives from North Carolina. She is grateful to the patrol officer and his wife for caring for her little boy — but she is furious at her husband. She’s so angry that she refuses to post the nominal bond for Harold’s release, so he stays in jail until the trial.

Who were these good Samaritans back in 1956?

They were Corporal Philip Meek and his wife, Sarah. You probably knew the corporal years later as Colonel Philip Meek, Commander of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.