Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Young Recruit


Ah, who is this young recruit working on attacking a vehicle? Me! Thirteen years ago. Wow. This was at a training session. I tried for a while to learn how to firefight. Did a lot of training. Rode on some calls. Climbed an extended ladder on the ladder truck in my gear. Crawled through some training exercises at the burn building. But firefighting did not capture my heart so I never took the extended course. I just couldn't get excited about the whole concept.

I did however learn how to drive a fire engine. That was great. On my graduation drive out in the real streets, I ended up in a wrong lane that made me get onto a highway. The guy in the passenger side about had a heart attack, but I kept driving. Ended up just beating a parade of fire engines down a street (really!). And made it back in one piece. It was so much fun. Those things take up the ENTIRE lane though, so you have to be so careful driving. I do have a lot of stories beyond this one, so maybe will tell some more.

11 comments:

Tara said...

That sounds like such an amazing experience! I wouldn't have minded taking that course.

I would've freaked out if I had wound up on the highway with that big truck.

M. Robert Turnage said...

Is that a drill going into that car hood? Because I tried that once and wound up in trouble. Maybe if I just dressed up as a fireperson first no one would have minded.

Unknown said...

Learning new things, blah blah, saving lives, blah blah blah - that's great...Did you meet any hot firemen???

NoRegrets said...

Well, Tara, see I didn't want to spend the county's money if I didn't think they'd get anything out of me afterwards. Putting out fires and all the clean up just didn't fascinate me.

MRT-I had the posse. That was the key.

WNG- see the guy next to me? :-)

Susan said...

A guy tried to get me to let him teach me to drive a stick in a fire truck. Same thing, right?

Squirrel said...

I am immediately reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes strip in which Calvin fantasizes about driving a firetruck... the newspaper headline in his daydream, as I recall, is "FIRETRUCK CAREENS THROUGH TOWN; MAYHEM ENSUES; FEW INJURED." Glad it turned out better for you!

Driving stick in a firetruck... is that what the young folks call it these days?

NoRegrets said...

Susan, yes, if you can drive with {}.

Squirrel. You're not old, are you?

Squirrel said...

Well no, but I thought it was funnier if I wrote it that way...

NoRegrets said...

Ah, you blew it with the explanation. !!!

Tera said...

Men in uniform really do something for me...Wal Mart guy wears a uniform...I have GOT to get that post drafted soon!

Churlita said...

I used to fight Wild land fires in California. It's a little different than structure fires, but it's still pretty scary.