Boys and fire trucks

Did you ever notice how some boys gravitate towards fire trucks? Deep in my memory banks I thought about the fire chief I spoke to back in 1995 about a birthday party for my son A. He loved firetrucks so I convinced the then-Chief DR to let us make a donation to the Fire Department and, in turn, the kids got to climb on a real fire truck and meet the real firemen. I painted the heavy red plastic fire hats with their names. We played "put the dot on the dalmatian". (My version of a weird pin the tail on the donkey) and we played red light, green light and other games that no one from this century knows, so it was all new to them. We also made a huge fire engine cake. The cake was easy--4 boxes of Duncan Hines in a big throw away turkey roasting pan or two. You make the cake and put it on a board covered in tin foil and cut to the shape of a truck and frost it. Problem is, you can not make red icing. Think about it. Red dye and white icing = pink. And boys are not into pink cakes. So I sent my dear husband to the supermarket to pick up that red sugar and we coated the pink cake with it. We sent many of those kids so high on sugar, I am not sure they came down. And the party was a big hit.

So why did I think of that today? Well I was talking to the fire commissioner, now an acquaintance from our temple board, and he had been that same chief! And the occasion was the inspection of the local Fire Department. I was there to see my now newly 17 year old son at his first inspection as a fire fighter. (They don't say fireman anymore.) He was so handsome in his uniform. Corny but true. I was so proud.

It is 2 days past his birthday and he made me drive him to the Department of Motor Vehicles, (there is another blog in that) to get his senior license. One good thing, now he can drive himself to the fires!