You
won’t see the precious gold on the regular fire house tour,
even though the tour is a whiz-banger for sure. The children all get
special treatment on the tour. They get to wear a real fire hat and
sit in the driver seat of the hook and ladder truck that’s bursting
with gauges, levers, and buttons. As you tour you can easily see all
the boots, fire hats, and other fire clothes all set in order for a
hasty but proper exit from the fire house to save lives.
The
two emergency medical trucks were lined up all ready to race to where
someone needed first aid and a fast ride to the hospital. There was
nothing about them that made you think of the people that drove them
and all their study, practice, and rules they had to follow.
The
kid’s tour always involves lots of lovin’. That’s right. No kid
with any heart at all could ever pass up loving Smokey the fire dog
and all his enthusiasm. From the tip if his tail wagging in high gear
to a big red tongue and sparkly eyes he says, “I need some huggin’.
How about you?”
Smokey thinks he is in doggy heaven every time he’s
see a big yellow school bus stop outside and lots of excited school
kids head toward the fire house.
But
to see the real gold, that golden service at the fire house, you have
to visit around 4:30 pm every Thursday. And then you won’t
notice anything unless you enter the fire house mop room. There
really isn’t anything special about the mop room either. The walls
are all lined with rows of hooks for hanging things and enough
cobwebs to make a rug.
Two worn out mop pails were turned upside down
and a heavy board set between them made a bench for the kids to sit
on. High on the wall a banner hangs by one corner among those
cobwebs. Left over from a parade long ago it still says, “Freedom
Fire Department Gives Aid and Comfort.” Maybe that’s the purpose
of this old firehouse mop room… comfort. That could be it. While
the trucks, firemen, and Smokey give aid to people in danger, this
mop room gives comfort to others in a quiet way. That must be the
golden service provided at this Freedom Fire House.
Ol’ Zeb has as much or more loyalty to the fire house and the men and women that run it than possibly anyone else in this small town called Freedom. A few years ago he came into the fire house with chest pain worse than ever before. All the response team went right to work as they’d trained, to check his vital signs and get him to the nearby hospital. If they hadn’t, Zeb might be a lot worse off than just the slight limp in his walk and a left hand that doesn’t always do what is asked of it.
Usually a few minutes after 4 each Thursday the dozen or so 11 to 16 year old boys and girls begin showing up and head straight for the mop room. Every Thursday Zeb would already be there in the ‘comfort corner’ already praying for the children and the things they’d talk about this day. Everyone that knew anything about the Thursday mop room meetings began calling it “The Comfort Corner”. Even Smokey sensed that the Comfort Corner was no place for horse play. He would always lay quiet between some old boots with his eyes always staring into the eyes of children that truly need a Comfort Corner far more than we may sometimes realize.
