eastowners

Current Mood: Angry

First off, let me say that I have nothing against fire fighters…..as most of you know my dad & brother are both in the field, and I am very proud of that and normally wouldn’t come accross harshly on the job.  However, today I had the WORST experiece at a fire house ever.  As a MOMS Club activity we had arranged to have a tour done this morning for the kids.  What kid doesn’t enjoy going to see the fire trucks, getting to sit in one, and have mom flash the camera taking pictures of it all?  This tour was pre arranged so it wasn’t like we were just stopping by random fire houses around town dropping in begging for a tour.  I am assuming they were told the age range of our fair young citizens, and what we might expect out of a tour.  We showed up at 10 am with our fire station smiles on, cameras in hand, very happy to be there and maybe learn something new.  I had never been in any of the fire stations down town, so I thought it might be kind of neat to see one.  On other occasions we’ve ventured out to Kentwood and the like.  So, we sat there while the 3 guys tossed around who was going to do our tour….”No you get to do the tour.”  Finally it was deemed that we’d follow, Oh we’ll call him Bob, around.  They sounded their call siren so to say, so that way if they did have a call we’d know what it sounded like so we could get out of the way and let them get on their fire run.  Then Bob led us to the kitchen area, he politely showed us the table where they sat, the living room of sorts they used, and then the comments came.  Bob said, “Well, ya know I’m sure most of you voted recently and since you voted for Mayor Heartwell we’ll have even less fire fighters here.”  “Sometimes we have 3, maybe 1 person at the station, and sometimes none.”  The question was asked of Bob about part time or volunteer fire fighters, and Bob proclaimed, “No, only full timers work at this station…..and since the mayor stopped funding us we don’t get much help, so it may take some time for us to make a call.”  Some of us moms had disgusted looks on our faces, come on we were there for a tour not a political debate!  What really made me angry is, there are tons of service people in this country that are under paid, under funded, and over worked…..and the people that should be held accountable are the presidents & his cronies, not us.  If we’re going to point fingers, maybe we should be pointing them at George Bush.  Anyway, we were then commenting on their grocery list on their white board, and telling the kids what they had on it.  Bob jumps in and says, “Yeah, we have to chip in every month and buy our own groceries, and sometimes it’s not much.”  Finally we got him to move the tour on…..we were hoping that they would show us some gear, nope….maybe let the kids get in the fire truck for a picture, nope…….can they at least see the oxygen mask you wear in a fire, nope.  They had 4 vehicles in the station, 1 of which is the only one that is in service…..and still no kids allowed.  Finally one of them got into his gear, but it was just his pants, jacket, and hat.  They kept proclaiming that most of it was over their heads, and there was no need to give that information.  People that aren’t around children don’t really understand that there’s nothing they CAN’T understand.  You might have to simplify it a little…but they’ll get it.  It just made me angry that he wrote all of our children off because he didn’t keep their attentions….oh that’s right he doesn’t get paid enough because of the mayor we voted for.  Why is it that politics have to ruin my good day!  Instead of sulking though, we all went to the park for some morning fun and running around.  They all needed it because of all this rain we’ve had.  I think I need a cocktail now though.