It's A Fire Drill, I Can't Turn it Down

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

If I described to you shuffling into a hall, taking a seat on the floor and being told to cover your head, you would know what I’m talking about right? As a child I grew up practicing emergency drills at school and I remember thinking, “If this is a drill, why does the alarm have to sound so long?” At what age do we forget this training?

A couple of days ago my phone rang, it was my grandmother. I started to say, “hello” but was cut off in mid word. I could tell she was all on edge by her first statement, “I’ve lost my ear plugs!” She had requested a pair several weeks ago and I had obeyed her request by taking her a pair. Though I never really understood why she wanted them.

”Well, I have plenty, I can bring you another pair,” I said trying to appease the despair in her voice.  “Can you bring them tonight? I need them by one o’clock tomorrow” she questioned me. “No, not tonight, I’ll bring them with me when I come to take you to the doctor.” That comment set off a backlash conversation that was purely logical. Of which I learned the true reason for her even requesting the ear plugs in the first place.

”Well, that will be too late. We are having one of those dammmn, fire drills tomorrow.” She always says damn in a low, very drawn out way as if to disguise she is even vocalizing the word. “They give me a headache, that is why I wanted the ear plugs to begin with and why does that alarm have to be so loud?”

She was just starting her logic and this is the conversation that ensued:

Jules: “because you might be in bed and it has to wake you up,”
Granny: “Well, no one is in bed at one in the afternoon, they could turn it down.”
Jules: “They cannot turn it down, it has no volume knob. Besides what about those people that are hard of hearing?”
Granny: “Well, I suggest they buy them all hearing aids.”

Now, how could I respond to that? She wasn’t done though and after catching her breath she continued.

Granny: “You know; it would not be so bad if it were only in the hall, but it sounds in my room and blinks a bright red light at me. I think they are trying to drive us crazy.”
Jules: “No one is trying to drive you crazy. It sounds in your room because that is where you are most of the time and the blinking light is for the deaf. It allows them to see that the alarm is going off. Granny, it sounds in both your room and the hall to help the deaf follow the vibrations from the sound.”

Wait for it, wait for it, here comes her logic.

Granny: “Well, they are blind not deaf, why can’t they turn it down? When are you going to bring my ear plugs”

What I learned from this phone conversation is the that at some point later in life we accumulated a lifetime of circular logic. Logic that will ensnare even the closet of victims and once entrapped lead them in circles.

I got her a new set of ear plugs and the fire drill…

She went out and sat in the shade until it had passed.



10 comments:

Anonymoussaid, 

you just can't argue with logic! ;-)

July 21, 2010 at 9:09 AM  
Ella said, 

Our view changes as we age. The rose colored glasses broke a long time ago and now she wants peace n' quiet!

Your Granny is cute and precise!
Logic won~ Kind of you to get them for her~

July 21, 2010 at 11:30 AM  
Jules said, 

Kathy,
You are so right and now I know not to try. ;)

Ellie,
Yes, she is still not happy about her new home. And thank you for the compliments. I will pass them on. :)

July 21, 2010 at 11:41 AM  
RHYTHM AND RHYME said, 

Had to smile at your grandmothers' logic, I have four grandchildren wonder what they really think of me as I go down the slide at the park as my own children hurry away.

It;s true I love going to the childrens' playing park and can't resist slides.

Yvonne.

July 21, 2010 at 5:28 PM  
colbymarshall said, 

Haha! It's funny, but she's quite right!

In answer to your question about my blog, are you having trouble putting it into a reader or is it the address itself having a problem?

July 21, 2010 at 5:56 PM  
Adoption of Jane said, 

I love her logic! Have a great day!

July 21, 2010 at 6:09 PM  
Arlee Bird said, 

Here you go getting all nostalgic and all and getting me to remembering the things we used to do. I remember the old "duck and cover" drills of getting under desks or crouching in hallways with hands over our heads. What about those air raid sirens that used to sound at noon every month or so?

Lee
Tossing It Out

July 22, 2010 at 2:06 AM  
Jules said, 

Thank you all for appreciating my Grandmothers logic I was afraid it was to long.

Yvonne, you just keep sliding.

Colby, it was your site loading from my dashboard.

Lee, sorry for the trip and yes I remember those sirens.

July 22, 2010 at 4:55 AM  
Olivia J. Herrell, writing as O.J. Barré said, 

Haha, your granny sounds like a hoot! I remember the alarms, but we had to form a line and single-file it out to the school grounds. Where we broke down in to pandemonium until we had to file back in. Of course, that was much later. The first few years we were dutiful kids.

My how things change, yet stay the same.

~that rebel, Olivia

July 22, 2010 at 11:50 AM  
Unknown said, 

Well, I guess one good thing about being unemployed is no fire drills!

July 23, 2010 at 3:37 AM  
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