Stop.Drop.Roll. Or Not....
>> Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Alternate title: The Fire Alarm Went Off at Work Today...
The ring of the fire alarm blaring is something just shy of deafening and nothing short of painful. Yet, not one of us move -from our designated work spaces. Not even the flashing lights over head, cause a stir. The only interest piqued is only because they want it to stop. Not because they really believe there is danger.
Even worse is the fact that my office is sandwiched between the local police department –on one end, and the fire department –on the other.
Honestly, am I the only one that finds this comical?
We are the ones preaching safety and working long hours to not only protect, but to educate. Yet, we do nothing for ourselves.
I know the little girl inside of me was screaming “Fire Alarm, Fire Alarm, Fire Alarm” and images of my elementary days flashed through my mind. You know the ones I’m talking about. The days when we each had our roles, our places, and knew exactly what to do -as we lined up behind our fearless leader {read: the class teacher}….in alphabetical order. I always envied the student at the end of the line. Having had a last name that put me in the middle of the alphabet, meant I was never given any special task to accomplish {other than to make sure I made it out of the building too}. While the A's, B's and C's grabbed the class pets and the W,X,Y and Z's turned out the lights. I guess that’s a perk to marrying the end of the alphabet. But I digress.
What is it, that kept us from rushing to safety like we had been taught {and practiced so many times before}? Was it who we are {specifically in this story}? The disbelief, that something of this nature could really be happening to us {me}? Or was it our stubborn adult selves hushing the child inside…still screaming “Fire Alarm, Fire Alarm…Get Out..Stop.Drop.Roll”, despite her {or him} sometimes, knowing what’s best…
7 Pepsi Points :
I think you meant the alternate title to be "Fire Alarm Went Off", not Fire Arm. Although, that would make for an interesting post too!
I am a big fat chicken. I always evacuate. Always:) Those fire drills at school. Hated them...maybe I'm afraid if I don't leave the building Mr Jones (grade 4 tracher) will come up behind me and yell MOVE FASTER MOVE FASTER. lol
That is a bit ironic, isn't it!
When I was in 6th grade, we actually had a fire in our school, however the fire alarm didn't work so the school secretary had to run through the school telling all the classes to evacuate.
I was at a hospital this week with my son and the fire alarm went off! No one moved. No one told us to move! Nothing! It screached for about 10 minutes, went off, and we were all still sitting there like nothing had happened. After we got home, I started thinking, "What if there had been an explosion, fire, etc. We did not move..."
Big thunderstorms set off my smoke alarms. So it's not so much "We'reallgonnadie!" moments as it is trying to rip the dang things out of the ceiling so I can go back to sleep.
This was really sweet and funny, and you're so right; why do we do that?!
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