Hello, I’m the man on the fire engine that Charles Ingalls told to put out the flame on the hot air balloon and I have just one question: who does he think he is?
Let me set the scene here. We’re just enjoying our afternoon at the fair, doing the occasional demo of our new fire engine, when some kid cuts the hot air balloon loose. There’s a kid in it, so we go on out after it. At first I’m thinking this is perfect–a live action demo of our state of the art fire engine. Wait till people see what we can do!
Well, I must have missed the memo about Charles Ingalls knowing more about fire than me.
Hee we are just a riding along, horses galloping as fast as they can go, and Charles is sitting right there next to me. We catch up to the balloon and he informs me, a fireman, that the trick to stopping the balloon’s flight is to spray the hose at the flame.
Now at this point I’m thinking to myself, “Oh, really? Gee, I’m glad I had you here to tell me, on account of I thought the flame was just for decoration.”
I mean isn’t this guy just some farmer from Walnut Grove? Why does he think he needs to tell someone commandeering this state of the art fire engine that the flame causes the hot air balloon to operate? And let’s just say I don’t know anything about hot air balloons. I am a fireman, so my first instinct is to point water at a flame in any given situation. I think I could have figured it out.
Hey, Charles, how about we switch places? What if it were me telling you about the price of corn? Doesn’t feel so good now, does it?
Frustrated Fireman
Redwood City, MN
