Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Keeping (too) cool for a fire drill

July 5, 2019 is the 42nd anniversary of a memorable day/night for me. I was attending summer school in Virginia in 1977, and the temperature was a scalding 102 on July 4.

I took at least five showers and burned out a fan that day. But that night was a different story.


In the middle of the night, a terrible noise arose, and I finally realized it was a fire alarm. Without thinking, I ran outside in shorts, no shirt and no shoes. There were dozens of other guys dressed the same way, and I think we all realized at once that the temp had dropped to around 50!

We were freezing and hoping the fire drill would end soon. Unfortunately, it took a half hour to get all of the girls out of the tower. By the time it was over, my feet were numb.

But I learned my lesson. For the next fire drill, I was wearing long pants, shoes and socks, and a light jacket, and I had a pair of gloves and hat in my pockets, just in case.

I was happy they never had a fire drill in the winter when I was there; the snow and/or ice would have been a killer, even with the preparations.

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2 comments:

Brenda Coxe said...

I remember when I was still doing the 9-5 routine we had an alarm due to an odor in our building. It was freezing out, and our reporting area just happened to be in the parking lot--those of us who used that parking lot retreated to our vehicles to wait it out.

Tom Gillispie said...

Brenda, I had my keys (to get back in my room), but the car was too far to walk barefoot in that cold. Thanks for the comment.

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