I have said it before and I will say it now. Growing up on a farm and living in rural southern Ohio was and has always been a great gift I will always treasure.
I loved the way I grew and being free to see so much acreage not congested was a sight not all ever get to experience. However when it came to weekends the small farm towns such as Felicity had little or nothing for a person to do. Unless there was a basketball game or a dance nothing else was there to offer except the pool hall and the two taverns. Places that probably offered more ways to find mischief and definitely not to discuss around with parents.
Felicity was and is still a good rural town but it is pretty safe to say excitement and fun had to be an internal creation. This is pretty true in almost all small rural towns.
So one Saturday night in midsummer when I was 19 years old my best friend Jim and two other friends Terry and Jerry all decided we should get out of Felicity and go to the Brown County Capital of Georgetown and go bowling. We went and bowled probably three games, and cruised around Georgetown for a while. (To cruise in another town was traveling the unknown. Wild and risky we were.) About 10 pm we headed back to Felicity.
On our way back to Felicity on what had been a nice but uneventful night as most were and only a few miles from town Terry yelled fire! We all turned to him and in unison asked Where?! Terry pointed out the window to a large two story house with flames coming out of the second floor windows on the front of the house. I slammed the car to a stop and backed up. There in the front yard stood the oldest child with all his brothers and sisters huddled away from the house and near the road. They had pulled some furniture out but the fire was growing fast. We checked and all were unhurt, so we said we would go for help and get the Fire Department.
Being only a few miles and 19 and excited we got to Felicity very fast. Probably way over the speed limit but it was an emergency. Now at that time the Fire Department was a volunteer only department. On the way to town none of us had any idea how to contact the Fire Department. It was agreed that the best thing to do was tell the Chief of Police. Again this was Saturday night and the chief off duty could be found in the back room of the pool hall involved in playing cards. I pulled my car as close to the pool hall as I could and as I was stopping Jim and the others were piling out of the car and headed to the card room. We went in yelling “Fire, Fire please call the Fire Department!.” The Chief slowly looked at us and then his hand of cards and back to us and said “you boys had better not be pulling my leg as I have a damn good hand here” We looked at each other for a fraction of a second to be sure I guess and then looked back to him and reassured him we were telling the truth and please hurry!
As the chief laid down his cards and headed to get help we jumped in my car and headed back to see what we could do to help. Upon arrival each of us ask all if they still were alright and we tried to pull items away from the house. The fire had grown larger in the maybe 15 minutes we were gone. It didn’t seem very long at all until we heard the sirens and knew help was near. Now again this was a Saturday night and once the news spread thru town people from the pool hall and taverns came to watch or help and many arrived before the Fire Engines. Organized chaos began but once the firemen got there they settled that down. While all this was taking place the flames and smoke were on the increase. It was decided that the house was going to be a loss and about all that could be done was stop the out-buildings from catching fire and save what we could.
Now to this day I still wonder. I have never been a fireman and never will. I am not one to jump out in front of a crowd and be the leader. No I am not a hero. But that night two other men and myself decided that since the kitchen was at the furthest point away from the fire and had yet to be on fire, we would save the appliances. Yes I sad appliances. It sounded good at the time. I lead them in and found an upright freezer full of meat and vegetables. It seemed the least we could do was save their food. Being big strong farm boys in our prime there would be nothing to removing it. That is nothing until we jammed it in the door opening so tight that the freezer wouldn’t budge. We pushed and no movement. We pulled and no movement. Firemen outside the door kept saying don’t worry we will take care of this. While all the pushing and pulling and reassuring was happening I looked over my shoulder and noticed the room was filling with smoke and in the furthest corner from where we were I could see flames. What seemed like an eternity the three of us had to stop and try to catch our wind as we had been working hard and going nowhere? At that time one of my friends looked at us and said “boys, this just ain’t the time or place to die” With that statement the reality came to me and I think all of us of the possibility. I don’t know about the others but I wasn’t going to perish for frozen food and mustered up all the muscle I had and the three of us hit that freezer with one major push and the freezer moved on out. Also so did the door frame it was jammed in. We pushed the entire door and all into the side yard and kept pushing until the freezer was maybe 15 ft away from the building.
I can’t express the relief I had breathing in air without smoke in it. I and my friends were all coughing and our eyes were burning. A fireman led us to a safe place got us water so we could drink but mostly wash out our eyes. We were sitting on an old tree stump and just watching and asking each other if they were OK. Maybe 20 minutes passed and the house began to fall in one section at a time. It is such a sad and helpless feeling to watch a person’s home and all their belongings go up in flame but the three of us felt that we had at least saved their freezer and the valuable food it held. We were feeling good about our accomplishment and almost proud. That is until the back side of the house collapsed and fell on the freezer! No! Not the freezer! The firemen who had assured us they would move it back to a safer place had forgotten it. Gone was the freezer and its contents. Gone was the one major possession this family would have had. Gone was the item that we had risked way more than we had ever bargained for. Mostly was gone the item that showed we were heroes? As the years have passed since this event I have come to realize we were never even close to being classified as heroes. We might have been listed as helpful when help was needed, but not a hero. Webster’s Dictionary says a hero is a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose. Especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. We were more in the category of “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”!
The house was an entire loss and their insurance company replaced and helped them out nicely. No one was injured or hurt. They were supplied lodging and the next day rural life resumed back to where it had left off. But on that one Saturday evening there were a car load of teenagers from rural upbringing and a boring farm town that were anything but bored. Whenever I would feel things were slow I would think back and say to myself this is better than being in that kitchen for sure. Something I did learn from this experience is that when someone does a heroic act it should be respected and not taken as a normal thing just anybody can do because they can’t. I learned that first hand. I wasn’t even trying to save a life or a puppy or get a cat out of a tree. I couldn’t even save a freezer. A reaction doesn’t mean there will be that great result! No I’m not a hero but I learned how to respect those who are.
