F-I-R-E E-N-G-I-N-E
"A man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales resistance" CS Lewis
It is the sound that punctuates our day, "Nee-Naw. Nee-Naw". It
is the colour, no longer known by its good and proper name, but simply
referred to as "fire engine". It is how a stick, a dinosaur, a curtain
rod, a camera, all turn into a hose shooting water. It is the ability
to hear the distant tones of a siren, miles away and across the river
and know instantly that it is a fire engine. It is love, pure and
simple.
Childhood obsessions are not new to me. I read everything I could
get my hands on as a child, even spending one entire summer in my
bedroom. My gorgeous niece, M, loved bugs unlike anyone I have ever
met. She would spend hours chasing and collecting every variety of
multi-legged beastie and bring them into show her less than thrilled
mother. Her brother, spent years of his life lining up cars. My sis
could even guarantee a quiet trip to the grocery store if a Matchbox
car could make its way home with them.
And so, I am not surprised with the smallest family member's
obsession with fire engines. Well, maybe that its fire engines above
all else. Trains, I can understand. He sees them, rides on them, reads books about
them, even has a wooden train set, but fire engines are a bit out of
the blue. There aren't many fires in a village of 300 people, or in
the city of Stirling, for that matter. We don't even watch any
fire-related television programmes (or any TV really) so I can only
guess that it is his pure love and joy for these cherry-red emergency
vehicles that fuels the obsession. And I don't mind it in the
slightest. Don't we all need a passion in life, something that gets us
out of bed in the morning and we look forward to in the evening?