Fire & Fear

I've always had a fear of fire. Now, I would guess that it is probably normal for most people to fear fire, but my fear was somewhat more than "normal" (I think). I don't really remember when it began, but one of my clearest memories of the "fear" was when I was 8 years old. We lived in a home in Boston...in the inner city. The houses were mainly what we called triple decker houses (3 apartments, 1 per floor). Ours happened to be a single story home, but we had a triple decker right next to us. I went to bed (the bedrooms were on the second floor). My parents and grandma were still up watching tv and my aunt and her friend were also visiting. Shortly thereafter, my mom came running upstairs and told me there was a fire next door. As I came down the stairs I could see smoke coming in through the corner of the ceiling in the living room. We all went outside. When I got outside, I realized I had left my "Lambie" (a stuffed lamb that played Brahm's Lullaby) back up in the bedroom. After seeing me burst into tears, my aunt went back to retrieve my lamb. Luckily, our house turned out to be fine, other than smelling smoky. My father opened a bottle of Galiano afterwards and gave everyone a drink (even I got a sip)...then Lambie and I went to bed.

Anyway, my fear of fire has always expressed itself by my storing the things most important to me close to my bed-those things that I would want to grab first (other than people) if a fire ever occurred. Back as a child and even a teen, it was Lambie. After my mom died and as a young married adult, it was pictures...irreplaceable photo albums of family and my wedding pictures. As a young mom, it turned into pictures and videos of my children. As my kids grew, it became all of the data, pictures, and memories stored on my computer and external hard drives, *sigh*. The list is far too long. Now, I lay awake wondering if a pillow case would be big enough to dump all of the stuff in for me to haul out the window. Heh, who am I kidding? I'd need at least 5 pillow cases. Oh, and Lambie still sits on my night table.

Here are some pictures of one of my prized possessions, an autographed "In Tune" magazine. "Most prized" because I can not replace it and because of the memories of the Meet & Greet where I obtained it. Hey, look at it this way...at least I'm not posting a picture of Lambie. Unless you really want one that is *g*...

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