Posted on February 17, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Childhood Memory

It was like any other Saturday morning.  I was awake, watching Dennis the Menace. (The one with real actors, in black and white)  Both of my sisters were sitting there and we were eating popsicles, the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.  My brother was running around being my brother.

I think it was a commercial break, my brother came running in with his Popsicle, and sat down next to me.  He was really quiet.  About ten minutes later, the smoke detector went off.  I jumped up.  I ran in to my parents room.  They were still asleep, looking back, obviously they were out cold from their night of extensive drug use.  I looked towards their bathroom, and saw smoke pouring out of the closet.  I turned around, and saw both of my sisters kind of wandering around wondering what to do.  I told both of them to get outside, where my brother had already gone.

I ran back into my parents bedroom and woke them up.  It took about five minutes.  My dad jumped up, grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran towards the closet.  He let that closet have everything he had.  I am pretty sure the fire was out.  Then I heard something like an explosion.  My dad told me later that his match collection couldn’t stand the heat and they all went up in flames.  (There were a lot of matches.)  Shortly after that, my dad came running out of the closet.  Right then I heard our fourth of July surprise.  My dad had traveled to buy us fireworks.  A lot of them.  He wanted us to have a fun 4th.

At this I realized that the fire was not going out.  So I ran downstairs, woke up our babysitter, and got my dog, Bandit.  I ran outside and tried to wave down a passing airplane.  I don’t know where I got the idea that an airplane would save us, but, it seemed logical at the time.  I guess I should say, the airplane didn’t save us.  I did notice however that my parents were not out of the house.

I ran back into the house.  My dad was in his room.  I don’t know what he was doing to this day, but I think just trying to get stuff that he knew we would need.  My mom was on the phone in the dining room.  It was so hot at this point that when I went to get my mom, the phone was actually melting in her hand.  I looked over at our ’study area’.  Where my dad kept all of his exotic pets and fish tanks, and all of the water was boiling.  I knew we had a problem.  So, as fast as I could, I ran downstairs and grabbed my Teddy Rupskin.  There were a lot of things I could do without, but I didn’t think I could do without that.  When I came back upstairs, I grabbed my mom’s hand, and pulled her outside.  My dad followed right behind us.

A little while later I was talking to one of the firemen, and my brother walked up and handed him a lighter with three simple words.  “I did it.”  My 3 year old brother was playing with a lighter.  He burnt his toe and got scared.  He couldn’t blow the fire out so he ran in to the living room and sat down.  He took the lighter from the top of my mom’s cigarettes.  She slept right through it.

That day sticks in my head like you wouldn’t believe.  That day signifies the beginning of our house hopping.  Eviction to eviction.  That day was the beginning of a hard life.  That day, looking back showed me how much I love my family.  Certainly I was no hero, but at my age, to be running back into a burning house for my mom and dad, (And teddy rupskin) wasn’t an easy thing to do.

It’s crazy thinking of that day, and everything that has happened since.  I don’t know how to end story telling.  I don’t have a moral, besides, don’t play with fire.  I don’t have a happy ending to that day.  I can’t even tell you that my mom fired that babysitter. I can just tell you 20 years after a house fire, it still runs through my head like it was yesterday. I can tell you that some 20 years later, I’ve found my way.  20 years later, it is just something that has made me and my family stronger.  20 years later.  Wow.