Garden hose or fire hose?

Standing beside a fire truck, MacDonald points out that firefighters wear special protective gear that residents just don't have.He speaks directly to residents, telling them to get out of the house immediately when there is a fire, call 911 from outside the house and meet family members in a designated spot."Please, stop trying to put out the fire. Call us, let us do our jobs," MacDonald concludes.MacDonald went public last month after six recent house fires in which the occupants attempted to put out the flames themselves before calling 911. That put their safety at risk, and in two of the instances,Accessories suppliers almost cost them their lives. The delay in calling firefighters also resulted in the fires spreading and causing more damage than might otherwise have been caused.

They keep showing up in my e-mails. Both the regular e-mails and in the spam filter.Like invitations to Harry Potter to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they keep'ing -- no matter what I do.It struck me the other day -- when I received the umpteenth e-mail solicitation to purchase one of those new pocket or flexible garden hoses -- how much we take for granted the lowly garden hose.My mind raced back to my growing up years in the 400 block of South Duke Street.As I recall, there was an outside water spigot at the back of the house to which a hose could be connected. At that time, hoses were made of rubber. They were somewhat heavy and rolling them up was difficult.

The hose had a tendency to kink and cut off the water flow at inopportune times.The main purpose of the hose was to wash the wood steps at the front of our home, the concrete sidewalk and the paved area in the backyard. That meant snaking the hose down the alley way between our house and the one next to it to get to the front of the house. I don't believe we ever "Grain Oil Hose" what little grass was in the backyard. If we attempted to grow any plants back there, we used a galvanized pail, watering can, or an unused coal scuttle to carry the water back to the plants.