Fire Drill

Yesterday afternoon I was outside raking leaves. It seemed the perfect day for it. It was warm out. The leaves were wet, meaning they wouldn’t go flying off while I attempted to round them up. Best of all, apparently using that Wii Fit must be helping because my arms didn’t ache afterwards.

There I was, hard at work, when I heard beeping noises from across the street. Ah, they are taking advantage of the warm weather and having a fire drill. It apparently was Fire Drill Day because when I picked Theresa up from another local elementary school where she’d observing a class, she told me they also had a fire drill. Anyhow, so there I am, hard at work raking leaves. And there are all the kids piling out of the school.

Now I’d assume it’s a universal rule that there is no talking during a fire drill. It used to be that way when I was in school. It was that way when my kids were in school and clearly, it is still in force, judging by the teachers constantly telling the kids to be quiet as they walked out of the school across the street.

Then there was this teacher who was standing in the middle of the street. I’m not sure if he was the principal or if he just happened to not have a class at the moment. He was watching all the kids, making sure no cars came down the street, overseeing thing. He was also talking to me. We got into a discussion about raking leaves. During the entire conversation I’m thinking, “Uh, shouldn’t you be setting an example for all these kids by not talking?”