Inspire Me Thurs. & EDM Challenge #66

This drawing satisfied both the current Inspire Me Thursday challenge to draw a memory from childhood, and, strangely enough, the Everyday Matters Challenge #66, to draw a fire hydrant and journal about an experience with firefighters.

When I was a kid, my brother & I would spend the summer with our grandparents in Michigan. My grandfather worked for a factory that made the truck bodies they use for the post office, Fed-Ex, UPS, & Frito-Lay. One summer when I was about 9 and my brother was 8, the four of us got up early in the morning to deliver a truck (plain grey with no paint-job yet) to a customer. My grandparents sat in the 2 seats in front & my brother & I rode on a pile of my grandpa's soybeans in bags in the back of the truck (I think the beans were really for weight) Since we started so early, we got hungry and stopped for "lunch" around 10 a.m. My brother & I both ordered shakes, and my brother asked if he could have fries* with his burger (* this is important to the storyline!) The waitress said, "Yes, I think I can get the cook to start up the fryer for you!" As we sat sipping our shakes and waiting for our food, the waitress came out of the kitchen and asked us to please step out of the restaurant for a few minutes because there was a "small fire in the fryer, and just take your shakes with you until we get it put out." We sat in the truck and drank our shakes as we watched the diner burn down. The flames shot out of the roof, the curtains fell down as ther rods melted in the windows. When the firetrucks came (the diner was in a remote area, surrounded by trees, I remember), I told my brother that they were going to arrest him for ordering fries & starting the fire.