Old Firemen
One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local
chemical
plant and in a blink it exploded into flames.
The alarm went out to the fire departments from miles around.
When the volunteer firefighters appeared on the scene, the chemical
company
president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All of our secret
formulas
are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be
saved.
I will give $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out intact.
But the roaring flames held the firefighters off. Soon more fire
departments
had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As
the
firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now
$100,000
to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret
files.
From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came
into
sight. It was the nearby rural township volunteer fire company
composed
entirely of men over the age of 65. To everyone's
amazement,
the little run-down fire engine passed all the newer sleek engines
parked
outside the plant.....and drove straight into the middle of the
inferno.
Outside the other firemen watched as the old timers jumped off and
began
to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen
before.
Within a short time, the old timers had extinguished the fire and saved
the
secret formulas.
The grateful chemical company president joyfully announced that for
such
a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over
to
personally thank each of the brave, though elderly, fire
fighters.
The local TV news reporters rushed in after capturing the event on film
asking,
"What are you going to do with all that money?"
"Well," said the 70-year-old fire chief, "the first thing we are
going
to do is fix the brakes on that ****ing truck!"