Long Nights & Good Memories

I ended up in town today. A couple of times actually. It was one of those days. One of my trips took me to a business complex across the street from the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad. Back when the world was new, when I was running fire and rescue, I would bump into them every once in a while. I was a member of Stuarts Draft Rescue, but depending on the nature of the call, sometimes more than one squad would be toned to respond to it. There was always a rivalry between Draft and Staunton-Augusta. It was usually good natured, but any conflicts were put aside when you got on scene. This particular call was a multi-vehicle accident. I don’t recall a lot of details other than the fact that it was night, there were several people involved, and we were in a part of the county that we didn’t usually respond to. As it so happened, I ended up loading my patient into a Staunton-Augusta unit and riding with them into the hospital. I remember noticing the small differences between the back of their trucks and ours. Little things such as where equipment was stored. I didn’t have a lot of time to sightsee however, since I had a patient to tend to. The thing that will always stick with me though is the moment where the leader of the Staunton-Augusta crew leaned over to me. He looked at the Draft windbreaker I was wearing and said, “You ought to take that off and put on one of ours.” I didn’t have  a lot of time to think on it then, but it’s stayed with me through the years. Even in the most hectic of circumstances, when you would swear that you don’t even have a second to breathe, there’s always time to give someone a compliment, to tell them that they’re doing a good job. It may give them a smile, or brighten their day. Who knows, it may even be something that they remember forever.