The Little Man

Safety first.

“Grandma, why does that little man have a blue hard hat on?” asked Tory, who was all of three.

Grandma stopped walking and twisted her head.

“Sweetie, that’s not a little man. That’s a fire hydrant. When there’s a fire, the fire fighters hook their hoses up to these things here, and they turn it on with a big wrench here. It brings up water from the ground and shoots the water out of the hose.”

Tory could care less about the water or the fire fighters.

“But it looks like a little man with a hard hat on.”

“Yes, it does.”

“And look over there, there’s another one, but with a yellow hard hat on. Maybe it’s to protect their heads from all those things flying in the sky in case they fall.”

Grandma looked up into the night sky to see the satellites and planes moving about, and the stars settling in for the night. She couldn’t fault the toddler’s logic from her limited perspective.

“I think that’s exactly why they have hard hats on, Sweetie. Since they can’t move, something has to protect them.”

“Mmm maybe. Grandma, can we take one home with us so they don’t have to wear those hard hats?”

“You’ll have to ask your Mommy and Daddy about that when you get home,” Grandma said. “But I should think they’d like to have a fire hydrant around the house.”

*******

Happy New Year!