Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan Claire. This is day one hundred and forty-three of that project.

This quilt block shows a perfectly rectangular fire truck made of a deep red fabric. In the front the cab windshield is a splotchy golden yellow. As we look at it from the side we can see a orange sign bordered in yellow that says, — Click To Enlarge

I have fond memories of a fire truck that looked much like this one.

When we were little kids here, every year on a Saturday before Christmas, our parents would bundle us up in everything we had and bring us down to the elementary school. When we got there, we’d wait our turn (it usually took two trips) to ride on top of the fire truck!

They’d pack us up there as tight as we could get to try to help keep us warm because I don’t ever remember it being above freezing on those days.

They would turn on the lights and sirens and drive a few blocks to the movie theater we had then. I would cover my ears and be scared silly. The theater was called El Grande, and once we arrived there, we’d line up, still bundled up to our chins.

Each of us would be given a small bag of popcorn, a little bag of candy and nuts, and a small coke. We could hardly manage all this bounty because of the extent of our “bundling.”

Many kids would hold their loot for the duration because they couldn’t put it down or get it to their mouths because of mittens and mufflers. We’d all troop into the theater, sit, and be shown a Christmas movie.

Usually, cartoons, but one year it was a really old film that was scary, and Santa looked creepy. That may have been the last time I went.

The good old days!