Fire on Main Street

When you’ve been friends as long as Ed and I have been, there’s bound to be a few inside jokes. I was sharing one of them with Holly last night.

Whenever I tell the story about the “Big Jim Rescue Rig,” I always break down in laughter. I can’t get through the story without a chuckle or guffaw. Last night, I even cracked Holly up.

Big Jim was our era’s answer to GI Joe (though the full size GI Joes were still quite popular when we were kids).

Big Jim (and his pal Big Jack) were adventure guys. They could be, quite literally, involved in any activity. They were athletes. They were outdoorsmen (in fact, I was proud to have the Big Jim camper, myself).

And they could also be public servants. I’m not sure whether they were meant to be firefighters or what.  Maybe they were just supposed to drive along and look for danger and jump in to rescue folks in harm’s way (Barbie, Ken and their crew? Weebles? Or even the Fisher Price pals).

In any case, the Big Jim Rescue Rig was some sort of fire truck/rescue vehicle. It was the crown jewel of Big Jim equipment and included a walkie-tallkie style communication device. Like so many other toys from our era it was powered by 4 D batteries.

With this communicator, Big Jim and Big Jack could get a radio message from HQ alerting them to the nature of the emergency situation they were encountering.

One of our favorite scenarios was conveyed by this message: “Fire on main street. Bring the stretchers.” There was even an intro and outro sound of a siren. So, really, the entire audio clip was “Woo Woo Woo. Fire on Main Street. Bring the stretchers. Woo Woo Woo.” 

It was a cool gadget.

Thing is, it tended to drain the batteries. And if you didn’t watch it, the ‘cool gadget’ could quickly become the object of great mirth. You see, 4 D batteries on their last leg did NOT produce the message: “Woo Woo Woo. Fire on Main Street. Bring the stretchers. Woo Woo Woo.”

Instead, you got: “Woooooooooooooooooooe Woooooooooooooooe Woooooooooooooe (think “Whoa!”) Farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr onnnnn Maaaaaaaiiiinnn Streeeeeeeeet. Breeeeeeeeng the Stretcherrrrrsssss, Wooooooooooooooooe Wooooooooooooooooooooe Wooooooooooooe!”

That’s all it took. A serious game of Big Jim and Big Jack and their rescue mission degenerated into a couple wise guys laughing uproariously (and pushing the button over and over again until the D batteries were totally out of juice).

As an aside, my NFL Talking Football game (which was designed and fashioned after a transitor radio ‘broadcasting’ the game and also battery-powered) had the same problem. After too much use, one of our favorite calls: “Fumbled HIGH in the air. Up for grabs…the DEEfense gets it!” (followed by the sound of crowd cheering) transformed into “Fuuuuummmmmbllllllled Hiiiiiiiiiigh in the Airrrrrrrrr. Upppppp for Grabsssssss. The Deeeeee Fence gets it…Whewwwwwwwww. Whewwwwwwwwwwwwww. Whewwwwwwww.” (Crowd of sound noise with run-down D Batteries).

As I started relating this story to Holly, I started laughing; then she started laughing. I guarantee if Ed and I were talking about it, we’d BOTH start laughing.

We talk about how those days – pre internet, pre iPhone, etc  - were simpler times and truly they were. Imagine that a small toy - and set of four old D batteries - could turn into such tremendous entertainment for hours on end.

JG

Originally posted 2/18/2013