Things Are Not Always As They Appear*

One night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant. In the blink of an eye, it exploded into towering flames. The alarm went out to all fire departments for miles around. When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire chiefs and said, "All our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved. I'll 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 save the company's secret files.

From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby Chasidic Jewish rural township volunteer fire company composed mainly of Jewish, ultra-orthodox men over the age of 65. To everyone's amazement, their little, broken-down fire engine roared right past all the sleek newer engines parked outside the plant.

Without even slowing down, it drove straight into the middle of the inferno. Outside, the other firemen watched in amazement and disbelief as the Chasidic old-timers jumped off right in the middle of the fire and fought it back on all sides. It was a performance and effort never seen before. Within a short time, the Chasidic old-timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.

The grateful chemical company president announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to thank each of the brave Jewish fire fighters personally. A local TV news reporter rushed in to capture the event on film, asking their chief," What are you going to do with all that money?"

"Vell," said Chief Epstein, "Da foist ting ve gonna do is fix da brakes on dat focking truck!"

*Humor forwarded courtesy of my cousin Deb, who I can't wait to see over Labor Day at MiDC's Bar Mitzvah.**

**Egad, I'm old.