The house is burning down and you can only take one thing with you. What is it??

[FlamingoBlue]

We read about it all the time. You have saved yourself and everyone else (including valued pets) is safe. There's only time to save one thing and all you have is 2 hands to carry it and 2 minutes to act. What is it??

I have a Teddy bear that I recieved from my grandfather when I was about a year old. He's got one ear, button eyes and surgical scars from being sewn up and restuffed throughout the years. For some reason he has remained with me all these years, althoug he did spend a few years in my daughter's closet after I divorced her mother, many years ago.

Andy, that's his name, now sits in my living room with a baseball hat on his head surrounded by his friends. There's some strange stuffed animals, a wooden dog, and a long reticulated wooden snake to keep him company.

Yep, ole Andy has seen it all and I probably would want him around for my granchildren to see. The rest of the stuff, is all replaceable. And if I couldn't save Andy, there's a small cherry wood box with about a dozen really meaningful photos in it.

So, what about you?? What would you save??

blue

[Edited by FlamingoBlue on 02-24-2001 at 12:03 PM]

 

[Cheyenne]

Does "everyone else" include my two cats?

 

[Ksss]

Okay, the family and pets are safe, I think I would grab the ceramic angel placque on my livingroom wall. It was brought over from Germany with my grandma, it survived her stay at Ellis Island and has lived on for about 100 years now. Not sure of any monetary value it may have, but it is the only real treasure I have of my grandmother.

 

[Cheyenne]

Okay, if my cats are safe, then the real answer is that you get out of there and don't go back in for anything. You don't have two minutes to run into a burning home. Ever.

I suspect no one has answered because this is a difficult question. I'd like to say I think I would grab my album of pictures from when I was a baby until I was maybe 5 or 6 years old. But, based on experience, I'd probably grab my jewelry without thinking.

I was in LA a number of years ago and had a bridesmaid dress with me in the hotel for a wedding I was going to be in the next day. In the dead of night, the fire alarm went off. I took my purse and my jewelry from the nightstand and headed down the stairs with the rest of the guests. As I'm standing outside waiting for the fire trucks (it was a kitchen fire I guess)I realized I had taken things I could replace with me from the room. But that damn dress I needed for the next day, that could have burned to a crisp!

The point is, in a real fire, you aren't thinking clearly. Get out and stay out. (Your public service announcement of the day.)

 

[Ksss]

Well chit, I was assuming that blue's question was, if everyone was out already and you didn't go back inside, but grabbed something on your way out. Did that make sense???
Of course, it is never safe to go back into a burning building.

 

[CreamyLady]

Agreed, Cheyenne.

Personally, I'd just want to make sure my daughter and JP were safe.

Er, Cheyenne -- was it a typical bridesmaid's dress, the kind that could burn very easily and you might be stoking the fire?

 

[Thumper]

SAVE THE PUSSY!!!

My cat of course

...then the pictures.

Hey Cheyenne...most of the ladies I know have always thought the dresses they had to wear as bridesmaids were hideous...they might have actually run back in to throw them on the flames...

 

[Cheyenne]

Oh yeah, it was hideous. Several layers of violet color satin and organza, or something like that. With ruffles around the low neckline and sleeves. But that dress had been a pain in the ass from the beginning. The bride ordered it in LA for me and mailed it to me. It came in about a couple sizes too small (and I was not huge in my mid-20's- I wore a size 10) with no time to correct the order. The bride never noticed when she picked it up and sent it to me. I took the dress to a seamstress who said it was about a size 6, but she could alter it by taking material from the full skirt and remaking the whole thing. That dress cost me a fortune. I never told the bride until AFTER the wedding how the dress was jinxed, either.

Now that I think about it, I was in 3 weddings that summer and all of the dresses were horrible. My nieces have them now to play "dress up" with.

 

[Whispersecret]

I'd get the photo albums. Everything else can be replaced.

 

[R Nitelight]

The gift I received for Valentine's Day.
Modest in cost, but priceless in sentiment.

 

[12vMan]

I would grab the group picture of our wedding day. It can not be replaced.

 

[brazenblaze]

If I were actually going to go back into a burning house for ANYTHING...It would be the "treasure box".

Not what most of you are probably thinking...it is a box in the closet that has the kids drawings,locks of hair from first haircuts and other sappy "mom" stuff.

 

[Juliangel]

You know I always asked myself this too, my answer was the photo albums and baby books.

In Jan. of 97 our dryer shorted out setting the kitchen on fire. I dialed 911 as soon as the fire started. I got the kids out, then our cat with her new liter of kittens and after that it was impossible to go back into the house.

They fire department had a 3 minutes response time and by then the livingroom and kitchen were both completely gone. We lost almost everything either from fire, heat, smoke or water damage.

I did lose all the photos but luckly the closet in my bedroom that I stored all the baby keepsakes in had something on the floor blocking the crack at the bottom and everything in there including my wedding dress was perfectly fine.

 

[insideShiraz]

My Really Tacky Questions...

There are real house fires, you know...

 

[Bahamut]

Uhm...

If everyone was okay.....

Why go back and.....

Risk your life to save a bunch of memories.....

When memories can be rebuilt.....

But then again.....

Everthing is replaceable.....

Even people




~B~

 

[Matthew D]

Julia and Blaze,
I will agree with both of you on the baby pictures, "sappy mom stuff" and just pictures in general. When we had our house fire almost 4 years ago, we werent home to get anything we just got lucky that someone driving by saw the fire and called 911 and they go it out before the whole house was gone. But still lost a lot of things that can't be replaced like pictures, wedding dresses, and stuff from my grandfather.. but at least all of us didnt get hurt at all.

 

[R Nitelight]

Matthew D

Your wedding dress?

 

[Matthew D]

No Nitelight.. the wife's wedding dress.... Might be a little on the small side for me..

 

[Blackbich]

Assuming the 'everyone' includes the snakes and dogs, the only thing I'd risk my life for is my big stuffed dog named Poochie who I've had for 20 years. I've spent too many nights crying on his shoulder for me to give him up. In fact, I might save him before I saved my man - LOL.

 

[crystalhunting]

Well..if i had allready gotten all 4 of my cats out of the house...there is only one thing i really couldnt replace..My family sword...when i got to the age of 18..as to tradition a sword was made with my name inscribed in Arabic..and given to me as a symbol of my lineage.{and no i dont go stabbing people with it..im a pacifist}

 

[teresafannin]

I would take the Care Bear that was my son's when he was little, I could find another one, but it wouldn't be the same. For Bahamut, I have to disagree with the statement that everything is replaceable, even people. There are always people that come & go from our lives, but each is different. There is no way ANYONE can ever replace my son in my life.

 

[BiBabe:)]

Me? I wouldn't go back for anything. I'm only 20 years old so I don't have any wedding/mother stuff to worry about. All my very important stuff is at my mother's house. As long as my girlfriend and I are safe, we'd be fine.

 

[chal13]

What would I miss the most.

I think it would be either my computer or my playstation 2. I can only grab one, so I'd have to take the computer:-]

 

[cherrypop]

Photographs!!

Years ago, my aunt and uncle had a house fire which killed 4 of thier 5 children. It was devastating..needless to say. They lost everything, with the exception of their only living child. All physical things, as well as their children. My aunt commented once that she would give any possession, barring their lives, to have their pictures back. So for me, the pictures win out. My photo albums would come with me. Actually, I have soo many I have a full desk drawer...I'd yank the drawer and throw the albums on top. First family and then pictures. Everything else is replaceable. Oh...and perhaps my great grandmother's pearl necklace and my geneology papers, but even they lose out to the pictures.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Considering that I now live in a firetrap? The computer, I have it next to a window, just in case. I'd leave everything else and take the precious CPU with me. Gawd, life without my puter... *shudder* I can't even go to work without bringing a laptop along.

No, I'm not addicted. I can quit whenever I want.