Second Alarmers I don’t like the smell of wet rubber, but when Uncle Joe called and said “It’s a big one,” I always wanted to go because he ONLY called if it was a whole city block on fire. My father sat me on his shoulders to watch the firemen in black coats inch up their ladders like ants and disappear through the broken windows. Like gum balls, one would then come out the bottom on a stretcher. My mother didn’t like watching fires. She was always relieved when I began to pester for cocoa since that meant we’d soon be going home before I got unbearably cranky. Off we’d go, then, to find Uncle Joe’s Second Alarmer truck where he’d pour me a cocoa and let me stand by the fireman at the window. That’s where I smelled the rubber. I told them if it wasn't for that I'd be a fireman. They told me I could be a Second Alarmer wife serving sandwiches if I wanted, but only men were allowed to sweat in the rubber suits.