A Touch of Mayberry

I was hanging out early Sunday morning at Peet's Coffee in Palo Alto, CA (aka Silicon Valley) with my hubby and Toddler J (TJ) a couple weeks ago, when we ran into a touch of Mayberry. You know, the idyllic, small town where life was simple and all the grown ups knew Opie, Sheriff Andy's son, and of course, Aunt Bee who always had pie?

Yep. Right in Palo Alto, where everyone is usually busy going here or there -- where I least expected it...

We had just finished our cup of coffee. We try to make it into a Peet's or Starbuck's on the weekends for some coffee time. We don't stay long because TJ's Toddler-Parking meter usually has a max time-out of 30 minutes. But, it's worth going to because it gives us some semblance of our pre-kid couple time.

It doesn't even phase me anymore to walk up to coffee shops lugging a blue and yellow booster seat over one arm, while heaving a diaper bag stuffed to the max with crayons, drawing paper, tupperware with blueberries, ziploc bags of pretzels and Keebler Bug Bites, loaded with sippy cup and a single serving of Horizon Chocolate milk (I wish Costco would sell the Horizon milk sans cocoa!).

Anyways, we were just leaving Pete's, putting together the game plan for the afternoon before Thanksgiving week, and whoa! A BIG, RED FIRE TRUCK was parked right next to our car! TJ's eyes of course was as wide as saucers when he shrieked, "FIRE TRUCK! LOOK DADDY, A FIRE TRUUUUUUCCKK!".

There weren't any firemen around, so we quickly took a walk around the fire truck to check it out, hurrying in case they came back and had to drive away.

When suddenly, a tall, very friendly, very smiley fireman walked towards us and said, "Hi!" .. and even picked TJ up, so that we could take a picture. But, what was totally cool was that another fireman returned to join in and together, they offered to give us, and another pre-school passerby, a private tour of all the cool gear and equipment on the fire truck.

One by one, the firemen proceeded to open up ALL the doors and drawers on all sides of the the vehicle and show us all the gear (yes, even the jaws of life)! TJ's was so transfixed, I knew he was in fire truck heaven.

Maybe a tour of the fire truck at a firestation would have been expected, but out in a parking lot, two firemen and later, a fire captain, gave two boys a hands on presentation. I wish you were there to hear how kind and patient they were to explain what everything was to the two eager beavers.

After some time, we heard someone call to the firemen through the dispatch radio, and after a quick goodbye and few thank you's, they were off on their working Sunday.

Seeing the twinkle in TJ's eyes as he giggled back in his car seat, I turned around and thought, Wouldn't you know it. Right here, in Silicon Valley, my little boy just got a hug from Palo Alto's neighborhood heroes. Just like I'm sure Opie did, in Mayberry, on any given day.

Here's a shout out & special thanks to Palo Alto Firemen C. Stewart and S. Woodfin, as well as Fire Captain J. Amdur (From the Fire Supppression Divsion)!

Cross-posted on Silicon Valley Moms Blog, where Bonnie writes about on-the-go life in Silicon Valley, CA.