Those who know our family know that we have one boy who has not outgrown this fascination, and much to his delight, he has found others who also have not outgrown their passion. As a kid, I loved poking around construction sites, picking up the odd cut-off and nail; what freedom to be able to walk into a hardware store as an adult and buy whole sheets of plywood (and the truck to carry them in). And so it is with the Irish Fire Service Preservation Group, a group dedicated to the rescue, restoration, and preservation of the Irish fire service heritage. A noble statement for a group of fellows who get together to play with old fire trucks--that they own.
Their big (a relative term) gathering of the year, in nearby Athy, is called the Pumpathon. Members of the group gather with whatever equipment is actually running (or can be pushed), chuck their hoses into the river at Barrow Quay and start pumping. There's no fee to attend, and we discovered there's no advertising for the event either: this is a participatory event, where everyone gets their hands dirty and/or wet.
Which meant that this was pretty much the high point of our stay for a certain young man, who went to bed that night with a big grin on his face. "What a day!"
