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| Dunk tank duty raised money for good cause |
I made a big splash in Merrionette Park on Sunday. No, I mean that literally--a big splash.
That's what happens when a 230-pound tub of lard is dropped suddenly into a six-foot tub of water.
Ker-SPLOOSH!
Actually, it was more like 50 to 100 big splashes in an hour, I'd estimate, but who can count when they're spitting out water.
Yes, I let the firemen have their fun Sunday by taking my turn in the dunk tank at the 5th Annual Bucks for Burn Camp fund-raiser at 115 Bourbon Street.
Don't tell any of them, but I had fun, too.
The truth is that I've always been fascinated by dunk tanks.
I can remember the mouthy carnival barkers egging on the young guys, trying to show them up in front of their girlfriends, and the madder the guys got, the more difficult it became to hit the bull's- eye.
And the way I remember the bull's-eye is that it was out at the end of a long pole, and when you hit it right, there would be a groaning squeak as it swung open and released the catch under the seat, and then--ker-splash.
The mouthy guy would hit the water and act really mad about it so you'd spend more money to try to get him again.
For some strange reason, I always identified more with the guy getting dunked than the ones throwing the ball.
And so, I was only too happy to make good on my offer to get dunked to raise money for a firefighters charity, an offer I made last summer after the flap over my column about the Chicago engine company filling the swimming pool.
That doesn't mean I wasn't feeling a little anxiety as I climbed the ladder to assume the position on the end of a short board.
My biggest concern was that when I sat down, my entire head was sticking out above the plastic protective netting that I thought was supposed to keep the throws from directly hitting the guy in the dunk tank.
This concern was lessened when I saw they were going to throw tennis balls, although I got worried again when I saw how fast some of them were throwing.
To help stir up interest, they had circulated a flier with my photo and some of the questions I posed in last week's column, such as, '"How many firefighters does it take to fill a swimming pool?'"
This served the intended purpose of finding a quantity of people willing to pay $5 for three shots at making me sputter. They even held a raffle for the honor of being the first to dunk me.
The first guy missed, to his lasting disappointment.
But Ed Gill, an engineer with Engine Company 47 at 67th and Vernon, broke the tension moments later by sending me under the water for the first of what would be many times. (The water wasn't very cold, and it wasn't very deep.)
Ed said he remembered the swimming pool story and had been disappointed when he wasn't chosen to go first.
As it turned out, nobody threw at me directly, although I could tell a few were tempted.
Foremost among these was Chicago Firefighters Union President James McNally, who was so happy to get in his licks that he plunked down $20.
At first, McNally couldn't back up his bluster, his aim perhaps hampered by the long cigar in his mouth. But then his luck turned, and he dropped me seven times in a row.
It wasn't until I was climbing the ladder after the seventh throw, a soft hook shot that went nowhere near the bull's-eye, that I realized the dunk tank operator was putting in the fix. In this dunk tank, the bull's-eye was hidden from the view of the person sitting in the tank. You never knew you were going to fall until you did.
In the same vein, when Fire Commissioner James Joyce, who last year called my story '"stupid,'" managed to connect on all three of his throws. I noticed that one of them '"connected'" before the ball reached the target.
Who would believe such a thing?
Favoritism in the Chicago Fire Department.
But this was a day for the Chicago Fire Department at its best, exemplified by Tom Taff, a firefighter with Truck 50 at 81st and Ashland, the event's organizer.
Taff said he was hoping to raise $100,000 during the weekend. The money is used to send child burn victims to a special one-week summer camp. Taff learned about the camp after being hospitalized for burns he suffered while fighting a fire, the part of a firefighter's job that sets them apart from the rest of us.
At one point in the afternoon, after my splashes had reduced the water level by about a foot, Taff recruited the Merrionette Park Fire Department to send over a pumper truck and aim a hose in my direction, but only as a joke.
Everybody was very nice to me, which wasn't necessarily what I expected.
And just in case there is still any doubt about what kind of a guy I am, if I ever get another tip about a swimming pool being filled by a fire engine, I'll be right back out there.
We all have jobs to do.
E-mail: markbrown@suntimes.com
Copyright The Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved. |
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