1) My mom, for a long time, had to get up at 4 AM for work. So, one morning, about 4:15, she walks into the kitchen as I enter the house through the kitchen door. Her radar goes up, wondering where my 16 year old self has been and she questions me. "At a fire" I tell her (I was a volunteer firefighter). She sniffs my clothing and says unconvincingly, "You smell like fire."
"It was your best friend's house" I added, "so she'll be late for work this morning, and there's more, but I'll let her tell you."
When we rolled up, my mom's bestie came running out of her house while pulling on her shirt. Right behind her was the boss from my summer job. He was pulling up his pants. They were both married, but not to each other. My summer job was as a groundskeeper at the county courthouse. When I got to work, my boss said, in his southern drawl "You know, you been working hard outside in the heat. Why don't you come inside and work in the A.C. today?" When my mom got home from work she was totally amused and she told me they had lit candles for romance, but in the heat of the moment.....
2) Starting from very young, my brother and I had a recycling business. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, we would get up early and go through the trash cans of the many bars in town (aluminum cans and certain bottles). So, one Saturday morning, we were up at 8 and ready to leave the house when the siren (mounted in the town's water tower) went off. We grabbed our jackets, got our bikes off of the front porch and got to the sidewalk. Trucks were already rolling (WTF? why were firemen at the station at 8 AM?). Fortunately, the fire was only four blocks away.
We got to the house (which had a HUGE plate glass window in front and the curtain was open because of a Christmas tree-this is important later). My gear was stowed in a compartment adjacent to the rear wheel well. I put on my gear, grabbed a hose and got to the front door of the house. This house had a false ceiling and there was A LOT of smoke at the ceiling level. One of the firefighters went to the truck and got a pike. He started poking the ceiling. Suddenly, the entire ceiling collapsed. The next few minutes were VERY interesting.
My mom got home from at 2:30, as usual. As she walked in the house we were seated at the dining room table and she asked how our day went. Before I could get a word out, my brother says "We went to a house fire, the roof caved in and he was nearly killed. It was soooo cool!!" My poor mother. The color left her face and she leaned against the table so that she wouldn't collapse. I figured things wouldn't end well, so I just got up and went to my room.
She finally addressed the elephant in the room six months later, saying "The only reason I let you go to these fires is because I know these men protect you."