Call The Fire Department!

Christmas Memories: Dad was the General Manager of a 13-store dime-store chain called “Ralph’s  5, 10, and 25 Cent Stores”.  Dad and the boss, Ralph David Lebowitz, shared the chain’s buying responsibilities.   They went to wholesalers’ warehouses to make their purchases, and over the years, friendships formed.

One Christmas, Dad received a wooden box about 2’x2’x2′ which came from Texas.  Inside the box were many Texas Grapefruits packed in natural shredded wood excelsior.

Wood wool, known primarily as excelsior in North America, is a product made of wood slivers cut from logs.  Excelisor was mainly used in packaging, for cooling pads in home evaporative cooling systems (swamp coolers), for erosion control mats, and as a raw material for the production of other products, such as bonded wood wool boards.  In the past, people used as stuffing or padding in upholstery or to fill stuffed toys.  It is also sometimes used by taxidermists to construct the armatures of taxidermy mounts.

This type of flammable packaging was widely used before OSHA provided rules and guidelines for its continued use.

We took out the grapefruit, and there was an ugly box next to the tree.  Dad had a brainstorm, put the entire box in the fireplace, and it will be gone.   I can almost hear Mom saying, “Paul, I think that it s too big to burn in the fireplace!  The warning was not headed.

In the “old days, before 1955, we would have taken the box outside and used our incinerator, but in 1955, LA County banned incinerators, so Dad needed a plan!

Old Smokey was still in the back yard, but we could not use it.

The box barely fit, and then came the “fun”.  Dad lit a match, and the box burst into flames; did I say “burst?” The excelisor caught first, and it was like a forest fire.  Flames were shooting out of the fireplace, lapping over the mantle and almost reaching the ceiling.

No one yelled, “Get the marshmallows!”

The smoke was so thick, we ran for the kitchen to get water; Dad ran for the garden hose just outside the door.  The smoke was as thick as molasses.

Splish, splash, and a tragedy was barely averted.  I do not know what Mom said to Dad, but Dad looked down the rest of the day.

Yes, we had to paint the room, and it took weeks to get the burnt smell from the carpets.  I think Mom washed the drapes.