{"id":92271,"date":"2025-12-11T08:30:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T15:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=92271"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:47:07","slug":"call-the-fire-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=92271","title":{"rendered":"Call The Fire Department!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Christmas Memories: <\/b>Dad was the General Manager of a 13-store dime-store chain called “Ralph’s\u00a0 5, 10, and 25 Cent Stores”.\u00a0 Dad and the boss, Ralph David Lebowitz, shared the chain’s buying responsibilities.\u00a0 \u00a0They went to wholesalers’ warehouses to make their purchases, and over the years, friendships formed.<\/p>\n

One Christmas, Dad received a wooden box about 2’x2’x2′ which came from Texas.\u00a0 Inside the box were many Texas Grapefruits packed in natural shredded wood excelsior.<\/p>\n

Wood wool, known primarily as excelsior in North America, is a product made of wood slivers cut from logs.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In the past, people used as stuffing or padding in upholstery or to fill stuffed toys.\u00a0 It is also sometimes used by taxidermists to construct the armatures of taxidermy mounts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This type of flammable packaging was widely used before OSHA provided rules and guidelines for its continued use.<\/p>\n

We took out the grapefruit, and there was an ugly box next to the tree.\u00a0 Dad had a brainstorm, put the entire box in the fireplace, and it will be gone.\u00a0 \u00a0I can almost hear Mom saying, “Paul, I think that it s too big to burn in the fireplace!\u00a0 The warning was not headed.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Old Smokey was still in the back yard, but we could not use it.<\/p><\/div>\n

The box barely fit, and then came the “fun”.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Flames were shooting out of the fireplace, lapping over the mantle and almost reaching the ceiling.<\/p>\n

\"\"

No one yelled, “Get the marshmallows!”<\/p><\/div>\n

The smoke was so thick, we ran for the kitchen to get water; Dad ran for the garden hose just outside the door.\u00a0 The smoke was as thick as molasses.<\/p>\n

Splish, splash, and a tragedy was barely averted.\u00a0 I do not know what Mom said to Dad, but Dad looked down the rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Yes, we had to paint the room, and it took weeks to get the burnt smell from the carpets.\u00a0 I think Mom washed the drapes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Today is crazy.\u00a0 We are going for FOUR SEPARATE EVENTS in one day!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Noon – Girl’s Night Out<\/li>\n
  2. 2 pm – Robin Christmas Party, Seal Beach<\/li>\n
  3. 4 pm – Robert’s Packhard Christmas Party at the shop!<\/li>\n
  4. 6 pm – Lumeryard dinner with Vicky and Kim & The Laguna Playhouse For Snow White Christmas<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Noon:\u00a0<\/strong> We are off to the Elks, where we arrive at noon to celebrate friendships.\u00a0 It was a good session, and Mary picked out a box of Peanut Brittle (which Bob enjoys and Donna won’t buy) and presented it to him!<\/p>\n

    2025-12-11 (Thursday Noon) Elks Girls Night Out<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"

    DO NOT break a tooth!!!<\/p><\/div>\n

    2:00 pm: <\/strong>We crossed town and headed to Seal Beach and Marnie’s Bar and Grill for a Boeing Christmas Party.\u00a0 We did not know but one person (other than Robin), so we talked to him for a while.\u00a0 We had a drink and took some pictures.<\/p>\n

    2025-12-11 (Thursday 2:00 pm) Robin’s Boeing Party<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"

    Great fun!!<\/p><\/div>\n

    4:00 pm:<\/strong> Packard International OC Christmas Party was at the Escalante Garage on French Street in Santa Ana.\u00a0 \u00a0We visited with friends and then toured the shop, gazing at the majestic machines undergoing restoration.<\/p>\n

    2025-12-11 (Thursday 4:00 pm) Packard Shop Christmas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"

    We met up with Dianne and Fast Eddie<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"

    My dream car: a 1955 Packard Caribbean Convertible.<\/p><\/div>\n

    6:00 pm:<\/strong> The Lumberyard Restaurant in Laguna & The Laguna Playhouse was our next target.\u00a0 \u00a0We arrived a little late because Paul missed a turnoff, but Vicky placed our dinner order after our phone call.\u00a0 Dinner was great, but we were happy we departed for the playhouse a little early.\u00a0 It was a two-block walk, and we arrived about two minutes after the play had started.\u00a0 Someone (Paul) had the wrong times.\u00a0 \u00a0Mary gave me a tutorial on the big hand and little hand on clocks; I will NOT make that mistake again!<\/p>\n

    2025-12-11 (Thursday) Dinner & Snow White Christmas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"

    “What do you mean we are late???
    “<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    It was close to 11:00 am when we arrived back at the ranch!\u00a0 The Silver Fox was ready to lie down for the evening after trotting 200 miles across Orange County.\u00a0 \u00a0We felt the same.\u00a0 Mary was asleep before I even got to bed.<\/p>\n

    \"\"

    Paul will be dreaming about “driving” all night long!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Christmas Memories: Dad was the General Manager of a 13-store dime-store chain called “Ralph’s\u00a0 5, 10, and 25 Cent Stores”.\u00a0 Dad and the boss, Ralph David Lebowitz, shared the chain’s buying responsibilities.\u00a0 \u00a0They went to wholesalers’ warehouses to make their … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,17,234],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elks","category-friends","category-memories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92271"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92325,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92271\/revisions\/92325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}