Gage and I spent some time remembering his trip to Appleton, WI. He had just turned four but I can tell from his stories that, to him, the trip is as fresh as yesterday in his memory.
Picked up at the airport in an aerial truck decalled with gold-leaf lettering that spelled "Gage Fire Department", he rode all over Appleton like a King all weekend in his very own Pierce fire truck.
Meeting the president of the company, Gage shook hands and looked him straight in the eye. The president was a good five inches taller than Austin's 6'2" frame and both men looked at each other after Gage's mastered maturity-- he said to Austin, "My teenagers don't have a handshake as good as your son's!" (That alone, I hope, made the president even more convinced that their kindness was well worth the expenses!)
A camera crew followed us all weekend and probably the biggest event (if we had to name 'the' biggest) was venturing through the 'finish' room. Once the double doors opened up to a factory room the size of two or three gymnasiums and Gage saw first hand dozens of brand new Pierce fire trucks almost ready to be picked up by firemen across the country, he couldn't stand still! All the workers were lining the aisle, all the firetrucks had their lights on, and one huge banner hung from the ceiling: Pierce Manufacturing Welcomes Gage Cable!
He shook hands with each and every one of those men and women and each one was so eager to talk about the piece of equipment that they had built. We learned at Pierce that a team is assigned to each truck and that team starts and finishes the truck... so they are very proud and very connected to their equipment.
Gage visited the decal room, the paint room, the chasis section... and well, he actually just got an entire VIP showing of the entire process of how a Pierce Fire Truck is made--start to finish. Each department that we visited had made a token for Gage. He has everything from a license plate with gold-leaf letters that spell his name to a real truck decal that is only placed on the equipment that is for Washington D.C. (we had it professionally framed and it is a huge piece of artwork in his room). He has a Pierce medallion only given to the best of the best VIPs. He was allowed to pick out anything he wanted from the gift shop and Pierce mailed everything home to us-- it arrived in FOUR boxes!
One thing that really struck a chord in him was the Airport Truck, operating a military fire truck with the controls that are on the inside of the cab (it was like playing a video game and it was awesome!), and riding 100 feet into the air on an aerial truck. He got to practice putting out a fire at the foam station and he was man of the hour at the Pierce open house for employees that took place on our second day there.
.... I still tear up thinking about how one request I put into Poppy for tracking down some old calendars so I could use the pictures as decorations at his birthday party turned into a trip of a lifetime to Pierce headquarters.
Every once in awhile he asks about going back to Appleton and often he talks about when 'he works for Pierce'
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