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Fire Hydrants Should Be Red
September 28, 2008
Some things we just know by association, like green means go and school buses are yellow and blinking red lights mean trouble. These are references we learned as children and they are nigh unto sacred. So what’s up with people who change these kinds of things? Did they just get bored with the familiarity or do they have some sick sense of humor that gleefully looks forward to watching people with dazed and confused looks on their faces?
I remember when the town I lived in started sounding the fire siren at noon every day. It had been announced in the paper in some tiny-print ad buried between tuna salad recipes and theatre schedules. Had they really wanted people to see it, it should have been strategically placed between the obituaries and the police blotter (it was a small town). Needless to say there were a lot of people who hadn’t read the notice and were convinced our cloudless summer sky was about to spout a toranado or fighter planes would soon be descending on our little city. You just can’t go upsetting the status quo without getting people in a tizzy.
Think about fire hydrants — when I was a kid, they were red, every last one of them. Now the color of a fire hydrant is really of no great significance to me, but think about it from a dog’s perspective. When you learn to lift your leg at a red iron thing on the street corner, it must be really confusing when some overzealous city engineer comes around and paints them all yellow during the night. And just recently I have seen a blue fire hydrant, what is this rainbow thing happening with fire hydrants?
Posted by Deb
Topics: perceptions