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Re: It started with an unexpected phone call...



Date sent:              Mon, 5 Nov 2001 16:00:58 EST
Send reply to:          FHHodges@AOL.COM
From:                   Holly Hodges <FHHodges@AOL.COM>
Subject:                It started with an unexpected phone call...
To:                     ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU

as I was outlining a response to the query re: archives of the parishes in
the Netherlands.  I may actually write it later.  But the phone rang.  Did my
replacement contact arrive?  It's only been six weeks now and surely it has
to arrive sometime.  Alas, it was not alerting me to the arrival of my
contact.  The recorded message did alert me, however.  "There is a fire at
the Madison Heights Library.  Repeat.  There is a fire at the Madison Heights
Library..."

I should mention that the Madison Heights Library is about all of a block and
a half away from the house I'm living in.  The message doesn't tell me what
to do (do they call everyone in the vicinity when something like this
happens, to warn them of possible evacuation?  Do I just make sure that my
car isn't blocking firetrucks?  I'm on a cul-de-sac and surely they don't
need me to clear the driveway.)

So I decide to send a quick email to Mom in Massachusetts because she'd want
to know.  The family is close to the library literally and figuratively since
both my mother and sister have been branch mangers there at various times
over the last twenty-five years.  And I power down the computers (I had Mom's
was turned on, too).

Off I drive to the big K-Mart parking lot which is shared with several
businesses in the shopping center--one of them being the library, a
stand-alone building.  I've written disaster and recovery plans and I thought
I'd let them know I'd be willing to help with whatever.  I'm puzzled.
There's no smoke.  There's no firetrucks.  No one to tell me not to get near
the building.  No huddle of library employees standing on the lawn in front
of the building.  So I walk in.  There's no sign saying they're temporarily
closed, and no firechief to tell me to get out.

I walk up to the circulation desk, quite perplexed now, because the staff are
just checking books in and out.  No commotion.  I offer the comment "I take
it the fire was easily contained."

The (current) branch manager looks up.

"How did you know about that?"

I respond with the (reasonable?) explanation.  "I got a phone call telling me
the library was on fire."

We are both very puzzled; but for different reasons.

She wants to know who I am.  I want to know what happened to the fire.

My question was answered quickly.  There was no fire; it was a fals alarm.

Why I got a phone call was trickier.  The new branch manager didn't know me.
My last name didn't match mine or my sister's.  I also don't look like my
mother or my sister.  (Sis resembles Mom; I resemble Daddy).  But I am living
in Mom's house and I use Mom's phone.  The fire alarm system was put in over
fifteen years ago and before 911.  So any emergency was automatically phoned
to Mom, then the appropriate contact person.

The branch manager and I introduced ourselves.  By the the assistant manager
came over.  She had worked with my sister about ten years ago and remembered
her personally.  (I tend to be "in and out" of the area so they never really
knew me.)

We had a good laugh and I went home to call Mom -- on her phone -- and let
her know that the email was a fals alarm.  And of course then she asked about
my contact and eyeglass shopping expedition with my sister this afternoon.

But that's another story.

The moral of this story is really a question:
When was the last time you updated your emergency contact phone list?  Check
your disaster/recovery plan.


Holly Hodges
just about a block and a half from my local public library.  Which isn't
burning.

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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>