One dark night in a small town in New Jersey, a fire started inside the local sausage factory.
As happens all too often with building fires, in the blink of an eye the building was completely engulfed in flames.
The alarm went out to all the fire departments in the New Jersey towns for miles around.
When the first volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the sausage company president rushed to the fire chief and said, “All of our secret sausage recipes are in the vault in the center of the plant. Please, I beg you, they must be saved. I will donate $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out and delivers them to me”.
The firemen attempted to get inside the factory and rescue the secret sausage recipes, however the roaring flames were too much for them and held the firefighters off.
Soon more fire departments had to be called in to assist in fighting the fire, because the situation became desperate.
As the firemen arrived, the sausage factory president shouted out that the offer to the fire crew that saved the secret recipes was now $100,000.
More fire crews tried to enter the building and rescue the secret sausage recipes, but each time the intensity of the fire drove them back.
Suddenly, from up the road, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight.
As the fire truck came around the bend, everyone could see it was the old fire truck of the nearby Garfied, New Jersey volunteer fire department, which was composed mainly of Italian firefighters, all of who were over the age of 65.
To everyone’s amazement, the little old fire truck, operated by these Italian firefighters, passed the other fire trucks that were parked outside the plant, and drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
Outside, the other firemen watched in amazement as the Italian old timers jumped off the fire truck and began to fight the fire with a performance that was as if they were fighting to save their own lives.
Within a short time, the Garfield old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret sausage recipes.
The grateful sausage company president joyfully announced that for such a superhuman accomplishment he was going to increase the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave elderly Italian firefighters.
A television news crew rushed in, having captured the whole event on film.
The reporter asked the Italian fire chief, “What are you going to do with all that money?”
“Wella”, said Chief Pasquale De Luccinellavanti, the 70-year-old fire chief, “de fursta tinga we gonnna do isza fixa uppa de brakes on dat freakina truck!!”
Image used under a Collective Commons License from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_Truck_of_Belleville,_NJ_-_panoramio.jpg
