Personal Narrative-'The Drowning Of Fred'
The Drowning of Fred
Looking back now, it was all quite hilarious, but at the time, I was in a state of sheer panic. It all began late on Saturday evening when I was doing the routine check of the old boiler furnace in our Elliot Street residence in Saskatoon. We had a suite on the middle floor of a three-story rooming house owned by the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad. Rent was dirt cheap, but there was a long string attached and that was the care of “Old Fred.” the ancient boiler furnace in the basement. In the winter, Fred had to be topped up to the full level every three or four days. The College could not see its way clear to install an automatic water level control and so …show more content…
In the meanwhile, I had to drain him and dress him, if his machete insulation would stick together again. His drain tap had no threads so I could not use a garden hose. Opening, the tap to its full capacity, I literally ran back and forth with buckets of water to the sewer. hole. Three hours later, I stood exhausted, sopping wet with sweat as the last pail of water brought Fred back to operating level just as the Gas man arrived. I always wondered why there were such large holes in the plaster around the water pipe holes next to the registrars and I would soon find out.” As Fred reheated, he developed air locks and releases and when these made their way up through the pipes, the registrars on the floors above literally jumped off the floor! Everybody arrived home after church to a house that was more alive with bangs and reverberations than we could have ever imagined. It was like living in a sauna, the humidity was so high in the whole house that the floors and stairs no longer creaked. Everything was swollen and tight. While all this was going on, I patiently persevered in the redressing of Fred with fistful after fistful of paper machete insulation. The sweat poured off both of us! Finally Fred came to his full stature, more portly than ever with a slight lean to the right. He was a work of desperation and
Looking back now, it was all quite hilarious, but at the time, I was in a state of sheer panic. It all began late on Saturday evening when I was doing the routine check of the old boiler furnace in our Elliot Street residence in Saskatoon. We had a suite on the middle floor of a three-story rooming house owned by the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad. Rent was dirt cheap, but there was a long string attached and that was the care of “Old Fred.” the ancient boiler furnace in the basement. In the winter, Fred had to be topped up to the full level every three or four days. The College could not see its way clear to install an automatic water level control and so …show more content…
In the meanwhile, I had to drain him and dress him, if his machete insulation would stick together again. His drain tap had no threads so I could not use a garden hose. Opening, the tap to its full capacity, I literally ran back and forth with buckets of water to the sewer. hole. Three hours later, I stood exhausted, sopping wet with sweat as the last pail of water brought Fred back to operating level just as the Gas man arrived. I always wondered why there were such large holes in the plaster around the water pipe holes next to the registrars and I would soon find out.” As Fred reheated, he developed air locks and releases and when these made their way up through the pipes, the registrars on the floors above literally jumped off the floor! Everybody arrived home after church to a house that was more alive with bangs and reverberations than we could have ever imagined. It was like living in a sauna, the humidity was so high in the whole house that the floors and stairs no longer creaked. Everything was swollen and tight. While all this was going on, I patiently persevered in the redressing of Fred with fistful after fistful of paper machete insulation. The sweat poured off both of us! Finally Fred came to his full stature, more portly than ever with a slight lean to the right. He was a work of desperation and