Title: MAC Truck 2
General Information:
- Place of collection: Hanover Fire Department – Hanover, NH
- Date of Collection: November 6, 2019
- Informant: Joe Amato
- Genre: Customary Folklore – Superstition
Informant Information:
Joe Amato is a firefighter for the Hanover, New Hampshire fire department. He is currently 27 years old and lives in Hanover. However, Joe was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. He currently holds the title of firefighter at the Hanover Fire Department. Also, at age 27, Joe is the youngest firefighter currently a part of the Hanover Fire Department.
Context:
At any point in time, the Hanover Fire Department has various trucks parked in the station. According to them, the presence of a truck that has been recently involved in fighting a fire (or a truck that has been on many calls since they got it) increases the likelihood that they will have to go out on a call. One of the trucks in their garage is relatively old, MAC Truck 2, and they believe that the sheer number of fires that the truck has been involved with increases the likelihood of them receiving a call.
Item:
If there is a certain truck parked in the station, they are more likely to receive a call about a fire.
Associated Image:
Meaning and Interpretation:
The fact that the firetruck has been involved with many fires makes the firefighters fearful that it will soon, again, be involved in more fires. This fear has led to the creation of a superstition. Further, it appears that the law of similarity is at play in this situation because they believe that like produces like. In other words, the sheer fact of being involved in a fire makes the likelihood of another fire higher.
Informant’s Comments:
Our informant, Joe, being fairly new to the department was at first skeptical of this superstition. However, upon being a member of the group for a much longer period of time he grew to understand the truth behind this superstition. Joe was also one of the informants who tended to have multiple superstitions and rituals, hence why he might have been more susceptible to this example as well.
Collector’s Comments:
It is interesting to hear that a certain truck would be associated with more calls and more emergencies to deal with. I am also wondering if they might think this just because that is what has been said around the firehouse, thus they associate those calls more vividly in their minds than other calls.
Collector’s Name: Sam Wilson, Albie Austin and Ben Martin
Tags:
- Truck, Superstition, Fire