I DO appreciate that very much!  When I was growing up I always thought the firemen were so special.... now that I live among them I know that they are just people from every walk of life (the same worries and problems)  but I still think that children should see them as someone they can trust, maybe even a little bigger than life, because I think most of us want to believe there's someone like that in times of trouble. So I try to conduct myself that way, I'm tough on the other guys when I think they slip up (we too often do) and I expect the same from them.
I love it when the kids come to the station and when we go to the schools... I'll never forget the firemen around the corner when I was a kid!

Manning