Sam was in a jam, the kind of predicament that can happen innocently enough to a 2-year-old and then follow him for the rest of his life.
On a trip Friday afternoon to the Mill Mountain Star, Sam Kinsey checked out the view by sticking his head through the metal slats of a fence that surrounds the overlook platform.
“I was standing there reading the plaque, and he was right next to me, and…all of a sudden there he went,” said Sam’s mom, Jacqueline Kinsey.
Sam was stuck, his head wedged between the two slats.
His mom tried to pull him out. Sam started to fidget, but he kept his cool.
A crowd gathered. A man pulled out his home video camera. Someone called 911. Fire trucks responded with lights flashing. The media showed up. The crowd grew larger.
And Sam just stood there, calmly looking at the Roanoke Valley for perhaps longer than any 2-year-old ever has.
First they greased his neck with petroleum jelly and tried to pull him out.
No dice. Then they called for the jaws of life.
The motorized device, usually employed to extract victims from car wrecks, did the trick – prying the bars just far enough apart for Sam to slip out.
Unharmed and unfazed by his 45-minute ordeal, Sam headed straight for a box of Oreo cookies.
“Firetruck!” he said excitedly, looking at the flashing lights. “What a way to see a firetruck, huh?” said Kinsey, who was about as good-natured about the whole thing as Sam. “He’s a typical little boy, but he’s never done anything like this,” she said.
As they prepared to go home to Boones Mill, Kinsey put Sam in a stroller. A departing rescue worker had some advice for Sam. “You might want to stay where you’re at,” he said.
Sam smiled sweetly.