The Slice: In terrifying moment, they both kept cool

Brenda Buckles told of a time when her daughter made her proud. It was just a couple of weeks ago.

“Jaime (age 22) was walking her dog over to a friend’s house just after dark. When she got to Boone and Maple Street she saw a dark shape in the road. At first she couldn’t make out what it was, but then in the lights of the cars coming up the hill from the bridge she could see that it was a toddler. My daughter dashed across two lanes of oncoming traffic and snatched the baby from danger.”

Not knowing what to do at that point, Jaime then called her mother.

“I only live a few blocks away and I jumped into my car.”

But by the time Brenda got there, the toddler’s parents had discovered that he was missing and found him being watched over by Jaime and her dog.

“My daughter not only saved the life of that child but also saved his entire family from the worst day of their lives.”

And while we’re handing out high-fives, Brenda has one more.

“Another amazing thing about this story is that Jaime’s dog, Cassini, followed the command to stay and sat calmly on the sidewalk while Jaime made her mad dash.”

Good dog. I’ll bet Cassini is proud of Jaime, too.

Cigarette smoke and the teachers’ lounges of yesteryear: “In one of the schools in which I taught it was called the blue room,” wrote Shirley Williams.

And Sally Stratton remembered, “The teachers’ lounge was so smoke-filled that to just get a cup of coffee and go right back out, my clothes reeked of smoke.”

In lieu of a chicken in every pot: The recent conversation about sixth grade classmates prompted Laura Braniff to recall that she lost a school election to a boy who promised that chocolate milk would come out of the drinking fountains. “My political career ended there.”

Rolling stock: Pullman’s Bill Brock and a neighbor once moved a lawn mower and barbecue grill to his nearby new house by pushing them, side by side, up the middle of the street. Looking like refugees “in search of suburbia.”

Today’s Slice question: How soon after the apple left your hand did you realize throwing it had been a mistake?