I almost learned the hard way about visible house numbers.

Several years ago we had overnight guests. When I handed one a cup of espresso in the morning, he took a single sip, turned gray, and collapsed on the floor.

All I could think was "heart attack", although I'm not a trained EMT, and didn't know the exact signs. But I did know what to do. I immediately called 911, gave the operator full information (starting with our address), and stayed on the line until she said it was okay to hang up.

Then I counted the seconds. I knew that the Peaks Island police would have to go back to their station, pick up the ambulence, and drive to our house ... but that shouldn't take long. Why no ambulance? It turns out that the ambulance was there, driving up and down our street looking for #10. Most of the officers probably knew our house and knew us, but not this pair.

That was our lesson, and now there's a big #10 on the side of our house. By the way, it turned out that our friend did not have a heart attack, regained his color just as the officers did come in, and appeared to be fine during his examination at Maine Med.

What made me think of this story was my experience last night, as my wife and I went canvassing for our candidates of choice. We had been given a list of specific addresses to visit (not just all houses on certain streets), but were able to identify only about half of them in the dark. Some had only tiny numbers, and many had no numbers at all. Others had large metal numbers that had been painted over, so that they were almost invisible.

We're lucky that Portland has well trained teams of EMT's, ready to come help us at a moment's notice. Do your part and PUT A CLEARLY VISIBLE HOUSE NUMBER IN FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE, WHERE IT CAN EASILY BE SEEN. Think of that emergency moment, and how important it is that emergency workers be able to come right to your door as quickly as possible.

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