I still remember those seafoam-green fire hydrants from my childhood summers on Cape Cod—how much more pacifying than the red ones in my hometown! For me, the fire hydrants were decorative like silk flowers. I could pass them and not fret about whether the knobs on the oven had been turned to Off. I could stub my candy cigarettes out in the leaves and not worry about forest fires.
It wasn’t until I began scrolling through a Wikipedia thread I realized fire hydrant color schemes are not stylistic. The color of a fire hydrant, depending on the community in which it’s is found, will tell you how much water it can spray, if the water is potable or non-potable, or if it’s public or private. Whatever the criteria, I hope it makes for a pretty color scheme.
The Minnesota Review 