First Day on the Fire Department

I reported to the Fire Department Academy which was adjacent to Fire Headquarters.  There were12 candidates to begin.  One quit when we began climbing ladders.  One man went all through training and was accepted to a firehouse.  He finished his college education and, after 2 years, quit the job to take a teaching position.  Out of the remaining 10, 2 eventually became Assistant Chiefs, 2 Captains, and 5 Lieutenants.  One man didn’t want the responsibilities of an officer so he never took any promotion exams. 

When I graduated from the Fire Academy, we were told that each of us could pick 2 firehouses that they would like to go to.  They guaranteed that you would get one of your choices – all except me.  The Assistant Chief found out that I grew up, and still lived, 3 blocks from fire station #11.  That was to be my assignment.  It was really great for me.  My Dad had retired the summer before I went into the Fire Department and he sold his house to my sister with one stipulation – I came with the house.  

My parents moved to Florida in July of 1964.  That following summer, I was still in on the house in the Hamptons except that now I worked shifts and most weekends.  I went out there mostly during the week, but it was pretty quiet then.  The weekends were the real party time.  Sometimes 200 people would show up – we would hire a band and have a great time.  Usually the police would show up about 1:00 AM and shut us down because of the town noise ordinance.  With that many people, there was usually some repair work to be done afterwards.  I made a deal with my friends that, if I could use the house for free during my off time, I would repair any damage that was done to the house.  It was a done deal.  I did this for the next 3 years.  Almost all of the 15 guys who started going to the Hamptons were still there 10 years later.  But most of us were now in our early 30s and one by one they were getting married and not returning. 

I had been on the Fire Department for 9 months and it was the middle of November.  An Assistant Chief made rounds every morning.  At roll call one day he told me he wanted to speak to me.  I was really starting to like this job and hoped that I hadn’t screwed something up.  The Chief said that I didn’t take my vacation for that year and time was running out.  Since I had one more day on my day shift, he said tomorrow is your last day.  You go on vacation and take your 4 personal days for this year.  Come back on January 3^rd.  

I called my Dad in Florida and asked if I could come down for my vacation.  He said sure, but I didn’t tell him how long I would be there.  I saved that until after he picked me up at the airport.  

We all had a nice welcome drink around the kitchen table.  My Mom worked every day so my Dad loved having me there for company.  He loved to go fishing.  We would go 2 or 3 times a week.  I felt bad about how long I was there, so I took my folks out to dinner whenever they would agree to go – which wasn’t very often.  I trimmed all of their trees, painted the trim on their house.  I said to my Dad that I never thought I would see the day when he would have a house with pink trim.  He assured me that it wasn’t pink – it was “coral.”  It sure looked like pink to me.  

The roof on their house was cement tile.  I had to bleach it first and then paint it with a mixture of this white powder (I think it was pulverized sea shells) and water.  The paint store gave you very dark plastic eye glasses that you had to wear over regular sunglasses to protect your eyes from the glare.  

It was great to have Thanksgiving and Christmas with my folks.  I flew back to NY on January 2^nd and reported for duty on the 3^rd.  The Assistant Chief told me that since I was junior man in the firehouse, I had to take whatever vacation was left after the other men had picked.  I asked exactly when that would be – he said I started on January 5^th and reported back on March 24^th.  I called my Dad and asked if I could come back for my next vacation.  He agreed.  

This time I showed up with a 5 pound block of frozen shrimp in my suitcase.  My Mom didn’t like seafood at all and wouldn’t let my Dad cook fish or shrimp in her kitchen.  I told him not to worry – I would cook the whole 5 lbs. of shrimp in the morning after Mom left for work.  We opened all the windows, turned on all the fans and sprayed the kitchen with Lysol.  I did that and then froze half of the cooked shrimp.  We had shrimp cocktail every night for a week. Whenever we went fishing, I would cook the fish on his outdoor grill – the thought that was a great idea. 

On one of our day trips on a drift boat out in the ocean, he said to me “So, you lost your job and you’re afraid to tell your Mom.” I assured him that I hadn’t lost my job and that my pay check would be coming every two weeks until the end of March.  He asked me how I could be off for so long.  “You’ve been here since the middle of November until the end of March.”  Then he said “I had to work for 20 years to get a 3-week vacation.  I told him that’s why I no longer worked for Western Electric. 

I said I felt like all the rich people in NY who spent their winters in Florida.  When I got back to the fire house, I told them all that I “wintered in Florida” and I did that for the next 5 winters!  I had found my perfect job!