BUILDING A BARBEQUE - AT THE FIREHOUSE

My first assignment as a new lieutenant was to fire headquarters.  I was an Assistant Training officer.  A Captain was in charge of the training unit.  It was our job to train small classes of new probationary firefighters.  Large classes of recruits would go to the fire academy.  A year later, the Captain retired and I ran the training and re-training unit myself.  If a large class of probationary firefighters were recruited, I would be sent to the fire academy to help with the training.  After 3 years I requested a transfer to a firehouse.  I wanted to get back to firefighting.  

I was sent to a firehouse that was built into the side of a huge rock cliff.  There was a parking driveway on the left side of the station, a small back yard, and a good sized side yard which was carved out of the rock cliff.  The firemen wanted to build a brick barbeque grill.  They showed me their plans and wanted me to ask the Captain of the house for permission.  I suggested that they first get permission to pour a cement slab.  I told the Captain that the men wanted to pour a large slab outside the kitchen door, which was on the second floor, so they could put a picnic table, chairs and a grill.  The space wasn’t usable as it was because it was too rocky.  The Captain approved. 

The men used picks and shovels to dig out the rocks and to make a flat slab.  After the slab cured, everyone chipped in and we bought a large picnic table and benches.  Now I told the Captain that the men wanted to build a brick barbeque grill.  Since they did such a good job on the slab, the Captain approved.  The firemen showed me the plans they drew up for the grill.  It was really big – about 8 feet wide.  They had a pit in the middle with a tall 6 foot chimney. On either side of the chimney were doors – on the left storage for wood – on the right storage for charcoal – and in the back was a compartment for propane tanks.  This grill could be fired up using wood, charcoal or propane.  I returned the plans and told the men that I never saw them and not to show them to the Captain.  Just build it and then see what the Captain says.  

When it was finished, the Captain loved it.  He said had he known how big it was going to be, he probably would have rejected the plans.  I told him no one told me how big it was going to be either. 

The next project the men wanted to build was a thatched roof over the whole slab.  I said NO! NO! NO!!  The taxpayers walking past the firehouse could look up and see the Tiki Bar Roof outside a firehouse and complain to the city that their tax dollars were being used to build a Tiki Bar on firehouse property.  The firefighters in the house paid for everything on the porch deck but the taxpayers didn’t know that.  I also told them that the Assistant Chief, who came to the house every morning to pick up reports, would see this Tiki Roof and we would get in trouble for building something on city property without a permit.  The firefighters agreed no more building on City property – but the barbeque and patio improved the meals and the downtime for all firefighters for years to come.

DEER HUNTING

After I was promoted to Lieutenant, I was assigned to a firehouse where they had a hunting club.  They asked me to join.  We were also enrolled in the NRA.  For weeks and weeks we would run up and down flights of stairs in the firehouse to get our legs in shape to go hunting on Hunter Mountain.  One firefighter owned 40 acres of land on a mountainside and he was building a 2-story hunting lodge on a section close to the main road.  The house was closed in but had no running water or bathrooms in yet.  The second floor was a large loft with bedrooms.  Most of the walls were framed and most had insulation in between the studs.  There were no stairs up to the loft – you had to climb a ladder.   

The heat in the lodge was from a huge fireplace on the first floor. The first thing we did was build a large fire because it took about 24 hours to heat the loft.  Not all the windows were in so it was very cold in the house.  There was an old dairy barn on the property and the flies in the summertime were all over the barn.  When winter was coming, flies went to the house and hibernated in the insulation.  We brought up some army cots but most guys just slept in sleeping bags on the floor.  

No one unpacked their suitcase.  We just operated out of it during our stay.  As the loft warmed up, the flies came to life and would buzz all night to get out of the insulation.  My friend Mike, who lived near me, had a large van and we would pick up all the food and, of course, cases and cases of beer.  Some firefighters liked to cook and would give us a list of what they needed.  Mike and I would go up the day before hunting season began and take all the supplies up with us.  Each man chipped in $100 for supplies.  After we unloaded his truck, Mike and I would go up the mountain and look for deer trails and signs of deer.  

Deer grow their antlers all summer.  Their antlers are covered in fur and, as mating season starts, they rub their antlers against saplings to rub off the fur.   The bucks also used several different trails to come down the mountain to the feeding grounds.  They would mark their trails and stop by their markings to look to see if a doe was waiting for the buck. 

First day of hunting season, we would get up at 3 AM, eat a big breakfast, go up the mountain and wait for the deer.  We would stay until daylight and then come back and work on the house until 3 PM – then go back up the mountain until dark.  I had a doe permit, so I got 2 deer and Mike got a buck on the first day.  Quite a few firefighters got deer on the first and second day.  After you got your deer, you couldn’t hunt any longer. Your hunting license had to be attached to the deer’s left front leg.  

 Mike and I decided we were tired of working on the lodge and we were going home with our deer.  I asked the firefighters if anyone wanted me to make a gun rack out of the deers' hooves.  We cut 3 legs off each deer.  We had 15 legs in a big plastic bag.  Since Mike’s van was large and square, there were no front fenders to tie the deer on (state hunting law) and it didn’t have a roof rack to tie the deer to.  So, we put the deer inside the van (a no-no).  We knew that if we got a deer, that’s the way we would get it home, so we brought a shirt and tie and sport coat with us.  The wildlife authority and state police were looking for hunters dressed in camouflage jackets with flame orange vests and hats.  They would be heading back to the city.  When Mike and I went past them we looked like 2 business men coming home from work.  When we got home it was dark, so I tied a rope around each deer and hung them in the potting shed under the stairs to my father-in-law’s apartment.  I was on the day shift for the next 2 days.  Since it was cold, I knew the deer would be okay.  Every afternoon, my 6 year old son would come home from school and go up to his grandfather’s apartment to play games and wait for his mom to come home from work.  This day, he decided to look in the potting shed – something he never did before.  He let out a scream and ran up to his grandfather’s apartment telling him a dead animal was hanging in the shed.  They both went down to look.  My wife told me her father almost got sick and to get the deer out of the shed.

 I was told the easiest way to cut a deer in half was to hang the deer by its front legs and use an electric saw to cut the backbone in half.  On Saturday, I went to my neighbor Ron and asked if I could use his Sawzall.  He decided to walk up to my house to see what I was doing with his saw.  He stood in the driveway and watched me cut the deer in half and he said he couldn’t watch anymore and to keep his saw.  He didn’t want it back!  I cleaned up his saw and returned it anyway.  When he tells this story, he says that the flies return to his saw every summer. 

I   cut the deer into steaks, chops and roasts.  I told the kids it was lamb but they knew better and wouldn’t eat it!  After a number of years doing this annual trek, my wife offered me a deal – if I gave her the $100 dollars I chipped in every year, she would buy really good meat and cook a gourmet meal every night.  I could dress up in hunting clothes and sit up in the big tree in our back yard any time I wanted until it got dark or I got cold.  I agreed to the deal, but I told her I’d forget about the tree-sitting part.  This way we would also eliminate another extremely unpleasant annual event – in our bedroom - the miraculous rebirth of the hibernating dairy barn flies that had hitched a ride home in my suitcase.  YUK!

LEARNING TO DRIVE A TILLER TRUCK

In lower Manhattan the streets are really narrow and cars are always parked where they don’t belong, making it impossible to maneuver an aerial truck to a fire.  

The city bought 8 tiller aerial trucks (a tiller is an aerial ladder truck with an extra set of wheels in the rear steered  by a firefighter sitting back there.  The city was told these trucks could maneuver through the narrow streets.  Since the truck was 57 foot long, it could not negotiate the streets and turns even with the additional rear wheel controls.  Our side of the city was offered 4 tillers at a good price to see if they would work out in our district.  

I was a Lieutenant by now and was told to take 4 men in a Battalion Chief’s car out to Montauk, Long Island and pick up an old tiller truck that the city had bought from a volunteer Fire Department.  I took 4 of the best of the best, the oldest and most experienced drivers in our Firehouse.  No one had ever driven a tiller before.  When they gave me this assignment, I went to the library to read up on how to drive a tiller.  

The tiller the city bought was old and in terrible shape.  The tiller cab had no glass in it and the seat was missing.  A firefighter had to sit on a tied up bundle of newspaper to drive the rear wheels. We drove back to the city at 30 mph on the Long Island Expressway. Three of us on the tiller and 1 firefighter drove the Chief’s car back. Every hour the Firefighters would alternate driving positions. Since I was the only officer, I had to ride in the tiller all the way back - up front where there was no glass and no seat. Talk about rank not having any privileges.

The city got permission to use the huge parking lot at the Yonkers race track during the day when it was not open to the public.  We set up orange cones the width of the narrow streets and firehouse door openings.  The Firefighters practiced for weeks and became expert drivers.  One day they challenged me to drive the rear wheels.  They made every maneuver they could to make me hit an orange cone.  I never hit one.  On the way back to take this tiller to the warehouse where we kept it overnight, I turned the rear wheels sharply to the left causing them to run parallel to the front wheels.  I called the driver’s radio and told him to look out his left window.  There I was running even with his steering wheel and waving at him.  They were surprised and shocked.  They had never seen this maneuver.  Reading everything about a tiller helped me get even with these drivers.  

The chief decided to try 2 tillers for a year to see if they could work out.  These trucks were just too big and some could not even get out of a firehouse because of phone or light poles opposite the firehouse.  A new aerial truck came out at this time.  It was called a rear mount.  The controls for the aerial ladder were over the rear wheels and the aerial ladder extended over the cab and hood of the truck making it a little bit bigger than an engine but much shorter than the tiller.  This new aerial ladder was just as maneuverable as an engine and it was the wave of the future.  It had an automatic transmission, a heater, power steering, a roof over the cab – all the niceties that the rigs I had to drive never had. Red was replaced with the new Lime green that was coming out as the new color for fire apparatus.  Supposedly it was more visible at night, especially with the new blue flashing lights.   Apparently to someone who is color blind, red appears black. 

Whatever color the rig is, if you see one coming – get out of its way!

HOOKED ON FLORIDA!

I was on the fire department for about 4 years and I would spend most of my vacation time with my parents.  I had gotten hooked on Florida – it’s easy to do.  

  

When I would come down in the winter, my parents would tell me about a new restaurant that had just opened.  It was a steak house and a steak dinner only cost $5.00.  I was very suspicious of a $5.00 steak.  I should have remembered that suspicion a few years later.  I know this is off the topic, but worth mentioning.

One day a guy pulled up to our fire house and said that he was a truck driver and his truck broke down and it was full of frozen steaks.  He said they were thawing out and he would sell them real cheap.  Silly me - I bought 3 and brought them home.  I cooked one on the grill and you couldn’t cut it or chew it. My wife cooked one in a crock pot all day and you still couldn’t eat it.  The last one was cooked and given to the dog.  Even Willy quickly lost his appetite!  It was probably horsemeat (our firehouse was near a racetrack.  Our dinner probably lost too many races.)!  It only cost me about $7.50 but some guys spent about $150 on meat you couldn’t eat.  Very few would actually admit it, though!  A word to the wise – don’t buy steaks out of the back of a truck from a stranger! 

Back to the subject - My parents and I did go to the steakhouse and it was great.  The inside was all redone and beautiful.  I think the mob was involved because thousands of dollars were spent on rebuilding this restaurant.  The next year when I returned my parents would tell me the steakhouse had gone out of business.   Now there was something new.  Restaurants opened and closed like revolving doors.  

This time it was a dinner show.  We went one night and the place was packed.  The entertainer, a comedian and a mind reader, had a remarkable show.  He would walk around the room and ask questions of the diners – like their first name, where they were from, how long they had been in Florida, what they did for a living.  The show started about 9:00 PM when everyone was having coffee and after dinner drinks.  He would shine a spotlight on a table and remember everyone’s name, where they came from, and made jokes about their jobs and their lifestyles.  At the end of his show, he shined a spotlight on me and walked over to our table.  He asked me to stand up.  He then told everyone that he couldn’t make fun of me or my job because I was a firefighter and anyone who did this job deserved all the credit in the world.  He said it was his honor to introduce me to the audience.  I looked down at my parents and they were beaming.  When he left the table, I leaned forward and told them I really liked this job and I was going to make it my career.  That made them even happier.  Their son finally had a “career.”  

  

My Dad passed away in 1971.  He had been retired only 7 years.  My mom stayed in their house almost 7 years, then she sold the house and moved into a 1 bedroom condo.  It was on the first floor and looked like it belonged in a resort.  Just outside her screened porch was a swimming pool with a diving board, tables and umbrellas and a barbeque grill.  Just past the pool was a canal off the Intercoastal waterway with boat docks.  It was true Florida living – just beautiful!  I would stay with her when I was on vacation.  She owned the condo 3 years and then told me she had met a real nice man and they wanted to get married.  She said she had put the condo up for sale 6 months earlier but no one was interested. I couldn’t believe she hadn’t asked me about it. 

My wife and I both loved Florida.  When I met my future wife, I asked her if she liked Florida – that was a prerequisite for dating!  Fortunately for me she did - so we bought the condo and all the furniture, too.  Occasionally we rented it to some firefighters but mostly we used it for our vacations.  We would spend 6 weeks in the winter and 6 weeks in the summer.  We kept the condo for 5 years and then sold it, doubling our investment. 

We knew we wanted to move to Florida when I retired – which was fast approaching.  The kids loved Florida, too – actually, they loved anywhere that had pools everywhere plus Disney World and Shamu.  We began looking around the state for our dream location.  My aunt and uncle told us about a small fishing village on the East Coast called Sebastian.  After a lot of driving and looking, we settled on a piece of property just off Sebastian River with a deeded 1.5 acre community area with a dock. We looked at model homes and picked one out that we liked.  We saw this model in February, and when we came back in July, the price had gone up $4,000.  If we waited another 5 years until I retired, the cost would be way up.  We contracted for the house to be built that summer.  Before construction began, we took our vacation in a 3 room, really old, cottage not too far from the property.  We would do fun things with the kids during the day, but after dinner we all sat around the large kitchen table and picked out carpets, paint colors, fixtures, lights – all for the new house.  The builder let us take the samples back to the cottage to make our choices. 

The house was finished in February.  We flew down and went through the house – it was perfect - except the building inspector hadn’t issued a CO as yet.  Without the CO, we couldn’t stay in the house.  We had even brought sleeping bags with us – we were so anxious to stay in our new house.  This was actually the first really new house either of us had ever had. 

 

Now we had to find a room for the night.  This was the busy winter season and we drove south, all the way to Vero Beach – no vacancies.  We then drove north to Melbourne, no luck.  We were told the only place that might have room was the Grant Motel which was known for renting by the hour.  They had a room for us – for the whole night!  There was an older couple running the motel and they were great to us.  We told them about our new home and that we couldn’t move in until the next day.  The old woman brought us hot tea and cookies that night.  The next day we had our CO and could stay in our house.  We went out and bought a bedroom set, bar stools so we could eat at the kitchen counter, some pots and silverware.  

We had to make a decision about renting the house.  I wouldn’t be retiring for a few years and we hated to see it sit empty.  After hearing story after story of rental nightmares, we decided to keep it for ourselves and just have friends check on it.  We used it every chance we could get to Florida and slowly began to make it our home.  In 1983, we sold our NY home and moved to Sunny Florida.  The life I had been planning for 20 years had finally begun – and continues through today!