Firefighter58
Senior member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2016
- Messages
- 728
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 05/2014
- Country
- CA
- State
- ON
- City
- Oakville
Ok folks back again, I think were I left of was I had just got accepted on the Fire Dept. I was still working part time for the Flash gas station at the time, Others working there were Cliff Stewart along with the mechanics Buck Tracey and Murray Burt , Jack Grix, my brother Marshall, George Ross, there was a girl that worked there, her name was Lexie and many others but I forget many of the names. I say I worked there part time but I put in more hours then many full timers. I worked every night after school 4 to 11 then I worked most weekends Fri. and Sat. nights 6pm till 8am and a few Sunday nights due to guys calling in sick, I know it dangerous but that was my job, I had a few situations but that is why I was in grade 11 and could drive an almost new 61 Ford. The Sunday nights played hell with school the next day but that happened seldom . The station was open 24 hours, George Ross worked nights through the week, there was no locks on any of the doors so we had no choice. I worked one Christmas Holiday doing a brake job on Lorne Hogan’s 1964 Galaxie convertible again by my self, all ways by my self, I guess that would not be allowed today. John Bedford was a big influence on me, 6ft 5in. 340lb in the summer and 360lb in the winter,John was a big big man. His wife Diane tried to keep him healthy by sending him to work with a large pail of salad, which he would eat at the morning coffee break, when the coffee truck came he would have two or three burgers and maybe a milk or juice for good health.
I was also on call for the tow truck and that caused a problem one morning when I was called about 7am for an accident in front of Graydon High School, I was late for school of course and many students had seen me there with the tow truck as had some teachers and the Teck. Director Mr. Brillinger, and this lead to a detention which I could ill aford as I had to be back at work for 4pm. Luckily my last 4 periods of every day were Auto Shop as Auto was my major, Mr Niel Fishwick the Auto Shop teacher came to the rescue, as I had towed a few cars into the shop for him he wrote me an admit slip, he said driving a tow truck was related to auto shop. He was a great guy always there for me as was Miss. Maron ,but that is another story.
Now it was time to start on the Fire Dept. finally that day arrived. I was to start on a night shift at the Clakson Lorne Park station with a new captain, Captain Bob Naysmith, a Lakeview boy. There were 5 men on each shift and 4 shifts per station, my shift was "B Shift" it was a Thursday night July 7,1967. My first call was about 10pm to Atomic Energy Reseach, I did not what to expect until Stan Huntington who was on the back of the truck (yes we rode on the back tail board) with me said it would probably a false alarm, which it was. A cleaning lady was dusting off a pull station for the fire alarm and her rag got caught in the pull station and she pulled it out setting off the alarm. One of the things that I remember about that station is the smell of coffee, that was a coffee drinking station, some are tea some are coffee and some are both, but Clarkson was all coffee.the other thing I remember about Clarkson, Lorne Park is my monkey, but that is another story.
I was also on call for the tow truck and that caused a problem one morning when I was called about 7am for an accident in front of Graydon High School, I was late for school of course and many students had seen me there with the tow truck as had some teachers and the Teck. Director Mr. Brillinger, and this lead to a detention which I could ill aford as I had to be back at work for 4pm. Luckily my last 4 periods of every day were Auto Shop as Auto was my major, Mr Niel Fishwick the Auto Shop teacher came to the rescue, as I had towed a few cars into the shop for him he wrote me an admit slip, he said driving a tow truck was related to auto shop. He was a great guy always there for me as was Miss. Maron ,but that is another story.
Now it was time to start on the Fire Dept. finally that day arrived. I was to start on a night shift at the Clakson Lorne Park station with a new captain, Captain Bob Naysmith, a Lakeview boy. There were 5 men on each shift and 4 shifts per station, my shift was "B Shift" it was a Thursday night July 7,1967. My first call was about 10pm to Atomic Energy Reseach, I did not what to expect until Stan Huntington who was on the back of the truck (yes we rode on the back tail board) with me said it would probably a false alarm, which it was. A cleaning lady was dusting off a pull station for the fire alarm and her rag got caught in the pull station and she pulled it out setting off the alarm. One of the things that I remember about that station is the smell of coffee, that was a coffee drinking station, some are tea some are coffee and some are both, but Clarkson was all coffee.the other thing I remember about Clarkson, Lorne Park is my monkey, but that is another story.
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