I grew up in the fire service and emergency medicine thanks to my now retired fire chief dad and my mom a registered nurse working in the OR and ER. As a young child I remember watching my dad hoist himself up in the cab of the engine as the driver was bringing it to life. The crew off to put out another fire or rescue some poor soul. That has a profound long term effect on how you view life, what's important, and maybe more so what's not important.
He taught Red Cross First Aid in the 60s and early 70s before Johnny and Roy, before we even knew what an EMT would be, could be. He taught those classes at little fire stations around our county to people that hungered for the knowledge to be more than "just an ambulance driver." I remember those 16mm movies he would borrow for free from the State Fire Academy. He would preview them at home first and I would watch them too trying to memorize all of the things the "expert firemen" did to help those kids in the bus crash or the family in the crushed car. Pretty heady stuff for a kid.
I hung around the firehouse as much as I could and when I was able I joined. He was around to help me, talk to me, and especially listen. I am sure to this day that all my coping mechanisms are based on all of those things we did together. Much of the basics I got from classes or reading his Fire Engineering but he helped me apply them and seemed to always know the reason why we did something "that way."
It was through him that I met people that will stay with me the rest of my life. Rich, Hack, Hugh, Lew, Brad, Tom, Dean and Kevin, Steve, Jan, Bill, Neal, Chuck and all the rest. The people I measured myself against.
I'm glad I got to explore this part of life and I am really glad I had a real mentor to help me through. I can never say thanks enough for bringing me up right, but I can show you what and how I do things now and hope that you get a little smile thinking that you would've done them the same. Happy Father's Day and the steak is on me. Bóg zapłać
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