WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:29.519 M you're listening to the Getting Salty Experience podcast. You muted, your knucklehead. 2 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:38.119 I told you that before we started. Oh yeah, we are back, 3 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:39.679 and you know what when you said that, I was like, yeah, 4 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:48.520 no, yeah, I got Yeah. Gonzo's muted too. It's bad. 5 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:51.320 I feel like we got so much to talk about because we've been away 6 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:54.960 for over a week. Bro, good stuff, some good stuff. Yeah. 7 00:00:56.039 --> 00:01:00.119 Week, Me and Roof and Cliffy on the road Bro doing it out 8 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.760 in Indie. I saw so many people. Why I welcome back to get 9 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:07.239 in? Told the Experienced podcast, it's the only one in the whole wide 10 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.040 world that brings the firehouse to get your table to you. We saw a 11 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:14.000 lot of impostas out there, Bro, roaming around all over the place. 12 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:18.239 You know, we bring the kitchen table, I've bring'ring. Well, here's 13 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:23.319 a kitchen table for you. Table? What what? What? Why hitch 14 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:26.159 your tables all over the place. There's only one that does, and it's 15 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:29.239 this one. And we're back. And my man Rookie, he's looking at 16 00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:32.400 it. He's all ready to go tonight. Bro, you're excited, give 17 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:48.920 me a little give me h Yeah, we had Sammy Pete has come down 18 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:53.000 from Chicago and hang out with us in a booth lot. I saw that 19 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:56.719 a lot of fans came down. Bro Uh, some people that you don't 20 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:59.280 you know, you don't put the face to the name in the chat like 21 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:02.799 it was like a nak grim agreema. I'm like, wow, I fuck 22 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:06.640 umpty name on the show, and I'm gonna mess it up now too. 23 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:12.039 Good stuff. Coops are signing hats like nobody's business. You werena thought he 24 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:14.960 was like Kenrick Glenquist or something. Over there, yep the roof. You 25 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:16.960 don't like to sign him? The guy comes over the Roofie, hey, 26 00:02:17.240 --> 00:02:23.080 roof, could you sign the hat? And uh yes, coops go, 27 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:28.919 I can definitely see this guy right here. I could see that it was 28 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:32.240 Saturday, a Friday. It was pure Pandemonian. It was so many people 29 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:36.599 in the booth who was crazy. That's good stuff. I mean a lot 30 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:40.319 of people. It is yep, oh Man. Also, tonight, which 31 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:55.520 Gonzo reminded me, is the twelve year anniversary of this What's and this I 32 00:02:55.639 --> 00:03:02.479 need? Yeah, so twelve years ago. Not only that, we also 33 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:07.560 burnt down O'Neil's. Uh so, same night, same crazy night, so 34 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:13.199 rotten hell Osama bin Laden. I hope you're down there, you know with 35 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:17.800 you suppose it hat chasing fire, Yeah, chasing fire, yep. And 36 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:21.400 that's it. Bro. We got a heavy duty guy tonight. No, 37 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:24.360 the Detroit guy. Detroit guy. It got back on, got on in 38 00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:29.240 fifty seven, Bro, nineteen fifty seven. And that's that's just what I'm 39 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:31.719 talking about. The kitchen table. These guys are gonna leave this stories on 40 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:36.560 this kitchen table here for the rest of time, for all the young guys 41 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:39.800 to come back and watch him. Over where else are you gonna get that's 42 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:46.960 gonna bring? Actually he did? Huh. I want to thank the I'm 43 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:51.759 gonna say hundreds and hundreds of people that came by the booth to ask Griffy 44 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:58.599 about the pizza cut it too. That was price priceless. The six people 45 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:02.759 who bought on the way. But we sold a lot of the underwear. 46 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:06.759 They go on sale right now, the fruit of the loom. Get out 47 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:14.000 there. We saw the lot sale. It's the Pollard case of emergency underwear 48 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:20.519 and repack hose when dry, please take them, get them. We have 49 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:26.279 a thousand still in quantities. I kept telling him, I'm not worried about 50 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:28.560 the pizza cut. I'm worried about the drawers. Man. We got to 51 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:30.319 get these drawers going, and we were on it. We put our best 52 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:34.040 salesman on a cliffy bear. He was on it. That's one more thing 53 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:41.000 we gotta thank They are the best every year. That's uh, Bobby and 54 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:44.959 Red. Red is in charge of the p D out there and Bobby's post 55 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.560 is right outside where all booth is, and they are awesome. We love 56 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:51.079 them to death. Pull up that picture. We took a picture. I 57 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:54.439 wanted to get a picture with Red too, but shes get dattled out of 58 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:58.759 it. There he is, there's Bobby that We were heading out of there 59 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.720 like our hair was on fire. If I see, I had a full 60 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.040 head of hair, but you wouldn't know it because they looted, burned, 61 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:09.519 burnt out of running out of it. I kept saying, kept slow down, 62 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:13.000 you're burning your hair off your head. Yeah. We couldn't get I 63 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.720 couldn't wait to get behind the wheel for the thirteen hour drive. It was 64 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:21.759 love off only thirteen It takes three hundred and sixty three days to forget about 65 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:25.360 that drive. So that you go, yeah, let's do that again. 66 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:31.199 Now, let's do it oh, Harrisburg. Now we're just watching on in 67 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:36.360 shows, bro Harrisburg. The fifty first Annual May nineteenth and twentieth. It's 68 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:41.720 a Friday and Saturday ten to five will be in booth four three six. 69 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.759 Until you got the picture of that? Yeah, I am coming boom hand 70 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:48.240 Caster to come and see it. Did you take its ten bucks or ten 71 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.360 bucks? How can you go round with ten bucks? Brob. You get 72 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:55.079 to see coops, to see so many things down there. The Amish they're 73 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:58.959 running around with their pages. I love it. We could probably get away 74 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:01.079 with offending the Amish because they probably don't listen to the podcast. They can't, 75 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:05.079 right, So yeah, you're right, those good pretzels and Amish people 76 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:09.920 done that. It's a good show. All right, let's do some commercials. 77 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.360 What we got guns? We have ours and I'm still thinking, I'm 78 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.519 assuming we're with armor tuff still Yeah, okay, Well let's do our mister 79 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:23.480 mcbob. First, here we go. If you're looking for a gift for 80 00:06:23.560 --> 00:06:26.639 that special firefighter in your life, then head on over to get in salty 81 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:30.480 apparel dot com. Yes, getting salty apparel dot com. What we have? 82 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:33.519 What we carry? Hands drawn original T shirts? Glassware such as bugs, 83 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:38.800 shot glasses, pine glasses, engraved Arctic cooler cups, and much much 84 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:43.639 more. There's also a full line of firefighter tool bottle openers like Halligan's nozzles 85 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.759 and wine bottle opener accesses too. And if you're a cigar smoking congratulations, 86 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:50.560 we have partner saw cigar cutters and humid oors. Think we're done, Far 87 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:55.279 from it. We got toiletry gear bags, poosies, a full line of 88 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:59.959 hats, decal sweatshirts, and once again, so much more. We can 89 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:02.079 also personalize most of these products. And if you want discounts, hey, 90 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:05.319 you've come to the right place. We got discounts on large orders for promotion 91 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:10.959 dinners, weddings as well as installation dinners. Just head on over to get 92 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:15.160 insalty Apparel dot com. We might have to reshoot that commercial put an underwear. 93 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:21.720 I think we're done, fall from it, well from it still at 94 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:25.519 eighty thousand, Pass and get in there, do it, do it, 95 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:33.519 John. 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Join 111 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:58.399 the hundreds of career and volunteer fire departments nationwide who have chosen an Armor Tough 112 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:03.279 interlocking tile floor are armor tough. Interlocking tiles are half the price of epoxy, 113 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:09.519 and we'll last a lifetime without issue again. Call Vince today for a 114 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:15.480 no obligation quote at nine o eight nine one seven seven six nine seven, 115 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:18.519 beautiful. We saw a big Vince down here. We're a chilling with Big 116 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:26.559 Vince A little bit, all right? What about the super chat? By 117 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:31.879 a second? A little like delay? All right, my friends, Sorry, 118 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.080 guys, you guys want to hit us up in a super chat, 119 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:37.320 you want to support us, that's where we're gonna do it, my friends, 120 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:39.639 and here we go. If you want to support the show, like 121 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.759 I said, if you've got a question you need to ask this fine young 122 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:45.679 gentleman tonight, please don't do so in a super chat. That's one way 123 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:48.360 that we can guarantee your question we'll get answered. Other than that, that's 124 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:52.039 what we have. Beautiful, all right. I want to bring this gentleman 125 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:56.200 in. You talk about guys with time on the job, bro, this 126 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.840 guy was on the job doing it, Steve, and he was doing it 127 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:05.240 way before I would say, almost everybody in the chat has been alive. 128 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:09.360 So bring him on in. Rough all right, coming to the stage, 129 00:10:09.960 --> 00:10:18.320 eighty six year old Detroit f D firefighter Frank Decca. There he is, 130 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:26.159 mister Decca. How are you. You guys too looks for good more than 131 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.320 you, Koby. That's not that's not a big feet probab, I'm telling 132 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.720 you. But it does look good. Thanks for coming on the show, 133 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:37.720 mister Decca. Oh my pleasure, and I'm excited about it. My whole 134 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:45.159 family is too cool. I hope I don't embarrass anybody. I mean I 135 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:48.600 do that. I do that to myself every show, so it can't be 136 00:10:48.679 --> 00:10:52.399 any worse. Somehow, someway he doesn't get work. Oh there's the call 137 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:56.759 me Grama, to call me Gema. He's in the all right rough before 138 00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:01.440 we haild, the stories from mister Decca were back in the fifties. You 139 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.879 heard it right. I did say eighties. I did say, I did 140 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:07.200 say sixties. I said fifties. One of your stories. Let's get a 141 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:15.399 little patriotic. Okay, here we go. Oh say, can you see 142 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:31.000 by the daneslylight? What so bridly weee held at the twice lights? Lastlyming 143 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:46.240 wose broad stripes and bright stars through the proless fine or the rap partwee watched 144 00:11:48.240 --> 00:12:05.639 were so gallans Lee streaming and the rocket Raglan, the bombs busting game, 145 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:18.440 froof through the night. That our flag warsy there? Oh say does that 146 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:39.240 star spangled banga or the Land of the Free and the Home of the breath. 147 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:45.679 Yes, she is my girl? Up jail, we not hut down 148 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.559 there too or over there? I want to sit down there over there we 149 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:54.159 met. You had a powerful voice. Beautiful did excellent? Gives me the 150 00:12:54.240 --> 00:13:00.480 chills, Yeah, chills. All right, mister Decker, let's roll Let's 151 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:03.960 roll it back back. How many decades? Let's roll it back a lot 152 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:09.840 of decades, at least seven seven seven decade. Let's go back to a 153 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:16.080 young, brash, handsome Frank Decca and let us tell us where you're from, 154 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:18.440 where you were born, where you grew up, etc. Okay. 155 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:24.679 I was born in nineteen thirty six in Detroit, Michigan. My father was 156 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.519 forty four when I was born, so he was born in eighteen ninety three. 157 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:35.639 He was in World War One. In nineteen forty eight. They operated 158 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:39.919 on his back for they thought were tumors. They were malignant. He never 159 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:46.320 walked again. He was in a wheelchair from nineteen forty eight to nineteen sixty 160 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:50.639 five. They gave him six months to live three different times. My dad's 161 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:56.000 idea was, and I hope that someday somebody will say you're a lot like 162 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:01.320 your dad. Well, he said, which I was dealt a hand of 163 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.159 cards. If I don't like him, I can throw him in and get 164 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:07.639 out of the game. But I want to stay in the game, and 165 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:11.480 I'm going to play it the best I can. Awful, you never complained, 166 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.240 never gave up. Nope. When I was fourteen, I'd go to 167 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.879 his bedside. You'd say bend over, and I'd bend my head down and 168 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:22.919 he had put his hands around the back of my neck, and he'd say, 169 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:24.720 I prayed for a miracle last night. Let's see if I could walk. 170 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:28.559 Never happened, but he never gave up. Hope, he never gave 171 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:33.480 up, mister fantastics example, And I hope I can be that way with 172 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:39.559 my kids and my grandchildren. And he used to see, everybody's here for 173 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:43.519 a reason, and I guess I'm in a wheelchair for a reason, and 174 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.120 it's how I react to it. And that's what he did. Wow. 175 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:52.879 Wow, how about siblings, Frank, have any other siblings? My older 176 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:58.480 brother was drafted out of Northwestern High School when he was seventeen and a half. 177 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:03.000 He was in the ROTC and he was sent over and almost went to 178 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:09.559 Germany as in a B seventeen. He was in the ROTC and Germany capitulated 179 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.120 and they were going to send him over to Japan, and I figured out. 180 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.879 I was only ten years old at the time, but I know my 181 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.200 dad and mom were worried. But somebody came into his barracks and said, 182 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:26.279 anybody whose education was interrupted, I'm going to stand uniform. You can choose 183 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:30.120 the college that you want, we'll pay for it, but you got to 184 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.039 stand uniform for your last two years of your enlistment. So he went to 185 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:39.120 Holton Mining and Technology College and graduated from there and got a PhD. And 186 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:45.240 my brother, Dick, who was six years older than me, he became 187 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:52.600 a fireman in nineteen fifty two in Detroit. And I was working at the 188 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:58.159 Wayne County Road Commission and had a good job, and the fire department called 189 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:02.720 and I asked my dad, what do you think should I leave the Wayne 190 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.240 Country Road Commission. He says, if it's snows and range, you can't 191 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:08.200 work, go to the fire department. You got a steady job, like 192 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.240 your brother in a retirement. So I took his advice and I never regretted 193 00:16:12.279 --> 00:16:17.279 it. It's the greatest job in the whole world. You meet the best 194 00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:22.720 people in the world. They become family. As you'll see a picture there 195 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:29.519 of us fifty years. Yeah, Frank, that picture. Go back to 196 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:33.399 that ball. The ball, Frank, don't don't get that far ahead with 197 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.960 the ball. What's the story with this picture with your brother? Give you 198 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:38.600 a second. It's coming to you. Sorry, guys, it's I have 199 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:44.320 a little delay. Am I in here? It comes? Okay? That's 200 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:48.200 my brother Dick. He ran down in the seventh Battalion, and I always 201 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:51.080 gave him the business. They were very slow. He'd be lucky if he 202 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:52.759 got a run or two runs a day. And here I am in the 203 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:57.120 ninth battalion. We're going constantly. But then when he became sergeant, he 204 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:02.679 started getting squad two, squad four, Squad eight. He was all over 205 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:07.200 and he was a heck of a fireman, he really was, and I 206 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:11.759 think everybody loved him, wanted to run under him, and he did. 207 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.640 Forty years, right, you said forty years. He retired as senior chief 208 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:18.839 and he had a heart attack when he was on the job pulling people out 209 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:21.920 of a car. I think it was a squad two at the time, 210 00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:26.640 and it was below zero and his men said, Decker, you look terrible. 211 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:29.359 What's going on? He said, I think I'm away home. I'm 212 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:32.680 going to stop in emergency room. And that's the way he took it, 213 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:34.119 and he had had a heart attack. They kept him off the job for 214 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:41.240 a year, and then he came back and started smoking again without masks. 215 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:48.279 Yeah, oh yeah, for a year. I'm okay. Now he retired 216 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.200 like a new penny. He retired at sixty when he had to. And 217 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:56.480 he lived for nine years after his retirement and died on the table with a 218 00:17:56.519 --> 00:18:02.440 heart operation. So I missed him. I miss him to this day. 219 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:04.960 My kids miss him. He had he had stories and I'll tell you some 220 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:08.240 of his stories later on. But that's him in his chief scar. Look 221 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:14.119 at how dirty is he was inside? He was never outside. I always 222 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:17.559 liked those pictures with us where the guy's in action and he's not looking at 223 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:21.359 the camera. That's that's always the best picture. Yeah, yeah, And 224 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:23.400 the pictures I could not find a shot at him, but he's hanging out 225 00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:27.799 of a second store porch as a chief and the snouts running down and I 226 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:32.400 think's hitting the first floor, and why are you in there? You got 227 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:34.359 a driver to tell you what's going on? No, no, he said, 228 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:37.720 I gotta be it in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I 229 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:40.960 can't take that out of you. Once you get that bull, that's it. 230 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:44.039 You can't stop doing that. Oh yeah, yeah. He was a 231 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.680 good man. What's what those helmets, they always had those helmets right. 232 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:55.319 Well, what happened is in nineteen sixty seven during the riots, John Ashby 233 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:59.440 got killed. He was up on an aerial and he would be in snipered 234 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:03.559 at and they moved the aerial around and he hit the high wires and he 235 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:08.119 was electrocuted. He lived for nine years or nine days after he hit those 236 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:11.720 wires. But John used to come to the squad from injured twenty one. 237 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:17.440 And when you're a squad man and you got somebody there that want to make 238 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:19.519 your head bigger where it hardly fits in the helmet. He was one of 239 00:19:19.559 --> 00:19:23.519 those guys. He just admired squad guys and Decker. I want to be 240 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:26.759 like you when I can get on the squad and stuff. And then he 241 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:30.319 got killed. I think he had just got married. He was in his 242 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:36.599 early twenties. He got killed. And then Carl Smith got shot during the 243 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:40.640 riots right and threw his helmet, got killed. I went to high school 244 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:45.000 with him, and I don't think he was in my class. I think 245 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.000 he came to class after me, but he got killed. And I'll tell 246 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:56.039 you you get angry. I'm sure you guys were angry after nine to eleven 247 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:00.720 to see your men that you were worked with. You knew you loved to 248 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:07.319 get killed for something nonsensical. And now your guys know they were going in 249 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:12.400 to do something but ashby and get shot for nonsense. Yeah, and then 250 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:17.839 get pulled off. The switched the area around because of snipers. I'm sure 251 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:23.359 that chief regretted that order moved the area. But anyway, that's not here 252 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:29.599 and there there that we shouldn't be begrudging that. But these were guys that 253 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:38.000 were good fireman and something like a civil disturbance that happened there in Detroit that 254 00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:41.400 was on the job. I think they got me on the squad as nineteen 255 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:45.279 sixty five. But in nineteen sixty three, I was running an engine forty 256 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.759 and Don Pemmitt got his back broken. He was in the squad and we 257 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:55.480 had the same kelly and lieutenant at Squad five. Von Macintosh used to say, 258 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:57.759 Decker, you got the same kelly as Pammitt. When you come in, 259 00:20:59.319 --> 00:21:02.559 you put your was on the squad. So I'd come in and put 260 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:06.400 my clothes on the squad and eventually they gave me a red helmet and we 261 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:10.519 got a squad helmet. Yeah, we wore ten helmets until Ashby got killed 262 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:14.480 and that was it. After that, I got a New Yorker, uh, 263 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:18.079 fiberglass helmet. It was heavy, good grief, I can't believe how 264 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:23.680 heavy that helmet was. And I actually lost my helmet during the riots. 265 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:30.240 All street. I call the guys looking up from my helmet if you see 266 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:33.319 it, and one of the guys that, hey, we saw it the 267 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:34.759 other day. Decker, I said, well, why didn't you pick it 268 00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:41.759 up? He said, some lady was doing a washing in it helmet. 269 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:48.480 So let's let's go back, let's talk it. So you thought, I 270 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:51.599 think Louis mentioned this and appreciate you. You didn't have an academy that you 271 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.119 went to before you got on the job. Well, what happened is the 272 00:21:55.200 --> 00:22:00.279 city fought from the union wanted six to fifty six hours. They were working 273 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:04.599 sixty three. The city fought it, fought it up until July first, 274 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:08.200 but it was put on the ballot and the fire department won and we went 275 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:11.960 from sixty three to fifty six hours. So I get a thing in the 276 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:18.680 mail from the Detroit Fire Department report to training school July first, nineteen fifty 277 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:22.200 seven, which I did. I got there and I figured, okay, 278 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:25.880 I'm going to learn about ropes and hoses and all this stuff. And my 279 00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:30.480 boots are sitting there with my helmet and he says, Decker, do you 280 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:33.960 know where liber Noison and where Chicago is? And yeah, of course, 281 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:37.440 he said, what you're going to Injine forty two? So I pick up 282 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:40.599 my gear by nine nine in the morning. I have an engine forty two, 283 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:45.200 and the Captain Stanley Dobies said, Decker, put your clothes on the 284 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:49.400 back, and I think was Gordy Smith was cooking. He says, he's 285 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.440 going so we're only riding with four. I said, oh, okay, 286 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:57.200 So I'm put my clothes on the back and the alert goes off or not 287 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.640 the alert the box comes in because we had box and ticker tape then, 288 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:06.039 so he said, forty two is going. So we pull out and he 289 00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:08.400 says to me, he says, Decker grabbed the can. I'm standing on 290 00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:12.720 the tailboard. What in the world is a can. I have no idea 291 00:23:12.759 --> 00:23:17.759 what he's talking about. So they're holler and extinguish her. Kid extinguished. 292 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:19.440 So I picked that up. Don't know how to turn it on, but 293 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:22.720 it was the old one with soda and acid. You turn it upside down. 294 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:26.680 We get in there, it's a mattress fire. Now I'm running with 295 00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:30.400 his can up two flights of stairs and the captain's in there. Fifty year 296 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:34.920 old Stanley dobs and he says, okay, kid, just don't put the 297 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:37.519 thing out. We got to just pose it down and we're going to stick 298 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:44.000 it out the window. I'm dying in there, he said, I'm fifty 299 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:47.119 years old. I can take it. You better be able to take it. 300 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:49.519 So okay, So we threw it out the window and everything. We 301 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:53.279 get back to quarters. It's not even lunchtime yet. The cook is there 302 00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:59.240 now and he says, the box comes in. It's cunning Hen drug store. 303 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:03.319 Joy ran River. So I'm staying on the back and we get there 304 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:06.480 and there's smoke coming out of the back end, and he says, stretch. 305 00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:22.279 What stretched calisthenics. I'm a little tightened the back stretch, He's holler, 306 00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:25.759 Kid, grabbed that line, I did. I grabbed the wrong one. 307 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:29.880 I grabbed the second bundle, taking the belt off and everything, getting 308 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.160 ready to grab the nozzle, and he says, kid, I hope you 309 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.880 have something to drink today, because you're gonna have to pee on that fire. 310 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:40.799 The first line is going down the street boom boom, boom boom like 311 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:45.319 that senior man's chasing it. So finally they get it back, give me 312 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:48.680 the line, and I go in with Captain Dogs again and we knocked the 313 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:51.240 fire down. It wasn't that terrible, but that was my That's how I 314 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:53.720 got broke into the job. So if you grabbed the one, they had 315 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:57.759 two small jobs right off the bat from the top, right off the bed. 316 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:03.480 And I only ran on the truck ladder of twenty one for three months. 317 00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:08.680 I think I tillered maybe two or three times. And this should be 318 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:12.640 a story. I want to tell you. There was a young guy I 319 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:15.000 thought he was I thought he was old, but he was in World War 320 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:18.599 Two. All the guys on the job when I came on. They had 321 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:23.480 been in World War Two and they were they were a different breedom in I'll 322 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:30.160 tell you after walking from Hanzio to Berlin, or you know, my lieutenant 323 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:33.599 A Entran thirty nine was in the submarines in North Atlantic for two years. 324 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:41.440 How do you you know? You can't comprehend that they went through hell? 325 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:42.880 They really did. But they were a good fireman, I'll tell you. 326 00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:49.279 And they were old school, you don't need a mask. And but Danetti 327 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:52.920 was on ladder of twenty one. He was a tillerman. He'd been in 328 00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:57.359 World War Two. Skinny, little guy, a little Italian guy, skinny 329 00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:02.440 and he's a tillerman. And the going down this before I was on going 330 00:26:02.519 --> 00:26:04.240 down, I forgot what street it was. They hit a bump, threw 331 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:07.960 him out of the tiller seat and his boots get hung up in the ladder. 332 00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:12.839 He's hanging upside down and there's side swiping cars. He's off booty for 333 00:26:12.920 --> 00:26:22.279 a year. I don't know side swiping CAUs he comes back on the job. 334 00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.880 I'm on Squad five. Now we get a call over to old Ditsler 335 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:30.599 plant which made all the lacquer for General Holdings. We get a call over 336 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:36.319 there and it's now waste paper dump bailed waste paper. It's a two alarm 337 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:41.000 fire. Squad five gets there and I see ladder twenty one is pulled in. 338 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.079 Their aerials up and they got a hose tower going. He's on it. 339 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:49.319 I was pretty sure it was done. He's not buckled in. One 340 00:26:49.319 --> 00:26:53.640 of the engines shut down. It lifted him up off that aerial ladder. 341 00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:57.359 And the next thing, me and Pepper got a line we're going in and 342 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:02.119 I look and I said, estinetti, and that line can whip him down 343 00:27:02.359 --> 00:27:06.279 and put him through the cab of the latter twenty one. And I think 344 00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:12.440 he broke it just about every bond she was off. He was off the 345 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:18.160 year, and now I'm still in squad. He's back on duty. And 346 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:23.559 I think he was a boss at Injinn fifty seven or maybe Squad Squad seven. 347 00:27:23.799 --> 00:27:27.319 They came to relieve us at a fire. And the next morning we're 348 00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:30.599 pulling out his Hey, Don, I used to work with him washing windows. 349 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.640 I said, hey, how you doing, Don? Oh, I'm 350 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:37.200 good, I'm back on. Everything's cool. I'm walking out two and a 351 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:41.599 half separated. The butt end hit him in the back. And broke his 352 00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:48.680 back. When he retired, I'll bet you it was a good half hour 353 00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:56.640 medical report. Is he still around? Yeah, well I know he died. 354 00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:02.240 Guy had to be in paint every time he woke up. For God's 355 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:03.880 sakes, most of the people I talked about are going to be going. 356 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:08.359 Yeah. Uh, I was the youngest, I thought, the youngest in 357 00:28:08.359 --> 00:28:12.599 my class with Jimmy Siebert was I think three weeks younger than me. How 358 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:17.279 well, how old were you when I came on that picture? I just 359 00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:21.960 turned twenty one, twenty one to get your badge, and I just let 360 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.720 me let me see the young uh mister Decca with the young missus Deca, 361 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:32.480 because obviously he is the vice president of the Married Up Club. Oh yes, 362 00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:34.160 let me get there, let me get there. Here we go. 363 00:28:36.319 --> 00:28:40.319 That's a great picture. Oh my goodness, gracious. We were nineteen and 364 00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:45.039 seventeen. That was in nineteen fifty five, and uh, I was working 365 00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:49.920 a Cadillac motor. I agree and hung around with her brother and she was 366 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:52.799 always in pigtails and a little girl and had never paying attention to her. 367 00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:56.880 She was a pain in the neck, you know. And Uh, Frankie 368 00:28:56.920 --> 00:28:59.519 and I would try and lose her whenever we would go out and do something. 369 00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:06.240 It's been how many years you said, you can't lose sixty seven years 370 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:10.319 we've been married. I'll bless you guys. But I was working a Cadillac 371 00:29:10.359 --> 00:29:14.839 motor on the assembly line on the afternoon shift, playing ball during the day 372 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:18.119 for Cadillac, and uh, my buddy George was home on leave and he 373 00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:22.440 had my car and he brought Patty to pick me up one night and I 374 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:26.519 looked in the car and whoa who is that? You know? And he 375 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:30.559 says, you know, that's Patty Frish. Oh man, she's grown up, 376 00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:37.160 you know. Seventeen My inviters to come to my baseball game the next 377 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.079 day, and she came and watched me play. And then I left my 378 00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:45.559 mitt at her house, naturally, so I could go and pick a slick 379 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:48.759 move brows, that old school move right there? That what the is? 380 00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:55.240 That what the week was for? Right here? Is that you want? 381 00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:56.960 You want to talk about a slick move? I said to her one day, 382 00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:02.079 This was in August third and nineteen fift five. What are you doing 383 00:30:02.119 --> 00:30:06.079 for the next twenty five years? Nice? What do you mean? I 384 00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:08.160 said, Let's get married? And I just thought it was for twenty five 385 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:11.920 years, so now it's sixty seven. I think she owes me something. 386 00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:15.440 What do you mean you've been chasing around the house all these years? Again, 387 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:22.480 give her a break. She's tied. But we've had four children. 388 00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:27.480 One of them is a firefighter in Charlotte, Josh, and I gotta tell 389 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:30.160 you. I gotta tell you the story about Josh. You're gonna love this. 390 00:30:32.599 --> 00:30:34.359 I don't know if you guys have ever heard. There's Josh and it's 391 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:40.200 Captain Belchis. Little Barnie told me he was your favorite. I don't know. 392 00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:45.839 That's what I told everybody. He was, you know. But we 393 00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:53.240 were at the Midwest Firefighters Bowling Tournament and we'd never taken our wives our team, 394 00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:56.359 and this year was in Waukeegan, Illinois, we decided to take our 395 00:30:56.359 --> 00:31:06.279 wives. There was me holy Cross, the priest, Tom Holt, and 396 00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:15.559 it doesn't matter anyway. Three of us had children within three or four days 397 00:31:15.559 --> 00:31:22.359 of one another. Josh was one of them. He's now a fireman Holt. 398 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:26.920 Tom Holt had a boy. He's retired from the Detroit Fire Department. 399 00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:30.640 So that fire department. There was something in the water in Mala Keegan. 400 00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:34.400 The priests had a little girl. But I get a call. I'm at 401 00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:38.960 thirty nine. I'm on the watch and Lieutenant Brugie let me pull my car 402 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:42.400 and what used to be an old chiefe quarters behind thirty nine. He's in 403 00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:47.039 case your wife calls, have it in there and be warmed up and if 404 00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:51.319 she calls and you gotta go. She called about midnight instead of water Broke 405 00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:56.799 said okay, I said, you think, no hurry, just my water 406 00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:00.240 broke no contraction yet, I said, okay. So we get my car 407 00:32:00.279 --> 00:32:02.599 out of the garage and everything, and I'm running back. There's twenty five 408 00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:06.559 miles from the firehouse. I lived in the last street in the city. 409 00:32:07.480 --> 00:32:09.079 All of a sudden, I get I'm on Joy Road and I see these 410 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:13.440 red lights behind me, and I figured, man, if it's the cops, 411 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:15.279 they're gonna have to take all the way home. So I pulled up 412 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:21.400 my driveway and it was Squad seven. They pulled up behind me and Ted 413 00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:23.440 Dregary gets out and he says, deck or you got a little boy. 414 00:32:24.440 --> 00:32:29.119 What back then, you didn't know what sex your kid was. You know, 415 00:32:29.200 --> 00:32:32.000 they didn't give you ultra right. So I go running in the house 416 00:32:32.039 --> 00:32:37.480 and my older brothers there. He brought his daughter over to babysit while I 417 00:32:37.480 --> 00:32:40.640 go to the hospital with my wife. Here sits Patty. She had the 418 00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:45.480 baby at home by herself. The baby's in her lap, she's all dressed, 419 00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:49.640 ready to go to the hospital. Me and my brother Dick cut the 420 00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:54.960 cord and Antonetti, who was on Squad seven, he picked Josh up, 421 00:32:55.079 --> 00:32:58.559 wrapped him up, put him in his coat, he says, kid. 422 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:00.200 He said, I got ten kids, and none of them have been able 423 00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:07.200 to ride in the fire truck at your age. So here's Josh brand new, 424 00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:10.880 conceived at the Midwest Fire Department bowling tournament, and now he's riding on 425 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:20.440 a rig. Grand new baby. So the m on this rig. I 426 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:24.319 didn't get charms on the squad rig. It the squadrig okay ride on Squad 427 00:33:24.359 --> 00:33:30.079 seven. And my sister in law, who my brother, came over with 428 00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:32.640 her daughter. The baby said. My sister in law called the fire department. 429 00:33:32.839 --> 00:33:37.440 So Squad seven got there just behind me, and they knew, they 430 00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:39.440 knew a little boy was born, so he already knew he was going to 431 00:33:39.480 --> 00:33:43.599 be a fireman the first day. He was right away. That's that kid's 432 00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:45.799 going to be a fire. He's got to be right and a good looking 433 00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:49.920 one. To look at him. I mean, he's you know, he 434 00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:52.599 looks like his mother. That's all I gotta say. Right, he's well 435 00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:57.839 respected. He goes back and trains now on. In fact, tomorrow he 436 00:33:57.880 --> 00:34:00.519 called me this morning and he said, Dad, guess what he was. 437 00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:05.000 He sounded like a little kid. We're teaching pomp piers tomorrow. Oh way, 438 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.239 really, I think they're the only department in the country teaches pompier letters. 439 00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:12.920 Yeah, I know, I know. The FDNY stopped doing that a 440 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:15.559 couple of years back. Were you on it? Were you on a pop? 441 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:17.480 I did? Yeah? I actually did that in my form, my 442 00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:25.320 proby class back lean back, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it 443 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:30.639 was it hooked. Yeah. When we did the display for the families, 444 00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:32.480 I actually went from the first floor to the sixth floor, you know, 445 00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:37.119 like hop scotch and upload. Isn't it a great way to get up there? 446 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:39.599 Well, I'll tell you right now, it's a great way to shed 447 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:44.280 any fear you have of heights. You know. I mean, if you're 448 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:51.400 practicing trying your underwear from white to brown one of the other brown, he 449 00:34:51.400 --> 00:34:55.480 says, you're looking at those kids out the window when they let go and 450 00:34:55.599 --> 00:35:00.519 you see that their eyes light up. You're right, it held. But 451 00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:05.960 yeah, right now I think the grum let's get a little bit a little 452 00:35:05.960 --> 00:35:09.840 bit bigger at that point in time, and you feel a little better about 453 00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:13.920 that job. Yeah, there was no doubt about that. He's teaching. 454 00:35:13.960 --> 00:35:17.079 He's teaching it tomorrow. So that's my son jobs. That was his christening 455 00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:22.280 on the job. And uh, he's an old school fireman, and uh, 456 00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:24.039 from everything I ever heard, he's a heck of a good was a 457 00:35:24.079 --> 00:35:28.199 good captain. They were sorry to let him go, but he goes back 458 00:35:28.199 --> 00:35:30.320 and teaches. Now they pay him extra. And he said, I get 459 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:35.760 to see the guys and get to he teaches its good and he teaches that 460 00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:39.480 class that you guys started where you had five firemen had to go out the 461 00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:45.280 fifth floor and got killed. Hut, and now they got out. I 462 00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:50.480 don't understand that. But it's a heck of a lot better than getting your 463 00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:53.719 self toasted, isn't it? Yeah? Ye, Now why don't he go 464 00:35:53.719 --> 00:35:58.119 to where was he He was in the Carolina's right, Yeah, he's in 465 00:35:58.199 --> 00:36:00.239 Charlotte, Carolina. What made it go that way? Why do you go 466 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:04.480 why do you go from Why do you not try to get on? Yeah? 467 00:36:04.519 --> 00:36:09.039 Why do you go to show? Jordan's dad? But he lived in 468 00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:15.480 Charlotte, and Jordan was born in I think Charleston, South Carolina. Then 469 00:36:15.480 --> 00:36:20.679 they moved there in the medical profession, so they were in in Charlotte. 470 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:24.280 We had I haven't got to that yet, but I broke the rules on 471 00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:30.639 the fire department, I confess now. I moved out. I moved off 472 00:36:30.679 --> 00:36:35.239 the chest. I moved out of the city in nineteen seventy and I lived 473 00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.840 seventy miles out of the city. We had a farm, so my kids 474 00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:42.760 were brought up on a farm. Josh was ten months old. He was 475 00:36:42.800 --> 00:36:45.920 born in nineteen seventy. He was ten months old when we moved to the 476 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:49.920 farm. I got hurt from seventy well, I got retired from seventy three. 477 00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:52.880 So he grew up on my lap on the tractor. I had a 478 00:36:52.960 --> 00:37:00.159 John Dare forty twenty, and I learned to be a farmer. And I 479 00:37:00.199 --> 00:37:01.599 gotta hire a Frank to come on down to Oiowa. Maybe he can show 480 00:37:01.639 --> 00:37:06.039 me a little couple of parents, you know about the tractor. Yeah, 481 00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:07.920 and and him and I. Yeah, he is he's my favorite son. 482 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:12.880 No, I don't love him more than the others. But he became a 483 00:37:12.920 --> 00:37:15.320 fireman, and him and I, him and I bonded. O. Yeah, 484 00:37:15.559 --> 00:37:21.360 my two older boys. I was working three jobs. That's another story, 485 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:24.000 you know. Oh, let's get back, let's get back to back 486 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:28.440 to the timeline. Yeaho's over there himself. But I want to make sure 487 00:37:28.440 --> 00:37:31.480 where you stay on the timeline. All right, So engine forty two, 488 00:37:31.679 --> 00:37:36.239 and then you went to engine twenty one in lott of twenty eight in September 489 00:37:36.280 --> 00:37:38.320 of fifty eight. Why what made you want to go over there? I 490 00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:45.880 didn't, to be honest with you, Captain Radar, who I thought was 491 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:50.239 a little bit of a Anyway, he's gone. I don't hope he doesn't 492 00:37:50.239 --> 00:37:55.519 have relatives listening. But he wanted to separate me and Herbie hand. Herbie 493 00:37:55.599 --> 00:37:59.679 had been on the job quite a while, and he was a duck carver 494 00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:05.679 decoy carver, and liked his beer. And me and Herb became tight, 495 00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:10.599 and he said, yep, he was let me just pull out out of 496 00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:14.639 the bus somewhere. I don't know. Nobody's got those hanging around except me. 497 00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.039 I'm sorry, Frank ahead I carve decoys is that right? Anyway, 498 00:38:19.079 --> 00:38:22.440 me and Herbie would take telephone poles down the basement of forty twos and the 499 00:38:24.039 --> 00:38:28.079 credits and would drop him off. And he had carved decoys out of those 500 00:38:28.519 --> 00:38:31.400 telephone poles. And I sit down there in the basement. I don't want 501 00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:38.760 to get into what politics, you know, But anyway, Captain Radar said, 502 00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:42.440 I got to separate you two. I don't know if you're bad for 503 00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:45.199 herb or herbs bad for you. So there was somebody going to twenty ones. 504 00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:49.440 That was me. When I got to twenty ones, it was great. 505 00:38:50.400 --> 00:38:55.920 Busy house loved it. They get a call over there from Engine forty 506 00:38:55.960 --> 00:39:00.920 that they had a Captain Webber. Also had a Roger Webber who was a 507 00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:05.960 decide and the guys would walk around and say, Wheb, you're an a 508 00:39:06.039 --> 00:39:09.519 hole. And Captain Webber finally got sick and tired of that, and he 509 00:39:09.599 --> 00:39:13.840 called the chief and he said, you got to get rid of Roger Webber 510 00:39:13.880 --> 00:39:17.000 because it's driving me nuts. They're using him to get to me. So 511 00:39:17.480 --> 00:39:22.280 you have somebody over at twenty ones that you can send to forties. Well 512 00:39:22.280 --> 00:39:28.920 that was me. I got sent to forties and I ran at forties and 513 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:32.840 in nineteen they got me down for the squad at sixty five. I actually 514 00:39:34.440 --> 00:39:38.039 I actually started running the squad at sixty three. Don Pemmitt, who had 515 00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:43.440 broken his back had a fire, had the same kelly as me. And 516 00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:46.159 Lieutenant Vaughan macintoss used to say, Decker, you got the same kelly as 517 00:39:46.199 --> 00:39:51.039 Pemmitt. Put your clothes on the rig when you come in. And they 518 00:39:51.079 --> 00:39:54.519 actually painted my helmet red after a while. Until sixty five, I was 519 00:39:54.559 --> 00:40:00.920 officially in the squad. And I think, like everybody, nobody likes squad 520 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.639 men, right, No, they're a pain in the neck. Cancel the 521 00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:07.920 squad, you know, And so you don't want to be on there. 522 00:40:07.960 --> 00:40:10.960 But once you get on the squad, it's a different ballgame, isn't it. 523 00:40:13.400 --> 00:40:16.920 You know? And I'll say this. While I was on the squad, 524 00:40:17.440 --> 00:40:21.639 we had a big district. Squad five had a real big district. 525 00:40:22.119 --> 00:40:30.880 And there was mansions. Gordy Gordy h Berry. Gordy had the Kresgy mansion 526 00:40:30.960 --> 00:40:35.239 that was on Chicago Boulevard. We had things like that. We had mansions 527 00:40:35.320 --> 00:40:40.800 up in Palmer Woods seven miles and eight and off of Woodward, and then 528 00:40:40.840 --> 00:40:46.000 we had sungs. We had ghetto and we were busy, real busy squad. 529 00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:51.840 But we had a big district. And I told I've always told guys 530 00:40:52.599 --> 00:40:57.039 I never would take the line if the guy didn't want to give it up. 531 00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:04.239 That's the true through We knew houses when we ran in the squad. 532 00:41:04.280 --> 00:41:07.760 We knew we we get in the district. We knew we didn't get off 533 00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:09.199 the rig with a tool. We got off the rig and no, we're 534 00:41:09.199 --> 00:41:13.159 going to get the line. The guys were there ready to give it up. 535 00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:16.800 And other times, if you went with twenty one or some of the 536 00:41:16.800 --> 00:41:21.000 ones down in the ninth Battalion, you knew you're going to grab your hallet 537 00:41:21.079 --> 00:41:22.760 and bar or your acts and you were going to go to work pike pole 538 00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:28.760 and U. But some houses you took the line. And that's what I 539 00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:31.320 loved about the squad, as you could get the line and go in and 540 00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:35.840 fight the fire. I was never on a truck except for three months. 541 00:41:36.280 --> 00:41:38.400 I was always on an engine. To me, that was fighting fires. 542 00:41:38.519 --> 00:41:45.199 I always thought truck men were just crazy painters, you know, Frank, 543 00:41:45.559 --> 00:41:49.000 You know what me and coops. Coops say all the time about the squad. 544 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:52.800 How many guys can you fit in the fire building coops at least five 545 00:41:52.880 --> 00:41:57.480 more at least five more. So how do they squads? That does the 546 00:41:57.559 --> 00:42:01.440 TROIT have right? They had? They had seven seven squads? Okay, 547 00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:06.239 So and what was the staffing? Like, how many guys wrote on the 548 00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:09.760 squad? You always rode five on the squad? There was sixty engines. 549 00:42:10.719 --> 00:42:15.760 I would say. The trucks were in the thirties numbers in there. And 550 00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:19.880 so you can figure only seven squads. You had a big district. Yeah, 551 00:42:20.239 --> 00:42:22.039 and you know you could catch a lot of good fires. And so 552 00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:25.000 for that reason, I did love the squad, I really did. I 553 00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:30.159 didn't like the medical be very honest with you. We didn't have that much. 554 00:42:30.840 --> 00:42:39.039 We were not emt you know, we got called. We got called 555 00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:44.960 down downtown one time the Red Cross. We're going to have a training schedule 556 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.159 for squad companies. So we go down there and I'm sitting there and I'm 557 00:42:49.199 --> 00:42:52.960 listening to this guy talking about how to do this and how to do that, 558 00:42:52.079 --> 00:42:55.400 and how to rescue people in all this. And I was sitting there 559 00:42:55.400 --> 00:42:59.719 and a Libby looked at me. Red Libby was my one of my favorite 560 00:42:59.719 --> 00:43:02.599 guys. Libby looked at me, said don't decker And I said, you 561 00:43:02.679 --> 00:43:07.800 know, he said, anybody ever save a drowning person? I put my 562 00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:09.639 hand up and he says, what did you do? And I said, 563 00:43:09.639 --> 00:43:13.920 well, it was here in the Detroit River and I said we pulled him 564 00:43:13.960 --> 00:43:16.039 halfway out and I put a pump on him, and I said, we 565 00:43:16.079 --> 00:43:20.400 started pumping. I said, good grief, we were pumping sardines out of 566 00:43:20.480 --> 00:43:22.519 him. I said, we were pumping beer cans out of him. I 567 00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:25.360 said, if we hadn't pulled his fanny out of the water, I don't 568 00:43:25.360 --> 00:43:28.639 know what we would have pumped out of him. And he guy said, 569 00:43:28.679 --> 00:43:35.320 that's it. The class is all done. We had a rig did you 570 00:43:35.360 --> 00:43:38.039 have back that fright? What was a squadring? Like? It was a 571 00:43:38.199 --> 00:43:47.280 Chevy with a Gorten slagger body that they redid it, but the brakes were 572 00:43:47.360 --> 00:43:51.599 terrible on him. They were brakes just like you'd have on a panel truck. 573 00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:54.119 And I don't know how many times we'd have four or five runs in 574 00:43:54.119 --> 00:43:59.360 a row and you get to the fire and you'd go right past that you 575 00:44:00.440 --> 00:44:05.079 draw out the anchor. Yeah, so you would go to every fire in 576 00:44:05.119 --> 00:44:09.760 your district. The squad sua yes, if there was a hospital. If 577 00:44:09.800 --> 00:44:15.480 there was multi story buildings like orphanage or something, there'd be two squads excusually 578 00:44:15.519 --> 00:44:22.119 Squad five, Squad four, maybe Squad five, squad seven. And we 579 00:44:22.119 --> 00:44:24.599 were busy, you know, twenty sum runs a day, mostly fires, 580 00:44:24.880 --> 00:44:30.599 and I love that. You know, the only thing is after the riots, 581 00:44:30.039 --> 00:44:36.239 they became ambulances. And to me that was me and Libby said let's 582 00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:38.639 get out of here. And me had read one to thirty nines and thirty 583 00:44:38.719 --> 00:44:43.840 nines had orders to run with five. Because the apartment house single engine, 584 00:44:44.719 --> 00:44:47.519 somebody would ask me, well, what was the tools you carried? I 585 00:44:47.519 --> 00:44:51.920 don't know if you guys must be familiar, because the apartment said, did 586 00:44:51.960 --> 00:44:54.440 you guys have hose roll in row? That was the young man. He 587 00:44:54.840 --> 00:45:00.920 carried the hose roll in row a lot of our apartments back then. It's 588 00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:06.280 hard to believe, but we carried. I would say, it's probably almost 589 00:45:06.280 --> 00:45:14.559 a foot long piece of railroad track on a sixty foot logging chain. We 590 00:45:14.719 --> 00:45:19.239 carry that in a paper bag, and that was for incinerators. Cinerators would 591 00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:21.800 back up, you would drop it up, you would drop it down and 592 00:45:21.880 --> 00:45:25.679 try to break up the incenter. To do that with bricks and stuff too. 593 00:45:25.800 --> 00:45:30.920 Right, they don't do that anymore. That's nobody would understand that. 594 00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:34.559 What we got there, we got. I tried to pull up an old 595 00:45:34.599 --> 00:45:37.639 rig while you guys were talking to much sure if it's the right one from 596 00:45:37.639 --> 00:45:39.400 this to your department. So I was trying to see if that rings a 597 00:45:39.400 --> 00:45:44.320 bell? What year was your rig? I could try to do some research 598 00:45:44.360 --> 00:45:51.960 if you wanted to pull it up. Oh to be Actually, when I 599 00:45:51.960 --> 00:45:53.519 looked up in nineteen sixty five rig is what I looked up to see if 600 00:45:54.280 --> 00:45:59.440 we had in Detroit with Sea Graves. I think there was one map and 601 00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:06.679 one four wheel drive Seagraves had with the department, that purchasing department. They 602 00:46:06.679 --> 00:46:09.599 had a thing where that's all you could buy with Sea Graves. So after 603 00:46:09.639 --> 00:46:13.679 the riots, people started looking at that and they said these are way too 604 00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:16.280 expensive and everything. Why don't we buy something else? Well, after the 605 00:46:16.360 --> 00:46:22.159 riots, say, thirty nine's got a Ford with a gmcdesel in it. 606 00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:29.360 Fantastic rig really great rigg had a hose roller automatic, and that was nice. 607 00:46:29.719 --> 00:46:31.480 You got five hundred gallons of water. You can knock down a little 608 00:46:31.519 --> 00:46:36.039 tar fire or a mattress and stuff. So we didn't have to stretch all 609 00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:43.199 the time. But the rigs were all sea grays and trucks and everything. 610 00:46:43.239 --> 00:46:46.360 And then they stopped that when we moved down to here to the Carolinas in 611 00:46:46.480 --> 00:46:51.559 nineteen ninety four. There's a little town out of here, Double Island. 612 00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:55.280 And one of the guys that I worked with at Habitat said he was worked 613 00:46:55.559 --> 00:47:00.559 volunteer fireing at Double Island. Why don't you come up and see what we 614 00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:02.719 got. They had the old rig that I ran out in night. That 615 00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:07.159 right, that's crazy. All the odds of that man at forty two is 616 00:47:07.159 --> 00:47:12.519 an old sea graves still in beautiful shape, still in beautiful shape. When 617 00:47:12.599 --> 00:47:15.239 you when you were working like in the first companies and in the squad we've 618 00:47:15.239 --> 00:47:19.960 had a few guys from Detroit, were you like having bare bones equipment like 619 00:47:20.039 --> 00:47:22.800 you guys? Were you know, as far as obviously your your turnout, 620 00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:27.280 Gere, you said you only had a rubber coat and a helmet and boots. 621 00:47:27.320 --> 00:47:30.400 But as far as equipment, how is your equipment? At that time, 622 00:47:30.679 --> 00:47:34.760 our equipment was good. We had fifteen hundred firemen. Everything was good. 623 00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:37.519 Then The city was what the fifth largest city in the United States, 624 00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:45.599 So we were mayor. Marianni did not like the fire department. We were 625 00:47:45.679 --> 00:47:50.320 tied to the police department. When the police department got a raise, we 626 00:47:50.480 --> 00:47:55.159 got a raise. Maryannie didn't like that. Pavanall came along and he was 627 00:47:55.440 --> 00:48:00.719 he beat up Mary Anne. He said he'd give us a raise and and 628 00:48:00.760 --> 00:48:05.440 he would take care of the fireman. So Kavanaugh was there during the riots. 629 00:48:05.440 --> 00:48:09.599 But up until then we had good equipment, not the best I've seen. 630 00:48:09.719 --> 00:48:14.800 During the riots, Lansing came, Canada came over. They had better 631 00:48:14.840 --> 00:48:19.360 equipment that we did. When I would go on the Midwest firefighter bowling tournaments, 632 00:48:19.559 --> 00:48:23.000 there were squads that had defibrillators. I had a resuscitator. That's what 633 00:48:23.119 --> 00:48:28.000 I would carry in. Sometimes all that does is to make a person's chest 634 00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:31.119 go up and down and they think he's alive. You know, he wasn't 635 00:48:31.119 --> 00:48:37.280 alive, but yeah, and we would take him out of there on a 636 00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:39.400 stretcher and everybody's saying, oh boy, the fireman saved him. We didn't 637 00:48:39.400 --> 00:48:45.679 save him, you know. But let's talk about the riots a little bit, 638 00:48:45.920 --> 00:48:50.320 Frank, Uh, what years that they stawed over there? And where 639 00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:54.840 you were in July of nineteen sixty seven, I was on Kelly. I 640 00:48:54.960 --> 00:48:59.639 was out cutting the grass. My neighbor had a what do you call it 641 00:49:00.800 --> 00:49:06.000 where you pick up radio callsner scanner, and he was walking over to the 642 00:49:06.039 --> 00:49:08.320 house and I was cutting the grass as Patty was coming out the front door 643 00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:14.199 holler and ed Smith's on the phone from Squad five. So I take the 644 00:49:14.239 --> 00:49:17.320 phone call and Smithy says, Decker, something's going on down in twelfth in 645 00:49:17.360 --> 00:49:23.159 Claremont and all the stores are closing everything. Come on in. Fill up 646 00:49:23.159 --> 00:49:30.760 the station wagon with ginger ale and cigarettes and whatever else you can think of. 647 00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:40.599 So I did. I filled it up with ginger ale and smokes doing 648 00:49:40.639 --> 00:49:45.039 tobacco, and I pulled in allegedly orders and they said, we're evacuating the 649 00:49:45.119 --> 00:49:49.320 quarters. We're going to go over to forty twos. That's where I started 650 00:49:49.360 --> 00:49:53.159 on with Chicago Liverwise. I knew Fred Steiner there, so I drove the 651 00:49:53.199 --> 00:49:58.440 station wagon over there. Steiner was there, and I give Fred my keys. 652 00:49:58.840 --> 00:50:04.079 I said, Fred is of ginger ale and cigarettes and whatever. You 653 00:50:04.199 --> 00:50:07.800 got the keys. You just distribute the stuff the way you want, and 654 00:50:07.840 --> 00:50:10.960 I know you're going to be good with it. And you got the keys, 655 00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:15.800 and so me and Pepper were on the squad and they gave us a 656 00:50:15.840 --> 00:50:22.760 lieutenant. We just came to the squad and he was an ex chief driver 657 00:50:22.960 --> 00:50:28.320 and all he wanted was medical calls. So Bob and I ran on the 658 00:50:28.320 --> 00:50:34.039 squad with him. And the first fire we had we were at it looked 659 00:50:34.079 --> 00:50:37.800 like it they might have sold furniture there and things, and it's going and 660 00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:40.920 we're in there with the line, Pepper and I and we're knocking the fire 661 00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:44.880 down, and all of a sudden, I see this guy come in and 662 00:50:44.920 --> 00:50:47.480 he's trying to pick up you know, big TVs were back there in the 663 00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:52.800 sixties, tubes, you know, he's trying to pick this TV up and 664 00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:54.599 him and his buddy and they finally get it out and they laid it down, 665 00:50:54.880 --> 00:50:58.960 and he came back and they got another one, and we're fighting the 666 00:50:58.960 --> 00:51:01.360 fire, and you know, everybody the police just left them alone. They 667 00:51:01.360 --> 00:51:06.559 were they were looting and doing whatever they wanted. So they get these two 668 00:51:06.559 --> 00:51:08.559 TVs and they're thinking, how are we going to get them home? So 669 00:51:08.599 --> 00:51:13.599 they grabbed a bed on casters threw them on the mattress and down they go, 670 00:51:14.400 --> 00:51:19.960 Oh my god, twelve Street with the TVs. Like now you know 671 00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:25.920 now, okay, I think this. I told my daughter, I said, 672 00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:29.920 the riots for only five days, honey, I said, I was 673 00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.239 on there for sixteen seventeen years fighting fires, but the riots for five days, 674 00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:38.519 five days straight. Me and Pepper never if we didn't ride the squad, 675 00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:45.119 we would jump on latter seventeen and ride with them, and we just 676 00:51:45.159 --> 00:51:47.480 wanted to fight fires. It's you know, it's like being at a Polish 677 00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:53.960 wedding. You're just so happy. You're hoping it doesn't end. It isn't 678 00:51:54.079 --> 00:52:00.360 terrible that you would think that your city's burned down, but you're enjoying fighting. 679 00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:04.960 That's what you do for that's what you love to do. I wasn't 680 00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:10.480 happy when they jumped over the alley and the side streets Philadelphia, all the 681 00:52:12.440 --> 00:52:17.199 sewered, all these houses, two flats start burning and now all we got 682 00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:21.880 sometimes is we just got hydrant pressure. We hooked up to a hydrant and 683 00:52:21.920 --> 00:52:28.559 we're fighting fires there. But Twelfth Street was it was there. You go, 684 00:52:29.840 --> 00:52:34.840 you know, that's sad. That's when you look at it, it's 685 00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.800 terrible. I can't say one thing that I hope people will look at and 686 00:52:39.880 --> 00:52:47.519 say, this is this is uplifting in nineteen sixty seven, Detroit and Boston 687 00:52:47.559 --> 00:52:52.760 were fighting for the pennant, and before the Riots, we'd be driving down 688 00:52:52.760 --> 00:52:55.800 the street and we could holler at the neighbors, what's the score, and 689 00:52:55.840 --> 00:53:00.960 they had holler out what the Tigers were doing. And then the Riots came. 690 00:53:00.400 --> 00:53:05.519 And I used to shop on the boulevard at an AMP store, and 691 00:53:05.639 --> 00:53:10.000 I can remember going in there and all all you were as far as uniform 692 00:53:10.039 --> 00:53:13.639 as you got your sand fries on it, but you got a fire hat 693 00:53:13.679 --> 00:53:16.639 on. And I go in and I'd bring my groceries up to the checkout 694 00:53:16.800 --> 00:53:22.719 and they wouldn't check me out, and I call the manager, and the 695 00:53:22.760 --> 00:53:27.159 manager come over and finally he'd check me out. So there was this animosity 696 00:53:27.239 --> 00:53:30.719 there. There was this hatred for no reason, I didn't think. And 697 00:53:30.840 --> 00:53:36.320 then sixty eight comes along and the Tigers win the pennant and win the World 698 00:53:36.440 --> 00:53:40.000 Series. Black and White were the happiest people in the world. They were 699 00:53:40.079 --> 00:53:45.320 dancing in the streets in downtown Detroit. The politicians didn't bring them together. 700 00:53:45.800 --> 00:53:50.559 Detroit Tigers did. Wow. You know, the politicians aren't going to solve 701 00:53:50.599 --> 00:53:55.079 any of these problems, but sports teams will. Maybe a good movie will 702 00:53:55.719 --> 00:54:01.480 something will change it. But I got a good story about the riots. 703 00:54:02.760 --> 00:54:07.440 I'm angry. We got two dead firemen, saw a lot of people shot 704 00:54:07.440 --> 00:54:13.480 and killed. It was you're man, you're tired, you're dirty. You've 705 00:54:13.480 --> 00:54:17.079 been fighting fires for three days in a row. We're coming down Alfie Evans's 706 00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:24.400 Lieutenant Constantine Andrews is driving Bob pepper Mere in the back end. This car 707 00:54:24.519 --> 00:54:30.599 keeps coming up real close to the back of the rig. I'm getting angry 708 00:54:30.679 --> 00:54:32.920 with it. It's a big Buick and I'm looking at the guy driving, 709 00:54:34.440 --> 00:54:37.760 and I'm not happy with that. I told the driver. I told Gus 710 00:54:37.800 --> 00:54:42.840 stop at the next light. He stopped. I opened the door, climb 711 00:54:42.840 --> 00:54:46.639 out, take my axe, throw it down on the guy's hood. Not 712 00:54:46.719 --> 00:54:52.920 a nice thing, right. The guy's eyes are so big, he says, 713 00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:59.440 My wife's having a baby. I didn't have. I didn't have a 714 00:54:59.440 --> 00:55:04.679 shovel. Dug into that pavement and crawled under. We get her out of 715 00:55:04.679 --> 00:55:07.360 the car and put her on the rig. Me and Bob and the husband 716 00:55:07.360 --> 00:55:12.039 parked his car and got on. He never said anything to me. He 717 00:55:12.159 --> 00:55:16.519 was never mad. He thanked us. She had twins. Oh way on 718 00:55:16.559 --> 00:55:22.679 the rink. Look at the hospital one on the rig a little way delivered 719 00:55:22.760 --> 00:55:27.639 him and she looked at me and she's, what's your name? As my 720 00:55:27.760 --> 00:55:30.679 name's Frank. That didn't sound good her, I guess, and Bob Pepper 721 00:55:30.760 --> 00:55:36.760 Bob didn't sound good. She says, who's up front there? And I 722 00:55:36.800 --> 00:55:40.679 so that's Constantine Edwards. We call him Gus. I like that Gus. 723 00:55:40.960 --> 00:55:44.280 I don't know if she was gonna name that little boy Gus or not. 724 00:55:45.960 --> 00:55:50.320 We got him, we got him with you know, we had we didn't 725 00:55:50.320 --> 00:55:52.119 have good clean stuff on the rig, you know, but we got him 726 00:55:52.159 --> 00:55:57.519 covered up on her chest. We didn't cut the cord and we got her 727 00:55:55.880 --> 00:56:00.159 on his chest. And I see she started the crown. She's starting to 728 00:56:00.199 --> 00:56:05.519 have another baby. And I said, close your legs, and I hollered 729 00:56:05.519 --> 00:56:09.360 at gusts. Go to what Chicago General right down the street. We got 730 00:56:09.360 --> 00:56:15.039 her in there and they delivered the second twin. And that's cool. So, 731 00:56:15.159 --> 00:56:20.400 you know, good things do come about a bad situation. But I 732 00:56:20.519 --> 00:56:25.679 felt like that big I'll tell you he had every reason to punch me, 733 00:56:27.280 --> 00:56:30.719 he had every reason to sue me, and all he did was thank me 734 00:56:30.840 --> 00:56:37.119 for stopping and helping his wife out. So That was one of my riot 735 00:56:37.199 --> 00:56:40.599 stories that have something have some good ending to him. But there was a 736 00:56:40.639 --> 00:56:46.679 lot of bad stuff went on. We got called down one night every Brother 737 00:56:46.719 --> 00:56:52.159 warehouse and I was riding latter seventeen with John Hedgecock, Lieutenant and Pepper and 738 00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:57.920 we get down there and there's nothing, but there's people up in the apartment 739 00:56:57.960 --> 00:57:04.039 houses and they got flash and everything, and you're you're a little scared. 740 00:57:04.159 --> 00:57:07.519 You know, there's been enough sniping going on. We got off the rig 741 00:57:07.559 --> 00:57:09.159 and we're looking around. There's nothing going on. There's no fire at the 742 00:57:09.159 --> 00:57:15.239 divery Brother warehouse. So we get back on. We're going back and Lieutenant 743 00:57:15.239 --> 00:57:20.159 says they're calling us back again. We went back and then we saw this 744 00:57:20.239 --> 00:57:24.000 kid laying on the street. He had been shot. He was dead, 745 00:57:27.639 --> 00:57:30.159 didn't have a T shirt on, he had a pair of blue jeans and 746 00:57:30.239 --> 00:57:32.800 his sneakers and he was laying there dead And those people are looking out the 747 00:57:32.800 --> 00:57:37.639 window. Had they had guns, they probably would have shot us. You 748 00:57:37.719 --> 00:57:40.239 know, there was anger there with the fire department too. Huh, not 749 00:57:40.320 --> 00:57:45.960 too surely. Even the FBI talked to us after the riots, took us 750 00:57:45.960 --> 00:57:52.280 aside, wanted no different things that we'd seen and the first night of the 751 00:57:52.679 --> 00:57:57.639 first night at forty twos, we were getting a lot of sniper fire and 752 00:57:57.679 --> 00:58:00.599 you can see it hitting the pavements. We'd dive under the rig and we 753 00:58:00.639 --> 00:58:05.320 didn't do whatever. And there was automatical weapons, I mean, there was 754 00:58:05.360 --> 00:58:14.400 automatics going on. So National Guard came down from Upper Peninsula, Upper Yopers, 755 00:58:14.480 --> 00:58:16.199 they call him. Those guys should know how to shoot and everything else. 756 00:58:16.280 --> 00:58:20.360 Right, that's all that's our country right up there. Yeah, open 757 00:58:20.400 --> 00:58:22.519 the upper that's all. He got a jar up or something. Right. 758 00:58:22.119 --> 00:58:25.800 This one guy comes up and he says, what's going on? And lieutenant 759 00:58:25.800 --> 00:58:29.239 said, they keep shooting at us. He said, well that you got 760 00:58:29.280 --> 00:58:31.199 that street light. Let's put the street light out and they can't see you. 761 00:58:31.280 --> 00:58:35.639 So good, good idea. Why didn't we think of that? But 762 00:58:35.760 --> 00:58:38.599 we don't have any guns. Oh he licked the s thumb, looked up 763 00:58:38.639 --> 00:58:44.159 at the light and shoots. It doesn't go out. Shot again, as 764 00:58:44.159 --> 00:58:46.840 still didn't caught. Some mean he said, what's what rigger are you on? 765 00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:51.599 You know, we to punch you on our rig. A few days 766 00:58:51.679 --> 00:58:55.760 later they took all their bullets away. One guy was thirty thirty fives was 767 00:58:55.920 --> 00:59:01.159 doing a parade thing showing them how to operate a rifle and hit the payment 768 00:59:01.199 --> 00:59:07.239 went up to the cabinets. Another guy was sitting on a rig, went 769 00:59:07.280 --> 00:59:10.840 over railroad track, his rifle went off. The National guardsman increased the fireman's 770 00:59:10.880 --> 00:59:15.400 helmet and went out through the top of his helmet, pull the bullets out. 771 00:59:15.480 --> 00:59:20.360 Now these poor guys are sitting on the squattering in front of the Tillerman, 772 00:59:20.840 --> 00:59:23.639 sitting there like little buddhas with a gun with no rifles in them, 773 00:59:23.679 --> 00:59:28.000 I mean, no no bullets, yea. And they're saying, don't go 774 00:59:28.039 --> 00:59:30.519 down that street, please, don't that street. But hey, you gotta 775 00:59:30.559 --> 00:59:34.280 go to the alarm, you know. And there was a lot of sniper 776 00:59:34.320 --> 00:59:39.599 fire going on. And then the third day Johnson, President Johnson called in 777 00:59:39.639 --> 00:59:45.800 the army. So these guys in the guard, Yeah, no more National 778 00:59:45.840 --> 00:59:47.880 Guard. There was a regular army. They had bayonets on their on their 779 00:59:47.880 --> 00:59:53.039 cut. They had jeeps. I didn't know that. Yeah, they had 780 00:59:53.079 --> 00:59:59.159 jeeps with fifty caliber machine guns on the back. And we were getting sniped 781 00:59:59.199 --> 01:00:05.119 at every night at forty twos. And somebody said they thought there was somebody. 782 01:00:05.159 --> 01:00:07.719 Every once in a while it would see something on this roof of a 783 01:00:07.760 --> 01:00:10.679 house that you can see from forty two quarters. Sure enough they had cut 784 01:00:10.719 --> 01:00:15.800 through and they had raised the shingles up and shoot from there down on where 785 01:00:15.840 --> 01:00:21.159 we were. That fifty caliber machine gun took that rofe off. I've never 786 01:00:21.199 --> 01:00:25.679 been in the service, and I've never they're They're awesome. They really are, 787 01:00:27.599 --> 01:00:37.079 virtually in everything we got. And then uh Lynnwood, they had there 788 01:00:37.159 --> 01:00:45.320 was a statue of Jesus on Saint Saint Saint Precious Blood. I think it 789 01:00:45.360 --> 01:00:49.039 was a seminary. They had painted him his face black, his hands black, 790 01:00:49.360 --> 01:00:52.800 and they had pulled cars across Lynnwood. So we'd get a call down 791 01:00:52.840 --> 01:00:55.800 there to a store or a house and we couldn't get through the cars were 792 01:00:55.800 --> 01:01:05.440 there. Paint came down the street that car, it hit the hell out 793 01:01:05.440 --> 01:01:09.880 of there and washed it no way. And these kids were having the greatest 794 01:01:09.880 --> 01:01:14.519 time. They wanted to pull another out there and see it gets squashed. 795 01:01:14.880 --> 01:01:16.679 But I'll tell you right now, we could probably use a little bit of 796 01:01:16.719 --> 01:01:21.119 that in some of the places. What's going on. I see the Army 797 01:01:21.239 --> 01:01:23.719 changed a whole lot, they really did. Uh Me and Pepper had some 798 01:01:23.800 --> 01:01:28.280 guys bothering us. We had the line and they were bothering us. And 799 01:01:28.400 --> 01:01:30.599 this guy walked up with his bandet and he kept saying back up, and 800 01:01:30.639 --> 01:01:35.079 he wasn't moving quick enough. He hit him in the nose with that bandett 801 01:01:35.679 --> 01:01:38.960 and that was it. They left us alone right out. Baby they were 802 01:01:40.119 --> 01:01:44.239 or an auto baby. I'm trying to think what group they were, but 803 01:01:44.320 --> 01:01:47.599 they had just come back from something sixty seven probably no, I'm right, 804 01:01:49.280 --> 01:01:54.400 yeah, And they weren't fooling around. There was no fooling around at all. 805 01:01:54.760 --> 01:01:58.480 I don't know if that's why there was forty three people killed. I 806 01:01:58.719 --> 01:02:00.920 don't know, but it was forty three people killed, and not say right 807 01:02:00.960 --> 01:02:05.440 now everything you said. When when I see some of these videos going on 808 01:02:05.440 --> 01:02:09.440 and what's happening like with all police, the term no falling around kind of 809 01:02:09.480 --> 01:02:14.400 really comes to my mind, like we shouldn't be falling around anymore with this, 810 01:02:14.679 --> 01:02:17.920 with this stuff that we're doing, where we're allowing to go on because 811 01:02:17.960 --> 01:02:22.480 of the rights or whatever these people think or this country thinks is going on. 812 01:02:22.760 --> 01:02:28.960 I'm not really sure, but that term no falling around, I think 813 01:02:28.800 --> 01:02:31.079 we could use a little bit of that right now. Yeah. Now, 814 01:02:31.760 --> 01:02:37.599 I don't know if you know Tiger baseball. But Willie Horton back then, 815 01:02:37.079 --> 01:02:43.079 what was a graduate of Northwestern High School, built like a tank, heck 816 01:02:43.119 --> 01:02:45.960 of a hitter, had an iron money that you wouldn't quit. He played 817 01:02:45.039 --> 01:02:49.800 right or left field for the Tigers. They called him down to the riots. 818 01:02:49.800 --> 01:02:54.000 They threw brick setting. Really John Conyers, he was a black congressman. 819 01:02:54.039 --> 01:02:58.159 They've called him down. They threw brick setting. They took thirty nine 820 01:02:58.280 --> 01:03:00.639 crew, all white, and put an all black crew in there. They 821 01:03:00.719 --> 01:03:05.599 threw bricks at him. It didn't matter. It wasn't a yeah, it 822 01:03:05.639 --> 01:03:08.920 wasn't black and white. It was just anger. It was anger at at 823 01:03:09.000 --> 01:03:14.320 the physical system and the fire. They didn't like us all of a sudden. 824 01:03:14.440 --> 01:03:16.960 Before that we were heroes. I was sitting on the back of the 825 01:03:17.079 --> 01:03:22.840 rig. If you ever see the guy during the guys during the riots, 826 01:03:23.239 --> 01:03:30.079 you might wonder the city. The Detroit Fire Department had one hundredth anniversary coming 827 01:03:30.199 --> 01:03:35.599 up, so we were allowed to grow handlebar mustaches. And they were wearing 828 01:03:35.639 --> 01:03:44.800 the red shirts and button angle right. And I was sitting on the back 829 01:03:44.840 --> 01:03:47.920 of a rig out in the middle of the twelfth Street. I was whipped 830 01:03:49.079 --> 01:03:53.400 tired one of the store owners and he had a big sign on his window 831 01:03:53.480 --> 01:03:59.719 brow but he would bring out beer whatever. And it's July. It's hot, 832 01:04:00.039 --> 01:04:03.840 ginger l Yeah, ginger Le. And we're sitting there and this little 833 01:04:03.920 --> 01:04:09.400 lady came down the street and it's smoky. She's walking down through the smoke, 834 01:04:09.760 --> 01:04:14.559 and she's got a picture and ice water and cups, and she came 835 01:04:14.639 --> 01:04:16.880 up to me and she says, mister fireman. She poured me a glass 836 01:04:16.880 --> 01:04:19.800 of water. And there was a guy that looked like he was on an 837 01:04:19.800 --> 01:04:25.159 African safari with cameras all over him. And he made it, he posed 838 01:04:25.159 --> 01:04:28.039 it. He had her do it again and took a picture. Here I 839 01:04:28.079 --> 01:04:33.159 am with this handlebar, mustache, had dirty and everything sitting there, and 840 01:04:33.320 --> 01:04:36.519 she poured me a glass of water and he said, kid, it's gonna 841 01:04:36.559 --> 01:04:42.679 be on National Time magazine. I never saw it. I don't know. 842 01:04:43.400 --> 01:04:45.760 Maybe they didn't like the pose or whatever, but it never got anywhere. 843 01:04:46.400 --> 01:04:50.800 But I thought that they were nice people. They were. There was their 844 01:04:50.800 --> 01:04:57.159 houses that were burning down. That's craziness. It was their businesses. Now, 845 01:04:57.800 --> 01:05:00.480 okay, we're through the riot, I hope, Because how did they 846 01:05:00.519 --> 01:05:03.159 how did they end that? Like? How did they ask? How was 847 01:05:03.159 --> 01:05:06.280 it five days and then that was it. How did that come about with 848 01:05:06.480 --> 01:05:10.880 the army? I really don't. I think the army was the big thing. 849 01:05:11.280 --> 01:05:13.960 The fifty color machine gun on the back of the gail. I'll do 850 01:05:13.960 --> 01:05:18.119 it. I don't do it. Current in tanks and h One night, 851 01:05:18.199 --> 01:05:21.360 me and Pepper we didn't have a rigger ride on, so we jumped on 852 01:05:21.440 --> 01:05:26.400 an army troop carrier and rode down a Grand River in Trumbull and there was 853 01:05:26.400 --> 01:05:30.039 a furniture store burning, and the deputy came down with the driver, Deputy 854 01:05:30.119 --> 01:05:35.480 chief of the department, and he said, uh, what rigor you guys 855 01:05:35.480 --> 01:05:39.199 on, we don't have a rig We're just going to other work on that 856 01:05:39.239 --> 01:05:43.079 fire. Well, you're going to go downtown. We looked downtown. There 857 01:05:43.199 --> 01:05:46.880 there's no red downtown. It's just the sky isn't glowing red. And that's 858 01:05:46.920 --> 01:05:51.239 a that's where we were. It was all red, it was all burning. 859 01:05:51.800 --> 01:05:56.440 So he's I said, we're not going to go down there. And 860 01:05:56.559 --> 01:05:59.440 he said to me, he said where do you run at? And I 861 01:05:59.480 --> 01:06:02.519 took my flashlight and I pointed it up to Squad five and he said, 862 01:06:02.760 --> 01:06:05.320 you can't even read that. And I said, that's because it's been in 863 01:06:05.360 --> 01:06:11.000 a few fires. I can read yours really good. I was not disciplined 864 01:06:11.119 --> 01:06:15.360 and kind of left. It really had and we heard we didn't even know 865 01:06:15.360 --> 01:06:17.360 if we're going to get paid. We just thought we were going to get 866 01:06:17.360 --> 01:06:20.599 paid for the days we were supposed to work. I worked five days straight 867 01:06:21.159 --> 01:06:27.159 and during the second day of the riot, I didn't hear it from fire 868 01:06:27.199 --> 01:06:30.719 them, and I heard it from people that were rioting. We're going to 869 01:06:30.800 --> 01:06:34.280 go out to EJ. Corvette's, which was out in Most Chicago and Telegraph, 870 01:06:34.280 --> 01:06:39.360 which was five blocks from my house. I called my wife and I 871 01:06:39.400 --> 01:06:42.119 said, Patty, get the kids and go to your mom and Dad's out 872 01:06:42.159 --> 01:06:45.119 in Utica and get out of there because I don't know if we're going to 873 01:06:45.199 --> 01:06:51.480 be safe. It was that bad. I mean there was I guess we 874 01:06:51.519 --> 01:06:55.960 can talk about it. I guess it had something to do with Detroit. 875 01:06:57.559 --> 01:07:01.079 When I went to thirty nine from Squad five that was one block from where 876 01:07:01.079 --> 01:07:04.559 the riots started. Thirty nine they were the first engine at the riots. 877 01:07:05.159 --> 01:07:13.239 We get over their me and Libby and holy Cross, the Priest's Fantastic crew. 878 01:07:13.719 --> 01:07:15.960 Rugie was the lieutenant, and we go down the street and we could 879 01:07:15.960 --> 01:07:23.679 bottle thrown at us, especially me being blonde. And there were guys standing 880 01:07:23.719 --> 01:07:29.559 on the corner. I don't know if you remember. Black panthers. Okay, 881 01:07:29.639 --> 01:07:33.599 they'd be standing on the corner, especially down on Twelfth Street and Claremont, 882 01:07:33.639 --> 01:07:39.559 down in those places where there was a light with pamphlets how to make 883 01:07:39.599 --> 01:07:45.280 Molotov cocktails, throw them into fire trucks, how to cut stairs through I's 884 01:07:45.320 --> 01:07:49.800 sabotaged the buildings. Yeah, we put up with that after the riots. 885 01:07:49.840 --> 01:07:56.039 And they would get a five story apartment, all freshly plastered, new plumbing, 886 01:07:56.360 --> 01:08:00.719 everything done, and they would go in there and start putting five gallon 887 01:08:00.800 --> 01:08:04.719 gasoline cans on every landing with wicks on them. We go in there with 888 01:08:04.760 --> 01:08:06.920 a line and all of a sudden, or are we going to be able 889 01:08:06.920 --> 01:08:11.719 to make it up there before something blows? You know? And that's what 890 01:08:11.760 --> 01:08:15.599 we put up with after the riots. And they were marching with rifles on 891 01:08:15.679 --> 01:08:19.079 their shoulders, the Black Panthers. They had streets that we had to get 892 01:08:19.079 --> 01:08:24.800 police escorts to go down, and they had sandbags on the porches with little 893 01:08:24.840 --> 01:08:29.039 swits. Oh shit, Oh yeah, it was bad down there, and 894 01:08:29.039 --> 01:08:30.600 they let it. They let it go, I know, you can carry 895 01:08:30.600 --> 01:08:34.279 a rifle. Good grief. You see pickup trucks with the rifles on them. 896 01:08:34.319 --> 01:08:38.880 But you know, so that's not against the law. But when you 897 01:08:38.920 --> 01:08:43.479 start marching with them and telling you how to make Molotov cocktail, something's got 898 01:08:43.479 --> 01:08:47.119 to stop. They can't allow that to keep going. But that's the way 899 01:08:47.119 --> 01:08:50.279 it was down that was. That was different times too, because then that 900 01:08:50.399 --> 01:08:55.479 was the time when there was a lot of revolt, I guess against the 901 01:08:55.520 --> 01:08:58.119 war too, right, So there was a lot of that going on too. 902 01:08:58.199 --> 01:09:01.079 So the sixties, yeah, turnative thinking, right, everybody wasn't thinking 903 01:09:01.119 --> 01:09:04.199 the same way. It was kind of split down the middle somewhat. Do 904 01:09:04.279 --> 01:09:08.720 you remember Huey Newton that ring a bell, I know the name. I 905 01:09:08.760 --> 01:09:13.000 heard the name. Okay, he was out in California thinking he was somewhere 906 01:09:13.000 --> 01:09:16.640 anyway. A policeman was shot and killed, so they threw him in jail. 907 01:09:17.479 --> 01:09:20.920 There was a big poster down off of the expressway, down by the 908 01:09:20.960 --> 01:09:29.199 firehouse. He said, free Huey. After the riots, So guy with 909 01:09:29.239 --> 01:09:34.199 a sense of humor took a spray can and Dewey and Louis Huey, Dewey 910 01:09:34.239 --> 01:09:40.680 and Louie, can we shoot him at how so was that the beginning of 911 01:09:40.680 --> 01:09:44.680 the effort Detroit fight? Was that when it stought, I guess turned for 912 01:09:44.720 --> 01:09:47.720 the worst. Yeah. Yeah. There was a sign on Woodward and eight 913 01:09:47.760 --> 01:09:53.079 mile that's the city limit. The last one out of the city turned the 914 01:09:53.159 --> 01:09:59.199 lights off, and it just it was an exodus. I should have been 915 01:09:59.239 --> 01:10:05.359 thinking, thirty nine isn't going to be busy. Everything's burned down and they're 916 01:10:05.359 --> 01:10:09.680 moving They're moving out, And that was the whole premise of it, is 917 01:10:10.039 --> 01:10:14.039 we're gonna take over the city. And that's what happened. They moved out 918 01:10:14.199 --> 01:10:19.479 into the other areas and Twelfth Street became Rosa Park Boulevard, and it's most 919 01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:24.560 of the stuff has gone. There's hardly enough buildings on it anymore. And 920 01:10:25.119 --> 01:10:28.880 what year did you move the family? You did that early nineteen seventy. 921 01:10:29.199 --> 01:10:30.359 Yeah, so right around that time, you're like, this is it. 922 01:10:30.600 --> 01:10:36.119 You know it's going bad here. Well, I don't want to get too 923 01:10:36.119 --> 01:10:41.680 political, but they the PTA had a meeting and I went to our school 924 01:10:41.800 --> 01:10:45.840 I had My oldest boy was ten and my other boy was eight, and 925 01:10:46.520 --> 01:10:50.359 they said we're going to bust people in from the inner city. Hey, 926 01:10:50.439 --> 01:10:54.239 I worked with them every day. Fine, that's good. My kids got 927 01:10:54.239 --> 01:10:57.000 to get used to it. Bring them in. I have no problem with 928 01:10:57.039 --> 01:10:59.640 that. It's a lot of people in the pta looked at me and what 929 01:10:59.680 --> 01:11:01.760 do you saying. I said, Hey, that's no problem, as long 930 01:11:01.800 --> 01:11:05.319 as they don't change the curriculum. Oh no, mister Decker, he's going 931 01:11:05.359 --> 01:11:09.319 to have the same book. Everything's gonna be fine. He's going to go 932 01:11:09.399 --> 01:11:12.800 up or not to say, he's gonna go his next grade. They came 933 01:11:12.840 --> 01:11:15.720 home with the same book they'd had the year before. They set him back 934 01:11:15.760 --> 01:11:18.880 the year. I went over to school and I was talking and this young 935 01:11:18.920 --> 01:11:23.520 teacher came up and she said, I know your boy Mark and Steve. 936 01:11:23.720 --> 01:11:26.680 They're blonde hair and blue eyed. They're never going to have problems in this 937 01:11:26.720 --> 01:11:29.800 world. It says, ma'am. I'm blonde hair and blue eyed, and 938 01:11:29.840 --> 01:11:32.119 I've had problems all my life. Everybody does. It's how you do it 939 01:11:32.199 --> 01:11:35.800 and how you accept it. Yeah. So I told Patty, we're moving 940 01:11:36.439 --> 01:11:42.039 and we took a terrible discount on our house was the last street in the 941 01:11:42.079 --> 01:11:46.399 city, but we moved out seventy miles. Wow. I did the same 942 01:11:46.439 --> 01:11:51.720 thing. They had a farm. Yep, God's pull up the picture of 943 01:11:51.720 --> 01:11:55.079 the fifty eighth. This is good todd to pull up that fifty year of 944 01:11:55.079 --> 01:11:59.520 pot picture. Okay, it's coming. I was gonna get I want to 945 01:11:59.560 --> 01:12:02.079 go to the old what you call it photos, to the old firehouse ones. 946 01:12:03.199 --> 01:12:08.359 Okay. These are guys that I ran within the ninth Battalion, and 947 01:12:08.439 --> 01:12:11.720 the last three to my looking at it, to my right, the last 948 01:12:11.760 --> 01:12:15.920 two Frank, Tata, and Bill the priest and myself had a business together. 949 01:12:15.439 --> 01:12:19.760 Holy Cross not so much, but we ran with Holy Cross at thirty 950 01:12:19.800 --> 01:12:24.479 nine. One of the funniest, had more fun with Jim. He was 951 01:12:24.520 --> 01:12:28.880 a fantastic guy to have him around the firehouse. Those three, those four 952 01:12:28.920 --> 01:12:34.159 guys were always together at parties that our families. We all grew up kind 953 01:12:34.199 --> 01:12:38.800 of the kids together. Then we get a call from Bill Frank and he 954 01:12:38.880 --> 01:12:43.399 said, Tata's down in Florida and he's got cancer and he doesn't have long 955 01:12:43.520 --> 01:12:46.800 to live. So that's the top picture. He's second in from the right, 956 01:12:46.880 --> 01:12:50.239 correct, with glasses on, yeah, right, right right, it's 957 01:12:50.279 --> 01:12:54.960 Frank Tata. Heck of a he's the second one in the right in the 958 01:12:54.960 --> 01:12:57.680 box. His boy said, you know, you guys, I got a 959 01:12:57.720 --> 01:13:00.800 picture you guys after the riots. He said, let's set it up the 960 01:13:00.840 --> 01:13:04.520 same way. So that's a great idea. That's what he did. Holy 961 01:13:04.560 --> 01:13:12.000 Cross was he lives in Michigan and Florida. He's still kicking. Uh L 962 01:13:12.119 --> 01:13:15.560 Priest lives in Arizona. Tate has gone and of course myself, I'm here 963 01:13:15.600 --> 01:13:25.319 in the Carolinas. But uh there's something about Fire Department. You guys know 964 01:13:25.399 --> 01:13:30.640 it. You love the guys you work with. The ones you don't love 965 01:13:30.680 --> 01:13:35.560 pretty soon they're a lot of times they don't even sit around the table with 966 01:13:35.640 --> 01:13:39.439 you. They're out, you know, they're on the phone and they're doing 967 01:13:39.479 --> 01:13:44.239 something else. It's not family. But the guys that you love become family. 968 01:13:44.760 --> 01:13:49.680 And did you love them more than your family? I don't want to 969 01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.279 make my wife mad, but yeah, there is a certain thing there. 970 01:13:54.319 --> 01:13:57.159 I would give my I give my life for my family, no doubt. 971 01:13:57.520 --> 01:14:00.039 But I would go in the fire. Libby saw me at my retirement party. 972 01:14:00.079 --> 01:14:02.640 He told the guys he got to Mike and he said, if I 973 01:14:02.720 --> 01:14:05.840 was ever in a fire and I couldn't get out, Decker come and get 974 01:14:05.880 --> 01:14:11.000 me. And he says, Moller would figure out a way to get me. 975 01:14:11.039 --> 01:14:13.479 But Decker wouldn't even figure out a way he'd come and get me. 976 01:14:14.159 --> 01:14:16.920 And that made me feel so good that we loved each other that much, 977 01:14:16.920 --> 01:14:20.600 and we did and me and read. When he had cancer, he told 978 01:14:20.600 --> 01:14:26.479 me I'd never have chemo. I went to see him in the hospital and 979 01:14:26.520 --> 01:14:30.439 he said, the worst thing I did is I quit smoking. He says, 980 01:14:30.479 --> 01:14:33.039 I'd only got days to make it as I'll keep doing what I'm doing, 981 01:14:33.159 --> 01:14:38.239 right. He said they could have given me as much chemo. I'd 982 01:14:38.279 --> 01:14:42.239 take it every day if it gave me another day. And then I held 983 01:14:42.319 --> 01:14:45.399 him and hugged him and we cried together, and he was my buddy and 984 01:14:45.439 --> 01:14:51.199 I hate to see him go, but that's life. And he handled it 985 01:14:51.279 --> 01:14:56.119 good. He handled it good. And you know what, that's funny you 986 01:14:56.119 --> 01:15:00.279 say that, Frank, because we got a lot of guys from nine to 987 01:15:00.319 --> 01:15:04.439 eleven obviously getting you know, it's it was an everyday thing where Kevin and 988 01:15:04.479 --> 01:15:10.079 I see somebody who's dying to cancer, right. You know, some guys 989 01:15:10.239 --> 01:15:12.479 you know, younger than us, some guys older than us. But it's 990 01:15:12.560 --> 01:15:15.520 kind of almost a fall and gone conclusion that, you know, And I 991 01:15:15.560 --> 01:15:17.760 always kind of feel it's funny that you say that, because I always feel 992 01:15:17.760 --> 01:15:23.520 like, if it does happen, how, how what is my reaction going 993 01:15:23.560 --> 01:15:26.960 to be? Am I going to be angry? You know you're talking about 994 01:15:26.960 --> 01:15:29.760 your dad. You know he get dealt a hand and uh, you know 995 01:15:30.199 --> 01:15:33.760 any any you know lived through it and he took it the best he could 996 01:15:33.800 --> 01:15:36.399 take it, right. And I always think to myself, I try to 997 01:15:36.439 --> 01:15:41.439 think if that, if that was the case. You know, I made 998 01:15:41.479 --> 01:15:44.600 it through nine to eleven. I've I've had a lot of you know, 999 01:15:44.720 --> 01:15:46.560 quote unquote, I've had gravy, you know, all these years now, 1000 01:15:46.600 --> 01:15:49.880 you know what I mean, I've been around, I've had to to to 1001 01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:53.359 retire, I've got to share a lot of stuff with a lot of my 1002 01:15:53.399 --> 01:15:58.520 friends, and so I kind of hope that I will have that if that 1003 01:15:58.680 --> 01:16:00.960 time. I mean, God a bid but doesn't come, but if it 1004 01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.880 did, that I would have that type of dignity and dignity and grace to 1005 01:16:04.920 --> 01:16:09.119 say, you know what I did good. I'm going to go out like 1006 01:16:09.279 --> 01:16:13.920 that. Like because the way you describe these guys, you have even more 1007 01:16:14.000 --> 01:16:16.640 respect for them for how they did that right. I mean, you know 1008 01:16:16.720 --> 01:16:18.960 you talk about your dad like that, you talk about your friend like that, 1009 01:16:19.039 --> 01:16:23.119 you could just tell that it's it's important to do that as well to 1010 01:16:24.479 --> 01:16:28.720 I don't know, maybe I'm just gapping. No, we're here for a 1011 01:16:28.760 --> 01:16:31.920 reason. I really believe that we're put here on this God's green earth for 1012 01:16:31.960 --> 01:16:39.000 a reason, and that's to affect someone else. And hopefully when I if 1013 01:16:39.039 --> 01:16:45.319 I had something like that life changing or a cancer, that the way I 1014 01:16:45.399 --> 01:16:49.520 handled it would affect my children. Somebody that's nearer to me and knows me, 1015 01:16:50.479 --> 01:16:54.560 they're it's going to affect somebody. My wife had staged four cancer, 1016 01:16:55.199 --> 01:17:00.479 and we talked before she went to the hospital to see it doctor. And 1017 01:17:00.600 --> 01:17:06.079 your mind goes there, right, it could be cancered, and you cry. 1018 01:17:08.680 --> 01:17:11.920 It doesn't hit you until they tell you you got cancer. Yeah right, 1019 01:17:11.960 --> 01:17:17.479 no doubt. And then the oncologist tells me stage four, we're gonna 1020 01:17:17.520 --> 01:17:21.319 keep her. We're gonna give her nineteen radiation treatments and nine chemo treatments. 1021 01:17:23.159 --> 01:17:25.640 And I'm sitting there, Am I going to lose my wife? You know 1022 01:17:26.439 --> 01:17:29.680 all these years? How are you going to handle it? Well? She 1023 01:17:29.680 --> 01:17:31.560 said, you know, I turned it over to the Good Lord, and 1024 01:17:31.800 --> 01:17:35.600 it's taken all that burden off of me. It's on him now. And 1025 01:17:36.439 --> 01:17:41.439 her and I sat there and there was a calmness about it. We felt 1026 01:17:41.479 --> 01:17:46.239 that if this is it, you know, And my son was here and 1027 01:17:46.319 --> 01:17:49.800 the family was here. Everybody congregates, right when somebody's sick, and you 1028 01:17:49.920 --> 01:17:57.319 got a doomsday report right for everybody. Yeah, and everybody's sitting here. 1029 01:17:57.319 --> 01:18:00.199 All my kids, my grandkids are crying. And here's my wife sitting there. 1030 01:18:00.279 --> 01:18:04.399 She's bald, her hair is gone. And my son, Josh said. 1031 01:18:04.600 --> 01:18:10.279 She said to Josh, she said, Josh, you know I'm not 1032 01:18:10.319 --> 01:18:14.319 gonna make it when I go. I want you to have dad sell the 1033 01:18:14.359 --> 01:18:20.119 house. And he says, Mom, where's he going to bring his girlfriend? 1034 01:18:20.199 --> 01:18:25.760 All of a sudden, it broke the level. It broke everybody up. 1035 01:18:25.800 --> 01:18:29.159 And Patty even laughed, and she said, yeah, why am I 1036 01:18:29.239 --> 01:18:32.079 so down? Why am I sad like this? And not the right of 1037 01:18:32.079 --> 01:18:35.880 it? Right? Yeah? Yeah, and good stuff. That's why he's 1038 01:18:35.920 --> 01:18:41.560 your favorite? Yeah, yeah, he is. He's a special young man. 1039 01:18:42.000 --> 01:18:46.479 And I hope I know there's fireman that have gotten him to be best 1040 01:18:46.520 --> 01:18:50.359 man at their wedding and flown him over to wherever they're having the ceremony. 1041 01:18:50.439 --> 01:18:58.600 Had nowadays and they love him because when he was a captain, he quoked, 1042 01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:05.760 he scrubbed floors. What the hell you know, Roofie. Yeah, 1043 01:19:05.800 --> 01:19:09.560 he just said, Hey, I'm here all day long. We're gonna keep 1044 01:19:09.560 --> 01:19:12.960 this place clean. We're gonna do this, We're gonna have fun, and 1045 01:19:13.039 --> 01:19:16.039 we're gonna we're gonna enjoy our Can you imagine they almost had? They were 1046 01:19:16.079 --> 01:19:23.239 shooting for five thousand calls a year. He says, Dad, I sometimes 1047 01:19:23.279 --> 01:19:27.319 don't have enough time, even with a computer to get all my paperwork down 1048 01:19:27.439 --> 01:19:30.000 him, the runs in the book, all that stuff, right, Yeah. 1049 01:19:30.079 --> 01:19:33.520 Yeah, And he said it's so much medical. Ods, we got 1050 01:19:33.640 --> 01:19:38.760 narc am I doing anybody a favor by putting a narc can in their nose. 1051 01:19:39.319 --> 01:19:42.199 No, he says, sure, they come back, but we get 1052 01:19:42.239 --> 01:19:46.319 the same person the two days. Yeah. And he said, I'm getting 1053 01:19:46.359 --> 01:19:53.039 so jaded. I'm getting so disgusted with people, and I'm thinking to myself, 1054 01:19:53.840 --> 01:20:00.640 do I want to continue here? He retired. He was fifty. 1055 01:20:00.680 --> 01:20:03.199 He had twenty seven years on and he retired. And I know they hated 1056 01:20:03.199 --> 01:20:05.840 to see him go, But he says, Dad, I'm getting work. 1057 01:20:05.880 --> 01:20:10.439 I'm not happy when I come home. Once you get angry from that and 1058 01:20:10.479 --> 01:20:13.680 it, like you said, if you do the job long enough. That's 1059 01:20:13.680 --> 01:20:16.000 why I kind of when I see people on the news or whatever, you 1060 01:20:16.039 --> 01:20:17.960 know, they say, well, how could this guy do that? And 1061 01:20:18.039 --> 01:20:21.279 I tell people, I tell my family. You know, over time, 1062 01:20:21.520 --> 01:20:27.520 you do five thousand runs a year and you see crap and you see you 1063 01:20:27.560 --> 01:20:30.520 know, people who don't give effort. Right. I used to say all 1064 01:20:30.560 --> 01:20:32.880 the time, there was so much effort from Firement for people with no effort. 1065 01:20:32.920 --> 01:20:36.479 Sometimes, right, it just felt like we were doing this, like 1066 01:20:36.520 --> 01:20:39.479 you just said, we were doing the same thing over and over again. 1067 01:20:39.479 --> 01:20:42.680 It was like bizarro world. Every day was the same thing. And you 1068 01:20:42.760 --> 01:20:45.680 do get to the point where, you know, Kevin and I talked to 1069 01:20:45.720 --> 01:20:48.680 a lot of guys like yourself. You know when it's time, right, 1070 01:20:48.720 --> 01:20:51.600 twenty seven years, I did twenty seven years, Kevin did twenty years. 1071 01:20:51.960 --> 01:20:57.479 You know, you know when it's when it's time to go, because it's 1072 01:20:57.520 --> 01:21:00.680 not the same thing anymore, you know. I mean that's why a young 1073 01:21:00.720 --> 01:21:03.239 man's job you need fresh you know, fresh eyes, and you know your 1074 01:21:03.239 --> 01:21:08.520 eyes have seen too much probably you know, Yeah, have you ever seen 1075 01:21:08.600 --> 01:21:14.039 the Seed DVD? Burn? I have not a guy, you know, 1076 01:21:14.880 --> 01:21:16.760 keep talking about that. We got to get a copy of that b Yeah, 1077 01:21:16.760 --> 01:21:19.479 you got to see it. There's an engineer on there. I think 1078 01:21:19.520 --> 01:21:27.199 his name's Parnell and he said, my eyes have seen things in my head. 1079 01:21:28.000 --> 01:21:31.319 Yeah, I can't forget. Yeah, and there is there, there's 1080 01:21:31.319 --> 01:21:35.560 stuff that you see in you. You say, why why is this going 1081 01:21:35.600 --> 01:21:40.640 on? Why? Why can a ball team bring a city back together? 1082 01:21:41.239 --> 01:21:47.760 And then the politicians just split it up again? Why My kids are gonna 1083 01:21:47.760 --> 01:21:51.800 say, Dad, you didn't tell the Okay, hit him waited, That's 1084 01:21:51.840 --> 01:21:57.279 what I was hoping to get one that you haven't told them yet. Okay. 1085 01:21:55.880 --> 01:22:00.279 It was at Engine forty in Squad five. That's a triple house. 1086 01:22:01.720 --> 01:22:05.680 Fifteen guys. You got to come up with all manner of stuff, right, 1087 01:22:06.560 --> 01:22:11.239 more fun. And we had a guy that used to come down the 1088 01:22:11.239 --> 01:22:15.880 street down Twelfth Street, eight or nine in the morning, eight or nine 1089 01:22:15.920 --> 01:22:19.640 at night. He was drunk. His name was Jackson, and he'd be 1090 01:22:19.720 --> 01:22:25.119 staggering and singing and hollering, and for some reason, I have no idea 1091 01:22:25.199 --> 01:22:30.239 why, he hated Queen Elizabeth. So we'd see him coming down the street 1092 01:22:30.279 --> 01:22:32.960 and we'd go out and we'd start singing, God Save the queen, you 1093 01:22:33.239 --> 01:22:40.279 start there and hollering and just coming on glued. And we had a captain 1094 01:22:40.319 --> 01:22:44.039 of the squad, Leonard Smith, an old Southern boy, and he would 1095 01:22:44.039 --> 01:22:47.359 say, donla Jackson in the firehouse. Well, one day he came in 1096 01:22:47.800 --> 01:22:53.800 and the firehouse and Van Sickle, the cook, said, did Jackson wanted 1097 01:22:53.800 --> 01:22:57.039 to use the bathroom? Want to use the toilet downstairs? Well he did 1098 01:22:57.119 --> 01:22:59.920 and it was rank. I mean you can smell it all over the cors 1099 01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.199 of the doors open. Ban Suco went in the kitchen, he got ginger 1100 01:23:04.239 --> 01:23:11.039 snaps, wet him down, threw them all over the glazed brick walls, 1101 01:23:11.079 --> 01:23:15.000 all over the floor. It looked like Jackson and had an explosion in there. 1102 01:23:17.720 --> 01:23:23.680 The brothers the action is swearing out in the out on the platform. 1103 01:23:24.279 --> 01:23:29.640 Captain Glennard Smith comes, get that man out of this firehouse. And then 1104 01:23:29.680 --> 01:23:32.199 all of a sudden he could smell it. He come running down the stairs. 1105 01:23:32.239 --> 01:23:36.359 Who let that man in here? And Van says, cap look at 1106 01:23:36.439 --> 01:23:42.239 the bathroom. Glenn Smith looked at the bathroom. Band goes in there. 1107 01:23:42.279 --> 01:23:54.600 He takes his finger and he wipes across the that's not real, Glen, 1108 01:23:57.239 --> 01:24:02.920 don't do that, Van, don't look that's his lunch. Oh my god, 1109 01:24:03.000 --> 01:24:09.560 that's awesome. That was Bill Murray with it the bob. Yeah, 1110 01:24:08.319 --> 01:24:13.640 yeah, that's something only a firehouse these things can happen. I agree, 1111 01:24:14.840 --> 01:24:19.039 I agree. I talked about my brother. I love him, I miss 1112 01:24:19.119 --> 01:24:25.199 him. He was running a single truck ladder twenty two. They had a 1113 01:24:25.279 --> 01:24:30.159 driver. His name was Sidlowski. Sid should never have been on the job 1114 01:24:30.199 --> 01:24:33.319 because he stuttered so bad. But he could get on the department phone and 1115 01:24:33.399 --> 01:24:39.880 not stutter, so yeah it was but he could. He could talk to 1116 01:24:40.079 --> 01:24:43.119 you know, but certain things. He stud a real man. So my 1117 01:24:43.199 --> 01:24:46.239 brother and him and the boss and whoever else, they get a run down 1118 01:24:46.279 --> 01:24:51.279 on the expressway. A box truck is on fire. They get on there 1119 01:24:51.279 --> 01:24:55.039 with a being gun with the truck and they knocked the fire down. So 1120 01:24:55.119 --> 01:24:59.520 my brother goes up to get the information from the driver to see who you 1121 01:24:59.560 --> 01:25:01.800 know the yarns and everything. So he goes up and he said, can 1122 01:25:01.880 --> 01:25:06.720 I find out the name of the you know company you work for and different 1123 01:25:06.760 --> 01:25:13.279 things? Your name and stuff, and you guys said minding the name, 1124 01:25:14.039 --> 01:25:18.279 And my brothers just a minute runs back to the truck and he said, 1125 01:25:18.359 --> 01:25:21.520 Sid, would you go take that report. He said, I got something 1126 01:25:21.560 --> 01:25:25.680 to do. The lieutenant wants me to do something. Stid goes up and 1127 01:25:25.760 --> 01:25:32.760 he says, when the name and my brother, when they double up their 1128 01:25:32.800 --> 01:25:40.159 fist, I ran back out there. What would make you think of something 1129 01:25:40.199 --> 01:25:43.159 like that? He said, it was there, you gotta take it. 1130 01:25:43.239 --> 01:25:45.279 Was there, bro, And they loved the ball up. You gotta swing 1131 01:25:45.680 --> 01:25:49.760 right, I mean, you gotta do it. You and I love that. 1132 01:25:49.800 --> 01:25:53.159 We haven't heard that from anybody. It was there, bro, you 1133 01:25:53.239 --> 01:25:59.079 gotta take it right now. Did you guys ever have a mole on your 1134 01:25:59.159 --> 01:26:02.199 job? A mole? I had a Maurice Moe used to call him MO. 1135 01:26:02.680 --> 01:26:09.680 No. No. This was a guy he lived down the Bell right 1136 01:26:09.720 --> 01:26:14.239 by the Service Street, and he came running to the engine forty that his 1137 01:26:14.359 --> 01:26:18.199 house was on fire, and forties and squad and the truck are going out 1138 01:26:18.239 --> 01:26:25.680 to fourteenth in Oakland where there's a fire. So they don't stop. They 1139 01:26:25.680 --> 01:26:28.479 tell him we can't stop. We got a box to go too. He 1140 01:26:28.640 --> 01:26:32.560 got four kids that die in this fire. This is just a story. 1141 01:26:32.680 --> 01:26:36.199 There is no mo, there's no house fire, nothing. But you get 1142 01:26:36.199 --> 01:26:43.560 a recruit that comes in sitting around and you start talking about more right, 1143 01:26:44.479 --> 01:26:46.600 and you start, you get the police in out and the police come by 1144 01:26:47.119 --> 01:26:50.680 and they say, hey, did you guys hear that Mo escape from from 1145 01:26:51.520 --> 01:26:55.600 the prison. No, we haven't heard that. Yeah, Mos gone. 1146 01:26:55.640 --> 01:26:59.600 He's out and he's still looking for you guys. He still wants wants to 1147 01:26:59.680 --> 01:27:02.520 kill you guys. Well, Jim Rushton was a tiler, ran a ladder 1148 01:27:02.600 --> 01:27:06.000 seventeen. Little guy. I'd have to tell you about him. A fantastic 1149 01:27:06.159 --> 01:27:11.439 pink pom player. But he pulls his dark silk stocking down over his face, 1150 01:27:12.000 --> 01:27:15.319 mashes your nose and makes you look all you know, stocking cap on 1151 01:27:16.720 --> 01:27:24.159 peacoat dragging an axe. Mo kills, Mo kills. He'd come in the 1152 01:27:24.159 --> 01:27:30.159 firehouse when the trial man would be out by himself. Mo. That's cruel 1153 01:27:30.199 --> 01:27:35.880 buff. So that was bad enough with a trial man, But then we 1154 01:27:35.920 --> 01:27:40.159 had a milk driver. Do you remember when milk trucks would come up with 1155 01:27:40.199 --> 01:27:43.560 milk and neck And I wasn't around for that, but I do I know 1156 01:27:43.680 --> 01:27:46.960 about the milk come up to the firehouse twin Pines milk truck and he'd come 1157 01:27:47.000 --> 01:27:49.439 in and he'd bring us half and half and stuff like that, give us 1158 01:27:49.439 --> 01:27:54.520 a break, and he was kind of a cockey guy. And he came 1159 01:27:54.560 --> 01:27:58.000 in one day and we're talking about Mo. And first thing he says, 1160 01:27:58.039 --> 01:28:00.880 as well, if he ever did that to me, I'd knock him on 1161 01:28:00.920 --> 01:28:04.000 his fanny. He wouldn't get away with that for me. Well, Rushford 1162 01:28:04.039 --> 01:28:10.720 heard that. Down comes to stocking cat watch everything. He goes out and 1163 01:28:10.720 --> 01:28:15.319 gets in the back of the truck, battle on the bottles. That milk 1164 01:28:15.399 --> 01:28:18.119 driver sitting there with his ice pick and he's stabbing it into his ice that 1165 01:28:18.199 --> 01:28:21.439 he's gotten his leather pouch. He's stabbing. He's get out of my truck. 1166 01:28:21.800 --> 01:28:25.279 Get out of my truck. And I said, well, just go 1167 01:28:25.319 --> 01:28:31.000 out there and push him out. That guy wouldn't leave the kitchen for he 1168 01:28:31.119 --> 01:28:34.600 hollered it, and Mo would just keep rattling the bottles, rattling the bottles. 1169 01:28:35.119 --> 01:28:40.079 So Mo was great. He had dragged that axe and he looked he 1170 01:28:40.119 --> 01:28:43.680 looked terrible. He looked like he'd been through a fire. And all you'd 1171 01:28:43.680 --> 01:28:50.520 ever had a limp ye limp. Now, now, Rushford, do you 1172 01:28:50.560 --> 01:28:57.760 remember President Nixon? Sure? Sure, okay, you remember the Chinese ping 1173 01:28:57.800 --> 01:29:03.880 pong diplomacy? Uh No, No, he sent ping pong players from the 1174 01:29:03.920 --> 01:29:10.319 States over to play against Chinese pink pong players. Rushford was one of them. 1175 01:29:10.760 --> 01:29:16.399 Jimmy right from you. I would go down the basement at forties. 1176 01:29:16.479 --> 01:29:19.800 He'd say, Decker, come on down, and he said, I hear 1177 01:29:19.800 --> 01:29:24.359 you're getting a little better, So I go downstairs. He'd have his coat, 1178 01:29:24.439 --> 01:29:32.560 boots, helmet, mask and play him with a hot rah priyan pan 1179 01:29:33.479 --> 01:29:38.760 not a regular paddle, No, no, no, I ash chair or 1180 01:29:38.760 --> 01:29:45.319 something. What'd you pick up trash with sweeping into like a little uh, 1181 01:29:45.319 --> 01:29:56.760 like a little shovel. Yeah, I get two points on him. Maybe 1182 01:29:57.039 --> 01:30:00.960 from China he came back and got one of those sponge pads. Oh man, 1183 01:30:01.000 --> 01:30:04.199 you couldn't get a point on him. He was just he was fantastic. 1184 01:30:04.520 --> 01:30:09.079 Did he went in China? Did he went over there at China? 1185 01:30:09.319 --> 01:30:14.239 Yeah? Yeah, I don't know that the diplomacy work we're having dropped kick 1186 01:30:14.319 --> 01:30:18.279 their rest then they aren't too happiest gump. But he was that he was 1187 01:30:18.279 --> 01:30:23.000 that good of a ping pong player. And he ran there at forties and 1188 01:30:23.039 --> 01:30:27.079 he was he was fantastic. But you get on and play him with a 1189 01:30:27.199 --> 01:30:30.880 sponge paddle and forget it, forget it, And he would have we get 1190 01:30:30.880 --> 01:30:36.239 a phone call or central dispatch and call us. Uh is Rushford on? 1191 01:30:36.520 --> 01:30:40.279 Yeah, he's on. Well, somebody called. They want to come down 1192 01:30:40.279 --> 01:30:43.119 and play ping pong with him. The guy would come in with his little 1193 01:30:43.119 --> 01:30:46.479 paddle in a little bag, special bag and everything come in and he would 1194 01:30:46.520 --> 01:30:53.520 leave all sweaty and downtrodden us as Oh yeah, Rushford to take him apart. 1195 01:30:54.880 --> 01:30:57.479 Do we have pictures? Do we get to the penny ones yet? 1196 01:30:57.479 --> 01:31:00.920 There's a couple of I have the penny ones when you when you're ready for 1197 01:31:00.960 --> 01:31:03.680 them. Yeah, let's bring those up, okay, because I have a 1198 01:31:03.720 --> 01:31:13.239 question pinning My grandson Andrew in uh, Arkansas and he went to engineer's school. 1199 01:31:13.560 --> 01:31:15.520 Uh. I never wanted to be an engineer. I want never wanted 1200 01:31:15.520 --> 01:31:18.680 to drive. But he said, Dad, that's Grandpa, that's the only 1201 01:31:18.720 --> 01:31:23.239 way I can get a promotion right now. I don't want to take the 1202 01:31:23.279 --> 01:31:27.560 captain's test yet. So he said it's more money, and he said if 1203 01:31:27.560 --> 01:31:30.800 for second engine in sometimes the captain, let me take go in and take 1204 01:31:30.840 --> 01:31:34.159 the line if I want. So. He loves being an engineer. He's 1205 01:31:34.159 --> 01:31:38.960 a good old school fireman. He loves to cook, and the guys all 1206 01:31:38.960 --> 01:31:42.319 like he might have been down there and met his his crew and they like 1207 01:31:42.479 --> 01:31:46.720 him. And there he is. He's a big boy, you can see 1208 01:31:46.720 --> 01:31:50.640 that. Yeah, he's a little beefy. Yeah. And he's got a 1209 01:31:50.640 --> 01:31:54.479 little girl. I don't know if her picture will be in here or not. 1210 01:31:55.000 --> 01:31:58.119 And he used to be on the that's his brand new baby. This 1211 01:31:58.159 --> 01:32:02.079 one, that's the good. Look at that kid. Yeah, this one's 1212 01:32:02.239 --> 01:32:09.039 uh uh, she's probably ten or twelve now. When she was two or 1213 01:32:09.079 --> 01:32:13.079 three, he would throw her up in the air and somebody saw him doing 1214 01:32:13.119 --> 01:32:15.600 it. He used to be a catcher in gymnastics. Uh huh yeah, 1215 01:32:15.680 --> 01:32:18.640 yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody took movies him doing it on the beach 1216 01:32:18.680 --> 01:32:24.800 one time and it went viral and she became the little flyer and he went 1217 01:32:24.880 --> 01:32:30.039 to Good Morning America and another show on TV, and uh, he would 1218 01:32:30.079 --> 01:32:32.560 throw her up. You can't believe how high she would go, really catch 1219 01:32:32.560 --> 01:32:36.439 her and like this, and she'd lock her legs and lift the one leg 1220 01:32:36.520 --> 01:32:42.079 straight up and she's she's ahead of her gymnastic team. Now she's just a 1221 01:32:42.079 --> 01:32:46.520 tiny little thing. But his wife was a gymnast and now you can see 1222 01:32:46.600 --> 01:32:51.760 him. He was he was the bottom man. He was so why didn't 1223 01:32:51.760 --> 01:32:55.800 he go over to Arkansas? Then? What brought him to Arkansas? That's 1224 01:32:55.800 --> 01:32:59.720 where my son was, My oldest son was an Arkansas. Yeah, he's 1225 01:32:59.720 --> 01:33:01.920 been there for forty some years. But he wasn't a fireman, right, 1226 01:33:02.319 --> 01:33:08.119 No, he wasn't a fireman. You know. He's a commercial artist and 1227 01:33:08.399 --> 01:33:12.840 uh, I don't know. He does uh logos for a lot of fire 1228 01:33:12.880 --> 01:33:19.720 departments, and so he's a fantastic does fantastic logos. He's a he's a 1229 01:33:19.720 --> 01:33:29.359 commercial artist does Uh? I got it already? Cool about take care Charlotte. 1230 01:33:29.960 --> 01:33:34.960 And I think I think Jordan's logo is from my son Mark. But 1231 01:33:35.319 --> 01:33:40.960 uh, let's see. Uh now what does Jordan's work. Jordan works in 1232 01:33:41.079 --> 01:33:45.199 Charlotte right there? Jordan with my son Steve? Which what was this one? 1233 01:33:45.279 --> 01:33:53.680 Who's your favorite? My favorite is my son? That's who? Which 1234 01:33:53.680 --> 01:33:58.119 son is that? That's my that's my youngest He's the one that was conceived 1235 01:33:58.159 --> 01:34:01.800 at the Bollington And uh, Jordan was the one who sent me the email. 1236 01:34:02.119 --> 01:34:05.399 He was what he was the captain, My son was a captain just 1237 01:34:05.439 --> 01:34:10.640 retired to him. Okay, yep, there's the one that was bopping around 1238 01:34:10.680 --> 01:34:12.640 in the back of the pre show. Right, that's not his son, 1239 01:34:12.640 --> 01:34:16.520 that's his grandson. Oh, my grandson. A M. I'm confused. 1240 01:34:18.760 --> 01:34:26.560 He lives. He also has a granddaughter who uh, yes, Jordan's sister. 1241 01:34:27.039 --> 01:34:29.880 Jordan's sister. Have you got a picture her? Guns on? I 1242 01:34:29.960 --> 01:34:32.159 might have, m I might have acquired a picture of this, Coops, 1243 01:34:32.159 --> 01:34:34.079 I don't know about this. When we think about this for a second, 1244 01:34:34.119 --> 01:34:39.960 I think I name is Decker. Isn't she a beautiful Is this the one 1245 01:34:40.000 --> 01:34:43.800 that we're talking about? Yes, that is the one. That's your grand 1246 01:34:48.319 --> 01:34:53.199 She's as nice as she is beautiful. You ain't kidding. I mean, 1247 01:34:53.239 --> 01:35:00.039 I'm sure she sped to a tennis star and hey, Roddick and she called 1248 01:35:00.039 --> 01:35:03.880 Andy before the swimsuit issue came out, and she says, do you mind 1249 01:35:03.920 --> 01:35:08.600 if I She says they're gonna put it up on a five story building in 1250 01:35:08.640 --> 01:35:12.680 New York And he says, you go for it? You know? Yeah? 1251 01:35:12.920 --> 01:35:20.039 Wow, she's whose wife? Is this now your son's wife? That? 1252 01:35:20.279 --> 01:35:25.279 Yeah, my son, that's my granddaughter. That's Jordan's sister. You 1253 01:35:25.399 --> 01:35:30.039 got, coops? All he has no idea and the words of led right 1254 01:35:30.079 --> 01:35:40.399 now, well disheveled six years old, she's he's just rapid fire at him. 1255 01:35:40.399 --> 01:35:44.680 You got to slow down. She's my second oldest son's daughter, your 1256 01:35:44.720 --> 01:35:47.760 second oldest son's daughter, and he's the oddest. No, No, that's 1257 01:35:47.800 --> 01:35:57.279 my oldest son who's out first. All you can because Frank kick your ass 1258 01:35:57.319 --> 01:35:59.840 if you talk about his granddaughter. And I'm not I'm just trying to get 1259 01:35:59.840 --> 01:36:02.920 a who's It's very confusing. There's a lot of five and his oddest is 1260 01:36:03.159 --> 01:36:09.640 couple models as Holy crap, my old good oaks. They got two good 1261 01:36:09.640 --> 01:36:12.199 oaks. What do you expect? Yeah, my oldest son was born in 1262 01:36:12.239 --> 01:36:17.960 sixty Steve Brooklyn's dad was born in sixty two, right, Amy, My 1263 01:36:18.079 --> 01:36:25.840 daughter was born in sixty eight. Josh was born in seventy. Wow, 1264 01:36:25.920 --> 01:36:30.359 and I got this photo too for you. That's Josh, me and my 1265 01:36:30.359 --> 01:36:33.760 wife. So he could go, who's okay, Kristen, Josh's beautiful wife 1266 01:36:33.920 --> 01:36:39.000 and his two twin daughters. Okay, beautiful. So you can try to 1267 01:36:39.000 --> 01:36:41.439 put two or two together, coops, I try to get I'm trying. 1268 01:36:44.520 --> 01:36:50.840 And they're graduates of UNC now and uh wow, fantastic young girls, Frankie 1269 01:36:50.920 --> 01:36:57.079 dog good. Really, I've been blessed. I've been blessed with beautiful children 1270 01:36:57.520 --> 01:37:01.039 and not just looks. I mean you ful in the heart, beautiful people 1271 01:37:01.039 --> 01:37:08.199 that you'd like to have for a neighbor. Andy Roddick Is he's a funny 1272 01:37:08.239 --> 01:37:13.079 man. He's intense, but he's a funny, funny man and a lot 1273 01:37:13.119 --> 01:37:16.640 of fun to be around. He's a fantastic ping pong player. He's a 1274 01:37:16.640 --> 01:37:23.159 fantastic tennis player and retired at twenty nine. And he's a good businessman. 1275 01:37:23.640 --> 01:37:30.880 And he takes care of my granddaughter and their two children. And I couldn't 1276 01:37:30.920 --> 01:37:34.439 be blessed with anymore, with any of my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. 1277 01:37:34.800 --> 01:37:43.039 But I think my wife said one time, how do you feel about 1278 01:37:43.079 --> 01:37:48.199 your firehouse crew? And I said, there's a love there that's different than 1279 01:37:48.279 --> 01:37:53.960 my love for my family. But it's deep. It is a deep love 1280 01:37:54.079 --> 01:38:00.720 that you just can't explain. I would tell him it's the military, right. 1281 01:38:00.760 --> 01:38:03.800 If you go into battle with people and you trust and and you can 1282 01:38:04.279 --> 01:38:09.560 know your hands in their life, they put you know advice. You know 1283 01:38:09.560 --> 01:38:14.119 if you go to h you know we've said this on the show a lot. 1284 01:38:14.239 --> 01:38:18.239 When you when you go to UH to UH a reunion, right, 1285 01:38:18.680 --> 01:38:21.159 you could walk in there you might not have seen those guys for twenty years, 1286 01:38:21.560 --> 01:38:25.720 and it's as if no time has gone by, right, you don't, 1287 01:38:25.720 --> 01:38:28.439 you don't miss a beat, you're telling stories, you're laughing. There 1288 01:38:28.880 --> 01:38:35.359 are very few uh, jobs or relationships that you have, you know, 1289 01:38:35.399 --> 01:38:41.600 even like high school or college maybe college but or military, but there's very 1290 01:38:41.600 --> 01:38:45.000 few that you could just slip right in, you know, and uh, 1291 01:38:45.039 --> 01:38:47.000 you know after so much time goes by because people change, right, But 1292 01:38:47.119 --> 01:38:49.920 for Fireman, I think it's it's it's easy peasy when it comes to that, 1293 01:38:50.000 --> 01:38:54.239 you know. Yeah, And the ones that aren't going to fit in, 1294 01:38:54.439 --> 01:38:57.520 they don't fit in. They don't want to. And I'm not saying 1295 01:38:57.560 --> 01:39:01.560 anything bad about them, they're just not cutting that mold. And sometimes I 1296 01:39:01.600 --> 01:39:04.119 wonder. I used to see a few of them kicking the line, wondering 1297 01:39:04.119 --> 01:39:08.640 why in the world did I take this job, or putting dirt on their 1298 01:39:08.640 --> 01:39:12.520 faces so they looked tell them, you know, and you got them. 1299 01:39:13.239 --> 01:39:17.439 But there's a reason you got him, I guess, And that's I don't 1300 01:39:17.439 --> 01:39:20.720 know why to what it is there is. There's a spot for him. 1301 01:39:23.319 --> 01:39:29.520 You can't dislike them. They're they're part of the crew. I can remember 1302 01:39:30.039 --> 01:39:33.039 we had a fellow that got transferred into forties and he came up to me. 1303 01:39:33.079 --> 01:39:38.640 I was cooking, and he said, I'm allergic to pork. So 1304 01:39:39.760 --> 01:39:42.239 after he said that, some of the guys heard him, and one of 1305 01:39:42.279 --> 01:39:45.279 the guys came over and said, have pork shops or put pork and get 1306 01:39:45.479 --> 01:39:48.159 make soup out of pork back. Let's see him swell up. You know 1307 01:39:53.479 --> 01:39:57.479 it's the other white meat it is. Yeah, that's what they did with 1308 01:39:57.520 --> 01:40:02.039 salvo. Remember when Bobby Salas was a to shrimp and he couldn't he couldn't 1309 01:40:02.039 --> 01:40:05.640 peel it or anything, so he would and I said, let's put let's 1310 01:40:05.640 --> 01:40:10.199 throw up some shrimp on the phone and call the fire house and tell us 1311 01:40:10.279 --> 01:40:15.039 to him and see if he would blow up if he was in the room 1312 01:40:15.239 --> 01:40:17.800 the shrip. He didn't even have to go near it. He was. 1313 01:40:20.479 --> 01:40:25.680 But you can have fun with that cancer. Yes, it's there, it's 1314 01:40:25.760 --> 01:40:32.640 there there. Yeah, I'm putting that on a shirt. Oh many. 1315 01:40:34.239 --> 01:40:41.439 And I well, we used to have. His name was Vic Thomas. 1316 01:40:42.439 --> 01:40:45.479 He was too short to get on the job. He was a catcher for 1317 01:40:45.520 --> 01:40:51.199 a minor league baseball team, and somebody downtown at that time. This would 1318 01:40:51.199 --> 01:40:56.960 be back in the thirties, maybe the twenties. Light him got him on 1319 01:40:57.039 --> 01:41:00.399 the job and he was there through the warriors. And when I came on 1320 01:41:00.439 --> 01:41:02.920 the job, he was a captain, a ladder seventeen. He would sit 1321 01:41:03.039 --> 01:41:09.079 on the seat of the truck with his legs crossed like he was a catcher. 1322 01:41:09.439 --> 01:41:15.000 That's he was, that little. I was cooking, and I think 1323 01:41:15.359 --> 01:41:17.079 I think I made cherry pies. I don't think I bought him. I 1324 01:41:17.079 --> 01:41:20.239 think I made cherry pies. And he came into kitchen and he cut off 1325 01:41:20.279 --> 01:41:26.279 his piece like everybody, and he took me through in the trash and I 1326 01:41:26.319 --> 01:41:29.159 said, captain, are you allergic to cherry pies? Or somebody says no, 1327 01:41:29.239 --> 01:41:30.680 But I pay the same as everybody else. And I says, you 1328 01:41:30.760 --> 01:41:33.520 got a point. You got a point there. You can do with it 1329 01:41:33.600 --> 01:41:35.800 what you want. And that's what he did. He threw in the trash, 1330 01:41:36.239 --> 01:41:41.319 all right. But when Vick, Vick would go down for extensions, 1331 01:41:41.920 --> 01:41:45.640 and they used to give extensions, especially if the guy knew the mirror or 1332 01:41:45.640 --> 01:41:47.600 something, and he would he would go down and the guys would tell him 1333 01:41:47.960 --> 01:41:51.800 VIC put some shoe polish or getting gray. He'd put a black shoot on 1334 01:41:53.720 --> 01:41:58.079 and his hair to make him look like he wasn't so old, and he'd 1335 01:41:58.079 --> 01:42:01.560 go down for an extension. We had a lieutenant that used to go to 1336 01:42:01.600 --> 01:42:06.279 a funeral parlor and embalmed for him when he was on duty. They called 1337 01:42:06.359 --> 01:42:10.640 him up that maybe they didn't have an embalmer, and they called Loui and 1338 01:42:10.640 --> 01:42:17.359 he could do the involving and he'd come back with false teeth for by him. 1339 01:42:17.359 --> 01:42:20.279 On. Vic would try those false teeth on the wonder. Oh, 1340 01:42:20.319 --> 01:42:25.720 my dad's nasty. But Vic Thomas, he was a funny little guy. 1341 01:42:25.800 --> 01:42:30.760 But he was put on the job just because he knew somebody. And uh, 1342 01:42:30.800 --> 01:42:33.640 but he was the captain there at Latter seventeen for a while. They 1343 01:42:33.680 --> 01:42:40.039 finally let him go. H I'm trying to think of some of them. 1344 01:42:40.039 --> 01:42:45.560 Oh. We we used to have guys that used to come into firehouse. 1345 01:42:45.720 --> 01:42:48.880 We called him Firebuffs. Do you guys get out? Yeah? Never heard 1346 01:42:48.880 --> 01:42:54.880 of him. Yeah. And this guy was named Ruben and uh he sold 1347 01:42:54.960 --> 01:43:01.239 favorite grant of Enjoy Road and he would wear glasses and sometimes it would just 1348 01:43:01.319 --> 01:43:04.399 be the glass part he had put up to his eye. He'd come in 1349 01:43:04.760 --> 01:43:14.600 and he was Jewish and the story was as he was college, went to 1350 01:43:14.640 --> 01:43:19.319 college, was getting a degree, and something snapped in him and he became 1351 01:43:19.680 --> 01:43:25.319 almost autistic. But he sold papers and he would come in with those newspapers 1352 01:43:25.359 --> 01:43:29.920 under his arm, and he would call Willoughby, who was one of my 1353 01:43:29.960 --> 01:43:34.319 favorite fireman. He'd called Willoughby willow Tree, and he would call me Pecker 1354 01:43:34.399 --> 01:43:40.239 instead of Decker. And he had this strange voice. And we had a 1355 01:43:40.359 --> 01:43:45.840 Jewish chief, Joe Addler. He became chief department, but he was Jewish, 1356 01:43:45.920 --> 01:43:51.920 and Willoughby would say, you little jew, that too rude and Ruby 1357 01:43:53.039 --> 01:43:56.680 go outside and he'd say he had hollower up to the chief Chief Addler. 1358 01:43:57.399 --> 01:44:02.840 Willoughby said I was a jew and he says, you're one too. Get 1359 01:44:02.840 --> 01:44:06.000 Willoughby out of the firehouse. Ohoh yeah. Willoughby was a driver. The 1360 01:44:06.079 --> 01:44:11.439 chief would he put up with Wooby. But anyway, one day somebody hollered 1361 01:44:11.479 --> 01:44:15.119 out at Rube. Quit making noise out to Rube. We're trying to sleep. 1362 01:44:15.159 --> 01:44:20.520 Did you guys sleep from one to four? Could you okay? But 1363 01:44:20.680 --> 01:44:24.680 you could take a nap during the day. You know what they say, 1364 01:44:24.680 --> 01:44:29.520 A well rested five always said safety NOPs. We used to call the safety 1365 01:44:29.600 --> 01:44:33.239 naps. Okay, yeah, Detroy, we worked at twenty four hour shift, 1366 01:44:33.279 --> 01:44:36.680 but but you could take a nap from one to four. So everybody 1367 01:44:36.760 --> 01:44:42.319 go upstairs up in the dormitory, show out in case we're up all night. 1368 01:44:42.760 --> 01:44:45.800 Well, Rube was making noise and somebody hollered out the upstairs window. 1369 01:44:46.079 --> 01:44:51.159 Rube shut up. I think it was Stepki downstairs, said Rube, tell 1370 01:44:51.239 --> 01:44:55.680 him to go to hell. You're a taxpayer. He hollered back up, 1371 01:44:55.800 --> 01:45:03.880 go to hell, something about a taxpayer. There was one what was the 1372 01:45:04.079 --> 01:45:09.439 uh there was a question, yea question, Yeah, before we go to 1373 01:45:09.439 --> 01:45:13.319 the old school tip. That's a question. Well we got the old tips 1374 01:45:13.319 --> 01:45:15.680 come out, yea, yeah, yeah, we got a couple. Second 1375 01:45:15.720 --> 01:45:17.079 we have a question from the chat for you. I'm just gonna pull it 1376 01:45:17.159 --> 01:45:23.560 up on the screen here and there it is. Well, the biggest fire, 1377 01:45:25.119 --> 01:45:30.119 the biggest fire was probably the riots Good Grief. Not only twelve Street 1378 01:45:30.239 --> 01:45:34.039 was burning, but after they torched the and we got where we couldn't put 1379 01:45:34.039 --> 01:45:39.760 them all out, it jumped the alley and all these houses were burning down 1380 01:45:39.800 --> 01:45:42.680 these streets. We get two three, four to jumped from house to house. 1381 01:45:42.720 --> 01:45:45.560 There houses in Detroit were Good Grief you could jump for roof to roof. 1382 01:45:46.840 --> 01:45:49.279 I was on a roof one day and we got burned through. We 1383 01:45:49.279 --> 01:45:53.600 couldn't get back to the ladder. I jumped to the house next door and 1384 01:45:53.640 --> 01:45:56.239 I told the lieutenant, I said, you're gonna have to explain why they 1385 01:45:56.279 --> 01:45:59.159 got a hole in their roof because I hit it with a pen in my 1386 01:45:59.199 --> 01:46:01.239 axe. But we couldn't get off the roof. There was no way to 1387 01:46:01.279 --> 01:46:04.199 get off, and they couldn't get ladders up in between the houses. So 1388 01:46:04.319 --> 01:46:09.640 we just jumped to the house next door and come down that way. But 1389 01:46:10.760 --> 01:46:14.560 that was that would be the biggest fire was the five days of the riots. 1390 01:46:15.000 --> 01:46:19.399 I think. Other than that, we had a We had a grocery 1391 01:46:19.399 --> 01:46:26.640 store. Do you guys know what a chemos mask is? No? Okay, 1392 01:46:27.000 --> 01:46:32.800 you know we didn't have scots. We had smoke mask canisters. Okay. 1393 01:46:33.239 --> 01:46:38.600 And we get a grocery house. There's grocery store fire and we pull 1394 01:46:38.720 --> 01:46:42.399 up the squad. Me and Libby went around back with lines. They said 1395 01:46:42.479 --> 01:46:45.079 the basement. We went around back with lines. They said, you can't 1396 01:46:45.079 --> 01:46:48.920 get down there with your msa smoke mask. They put a chemox on us. 1397 01:46:49.000 --> 01:46:55.640 I never had a chemoks on before. It's like a big him, 1398 01:46:56.439 --> 01:47:00.119 almost like a scuba diving thing. It's rubber and it's got a canister in 1399 01:47:00.159 --> 01:47:05.760 it, and once you puncture this, the moisture makes the oxygen. It's 1400 01:47:05.800 --> 01:47:09.880 good for about an hour. You got a vent where you can push it 1401 01:47:09.880 --> 01:47:13.479 and let the arrow because it'll blow you up. It'll blow your face piece 1402 01:47:13.600 --> 01:47:16.159 up. And they tie a rope on your back and down in the basement. 1403 01:47:16.199 --> 01:47:21.199 Me and Red went that was kind of scary. I've never been scared 1404 01:47:21.239 --> 01:47:25.920 in the fire, but when they put the rope on my back and tie 1405 01:47:25.960 --> 01:47:28.880 me, that kind of makes you wonder how we're going to come out of 1406 01:47:28.880 --> 01:47:30.680 here. They're going to have to pull us out. But me and Red 1407 01:47:31.000 --> 01:47:36.479 went down there. Smith and Ed Smith and Hall Schultz. They came in 1408 01:47:36.960 --> 01:47:41.840 through the front of the store, and fire being in the basement burnt up 1409 01:47:41.840 --> 01:47:45.199 through the floor and burnt their line. They're stuck with no water. They 1410 01:47:45.239 --> 01:47:48.479 can't get out because the fires up through the floor. Now they head to 1411 01:47:48.560 --> 01:47:54.199 the back and the guys heard him beaten on the back where the meat cutter 1412 01:47:54.359 --> 01:47:57.439 was. They heard him beaten on that door. By the time they got 1413 01:47:57.439 --> 01:48:00.960 the door open and got him, they had what themselves. They were out 1414 01:48:01.560 --> 01:48:05.760 and they had MSA's on. You fall down with those and you're down, 1415 01:48:05.800 --> 01:48:10.119 you're not getting any air. We thought we'd lost them, and me and 1416 01:48:10.199 --> 01:48:14.279 Red are down there in the base and we heard about it, and I 1417 01:48:14.319 --> 01:48:17.479 think that's a fire that comes back to my mind. That could grief Smith 1418 01:48:17.520 --> 01:48:23.159 and Shoultzer. They may not make it, you know, And they made 1419 01:48:23.159 --> 01:48:26.399 it. They got you know, they got help the squad ring and got 1420 01:48:26.439 --> 01:48:30.560 him some oxygen. But I didn't like the fact that I had to head 1421 01:48:30.600 --> 01:48:33.960 a rope tied on me. But I would have gone anywhere with Red. 1422 01:48:34.159 --> 01:48:36.760 And we were we were down there. We put a lot of fire out 1423 01:48:36.760 --> 01:48:42.479 down that basement. We had a fire downtown in time. It was a 1424 01:48:42.600 --> 01:48:45.199 third or fourth and we pulled up and I'm in the squad got the red 1425 01:48:45.800 --> 01:48:50.960 helmet on and I used to chew it fires, chew red Man. Yeah, 1426 01:48:51.399 --> 01:48:56.239 but red Man and I had a big plug. And you didn't wear 1427 01:48:56.239 --> 01:48:59.399 a mask in an extra alarm. They're all been alighted, right, you 1428 01:48:59.439 --> 01:49:01.720 know. It's just a big store. And we went in, me and 1429 01:49:01.720 --> 01:49:06.720 Red and there was a young black. Yeah that's a little more modern than 1430 01:49:06.760 --> 01:49:13.079 ours. We just had one hose down to the chema the charcoal mask. 1431 01:49:13.720 --> 01:49:17.760 So I'm going in and I don't have a mask, and I'm going into 1432 01:49:17.760 --> 01:49:20.760 this place and it's smoky, but it's yeah, you know. We go 1433 01:49:20.800 --> 01:49:25.039 in and we're being read or working. I come out and there's a young 1434 01:49:25.119 --> 01:49:30.000 kid that kids sitting on the corner on the curb, and he says, 1435 01:49:30.520 --> 01:49:32.720 how do you take that smoke in there? Man? I says it. 1436 01:49:32.880 --> 01:49:36.119 You know, it's been elated. It's not bad. What do you got 1437 01:49:36.159 --> 01:49:41.399 in your mouth? I said, chew tobacco. You want something? I 1438 01:49:41.520 --> 01:49:45.000 gave it to a red man. Back in we go. I come back 1439 01:49:45.039 --> 01:49:47.119 a little while later. He's sitting on the curb, his head between his 1440 01:49:47.199 --> 01:49:54.439 knees. Yeah, I forgot to tell him to spit swinging at this. 1441 01:49:54.560 --> 01:49:58.199 He struck him out from then on. From then on, if I would 1442 01:49:58.199 --> 01:50:00.319 ever see him in a fire, he'd tell his buddies, Decker is the 1443 01:50:00.399 --> 01:50:08.720 man? Is the man? Yeah, my god, I think it's that 1444 01:50:08.840 --> 01:50:13.319 time now, brother, Oh, I have it already for words and wisdom 1445 01:50:13.359 --> 01:50:15.800 from mister Decker. We got to do it. YEA, already to go, 1446 01:50:16.079 --> 01:50:25.680 mister T'm ready you already here we go. It's time the old school 1447 01:50:26.279 --> 01:50:30.840 spit hip all over the day, day day, day day. All right, 1448 01:50:30.920 --> 01:50:34.520 Francis, you're up. I think my main thing I would tell a 1449 01:50:34.560 --> 01:50:39.960 young fireman, especially now with all the equipment you've got in the mask and 1450 01:50:40.039 --> 01:50:43.720 everything else, when you go into a fire, you get off the rig, 1451 01:50:44.199 --> 01:50:46.760 you take a tool. If you got the line, you got the 1452 01:50:46.800 --> 01:50:51.439 line, don't give it up. Don't ever give that line up unless there's 1453 01:50:51.479 --> 01:50:56.319 one of your crew. Don't ever give it up to anybody else that comes 1454 01:50:56.399 --> 01:50:59.720 up their squad, no matter, I don't care who it is. You 1455 01:50:59.760 --> 01:51:02.840 don't give the lineup. The other thing is if you got an axe and 1456 01:51:02.920 --> 01:51:08.000 you're chapping a hole in the roof and your arms are tired and your back 1457 01:51:08.159 --> 01:51:11.319 is done, and somebody comes up and says, give me the axe, 1458 01:51:11.439 --> 01:51:15.199 don't do it. You go back and finish cutting, do everything you can. 1459 01:51:15.840 --> 01:51:18.560 Don't give it up, because as soon as you do, the chief's 1460 01:51:18.600 --> 01:51:21.880 gonna come up, or somebody's gonna look at you, and that kid's got 1461 01:51:21.880 --> 01:51:27.119 your tool, and you're doing nothing like pull the same way you're pulling the 1462 01:51:27.119 --> 01:51:30.720 ceiling, and you figured, man, I can't pull another ceiling down. 1463 01:51:30.039 --> 01:51:34.319 I'm done. Don't give it up and then if you're on the line, 1464 01:51:34.560 --> 01:51:38.840 which I always wanted to be. I never wanted to be in the truck. 1465 01:51:39.359 --> 01:51:43.720 I wanted to be on the line, don't ever give that line up. 1466 01:51:43.800 --> 01:51:46.720 But if it's an apartment or it's a house, and it's in a 1467 01:51:46.840 --> 01:51:51.359 room and you're down in a hallway and it's getting hot, it's going to 1468 01:51:51.439 --> 01:51:57.079 get hotter and hotter if you don't get to that room. Once you get 1469 01:51:57.119 --> 01:52:00.840 to that room and you get a window open and you fall, it's going 1470 01:52:00.880 --> 01:52:03.039 to cool off. But if you stand there in that hallway and you figure 1471 01:52:03.119 --> 01:52:06.520 I can't go any further, all you're gonna do is your ears are going 1472 01:52:06.600 --> 01:52:11.239 to start to melt, your neck's gonna get burnt, and that's going to 1473 01:52:11.319 --> 01:52:15.359 be it. You don't ever back up. Just keep going in and make 1474 01:52:15.399 --> 01:52:18.359 the corner. I used to tell if I had a trial man that worked 1475 01:52:18.399 --> 01:52:23.000 there at thirty nine with me, I'd say, make the corner, get 1476 01:52:23.039 --> 01:52:26.560 around that corner and put the fire out. Don't stand out in the hallway 1477 01:52:26.800 --> 01:52:29.359 and hope it's going to get cooler. It ain't going to get cooler. 1478 01:52:30.560 --> 01:52:32.840 That would be my tip of the day. And the other thing would be 1479 01:52:33.960 --> 01:52:40.399 every firehouse if you're cleaning the house that day, do your best to help 1480 01:52:40.439 --> 01:52:43.600 everybody out. I don't care if you're senior man, I don't care if 1481 01:52:43.600 --> 01:52:47.159 you're a boss. Everybody's got to live there and clean that place up and 1482 01:52:47.199 --> 01:52:50.760 live in a clean house. You do your part. If you're cooking, 1483 01:52:51.239 --> 01:52:56.359 do the dishes with the guys. If you're playing cards for dishes, play 1484 01:52:56.399 --> 01:53:00.239 cards for dishes. But don't just figure that you're above anybody else. And 1485 01:53:00.359 --> 01:53:09.079 bosses. I never held up food to wait for the boss to get in 1486 01:53:09.119 --> 01:53:14.960 line. They may be they're in charge, but they don't work any harder 1487 01:53:14.960 --> 01:53:17.560 than me, and they're fireman, and they eat just like everybody else. 1488 01:53:17.760 --> 01:53:21.920 I call chaw. It's whoever's there. We don't wait for anybody. And 1489 01:53:23.079 --> 01:53:27.520 that would be my tip. And hopefully live with it. One day you'll 1490 01:53:27.560 --> 01:53:30.560 be a boss. De Troy had a seniority system. I was never a 1491 01:53:30.600 --> 01:53:34.800 boss. I didn't like being in charge. But I think if I was 1492 01:53:34.840 --> 01:53:41.039 in charge, I think I would have been a good boss. I really 1493 01:53:41.079 --> 01:53:45.680 do. I think the guys would have gone with me. I think I 1494 01:53:45.720 --> 01:53:49.039 would have gone with anybody that had the line. I would have gone in. 1495 01:53:49.560 --> 01:53:53.439 That's the way you're supposed to be. You're a fireman. That's what 1496 01:53:53.520 --> 01:53:57.319 it's all about, putting that fire out. So I love being on here. 1497 01:53:57.720 --> 01:54:00.199 Thank you for listening to my stories. I hope that I didn't bore 1498 01:54:00.239 --> 01:54:09.319 you at all. Take the corner, cool corner, corner, Frank says, 1499 01:54:09.319 --> 01:54:12.359 true, you guys know, isn't it true? No, you gotta 1500 01:54:12.479 --> 01:54:15.479 if you're not hitting the seat of the fire, you just just you gotta 1501 01:54:15.520 --> 01:54:18.279 make the corner to get to the of the season. It makes sense. 1502 01:54:19.039 --> 01:54:24.560 Those were old school that I was old. Tip of the day, never 1503 01:54:24.600 --> 01:54:27.840 give up your tool is obviously. Uh, you have to have some pride 1504 01:54:27.840 --> 01:54:29.960 in that. Like he said, you gotta finish it. If you got 1505 01:54:29.960 --> 01:54:31.000 to take a breathe, to take a breathe, but you gotta finish you 1506 01:54:31.000 --> 01:54:33.800 at your work. Like he said, they want your back for more stories, 1507 01:54:33.840 --> 01:54:39.239 Frank, So we're gonna have to get your look. I know there's 1508 01:54:39.239 --> 01:54:43.760 a lot of them that I didn't bring out, but some of them I 1509 01:54:43.760 --> 01:54:47.279 wonder if if if they would want to hear them. There, you're gonna 1510 01:54:47.319 --> 01:54:49.800 get your back. We'll get your back. We'll get your back off for 1511 01:54:49.840 --> 01:54:54.760 a plot too, guys, fire stories. I'll tell you what I respect 1512 01:54:54.760 --> 01:54:59.039 you guys from New York more than I could I could ever tell you you 1513 01:54:59.079 --> 01:55:02.359 guys to me or hear rows. I was telling my son today, I 1514 01:55:02.399 --> 01:55:05.239 said, they lost three hundred and forty three? Was it? Yep? 1515 01:55:05.720 --> 01:55:10.199 In one day? He says, Dad, that would have been a shift, 1516 01:55:10.800 --> 01:55:14.560 would have been B shift, would have been C shift. How do 1517 01:55:14.600 --> 01:55:17.720 you how do you go back to work? How do you? I don't 1518 01:55:17.720 --> 01:55:19.760 know how you guys did it. I don't know how you do it. 1519 01:55:20.960 --> 01:55:26.439 Same how you did it the time and what you what you guys that you 1520 01:55:26.479 --> 01:55:29.800 had left, you know that's how it was. Ye. Hey, Frank, 1521 01:55:29.840 --> 01:55:31.479 I got a question for you, Yes, sir, did you ever 1522 01:55:31.520 --> 01:55:40.039 give up the cam when they first gave it to you? So it's a 1523 01:55:40.119 --> 01:55:43.319 quick story, Frank. When my first, one of my first jobs won 1524 01:55:43.479 --> 01:55:47.720 a very senior lieutenant uh uh worked in Bushwick during the seventies, really you 1525 01:55:47.760 --> 01:55:51.279 know, fire fire officer, and you know, he was testing me out 1526 01:55:51.279 --> 01:55:54.680 and he said, we get up to the to the floor there was a 1527 01:55:54.680 --> 01:55:57.479 second or third floor whatever it was, and the fire was out into the 1528 01:55:57.479 --> 01:56:00.840 hall and he says to me, give me a can, reaching out with 1529 01:56:00.960 --> 01:56:04.359 your hook and uh and closed the door while we wait for the line right 1530 01:56:04.399 --> 01:56:08.199 because the fire was out the door into the hallway. So I give him 1531 01:56:08.239 --> 01:56:11.199 the can and I reached down and I closed the door, and as soon 1532 01:56:11.239 --> 01:56:16.039 as I closed the door, I hear the can dingling down, the ding 1533 01:56:16.119 --> 01:56:19.399 ding dinging. He turns to me and says, don't have don't have an 1534 01:56:19.439 --> 01:56:23.520 f and give up your tool. Have a kid, you glad to go? 1535 01:56:23.640 --> 01:56:26.439 Run down, get the tool, get my can, come back. 1536 01:56:26.760 --> 01:56:30.159 And then to your exact words, never, I never gave up my tool 1537 01:56:30.399 --> 01:56:33.840 ever again, not one time. I got him back for you, Roofie. 1538 01:56:33.880 --> 01:56:41.840 I read over his garbage cans. Can I give you a life saving, 1539 01:56:42.000 --> 01:56:45.880 life saving story? Absolutely? Okay. We went into an apartment I 1540 01:56:45.880 --> 01:56:48.640 think it was a second alarm, me and Ted Pataki, I was on 1541 01:56:48.720 --> 01:56:53.640 the squad, and we go into this room. It is full of smoke 1542 01:56:54.119 --> 01:56:58.640 and we're down. We got MSA on again and we got just you know, 1543 01:56:58.720 --> 01:57:02.720 the charcoal canisters. We're crawling through this room looking for somebody, and 1544 01:57:02.760 --> 01:57:05.560 all of a sudden, I hear this voice. I'm over here, you 1545 01:57:05.720 --> 01:57:11.039 dumb sob. It's a woman's voice, and you can tell she's been drinking. 1546 01:57:12.000 --> 01:57:14.960 But we find her. She's on the house. He's in a nightgown. 1547 01:57:15.000 --> 01:57:17.840 So I said, lady, we gotta get out of here. She 1548 01:57:18.119 --> 01:57:21.600 swore me again, told me to leave her alone. So I grab her 1549 01:57:21.680 --> 01:57:27.079 under the arms. Pataki's got her feet. We're heading out. Well, 1550 01:57:27.479 --> 01:57:30.039 we're down low right. We get to the door. We get her out 1551 01:57:30.079 --> 01:57:33.039 of the apartment and we get out in the hall and they got a big 1552 01:57:33.079 --> 01:57:36.840 grand stairway and it's a marble stairway with carpeting on. It used to be 1553 01:57:36.880 --> 01:57:44.159 an old, nice hotel. I couldn't keep holding her. I let go 1554 01:57:44.199 --> 01:57:48.359 of her shoulders. Her head hit every step. Oh god, I hollowed 1555 01:57:48.399 --> 01:57:55.960 a Pataki. Let's squat or get her leave me here. It sound like 1556 01:57:56.439 --> 01:58:00.880 cant going down the hallway. That used to happen quite a bit. Unfortunately, 1557 01:58:00.439 --> 01:58:03.760 she's that quite a bit. I'm thinking she's gonna say, who was 1558 01:58:03.760 --> 01:58:06.640 it that tried to kill me? Kind a big lump on my head? 1559 01:58:08.079 --> 01:58:14.640 Yeah, let my life saving coming on, But start thinking of some stories 1560 01:58:14.640 --> 01:58:17.039 for the next next show. We'll have you back on. I'd love to 1561 01:58:17.079 --> 01:58:19.960 be on with you guys. Really, we'll set something up with your grandson 1562 01:58:20.840 --> 01:58:25.479 Roof. You have any shout outs, but the Rangers losing to nothing. 1563 01:58:25.520 --> 01:58:30.039 That's my only shout out. I don't think I have an unfortunate a very 1564 01:58:30.119 --> 01:58:34.479 sad shout out. Captain Jimmy Graham, who's usually in here, you know, 1565 01:58:34.560 --> 01:58:40.720 his nephew's little baby Cooper had that very rare form of I think it 1566 01:58:40.840 --> 01:58:45.520 was brain cancer and got all this and it was a miracle. It was 1567 01:58:45.800 --> 01:58:49.319 working out. Well, they just got news that the cancer is back and 1568 01:58:49.399 --> 01:58:55.760 it's it's bad. So he's asking if the leatherhead nation because he believes, 1569 01:58:55.760 --> 01:58:59.479 and I believe in prayers, if we could say a prayer for a little 1570 01:58:59.520 --> 01:59:08.560 Cooper and his mom and dad, Mike and Rachel Graham. So let's let's 1571 01:59:09.439 --> 01:59:14.680 say some prayers for Cooper please tonight and keep them in your thoughts. And 1572 01:59:14.920 --> 01:59:18.880 that's all I got. Rough we have on Thursday night. Thursday Night, 1573 01:59:18.920 --> 01:59:27.800 we have Jafe Jonas doing the Worsters, and then we're gonna book mister Decca 1574 01:59:27.880 --> 01:59:30.119 for a pot too. All right, cons take us out, buddy, 1575 01:59:30.159 --> 01:59:31.319 what do you got? All right, We're gonna do our out. Children, 1576 01:59:31.399 --> 01:59:34.319 ladies and gentlemen standby. Well. Thank you, first and foremost for 1577 01:59:34.359 --> 01:59:39.039 tuning in to another episode of The Getting Salty Experience. Think we're out a 1578 01:59:39.039 --> 01:59:42.119 good content. Far from it. If you want to find us on the 1579 01:59:42.159 --> 01:59:45.960 audio side, you can do so on All the players were available on Yes, 1580 01:59:45.039 --> 01:59:49.760 I said that correctly, all the players Spotify, Apple, wherever you 1581 01:59:49.800 --> 01:59:53.439 get your podcasts, that's where we are. And if you're here tonight, 1582 01:59:53.479 --> 01:59:58.079 congratulations you found us on the Getting Salty Experience, which if you're not already 1583 01:59:58.079 --> 02:00:00.279 subscribed, please do so. It's free, cost you nothing. You can 1584 02:00:00.359 --> 02:00:03.760 also like and share, which also costs you nothing and helps us grow the 1585 02:00:03.800 --> 02:00:08.079 audience of the show. You can also find us on social media if you 1586 02:00:08.159 --> 02:00:11.279 so please. Of course, we're on Instagram, where Lou posts great fd 1587 02:00:11.359 --> 02:00:14.920 andy content from yesteryear. We're also on TikTok tank them as Prime is on 1588 02:00:14.960 --> 02:00:18.159 top of that, and we're also on LinkedIn to where yours truly Mike mcbob 1589 02:00:18.239 --> 02:00:21.359 cologne is on top of things. On that front, head on over to 1590 02:00:21.399 --> 02:00:25.159 Getting Salty Apparel dot com. By the way, for all kinds of great 1591 02:00:25.199 --> 02:00:29.239 merchandise, apparel and accessories, there is a super chat two. We thank 1592 02:00:29.279 --> 02:00:30.640 each and every one of you for your support. You can open up your 1593 02:00:30.640 --> 02:00:35.039 wallet and donate a amount of your choosing during the program after all you guys. 1594 02:00:35.279 --> 02:00:39.560 Yes, you guys are our number one sponsors Super Thanks as well. 1595 02:00:39.600 --> 02:00:43.039 If you missed the show live, you can show support through that means if 1596 02:00:43.079 --> 02:00:45.920 you still wish to open up your wallet. The super Thanks is basically a 1597 02:00:45.000 --> 02:00:48.439 thank you after the fact for another great episode of ours. The Facebook fan 1598 02:00:48.439 --> 02:00:53.800 pages in existence too, now over sixty thousand strong and continuing to grow. 1599 02:00:53.840 --> 02:00:57.680 It's not created by us to get in Salty Experience, but it is nevertheless 1600 02:00:57.720 --> 02:01:00.319 a great way to connect with firefighters from all over and fans of the show 1601 02:01:00.640 --> 02:01:04.359 alike. If you want to advertise with the Getting Salty Experience, send your 1602 02:01:04.359 --> 02:01:09.760 information on over to Getting Salty Ads at gmail dot com. And if you 1603 02:01:09.800 --> 02:01:12.880 have any questions or have a guest suggestion, please send them to Getting Salty 1604 02:01:13.159 --> 02:01:17.680 Experience at gmail dot com with the necessary contact information. And finally, if 1605 02:01:17.680 --> 02:01:23.359 you have content for anything else, please send them to Kobe's podcast at gmail 1606 02:01:23.439 --> 02:01:26.760 dot com. Of course, that's Kevin coobler secondary email, and that's where 1607 02:01:26.760 --> 02:01:30.079 you could send things like rig photos, firehouse kitchen tables, fire videos, 1608 02:01:30.079 --> 02:01:34.000 helmetcam videos, tattoos, mustache photos and yes photos for the unofficial Hotto Ladies 1609 02:01:34.079 --> 02:01:39.960 contest that we may or may not be holding allegedly. Thanks once again for 1610 02:01:40.039 --> 02:01:45.560 tuning in to the Getting Salty experience. Great job, mcbob, who will 1611 02:01:45.600 --> 02:01:47.880 be making his return quite soon, possibly, I mean John too, will 1612 02:01:47.960 --> 02:01:54.079 hit it up. All right, mister Decker. Thoroughly enjoyed you coming on. 1613 02:01:54.119 --> 02:01:56.960 I really I look forward to having your back again. Thank you for 1614 02:01:57.000 --> 02:02:03.239 sharing that time with us. Could we just take a minute. Yeah, 1615 02:02:03.479 --> 02:02:08.600 you wanted to pray for a young Cooper? Yeah, sure, I want 1616 02:02:08.640 --> 02:02:13.239 to close her eyes and having his father. We come before you with a 1617 02:02:13.319 --> 02:02:16.319 young boy that's it's got a terrible diagnosis and we asked for a miracle to 1618 02:02:16.520 --> 02:02:21.000 be for his family. For him, your will will be done, but 1619 02:02:21.079 --> 02:02:26.199 we asked for a miracle. We pray for young Cooper and we just pray 1620 02:02:26.279 --> 02:02:29.640 that you will act in his behalf and that you would bring comfort to that 1621 02:02:29.760 --> 02:02:33.199 family. We thank you in Lord's name and Christ for his sake. Amen. 1622 02:02:33.800 --> 02:02:38.279 Amen, Amen, Amen, thank you, Frank, thank you so 1623 02:02:38.359 --> 02:02:42.359 much. I appreciate that. That's nice. Thank you all right, RUF, 1624 02:02:42.560 --> 02:02:45.479 that's it. I'll see you guys on Thursday. Johns, mister Decker, 1625 02:02:45.560 --> 02:02:47.880 thank you so much. Once again. We'll see you in the backstage 1626 02:02:48.000 --> 02:02:53.479 until Thursday, guys, stay low and go. I think I enjoyed it 1627 02:02:53.520 --> 02:02:56.840 more than you guys. I really did. I don't know about that. 1628 02:02:56.880 --> 02:02:59.920 I enjoyed listening to you guys. We'll see it, the big one, 1629 02:03:00.000 --> 02:03:00.800 everybody, al right, guy st Stef