Firefighters Never Grow Old ... Wait, Yes They Do

At the Albion Fire Department's annual appreciation dinner last weekend I received a hand tool from people who should have known better than to give me a hand tool:

No, those aren't wings growing out of my head, but I appreciate you thinking I could earn some.

It was an award for being a volunteer firefighter for forty years, although my actual 40th anniversary was July 14 of last year. Here's the blog I wrote about it then:

https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2020/07/40-years-as-firefighter.html

The dinner is when awards are given out for the previous year, you see. I've already gotten a cool statue and an even cooler watch, just for sticking around. (You older people, explain "watch" to the younger ones.) You might remember that Phil Jacob was honored not long ago for hitting his 50th anniversary with the AFD; for his 60th, they have to give him a fire truck.

I know what you're thinking: "They gave you a tool?" But in all fairness, it's the power tools that usually get me in trouble. I've hardly ever hurt myself with a hand tool, this year.

Now, Mitch Fiandt got the 35 year statue, despite the fact that he's been fighting fires longer than I have:

The young punks just can't pull off the firefighting mustache like we old farts can.

I'm just that good. Or more likely it's because he put in 35 years on the AFD, but previous to that he served on the neighboring Orange Township Fire Department for eleven years.He's the only member of the AFD who remembers how to operate a steam engine.

Other service awards that night went to Brad Rollins for 30 years, and Shane Coney for 25 years. Between the four of us, we have something like a century and a half in firefighting experience, plus sometimes we have contests to see whose joints pop the most when we get on a truck.

That's Brad Rollins lower left and Shane Coney top left, but really they're all old ... more or less.

So if you ever see the four of us hopping off a fire engine at the scene of a blaze, you'd better get out of the way ... because we have to take a running start to get the fire hose inside.

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