Installment 2 of 100 Things About Moi

This is the second installment of “100 Things About Moi” If you are somehow interested, the first installment can be found at:

www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976902568

21. I am a graduate of Istrouma High School in Baton Rouge, LA. The school and city'sname are the same. To explain, in 1699, the French explorer, D'Iberville, searching above New Orleans for the first high bluffs along the Mississippi River, discovered them at present-day Baton Rouge. There, his expedition found a pole smeared with the blood of animals and fish. It served as a marker between the Bayougoula and Houmas Indians. He noted in his writings that this “red stick” or “Baton Rouge” was called “Istrouma” by the Native Americans living in the area.

22. Born to a blue collar family, in a blue collar town, educated in blue collar public

schools, anything other than employment during and after high school was not a

thought.

My father worked for the Baton Rouge Fire Department, an occupation that,

until a decade or two ago, hired their employees through nepotism. I do not recall ever

“deciding” that I wanted to become a fire fighter. Somehow, at some point during my

school-years, it became my own assumption. In a junior high yearbook, there is a note

written and signed by a future co-worker, “I'll see you in the BRFD.” His father and

three brothers worked there. I applied for a position the first day I was eligible, my

eighteenth birthday. I was hired and entered the training academy six months later.

Yes, my junior high friend was also in the class.

23. The narrative of #22 on this list is the only way I can explain how an eighteen-year-old

who, for the most part, had learned to hide panic attacks and overwhelming, daily

anxiety, became a firefighter. Nonetheless, it was for these same feelings I found

myself pushing harder to learn and train. Once, over the initial struggle, I developed a

passion for the job.

24. I married one month before my 20^th birthday. My wife was three months beyond her 18^th birthday and soon to enter Louisiana State University.

25. While my wife attended school, I worked a second job in residential construction. A friend from my school days, who I had not seen in quite a few years, asked me to help in his fledgling residential contracting business. We had reconnected when, after joining the fire service, I studied the Holy Bible on my own and eventually sought out a church home and spiritual family with which to worship.

When I began working with my friend I was but a “certified board fetcher,” knowing very little about construction. By the time I resigned over three years later, I had learned quite a bit and had become a fair carpenter. Little did I know how much this experience would .later serve me following Hurricane Katrina.

26. Upon my wife's graduation from college, I threw my hammer as far as I could and stopped working the second job. It was during this period that my interest in writing began to rival my passion for reading. I had always enjoyed reading poetry and it soon became my favorite form of writing. However, it was rare that anyone else heard or read anything I had written.

27. During my second or third year at the fire department, I acquired a newborn Black Lab puppy who grew to be my favorite pet in a lifetime of pets His mother died giving birth. He had to be hand fed with a doll's bottle. He was given the name “Jed.” and he was the most loving, well behaved, obedient, and well trained dogs I have had the pleasure of knowing. There could never be another like him in my life time.

28. Not long after I married,my mother left my father. He and I were both blind-sided byher actions, However, I have long since learned that every story has two or more sides and her reasons may have been very good ones.

My father was very near retirement and believed the plans they had discussed and dreamed of for many years were close to fruition. Even though I was an adult, married, and had a home of my own, I was very much shaken by the event.

29. Soon after her graduation from LSU, my wife began working as a programmer for the State of LA. With our increased income we were able to purchase our first home. Over the next decade we did a bit of traveling within the continental U.S. We lived as D.I.N.K.s (Double Income/No Kids), enjoying a lifestyle much different, as we all know, than that of couples who chose a more traditional route of expanding the family early on.

30. During this period, I enjoyed two ski trips to the Rockies of Colorado, A trip to Chicago to catch a 3 day home stand at Wrigley Field. There were several trips to Washington D.C., touring the monuments, governmental buildings, and Smithsonian Museums. I enjoyed several trips to Disney World in Orlando.

Along with these were innumerable trips to Houston for relaxing weekends; Central Arkansas with dual benefits of visiting my sister and enjoying the beauty of the Ozark Mountains. We made frequent summer trips to the “Redneck Riviera” an endearing name given to the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, AL area. We also madefrequent trips to Toledo Bend Reservoir on the TX/LA border where my father had moved. We enjoyed days and days of bass fishing.

I could not have made any of these trips on my own. Because of my anxiety I had tohave a “safe-person” with me. That person was my first wife. Years later, I learned my need for a “safe person” and her need to take care of someone was the basis of our marriage.

31. During my first two years in the Baton Rouge Fire Department, I worked at a two-truck (1 Engine and 1 Ladder Truck) station which covered the LSU Campus.  This article would never allow me to begin relating the unique situations I encountered while working there. I rode “right-side running-board” on a Ladder Truck. Although, I loved working in the area and the guys at the station, the Ladder Truck did not “role” enough to suit me. It was difficult for me to sit in the station as the Pumper made call after call.

During my third year I transferred to a one-truck station in the middle of town. Engine Co. # 7, where I spent the next ten years of my career, was either second or third in total number of runs each year I worked there. We “rolled” quite often and that was exactly what I enjoyed. We responded to all types of calls. However, the majority of our responses were Emergency Medical Calls. I have estimated that I performed CPR approximately 300 times in my 15 years with the department.

32. I noted an unfortunate phenomena early in my career. Without trying, I remembered the details of most of the calls to which I responded. The more chaotic or traumatic the situation, the more detailed and clear were my recollections. In the long run, what had helped me excel in so many areas (my memory) also haunted me in others.

I noticed this fact after asking my co-workers about particular calls we had made during our previous work-day or the previous shift. On most occasions, my questions were greeted with something like, “Man, I don't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning.” It seems others had a penchant for “letting go" of images and moving on. On the other hand, over two decades later, I can describe,in detail, the name, images, and thoughts my brain recorded during the response to the scene of the first “successful suicide” I witnessed.

33.Each Engine and Truck in the department had a crew of five: a Captain, a Driver/Operator, and three Privates (Fire Fighters.) One distinction I will forever hold in the BRFD is being the male firefighter on the first crew in the city to have two female firefighters.

34. My wife's attendance at LSU served as my introduction to higher education. During my fifth year at the fire department I decided to attend the university on a part-time basis. On the days I was scheduled to work, I payed another fire fighter to “cover” for me while I attended class. When my classes ended that day, I headed for the station

After the first semester, influenced by my anxiety, I decided not to return. Little did I know that I had awakened the hidden love of academics within me. I returned after sitting out one semester. I majored in Business and Public Administration with the fervent desire to study Creative Writing or Fine Arts, but my “blue collar”  mind-set for doing what appeared to be the most “reasonable and responsible,” would not let me break into my fantasy “bohemian” dream. I stuck with my declared major and discovered there were aspects of the curriculum I enjoyed. They were the classes in areas like group dynamics, employee motivation,....in short.... human behavior.

35. I went into a mild depression during my last semester of my undergraduate studies as I saw those around me making plans for the next phase of life when the only change for me would be the end of attending classes.

36. During my commencement ceremonies, I sat in black, long-sleeve gown and cap on the sun-blasted football field of Tiger Stadium in the hot May sun of South Louisiana. With one thousand other graduates, I perspired through the late President Reagan's speech. The high point...they let me wear little gold ropes around my neck which draped down each side of the hot, black gown.

Other than my wife, not one member of my immediate or extended family was on hand to see the second member of my family (including both sides) graduate from college.

36. The first and only time one of my poems has been published in print media was in the "Magazine” section of the local Baton Rouge newspaper. The poem, entitled “Hadesin The Crescent City. My inspiration for the poem was the “above ground” cemeteries of New Orleans as we passed one on our trip home after a day in the city.

At that point in my life I never dreamed I would ever, in my life, live in or near the city. Then again, many, many things have come to pass that I never imagined. As for the poem, it was the first I had found the courage to submit anything since reading one at a school, board meeting while in high school.

37. The “six-pack,” along with my overall level of physical fitness,” I had enjoyed during  the midst of my fire department career, has now become a “keg.”

38. My creative energy has expanding from writing to photography, drawing, painting, jewelry-making, wood-work, and a few other creative pursuits.

39. In 1989, I was involved in an on-duty incident that forever changed my life. Though my career (and identity) did not immediately come to an end, it was the beginning of the end. Nearly two decades later I can say, at least from my experience, “You can take the man out of the fire service, but you can't take the fire fighter out of the man.”

40. In 1989 I was chosen as Fire Fighter of The Year for the City of Baton Rouge, LA.