Thursday, August 26, 2010

94th annual Firemen's Muster...

It might be the 94th Muster for this event, but for me.. it was the 50th!!! I have never missed one Firemen's Muster since I was born.. and this year was no exception. In some ways, it's the same old-same old... but in other ways, it's tradition and a "big part" of my life, and I am so happy to always be involved. The day began with the unloading of "Protection II"... an old hand tub that is owned by the "Red Shirts".. and a piece of fire apparatus that Ed is in charge of keeping and storing. Each year, she is rolled out of her protected home, the Red Shirts come and polish her brass... she is pulled threw the parade, and then she is tuck away again until the next year.
This year, however, she will make a second appearance on September 11th for another event, which I will blog about when it gets here.


We all met at Kassy and Nate's and then walked up to watch the parade. I brought Chester and Camille along. I wasn't sure how either one would "do".. this parade is LOUD!!! Just imagine.. firemen "playing" with their trucks and you can pretty much figure how quiet this parade isn't!!! But they both did very well, and Chester was quite interested in the candy that folks were throwing out to the kids...







Here we all are.. waiting for the parade to begin!!!!













And - as usual - the Red Shirts and Protection II lead the parade... followed by a whole line of all sorts of fire equipment!!!!











Year after year, the trucks seem to get bigger and fancier. Technology has certainly kept up in the field of fire fighting.






After the parade it's on to the "field" for the firemen's games. Things like how quickly a team can get a hose hooked up.... and then run water threw it and hit the target. This is not as easy as it looks, and more than once, if the hose is not hooked tightly.....









broken connection and water every where. (we like to start the kids young... that's where good fire fighters come from!!!) "don't give up boys"












Now, the "old timer's team".......













maybe not as quick as the younger ones....














but experience pays off!!!!!












Just one question... when did "we" become the old timer's team???? Used to be the day when we were the young ones that were running. Time goes way too fast......









Burley!!!!! If there is one other person that probably hasn't ever missed a muster (other than me... and my Dad!!!) it would be Burley. Burley is amazing and back in the day, he was the one guy that you could always call on to "make up a team". Some musters he ran on several teams!!! Now at about 70 years old.. he still shows he has it... maybe not as quick as he once was... but in the ladder competition, he still showed us all that he can do it!!! Wishing you many more musters and running events - Burley!!!!









The day always closes with the firemen's clam bake!!! Such a fun time, lots of good food (LOBSTER).. time to visit with old friends, and meet some new ones... Here Abbie gets to meet Andrew!!!!











All the girls!!! on the left.. Kadee, Jen, Diana.. and then Kas, Sadie and Abbie. These gals grew up together, with Daddies in the fire department and living on the same street. They are certainly life long friends!!!








And all too soon, the day was over, and another field day is tucked away into the list of memories and blogs!!!





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