This little update is just to give everyone an idea of future books and where the oral history project stands in the environment we are now in. I don’t see any opportunity in 2020 to conduct the few interviews I think are necessary to give a full telling of our story. There is an outside chance of doing interviews on line via Skype. I have to research that.

            Right now I am compiling the first of three books that will cover the NFD from 1940 to 2020. The new book series will be entitled The Greatest Job in the World because that’s how most guys (and a few gals now) describe it. There’s usually a colorful word inserted between Greatest and Job. I leave it to you to fill in the blank.

            Another idea I’m playing with is putting together company oral histories. These wouldn’t include all companies. The random nature of my interviews over the past 29 years makes that impossible. Add to that the fluid nature of assignments during a career and which company someone was in gets complicated. If you began your career in 27 Engine then transferred to 5 Truck and retired out of 26 Engine, what company you were referring to when you answered the question “What was the average day like in the firehouse?” Everyone agrees there were five different fire departments on each tour (until they began consolidating battalions), so it’s a bit challenging.

            I’m also thinking about putting together a pod cast about the oral history project, the books, and what they say about the NFD. Not sure when that will begin.

            As far as the three Best Job in the World books are concerned, their subtitles will be Learning the Job, Doing the Job, and Getting the Job Done. The idea has always been to preserve as accurate a picture of the job as possible, from the mundane (housework) to the extraordinary acts of heroism that often go unnoticed by the outside world. The professor who taught me how to compile an oral history warned that it cannot be done perfectly. After 29 years I have accepted that (and forgiven myself for all the mistakes and missed opportunities). I figure if I talk to enough of you, I’ll leave behind a true understanding of what it was like to be a firefighter in Newark from 1940 to 2020.