Went up to the city yesterday to get my picture taken for the “old farts included” yearbook. Walked into the Academy & followed the signs for pictures where I was greeted by a pleasant photographer. She directed me to sit at a laptop computer & fill out a form w/my name & rank. Then I went to stand in front of a camera & followed her instructions, lean your head this way, turn your shoulder that way, click. Three shots & then I go to look at the results. So far, so good.

I sit in a chair & a young woman brings up three pictures of an old guy who looks a lot like my father. First reaction is “Where did this old dude come from?”, but I quickly recovered & picked out the shot w/a smile. She asked me if I wanted to purchase a set the pictures & I said, “I’m 65, who wants a picture of me?” She laughed & I left, beginning to doubt coming up to the city was a good move.

From there I went into the Academy office to bring books to one of the guys & we started talking. Someone mentioned that the NFD hadn’t changed to which I responded, “I came on in 1978.” This got a laugh & then a telling comment from the youngest man there. “That was before I was born.” OUCH! Another one of the guys says he was four years old. An improvement, but not much of one.

This brought back the memory of one of the last recruit classes I instructed during my time at the Academy. I had been on vacation visiting my in-laws when the class started. Fresh off the plane from Asia & suffering from a bad case of jet-lag, I was introducing myself to the recruits. Told them my name & then before I mentioned when I was appointed, I asked, “Who was born after June of 1978?” A half dozen, maybe even ten hands shot up. I looked at them w/a straight face & announced, “I don’t like you. I’m not going to like you. Just keep your distance & we’ll get along fine.” They laughed & I told when I was appointed.

I kept this memory to myself & tried to recover a little. Took out the last four NFD oral history books & began a discussion of how much the NFD had changed. First point up was Mike Mondino’s assignment. Mike is the Health Officer for the department. Health Officer? From what Mike said, he is the third man to hold the position. As you can imagine, it was a nightmare of a position at the height of the pandemic. He told me about the computer programs they use to keep track of records etcetera. I told him how we maintained records when I was first assigned to the Academy in 1986 (paper forms & sign-in sheets).

But I was there at the beginning of the computer age for Academy records. Back in 1986-87 the Academy ordered an Apple IIc. I had an Apple IIe at home. (It was a monster of a machine, 128k on the desktop, dual 5 ¼’ floppy disk drives, coupled w/a dot matrix printer. Cost me $2,500 in 1985) The IIc only had one floppy drive, so you had to take the system disk out & insert a storage disk when you wanted to save data, but both machines ran the same program (Apple Works) so I became the designated computer operator (among other things). Today the average smart phone is exponentially more powerful.

Usually when I take a walk down memory lane w/firefighters we talk about our shared experiences. Yesterday was more a clash of the past & the present. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Afterall, I put together books about the past so the present remembers. But yesterday was still eye opening. Seems I’ve come full circle. Now I sound like the old timers on the job when I first walked into the firehouse back in 1978.