Don't get me wrong I love it here in TX. Where else can you own a BBQ pit that has trailer lights and a hitch! Not to mention that it once held explosive and or hazardous chemicals.
The first Fire Truck I saw down here was a 1954 LaFrance. I said to the Chief/Postmaster/Owner of the General Store (was all the same guy) "Nice prade truck". He said 'ell boy thats our first due engine company.
The first time that I went to a FD parade down here I almost left when I found out there would be no bag pipes. It didn't go well when I showed up in my class "A"'s from NY with as they put it "a skirt".
Firefighting here in Texas sure is different I tell ya. We even got a plummers truck that was siezed at the border carring drugs. We made in in to a 4WD brush truck. (It matched our BBQ pit behind the fire house, thank-you very much.) We were the only department in the country that the siren controls read "Wail" ,"Yelp", and La Cocca Ra Cha. We had mag wheels and everything. There was a heated debate about removing the hydraulics system. A few of the members thought that we could either tilt the truck up on two wheels to one side to get ALL of the water out of the tank or stomp the fire out by bouncing up and down.
The worst day of my life as a FF in south TX was when dispatching my first call went like this:
"Nine oh forwa, I need you to make the kar accident at SPID and waldron. Reports of yutes trapped." Chief you k' on that?" No one had any idea what I was talking about, and the by-laws were amended no longer allowing "Damn Yankees" on the dispatch consel.
My favorite dispatch heard was:
Station 900 we need all ya' all to make that call.
Texas is a whole nother country and I am getting naturalized just as soon as I pass the vocabulary test.
G'nite y'all
