mmditter said:
Speaking of firemen, a few years back when Milwaukee was celebrating some sort of milestone (sesquicentennial, maybe?) the Sentinel or the Journal had a series where they would feature interesting stories about old Milwaukee. One of the stories had to do with a tour some bigwigs took of a firestation. Apparently they had one particular fireman who was known for being able to drink prodigious amounts of beer. One of the visitors spied a fire bucket and asked the guy if he could drink a whole bucket full of beer. The fireman thought about it for a minute and then went in the back for a few minutes. When he came out he told them to fill the bucket with beer and proceeded to drink the whole thing down. The dignitaries were suitably impressed, and one of them said: "my, that was really something. But I'm curious about one thing: what was it that you were doing in the back room before you came back out here?" The fireman replied: "Oh. Well, I wasn't too sure I could drink the whole bucket of beer, so I wanted to go back there and try it first before I came out here and did it for you!"
Yeah I got on the job WAY too late. Since the mid 70's, when the Milwaukee fire department started providing EMS services, we are no longer allowed to have beer or booze in the firehouse. Prior to that the best stocked and maintained bars in the city were in the firehouses. In fact one of the cub's (the guy with the least amount of time on the job) was to go out and get the drinks for the day.
Also if you look most of the older firehouses they are all right next door to a bar or what used to be a bar. Engine 7 (Chase and Euclid), Engine 6 (Franklin and Brady), Engine 3 (Water and Virgina), Headquaters/Engine 2/Engine 20 (7th and Wells) are all next to bers and thats just off the top of my head. It also wasnt uncommon for the cub to be at the joker stand (the old telegraph system the runs came in on) by himself. If a run would come in he would have to run next door to get the guys out of the bar to go on the run.
Engine XX had a bar behind it that went out of business after 100 years when the policy changed. About few years ago when the owner hung himself on Christmas eve he was given a full firedpeartment funeral . . . unoffically. We got in a **** load of trouble for it but the logic was XXXX did more for the fire department the the chief ever had, had more time "on the job" then the chief (even though XXXX was never a Fireman), and was just so loved by the guys that the Chief could go to hell. Oddly enuff it was worked out that 3 fire engines, 2 ladder trucks, and 2 battalion chiefs just happened to be sent to a cemetary miles away at the time XXXX was laid to rest. It also was a very ironic concidence that they seemed to lead the procession to the cemetary. It took some old school threats to keep it out of the media.
(left out comapnies numbers and names since there are some locals here and the story is still very hush hush)
Some of the old timers will often tell the story when a very big liquor store burned down up on the north side and the owner was more worried about getting his inventory out of the building then saving the building. In fact he told the guys what ever they could get out of the store they could keep knowing there was no way they could fit it all on their rigs. The building was a total loss but the guys saved 95% of the inventory and they estimate they took 50% of it back to the firehouses. Never underestimate what you can fit in the hose beds, because they had to go back and pick up their hoses AFTER they dropped off their booze.
When they tear down old firehouses and take the poles out the poles are FULL of the old style pull top tabs from beer cans and sometimes you will find some real cool old cans in them as well. Remember these poles are 3 stories tall, 5 inches poles, and they are also full to the top with the tabs.