The man in the picture is my grandfather, Earl C. Mayers, better known to many as “Smokey”.  To me, he was “Grandpop”. My whole life he served as “the Fire Marshal”.  I say it like that because he carried that title in several jurisdictional responsibilities, the most visible being the Chief Fire Marshal for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania until his death […]
So, I’m assuming most of us in the emergency services world feel a little bit vindicated when we see a picture of a car, illegally parked in front of a fire hydrant, with a hose run through the smashed out windows. We have all seen a few either online, or in the news, or have even been on an […]
This is the five hundred and fifth post for Firehouse Zen. I would probably have called attention to number five hundred, but it was in the middle of the series honoring my brother’s 50th birthday and didn’t want to distract from THAT celebration. That is a lot of writing over a lot of days.  If you […]
Tonight I shared Monty Python and The Holy Grail with my children.  I know their Uncle B would be proud, since they had already memorized most of the lines, thanks to he and I. Now they can share their encyclopedic knowledge with him this summer. Happy Birthday, Brian.  We all love you and celebrate your 50th. […]
Happy 50th Birthday to my dear brother Brian, with only a few more days until March 17th, the day he shares with our patron saint, Patrick. I just found out he is vacationing with his wonderful wife, Heather, in Aruba right now. When winter came, we were usually pretty happy when a snow day hit, […]
This is the continued countdown to March 17, and a happy 50th to my brother, Brian, the best brother anyone could ever want in the whole world. Brian and I had some great experiences together. Don’t let this series fool you- these stories are meant to show the funny (to us) and amazing moments we had together.  While […]