Decompressing Part One

One thousand, nine hundred-eight miles and a week later, I pulled into my garage.  So much to try to put into words.  So many amazing experiences I want to fight to preserve.  I'm trying to be better about 'stuff' and have scanned most of the 'memorabilia' I collected on the trip so that I can integrate it into a 'virtual' scrapbook of the research trip.

Arrived in Maryland late on Saturday.  Woke to a wet rainy/snowy morning.  Wingman, Jim Tingey, had projects for us to do nonetheless.  We started by trying to suck out all the water and moisture in his basement.  Removing the bottom of the staircase to allow the workers to jack hammer the floor ended up causing a huge gusher of water to pour into the basement.  Buckets later, we had managed to stop the flow.  Next, it was time to build some squirrel feeders; of course, not just any squirrel feeder, these were feeders with furniture!

 We finished off the day with a lovely dinner with Jim and Marcie's family.  

The next day was jam packed.  We had interviews with Delmar Davis and Guy Cephas followed by a visit to the Maryland Fire Museum.  The day didn't start out too well; I overslept and Jim woke me ten minutes 'till eight.  I was discombobulated from the get go.  I forgot my wallet as we raced off toward the west side of Baltimore.  That proved to be a problem.  

When we got to Delmar Davis' location, I realized how hosed I was because I needed a driver's license to get into the facility.  Thankfully, I was able to speak with the director of the facility who let us go on up to Delmar's place.  What an amazing man!  He is 98 and sharp as a tack.  He had spent quite a bit of time preparing for our visit and I am so grateful for his time and energy.  He pulled out two thick books filled with original photographs and documents describing his service.

He is incredibly proud of he and Arthur Hardy's legacy.  He shared the proclamations he's received for his participation in the early service of the Baltimore Fire Department.

 He talked a lot about Smokestack and about their early years on the fire department.  One of the most meaningful stories he shared with me was about the True Fit Fire.  In that fire, he and Smokestack had been on the roof of a building with the chief; when Delmar noticed a hot spot, the chief sent them down to get an 1 1/2' line to put it out.  As the men climbed down the ladder, the roof collapsed and seven men lost their lives.  Delmar and Smokestack retrieved the bodies.  Sixty years later, the moment still nearly brought tears to his eyes.  

 

This photo shows Delmar.  Smokestack is absent because he was the photographer.  

 

Delmar in his twenties. 

Too soon it was time to leave. I was honored that this man spent so much time with me.  He helped me put Arthur Hardy into context and reminded of the power of human goodness.  Our next stop was the Smokestack Hardy Folk Museum and a visit with Guy Cephas, Smokestack's nephew.

 

Guy works on the museum every day.  This museum is constantly changing as he swaps out photographs of fires from throughout the years.  The hat Guy is holding above is the original helmet of Arthur P. Hardy.  Originally, the auxiliary men wore the yellow helmets to identify them as auxiliary.  Later, the department realized that the yellow helmets were much easier to identify and switched to yellow helmets.  The auxiliary men then wore black helmets.

 Arthur P. Hardy, age three.  He was three years old when the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 struck.  He remembers standing atop his grandmother's apartment building watching the men fight the devastating fire.  It was then that he fell in love with the idea of becoming a fire fighter. 

Arthur Hardy with his mandolin.  He played mandolin, organ and piano for over 75 years at his Seventh Day Adventist Church.  

 Arthur joined the Army during the war.  Guy shared that Arthur was discharged from the Army when it was discovered that he was black.  Interestingly, the idea of black/white/mixed race came up several times during our interviews.  I don't know Arthur's racial background yet, but Delmar shared with me that his grandmother was white and his grandfather was Native American.  Delmar also shared that he married a white woman and had one daughter

Arthur, in his traditional blue shirt, dark blue tie and khaki pants.  He wore this uniform most of the time.  In fact, Guy told a story about Arthur wearing his uniform as he walked through Baltimore.  He got on buses and trains for free because the drivers thought he was on duty as a regular firefighter.  Jokingly, Guy also said that with his radio slung across his chest and his little mustache, folks took to calling him "Little Hitler" because he visually reminded them of him.  

This photograph is of some of the auxiliary firefighters on the truck they would ride to the fires.  Arthur is wearing his helmet and has his left arm on the bed of the truck.  

This is a photograph of the Fire Buff club that was formed after the auxiliary was disbanded in 1949.  This club was officially sanctioned by the Fire Department.  They gave the club a 'call board' that allowed the club to track the status of all companies in the department.  Arthur lived next door to the club's location.  Members of the club staffed the 'office' 24 hours a day. When a 'third alarm' was called, the club members went into action supporting the department.  The club members did everything from pulling hoses, setting up ladders and at times, directly fighting fires.

Smokestack, on the far left, wore his traditional black rubber coat to fight fires.  This was one of the few photos that had him in it.  He was an avid photographer and was usually behind the camera instead of in front of it.

 This is the red light that Smokestack put in his front window as he grew too frail to make it to fires.  It was a gift to him from the fire department.  It came from the car of the fire chief.  When Arthur heard the siren from the nearby fire department, he would turn this light on as a signal to let the guys in the truck know that he was with them even if he couldn't make it to the fire.  In return, the men would sound their horn in honor of Smokestack.

Guy with one of the many articles that were done over the years talking about the life of Arthur Hardy and the museum that Guy maintains.  

Guy and I in front of his home that doubles as the Arthur P. Hardy "Smokestack" Hardy Fire Museum.  











A few years after Arthur's death, the fire station in his old neighborhood was named after him.  I had called ahead of time to confirm that it would be okay if we stopped in and took a few photographs. As usual, the firefighters were gracious and welcoming. 

The only real 'official' piece of memorabilia was this plaque.  It was given that in honor of 30 years of service to the citizens of Baltimore.  Interestingly, it names Delmar Davis as the President of the SHC Fire Buff Club; Guy Cephas as the Vice President and Phyllis Purnell as the Executive Director.  I had planned a visit with Mrs. Purnell, but we were unable to make that happen while I was there; so we will speak on the phone soon.

Inside the garage were bright and gleaming 'wagons' as the fire crew called them.  Just as we were taking this photograph, a call came in over the speaker.  Smokestack rode on engine 13 most of his career with the department.   As we were taking some last photos of the front of the building, the door rolled up and out came truck 13 with sirens blaring and lights flashing.  It was almost as if Smokestack were saying 'hello' from somewhere beyond.

Our next stop was the Maryland Fire Museum.  I was excited to make this visit because I had heard so much about the museum.  They are known around the country as one of the top facilities. They must have several million dollars in equipment alone.  We were thrilled to learn that the director was a classmate of my friend Jim Tingey at Northwestern.  In fact, they graduated at the same time.  In addition to getting to speak with the director and the historian, we got a behind the scenes tour of the 'Fire Alarm' exhibit by the electrician who brought the exhibit to life.  He managed to connect the fire alarm equipment from the very first to present day devices.  He had just finished and so was very excited to be able to walk us through it step by step.  An hour later, we walked away stunned at the beauty of the system.  

 This display is a mock up of the 'communication' center that was a part of all the fire houses in Maryland.  It looks strikingly similar to the one in the Fire Buff Club photo above. 

We walked through this gorgeous museum noting the fact that it covered the history of the fire fighting in America from the earliest days to the the present.  This is the oldest piece of fire fighting equipment.  Notice it is painted 'pumpkin.'  Apparently that was the color of the original equipment.  It is a manual pumper engine.  The black handles folded down and then were pumped by hand.

These are some of the leather buckets that were used in early fire fighting.  In small towns, each house had at least one bucket.  When the alarm was sounded, the buckets were tossed out the window to the boys who were sounding the alarms and ringing the bells.  The boys and other volunteers would then run to the wells, creeks, rivers, etc. and fill the buckets.  Finally, the buckets were emptied into the pumper wagon that was used to spray the fire.

A model of one of the early steam engines.  Like the originals, nearly all the metal pieces were brilliantly polished brass.  I could not get over how perfect each of the pieces on display were.  If it was metal, it was buffed to a gorgeous shine.

We finished off this momentous day with a delicious seafood dinner at a local restaurant that was one of Jim's favorites.

That will do it for the first 'big' day of this trip.