Mental health has consistently been a priority for first responders, particularly concerning PTSD. Additionally, the social and mental well-being of retirees has emerged as a vital aspect. It has been acknowledged that maintaining connections with retired peers and colleagues can have a substantial positive impact on mental health. Surprisingly, activities like luncheons and golf tournaments can be beneficial for mental wellness.
Below Jim Kelly shares observations and memories from the Scarborough Retirees’ lunches, names have been omitted but you’ll probably figure them out. Should you be looking for something to do on the second Thursday of each month, consider joining us.
The last Port Perry luncheon is on October 10th, bring a jacket it could be a tad cool!
Observations and memories at the lunches by Jim Kelly
He has more food on his shirt than in his mouth. I don’t know which one of us is more surprised when he tells me his age. While he was on the job he was involved in looking after the welfare of firefighters and off the job he helped the people who fell through the cracks. For at least another decade after retirement, he shared what he learned with fire crews across the Province.
When the quiet guy seated across from him talks, everyone listens. Under his leadership, he brought safe practices, equipment, and techniques to firefighters across Canada and he got us the dough we deserved. You know most people aspire to leave a legacy for a life well lived. That guy did it without any fanfare. I worked with him over the years and remember having everything from a New York City summer night with multiple fire calls where we saved more than the foundation to hustling up an apartment building stairwell on Christmas Day so we could save a tenant’s turkey dinner from doom.
That guy wearing a new shirt that’s slightly loud and freshly pressed? He spent time reviewing and exchanging info with those guys that hung from buildings by little skinny ropes so there’d be no teardrops back home. However, when he stepped on the ice for a hockey game there was gonna be plenty of ‘em. He doesn’t play anymore, instead, he spends time with his grandkids and when he shares stories about them, care lines disappear.
Those two guys kibitzing over there? They’ve known each other longer than there’s been Bibles in hotels. They served on the same ship, employed by Her Majesty. The debate raging between them for decades was the saving of one life by the other in a bar in a faraway land while on leave. One shipmate denies that he may have universally insulted the entire bar after a couple of Shirley Temples too many. That same shipmate denies that there needed to be any intervention by his pal in order to keep him alive so he could continue to draw his pay. That Navy guy showed me – the rookie- some economical ways to tie knots and taught me to see the lighter side of stumbling through a pitch-black manufacturing plant with the machines still running looking for something that wasn’t there.
The engineered moustache mounted to that guy’s face? That moustache can haul ass. I was riding on one of the last trucks purchased where the crew surfed the tailgate on their way to commit acts of derring-do. The trucks were oversprung and underpowered and when they encountered a rut in the road they kicked like a mule. Keeping your knees bent and looking ahead increased the odds that you would arrive at the call with the truck. So the mustache gets delayed by traffic and as any racer knows-momentum is the key to good lap times. That meant the moustache went deep into the intersection, stayed on the throttle, cranked the steering wheel, and literally wrinkled the pavement that passed under the tires. He straightened the wheel snatched high gear and boogied on down the road to our destination. Oh ya… the mustache beat the response time.
There were close to 500 of us and I’m surprised at how many show up each month to chew the fat. Some look like the same car with more miles. Other guys, I have to wait for them to talk and if that fails a nostalgic review of an I.D. card is in order. I look around at the wrinkled and crumpled skin, missing hair and dents, and remember following that guy towards an orange glow or that guy removing a car from the driver trapped under the dash and over there is the guy that jumped from one high-rise balcony to another-just because. An outsider scanning the assembled crinkles and rumples may be forgiven for thinking it’s a bird-watching club instead of a meeting of adventurers.
We meet in the winter at a bar in Pickering and for the summer months, it’s a pub with a patio in Port Perry. In Port Perry, they reserve a big area for us and without the televisions, music, and patrons sharing the bar the conversation turns into firehall coffee table talk. It’s amazing how many of us were on the scene at the major events and carnage that occurred while we were still an autonomous fire department. What’s entertaining are the multiple views from multiple people at multiple locations and how those recollections focus on the lighter side. We used to work 10-hour day and 14-hour night shifts and some of the best stories occurred after the shift ended or at golf and hockey tournaments, conventions, and seminars. The best thing about a life well lived are the stories you can’t tell and to keep the marriages that have survived intact, those stories won’t be told.
More than a couple still have an adventure or two up their sleeve like the guy that has a world map on his wall with very little space to add pins marking where he’s been or the guy that sails to faraway oceans then jumps off a perfectly good boat into some perfectly deep water. Ask anyone what’s shakin’ and they’ll tell you of an impending adventure or one they just had. As far as I go I have all the hair, teeth, and wrinkle-free skin I started the job with as long as I don’t look in a mirror.
Jim Kelly – #569