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PRB's sirens reminded me

Daveroo

Daveroo

Members +
yes...i know i sometimes live in the past...sue me...when i first joined the auburn volunteer fire department,i still lived at home with my parents..i joined the FD on my 18th birthday in 1980,my dad had joined in jan of 1962,he was honoured with 50 years of service this last febuary,he is no longer active,but is on the "roll call list" as a lifetime member,as am i..but i dont do anything at all now...we live on a deadend street,at the time ( 1980) there were several auburn volunteers on this street,,,six members besides my dad and myself...so 8 in total...the nearest "barn" in those days was downtown..we live on the southside of town,litterally on the "wrong side of the tracks" the orginal alingment of the first transcontinental railroad passes by my house...maybe 150 yards or less...a cool thing to check out..google "bloomer cut"...was the first use of dynimite in the USA and was the longest open cut pass on any railroad in history when first dug,its 863 ft i beleive and has a curve in the center,the only thing thats ever changed to this section of line from first built is that its now been changed to concrete ties and ribbon rail and that was done last summer...

back to the fire department and siren...to alert us...we had old radios called pleactrons but they were huge boxy things and you couldnt take them with you,so we relyed on the siren system to call us to fires,and even in the 80s,,,they did the siren code system...of which ive forgeten most of...but the sirens would blow twice in rapid seccsion,,then pause and two morn time...that meant the call was downtown..or three and three was northern part of town..and so on...

well we had a new nieghbor move in across the street from my family....around 2 am..the sirens went off for an all call alert...they would just blow constantly up to 8 times..this told us to just go man the engines and ask the dispatch what the call was...usually a structure fire (btw,we got pagers by 83)but this new nieghbr heard the all call siren that night and he and his wife were from the "tornado belt" ,as we left our homes to head to the firehouse...i happened to look in my rearview mirror and saw the nieghbors car following me in to the firehouse parking lot...i got out of my car,,and he and his wife came running out of thiers,,screaming...wheres the shelter....i was kinda dumbstruck...then it hit me...lol...they heard the sirens for the first time..looked out the bedroom window and saw all of us flying up the hill in our cars...and the man and his wife followed..thinking we were going to shelter...lol....
 
Yeah, people around here seem to take those sirens seriously. When I first moved here, and was looking at houses, I was at the real estate office when a tornado warning happened. She, the real estate agent I was with, darned near flew over the top of the desk going for the phone, to tell her kids to get in the basement. Me, from Maine, had no idea about tornodoes... I lived in Central CA for twenty years, felt the 1983 Coalinga quake, and the 1989 Loma Prieta one. No damage around Hanford though.
 
i think i may have said this to you once allready..but i lived in Hanford for two whole weeks..was supposed to be a sort of property watchman at night..didnt workout..i was right across from the weather station and airport..walking distance to the race track fairgrounds...got to watch four nights of racing..friday and saturday nights of both weekends i was there.....was my highlight....lol
 
Yep, I remember you said that. I could hear the races at the track from my house every weekend. I went to the races there one time, during the entire time I was there. Sprint cars. It was a fun time. I was really impressed when one of them crashed and rolled over a couple times, and could feel the ground shake. That was amazing!
 
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