Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Wednesday, February 27, 2002 |
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The "Good Old Days" in Fayette's Fire Service By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
pt.1
Returning from a jaunt to Florida in the wee hours of a dark, sleety night several years ago, we were heading up the parkway, and I noticed a warm glow from an office window at the fire station. I was struck by the feeling that someone had left a light on for us. That low gleam symbolized the way I think of the fire service. Like home and family. Members of the fire and rescue service are an unashamedly sentimental group, and have been since long before Sept. 11. I'm especially touched by the respect and honor shown to us old-timers Life Members, most of us by those who answer Peachtree City's calls for help today. Their training and equipment are as far ahead of ours as ours were ahead of our predecessors'. Their esteem for those who laid the foundation on which today's service is building may not be that clearly demonstrated everywhere. So I credit today's leadership Chief Stony Lohr, assistant Chief Ed Eiswerth, and officers of the volunteer association, many of whom I've never even met with keeping the light from the past strong and bright. C.J. Mowell Jr. addressed the firefighters of Peachtree City at their annual awards and installation dinner recently, and he could hardly have had a more appreciative audience. The current members, many of whom were in Huggies when I was an active member, love hearing about how things used to be and marvel that we ever saved a building or a life. Truth to tell, we marveled sometimes too. At the same time, there were several of us Life Members in the audience to keep C.J. honest. He was chief of the volunteers in Fayetteville in the '70s when a fire call or a wreck anywhere in the county was answered by whoever was available. We worked closely with each other, especially in the development of the then county-wide Emergency Medical Service, and I was a witness to some of the tales C.J. spun for the entranced gathering last month. C.J.'s speech needs to be on Fayette County's historical record, so I'm presenting it to you in this space, with his kind permission and minimal editing. When Faye and I moved to Fayetteville in 1964 from Newnan, we came through a wide place in the road that I had always known as Shakerag. The name had been changed to Peachtree City. The scenery hadn't changed a whole lot except there was a lake and a few new houses around the lake. Highway 54 was just a two-lane road with no traffic lights. Line Creek Baptist church, Mr. Dave McWilliams' general store where you could still get a churn or a plow point or a stovepipe. Credit was not unusual, as Mr. Dave knew who you were or whether you were a native Fayette countian. The property where the grading is being done now for Home Depot and Wal-Mart was an upscale grocery store run by Mr. Hugh Huddleston whose father, along with Mr. Dave, had owned most of the property that presently is Peachtree City, Ga. We came on to Fayetteville, the county seat, where we had purchased a house to open a funeral home. We had also acquired a used combination ambulance/hearse. The county did not have a 24-hour-a-day ambulance service but was basically served from Jonesboro, Fairburn, Newnan and Griffin by funeral homes. If you needed an ambulance you not only might need to look up the proprietor but make sure the tires were pumped up and you had gasoline in the vehicle. The nearest hospitals were South Fulton in East Point, Griffin Hospital, Newnan Hospital, and Coweta General, just completed. The Doctors Sams (Helen and Sambo) were the only doctors actively practicing in the county since Dr. Busey retired. Sams Clinic closed every Thursday, with Sambo and Helen leaving town. So if anything happened on Thursday, folks panicked. Most of the medical referrals were sent to Atlanta to Crawford Long or Georgia Baptist hospitals. The first year we were in business we did not do a whole lot. Only two funerals: The first was an infant graveside service at Line Creek Baptist cemetery. The grave was hand-dug by a friend of the family, Mr. Myron Leach. Most everybody that knew him affectionately called him "Brother." He later became the first chief of the Peachtree City Fire Department. The ambulance wasn't real busy either. I don't have the exact number of call we made, but probably 50 or 60 the entire year. A lot of those were convalescent trips bringing Granny home or maybe someone had a new baby, and we would bring mother and baby home. After all, there were only a little over 8,000 people in the entire county. During the slow times we had time to keep up with what was going on throughout the county. For instance, if we went west on Highway 54 in the ambulance with a light and siren on, Miss Louise Leach (Brother's sister) or Mrs. Pearl Horton would call the funeral home to find out where we were going, who we had, and what happened. Most of the time Faye would not know because some folks would call and just say, "Send an ambulance," and Faye would not know any details until we returned. If there was an unfamiliar car in the yard at the funeral home, a salesman or just someone stopping by to shoot the breeze, Mrs. Willie Banks would call and inquire if we had a body. If we did she would want to know if it was anyone she knew until one day Faye asked her who all she knew.
Continued next week.. |
