New York City Fire Museum Looking for Participants for Oral History Exhibit

The New York City Fire Museum has partnered with StoryCorps, a non-profit organization that records and collects personal stories of ordinary people to showcase the unique and extraordinary qualities of each individual.

With StoryCorps, the Museum wishes to create an oral history exhibit using stories, thoughts and memories of active and retired firefighters (see the sample list of questions). The exhibit will include sound bytes from each interview and will be played on an MP3 player, accompanied by a photograph of each storyteller.

If you wish to participate, or know someone who has an interesting story, please call the Fire Museum at 212-691-1303.

Below is an excerpt from an interview for the exhibit between retired lieutenants and Museum volunteers Tom Simmons and Jon Miller:

Jon:  What kind of impact did [your job] have on your family?

Tom: Well, the family had to start to revolve around your hours. We didn’t go to the beach, or whatever else we wanted to do. My kids learned how to read the work chart! They would know when Daddy was going to be home, or be at the firehouse. It’s also rewarding having the time off.
How about yourself?

Jon: Basically the same thing. You brought up the work chart, our kids, same thing, they knew. It was a burden on the wife and the kids, but the kids liked it, too. Holidays were probably the worst. That was a big burden on the family.

Tom: A lot of people don’t realize there are no holidays.

Jon: How do you want to be remembered?

Tom: That’s a tough question! I’d like to be remembered as somebody who performed to the best of my ability, and I feel that I always gave the city a fair shake. In retrospect, it was the most rewarding – it was the greatest job I ever had. The city of New York, I’d like to think they got their money’s worth out of me, and I gave them all that I possibly could.
How about yourself?

Jon:  Ditto what you said and I’d like to say it was the most rewarding job, the only job that I can think of that I couldn’t wait to get off of vacation, so I could get back to work. It was a pleasure coming in every night, seeing what you missed. If you missed a good fire, you hit yourself over the head. ‘Why wasn’t I working?’ I probably want to be remembered as always trying to do the right things at the right times. That’s very important in the Fire Department, doing the right things. I’d like to be remembered as always looking out for everybody (my family, my firehouse and its neighborhood) and trying to do the right thing.