BOWLING

Seems a brush unit went out one day and worked a moderate grass fire. During the overhaul, they came across a soft eight-pound bowling ball (one a kid might use at a bowling alley). The guys took one look at it, and hauled it back in the truck.

Keeping it hidden from their captain, they took it in the back and drilled a couple more holes in it, then put in some alarm cable. Holding it carefully, the shift ran upstairs to the day room, where their captain was enjoying a cup of coffee. They burst in the door, yelled "IT'S A BOMB!! IT'S A BOMB!!" and it's said the captain's feet never touched the floor as he literally flew across the floor and dove headfirst into the dorm!!

The so-called bomb looked cheesier than one of Wile E. Coyote's homemade contraptions, but it was apparently realistic enough for a captain that apparently fell for every single practical joke his crew ever pulled on him, time and again. I think that crew set the record for longest shift on latrine duty.

Contributors Note: Talk about your perfect pigeon; the guys used to joke about how that particular captain was afraid of his own shadow! Understandable, with those guys on shift! Chet Kelly would have been proud, LOL (Netlanguage for Laughing Out Loud), (actually, I recall now that one of the EMT's at the central station was nicknamed "Chet" because he was always pulling jokes on the rest of the shift!). There were a lot of Emergency! references around the department, of course; the show was in its original run back then.

Loredo, Texas, USA
Patty Waits Beasley (Doc)