Jordan Pearl
My memories of the trip start at a Board meeting when it was
announced that the 51 committee was asking for several of us to accompany
the tour, with the thought of selling merchandise to benefit the Museum.
Along with several others, I volunteered, and after a few weeks, was
notified that I'd be going.
Luckily, business was in a position where I could easily handle the being
away, so I made plans to accompany the group.
I arrived at TWA LAX and met Paul Schneider, Paul Oyler, & Ron Ripley for
the long flight to New York---where we ultimately made our way into mid-town
Manhattan and checked in at the Hyatt on 42d St.
Our first day was the long trip by train out to Long Island, where we were
picked up and driven to the fire station, where the day's events were to
take place. We spent the day in the fire station selling merchandise to a
delighted crowd of fire buffs and "Emergancy!" fans, nearly each of whom
wanted to have a chat with each of us, whether dealing with the fire
service, "Emergency!" the squad, whatever, but just to increase their
contact with the squad.
There was a heavy rain storm late that afternoon, but while it didn't dampen
the spirits of the crowd, it certainly made our early evening trip back to
the train a dreaded experience---until the sheriff decided that he and his
deputies would drive us back from the fire station to the train. To top off
the day, as we were waiting for our change of trains, Randy was recognised
by a couple of bystanders, each of whom wanted a photo and an autograph.
Good times were starting!
(Actually, good times had started for me a couple of days earlier---my
daughter was living in New York at the time, so I had an opportunity to have
dinner with her the first night we were there, and then, due to our late
return from Long Island, we met for coffee the second night, making for an
unexpected side benefit for me!)
Our next stop was to be Baltimore, so the next moring, we all met at Penn
station for the uneventful train ride. On arrival we were met by several
white Lincoln stretch limousenes, along with police motorcycle escort, and
we had a blazing code three ride through town to our hotel--located just a
short walk from the football and baseball stadiums, the famous Harbour, and
a group of excellent restaurants--we ate and drank well while there!
We (Oyler, Schneider, Ripley, Garcia, and I) started to walk over to the
fire station where we'd be exhibiting the next day. We were given a brief
tour, and finally wound up on the apparatus floor and shown where we'd be
displaying the squad. On returning to the hotel, we advised Jim Page as to
what we had seen, and made plans to do a bit of a clean-up the next morning.
On the next day, we all assembled after breakfast and wandered to the fire
station, where we organised the clean-up, positioned the squad, met the
"Emergency!" fans who showed up, and began the day's activities: photos,
sales, and autographing by Randy.
That night was "Firefighter's Night" at the Orioles Stadium, which started
off with a simulated emergency response directed to "Squad 51," complete
with tones, and then the squad drove through a paper barrier in the outfield
and responded, red lights and siren, to home plate. Some ceremonies, and
the ball game began, and, let me tell you, it's wonderful to watch a ball
game from an owner's box--the food and drink were beyond description, except
for the best crab cakes in the world!
Next morning we made our way half way down to Washington D.C., (Can't
remember the name of the town *Webnote: Hyattsville*). Most of the group took the train while I rode
down in the squad with Paul Schneider, who was driving. On arrivng at the
fire station where we were to do the day's activities, we were almost
simultaneously met by a couple of cars who had seen us on the freeway (one
was driving north as we were going south) and had followed us to our
destination--they had to take a few photos of the squad, because they were
old time "Emergency!" fans, and "just had to have a photo or two"
of the real thing!
The first guest had arrived very early in the morning, after an overnight
drive from somewhere far away, and had surprised the arriving fire crew
members when they arrived for their contribution to the day's fun.
The squad was positioned, stanchions and ropes put in place, and we were
readied. We had a nice breakfast, organised by the volunteers, and because
so many people had arrived so early, we began the day's signing almost an
hour early. This was the "big time," with most of the original cast
present, all of whom were signing memorabilia and merchandise, photos,
t-shirts, hot wheels boxes, etc. It was truly exiciting to watch, and the
crowd kept growing all through the day. Those of us on "escort" duty took
turns at the various positions we had outlined, so every couple of hours we
had a new function--keep the lines moving at the display, keep the lines
moving at the signing table, keep the lines moving, keep the lines moving,
etc.
There were lots of opportunities to speak with the attendees, and it was
amazing, if not truly inspiring, to hear how many people had become
firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses, emergency room staff, because of
having watched "Emergency!" for all the years it had been on NBC. Who
ever
would have dreamt that a television series would have had such an impact on so
many peoples' lives?
There were so many fans lined up that not only did we have to start early,
but we had to continue almost two hours after the scheduled shut down to
accommodate every one of them. And, during all this time, the cast of the
show barely took five minute breaks for coffee!
About mid-way through the activities, I saw both Chief and Mrs. Freeman
walking through the crowd, and took a minute or two to go welcome them, they
were both quite surprised at the size of the crown! They then joined Jim
Page and the cast members for a visit.
At the end of the day, we all went down to Washington, D.C., this time with
Chief Freeman riding along with Paul Schneider in the squad.
We had a couple of free days for sightseeing in D.C., the ceremonies at
Smithsonian, a formal dinner hosted by the IAFF, along with some speeches,
and then a final wrap party with cast, crew, anad the fire department group.
It was a truly enjoyable experience for all, I really had a good time, met a
lot of very nice people, and a lot of fond memories.
Keep coming back! There's more memoirs to come!
All
Photos © 1999-2005,
Project 51 & CLAFMA
