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The West Athens-Lime Street Fire
Company was organized on March 13, 1952, and firehouse #1 was built in 1954. A brand new 500 gallon pumper was its first
truck. In the 1970s it added a second
firehouse to serve the southern part of West Athens and provide mutual aid. to
6 other Green County fire companies in three neighboring towns.
Our family engaged with this
volunteer organization from when we first moved to Athens in 1958. I was 7.
I remember my Dad rushing out to the sound of the alarm, whether it was
the monthly Saturday drills or an actual fire.
Mom joined the Ladies Auxiliary, and I watched her put on an apron for
serving the pancake breakfasts and chicken dinners. The fire engine backed out to leave a space
for setting up tables. She and Dad went
to dinner dances there, leaving us with our grandparents or a neighbor. I also remember a yearly bazaar right near
the main drag—9-W. Dad ran the booth
where he set up a basket at a 45* angle.
For a quarter you could get three softballs to land in it. Not easy.
My dad could do it though, and often demonstrated. I helped, collecting the missed balls and
returning them to my Dad until I was nearly hit with a wildly thrown ball.
In my teen years, the company held
monthly teen dances and sock hops in firehouse #1. That’s where I heard Little Eva’s “Do the
locomotion” and the Stones “I can’t get no satisfaction” for the first
time. We taught each other line dances,
and individual dancing like the jerk and the swim. Music depended on popping a center into the
small 45s that we teens brought with us.
I moved away from the area in the
late 1960s, returning only to visit family.
The firehouses and community faded from my awaereness. I knew my older
brother had joined the company along with my father and mother, and little
more. But in the last several years it came back
into focus when dad died in 2019 at the age of 93, and mom died this year at
age 99. Many who attended their
funerals were young and old members of the fire company. A few weeks later memorials for each of them
were held at the second firehouse. Dad,
who had been Fire Commissioner for several years, had the ceremonial “final
call,” where the fire company stood at attention while the fire alarm rang. Mom’s included the biggest spread of
sandwiches and desserts I’ve ever seen at the firehouse. Both included slide shows of their
lives. Good memories were shared by all.
I understand that Mom’s Memorial
might be the last event held at the old firehouses, as a new firehouse is under
construction to replace the two smaller ones.
But the volunteer organization has been a part of my family for 66
memorable years. I’ll be forever
grateful.
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