Congratulations to ‘Anonymous’ who successfully entered and won the “Name the Old Guys” contest. Your overnight stay at the “Lollipop Motel” (pictured left and right) includes a continental breakfast(please ignore “expires by” dates as they arenot accurate anyway.) The “Lollipop’s” famous vibrating bed(pictured below left) accepts both Canadian and American quarters. Although the exchange money percentage is minimal we would ask that you leave 10 cents on the dresser to cover the exchange rate.(Please pay no attention to the individual lying on the bed; the coroner will arrive shortly)Note: the bed has been replaced by a newer version since the photo was taken. We no longer equip our rooms with refurbished electrical items.
The lobby (pictured right) is a thriving center point of activity as it doubles as the Greyhound bus terminal. Feel free to talk to the passengers and you may even be approached to purchase a variety of watches at discounted prices.
Your overnight stay will include a one hour bus tour (Pictured left) of the local haunts in the area. Once inside an establishment please make certain you take a seat with your back to the wall for your personal safety.
Our security (pictured below right) is second to none and your safety is our utmost concern. We offer a standard that is beyond cutting edge technology.
Please note that in order to fully qualify for the “all expense paid trip” you must comply to the following rules:
The winner must supply to the editor within a month before taking possession of the prize:
All credit card numbers (We take all valid credit cards)
Driver’s license number
All debit card numbers and bank branches
Health card number
Social Insurance number
·Any other card numbers e.g. Airmiles, Optimum, Staples, etc
OK... It appears the contest is way too easy! Therefore I'm changing the rules! Before you say anything...I CAN CHANGE THE RULES!!! I'm the editor and have absolute rule over all of this : ) Having said that the new rule is that all the names must also be accompanied by a nickname. They all had one. Good luck.
Ok.. who are these guys? The first person with the correct answer will win an all expense paid vacation to Puce!!! (Well, not really a vacation per se...but an overnight stay in the local motel. Save your quarters for the luxurious vibrating mattress). Imagine the thrills watching traffic soar by on old Tecumseh Road. To "Name The Old Guys" start off from right to left. First hint: Ken Kelsh (KK)
*For those with failing eyesite please click on photo for a really big picture!
What began as a simple thought has developed into a grand idea according to Rudy Heinnekin (spelling may vary). “Who knew?”, states Rudy. “As I was having fun with a salt lick the other day I was daydreaming about a drive through LCBO store and here we are opening our first one!”, laughed Rudy.
“I can only imagine how this whole thing will turn out”, sighs Rudy, “Judy will have to work the cash register…. Lord knows I can’t since my darned hooves get in the way…Every time I go to use it I find myself hitting about 5 or 6 keys at once. I really envy you folks with fingers and thumbs! Heck, I even have to ask junior to open a bottle of beer for me”
When last seen Rudy was returning to his salt lick searching his mind for another entrepreneurial venture. Maybe installing escalators in Deer Stands… but thought better of it.. !
Maybe you've seen this one before but it sure tugs at the heartstrings... for the other heroes overseas... This was originally a PowerPoint presentation but I converted it so we could show it on the Blog.... Watch and be proud.
Apparently there are a few more Ken Racine stories floating around out there. Tommy White sent this one along...All I'm doing is cutting and pasting. You can't make this stuff up. LOL
Hi Jack
You opened the door for Rat stories........... It was a quiet summer day and we were preparing for lunch at #2 when an alarm came in for a house fire on Ottawa St across from Lansbury Park. We responded with smoke showing and lines being laid. Police soon showed to explain this was a known dope dealers place. Lots of police and the regular utilities. As things were settling down our very own inspector cluso, I mean Racine arrived. Everyone was still inside, exept for the lowly nice squad driver, watching The Rat look both ways before he parked his car in a no parking zone ( across from the church ). He then proceeded inside. Well wouldn't you know it someone flagged down a metermaid and explained the difficulty of finding room to park emergency vehicles when people who just don't care park in no parking zones.
The crews returned and we were free to return but when everyone found out there was a ticket on the Rats own car....we waited. He came out and blew his stack and called that metermaid some dandy names. Then he saw the squad parked there laughing. He is an inspector he had it figured immediately. He came running and pounded on the hood and threatened to kill me. I don't know how he figured it out so fast...he still hits me at the retirement banquet to let me know he never forgets........
It started out innocent enough. We all knew that Ken “Rats” Racine was always the last one in bed during the shift. In the dorm of the old # 2 fire station on Walker Road there shone a red light over the pole hole for the sake of safety. The “joke” on “Rats” was hatched I believe by none other than Bob Tapak and I thought it was a great idea as he described it to the rest of the crew.The plan went as follows:
“Hey, Guys”, said Bob “We all know that Ken is the last one in bed; I thought of a great joke to pull on him”. The faces around the table smiled as they began to listen to Bob’s nefarious plan. He continued, “I brought in a raccoon’s tail with me this morning”, he smiled and turned to look behind him making certain that Ken was not anywhere within listening range. Come to think of it Bob did that quite a bit over the years. He continued, “we all know how much Ken hates rats (hence the nickname). How about we tie the raccoon tail with a long string and thread it under the beds. Lodge, you’re in the first bed; when Ken goes to take off his shoes yank the thread and the tail will run over his hands and he’ll think it’s a rat.. haha!",he laughed loudly. The rest of the crew laughed along in excitement as we all pictured Rats being surprised by the raccoon tail.
I must pause here to mention the physical layout of the dorm itself. When you entered the room there was several lockers alongside the walls with two rows of beds along the walls as well. The total number of beds was app 6 or 7 on each wall. “Rat's’” bed was the last one farthest from the door and was the last bed on the left hand side of the room next to the window. My bed was the first one nearest the pole hole. When you entered the dorm to go to bed, the only light on was the dim red one over the pole hole. At first it was terribly dark but as you got used to the room you began to see much better as your eyes got adjusted to the light. In reality you could see everything in the room very clearly. The part of the joke on Rats was that everyone could see what was happening except Rats because he was the last one in bed. Now, on with my tale.
The plan, as described above, was for me to hold the string and when Ken was just about to take off his shoes I would yank on the string and the tail would then run across his hands and we would all be expecting Ken to let out with a shriek and all of us would then fall into gales of laughter.
We started to head for the bedroom about an hour before Rats would retire for the night and we talked and laughed while we anticipated Rats to turn in. I held onto the string anticipating the moment that I would scare the daylights out of Ken. My only fear was that the old guy would have a heart attack. He HATED rats! At last the moment arrived.
Ken entered the dorm very slowly and headed towards his bed at the end of the room. All of us could see very clearly and you could hear the stifled laughter and see the shaking of the beds as the crew tried to suppress their collective laughter. I waited anxiously with the string in my sweaty hands; my laughter kept at bay as I waited for the perfect moment to release the “tail” between Ken’s feet.
The time came as Ken started to untie his shoelaces and with a swift pull the raccoon tail slithered across Rat’s hands, and then came a primal scream like I had never heard before. I had never heard a man scream like that. Actually it was almost embarrassing.A roar of laughter erupted! ………… I was surprised that the only roar of laughter was coming from me! It was then when I realized that I was the one, along with Rats, who had been set up. What happened next is not very clear in my mind. I must have blocked it out of my memory. Traumatic events can sometimes cause that in people. All I can remember is Rats looking down the row of beds and with a low animalistic growling voice he called out my name; LODGE!!!! He rose from the bed like an evil malevolent figure and started loping towards my bed. I was sure I could hear cloven hooves thumping on the floor. My blood ran cold! What I experienced next is only faintly experienced by those individuals who reside in our prison system. I was beaten up by a wild man. The bed covers offered no protection whatsoever as I tried to hide under them.The sounds of heavy snorting coming from Ken was drowned out by the rest of the crews hysterical laughter.
Even to this day I fear the dark and the dim glow of red lights. I never used to check under the bed until that night. I certainly feel rather foolish doing at the age of 63.
Hey, I've seen trick pool shots, dancing dogs, domino tricks and on and on the list goes! But this one is pretty good when it comes to "domino" tricks... take a look. I think these guys must be firefighters on their day off : )
Thanks to these guys I now feel like a qualified senior citizen! Hold your breath as you discover who are the newest qualified District Chiefs for the department.
They are:
Capt. John Day Capt. Tim Dennis FF. Dave Gillis
All kidding aside; congrats guys, you'll do the department proud. Be safe
I think everyone's heard the "Man Song" but this one is even funnier with the puppet.... by the way... don't you see the resemblance between the puppet and Art Caza or is just me? : )
Been a long time since I've been active on the Phoenix and I have an excuse. Hey, I always did have an excuse now and again. : ) Jeannie and I have been really busy with the Canadian Red Cross Disaster Management Training Department (And I had the notion that I thought I had retired). Although it's busy it's very rewarding at the same time. Extremely so! Soooo....I'll jump back in here now and again when I have a brain storm but I find as the days go by I forget most of them. You know what that's like if you get email from Bob McGonigal! There seems to be a thought there but you just can't seem to capture it no matter how hard you try. : )
I hope everyone had a great holiday season. As you are probably aware the Blog has been kind of slow lately. That's because I just got a new computer and been very busy with all the new technology. This one has Vista on it which as everyone has most likely heard is supposed to be the Edsel of MS operating systems! It doesn't have major probs with it but the ones it does are really annoying. It reminds me of the one guy in the firehall that never really fit in and everyone tried to stay clear of. : ) For example; I'de love to install XP on it but XP doesn't have the drivers for my hard drive and ...... well....you understand. It's kind of like getting something fixed on the engine when you had to reason with Danny Bennett : ) I hope he's doing well I havent heard from him for ages. Anyway... that's why the Blog has been silent. Stay tuned and it should have some more info pretty soon. Be well.
I'm most likely one of thousand typical Canadians that are quite apathetic when it comes to our political "system" if you can call it that. The dictionary definition of system is this: "the living bodyconsidered as made up of interdependent components forming a unified whole " I find it kind of strange that the government then really isn't a system after all especially with what is currently happening in the capital. One thing we do that I am proud of is that we get a chance to vote. With the current "system" whatever happened to my vote???? Mind you I'm not a complainer but I found an email address that you can use just to give your opinion on what is taking place in the "system". In the event that you would like to "sound off" send an email to info@gg.ca
Although Jack passed away February 5th, 2017 his wife Jeannie has been managing the Windsor Firefighters information list, the Memorial Page and is working towards reestablishing the Blog as a remembrance for Jack
(please ignore “expires by” dates as they are not accurate anyway.) The “Lollipop’s” famous vibrating bed(pictured below left) accepts both Canadian and American quarters. Although the exchange money percentage is minimal we would ask that you leave 10 cents on the dresser to cover the exchange rate. (Please 
pay no attention to the individual lying on the bed; the coroner will arrive shortly) Note: the bed has been replaced by a newer version since the photo was taken. We no longer equip our rooms with refurbished electrical items. 
chase a variety of watches at discounted prices. 
please make certain you take a seat with your back to the wall for your personal safety.
