This is the Midlothian Volunteer Fire Department (Company 5) as seen from the front door of the Midlothian High School, from which I graduated in 1981, a coincidence you ask? Read on!
This was scanned from my Junior High School yearbook. The year was 1980, a simpler time, before the "new" FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) put an end to such activities. Who needed drugs, drag racing or booze for our "high risk" teen behavior, we could and did do something that was both respected, legal and FUN!
The 16, 17 and 18 year old kids you see here, could during the "daytime hours" five days per week (a time when nearly all volunteer departments struggle for manning) could "dump the house" when the siren went off. Included was engine #54, a 1974 John Bean "Super Pumper", 54,000 lbs of V-8 two-stroke Detroit diesel, with a 1500 gallon per hour two stage pump and could, on FOUR LANE Midlothian Turnike run easily 90 mph. We also fielded Squad 59 and Unit 58 the brush truck.
Mr Frances Poates, the Principal of Midlothian High School, would after the proper "permission slips" were executed, would allow us to excuse ourselves from class and respond to fire calls. I admit looking retrospectively and from the modern "risk management" perspective, this was a little teeny bit over the top. But this group of kids responded to upwards of 800 calls per year without a single mishap of any manner.
