The Tastes of Our Holiday Season

Dec. 22, 2016
After 50 holiday seasons in the fire service, Harry Carter recalls one night with turkey and a fire rescue.

Once again my dear friend Reverend Scott Brown, our senior pastor at the Colts Neck, NJ, Reformed Church, sparked my thoughts this past Sunday. His sermon series during this Advent Season has revolved around the five human senses. I missed one of the sermons because of duties elsewhere, but I was fortunate enough to enjoy the ones on sights and sounds of the season. However, the best one of all was last Sunday’s "Tastes of the Holiday Season."

During his Gospel for children he spoke of some of the favorite tastes of the season. He spoke of both food and drink. However, he sealed the deal when he passed out M&M candies to the children. The kids loved this and we all agreed that the tastes of certain candies can light the lamp of memories in our lives.

During his sermon he paused and called a number of the members of the congregation forward to distribute the cookies they had baked in the church kitchen. They were really swell and, trust me, they brought great joy to the congregation. However, other thoughts soon came racing into my mind’s eye. I sat there pondering the many places where I had celebrated the Christmas holiday over the years.

There were the years which I spent traveling the globe in the military. During Scott’s sermon I recalled that 1967 was spent with the U.S. Air Force Fire Department in Alaska. I actually got to visit the North Pole that year (North Pole, AL, anyway).  1968 found me in the Philippine Island enjoying a much warmer holiday celebration. And then thanks to Richard Nixon and his Vietnamization of the conflict in 1969, I got to be home for Christmas that year when the Lord blessed me by allowing me to rekindle my relationship with my high school sweetheart (now my long-suffering wife of nearly 45 years, Jackie). 

Then the years in the various firehouses where I served here in New Jersey came to me. There was the year in Rahway in 1972, and then there were the many years in the good old Newark Fire Department. Once again I was blessed to work with some of the greatest officers and firemen in the world. However, one Christmas stands out above all the others. That was the Christmas of 1980 when I was the captain at Engine Company #15 on Park Avenue.

Perhaps it was the combination of tastes which causes that particular Christmas to stand out in my mind. We had a great meal that day as I recall.  There were some good cooks in our crew over there. Then we pulled the pumper out onto the sidewalk and recreated the old style photos of the 1800’s with the crews of Engine Company #15 and Truck Company #7 surrounding our 1972 Mack pumper. We looked much like the old Harvard Class of 1888 football team photo posing around a series of hay bales in Harvard Yard.

Just as we were settling down to watch a bit of basketball on the television, the bells rang out for a call down on Broadway. Within moments we had gone from watching a bit of TV and snacking on the remnants of our meal to crawling down a smoke-filled hallway in a burning apartment building in search of a mother and her children. It was hot and it was smoky indeed as we moved our hoseline in on the fire. Thankfully we found them in a rear apartment and escorted them safely out of the burning building. It was not a spectacular rescue, but it was a rescue nonetheless. 

After knocking down the fire and overhauling for a bit, we returned to our firehouse to clean up and go back in service. As I was sitting there chomping on a bit of turkey, it struck me that there was a strong combination of tastes and odors. There was the taste of turkey and the taste of smoke. I guess that is what stuck out most for me, because it is still with me some 36 years later.

During the five decades of my career in the fire service there have been quiet holidays and there have been busy holidays, but I guess what means so much to me is that I have spent a great deal of my life sharing time with both of my families: the Carter Family and my fire service family. And over the years there have been many different tastes. There has been the taste of turkey, the taste of apple pie, the taste of smoke, and the taste of gasoline and diesel fumes (back in the days before we installed our exhaust emissions systems.)

My dear friends, I feel blessed to have lived the life I have, with all of the holidays tastes I have enjoyed and experienced. Do I know what this holiday system will bring to the Village of Adelphia? Of course not, but I know what I am hoping for.  I am looking forward to a grand meal and some quiet time with my wife, children, grandchildren, sister-in-law, and an assortment of nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews. And God willing and the creek don’t rise, some football on the television on my living room. 

Let me close with my holiday wish for you. Here’s wishing you a safe and quiet holiday with your family (your own or your fire service family if that be the case). If a Merry Christmas is what you wish, God bless you. If you are celebrating a Happy Hanukkah, then may the God of Israel be with you.  If you are pausing to celebrate Kwanza, then may the festive aspects of the season be with you.  And of course there is Festivus for the Rest of Us. Whatever your faith background might be, let me wish you a safe and happy holiday.

Remember that we all stand on guard for the people we serve. May you, and your friends and family, enjoy the finest tastes of this holiday season. 

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