Dave returns to Oxon Hill to work with PGFD for July 4th. He leaves behind an old Independence Day column.

Jul 4, 2012

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Yes, the headline is correct. I am returning to Oxon Hill, Maryland for this holiday, the place where I was a volunteer firefighter back in the 70s (despite what THE Fire Cricket says). I will also be working with PGFD, the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department. Thankfully though, the citizens of the area will not be relying on this fat, out of shape specimen to fight fires and save lives (hopefully the only wet stuff on the red stuff I will be doing is downing something cool to put out the fire in my belly after eating some traditional food for the holiday).

Actually, I will be performing. I am sure most of you don’t know this but I’m an international recording artist. Ten-years-ago I narrated a recording by the London Symphony Orchestra called “Hosedown”. Composed by Morton Gould in honor of his volunteer firefighter grandson, it’s a musical piece for fire trucks and orchestra. The recording was done at Abbey Road Studios (unfortunately my part was done here, though I was invited to the UK ).

For those who are doubting what I am telling you (and I don’t blame you), here’s a link to excerpts from the recording. You will hear some of my narration in the track titled “Prologue”. You will also note that my performance is really the “B” side of the record. The “A” side is a narration of a piece titled “And The President Said” by Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post executive editor of the Watergate era.

So you are probably asking what’s the connection to Oxon Hill and PGFD today. Hold on, it’s coming.

The man who put this recording together and conducted the orchestra is Jeffrey Silbershlag. Jeff is a brilliant musician who is artistic director and head of music performance at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Jeff also happened to be in band with me at Sudbrook Jr. High School and Pikesville Sr. High School in Baltimore County. So, the choice of me as narrator was not based on talent alone (or at all). Jeff, who chased fires with me as a teenager back in the days when the old warehouses were burning prior to the revitalization of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, asked me to narrate “Hosedown” at the college as part of the annual River Concert Series a decade ago (I did such an underwhelming job he invited to be part of the recording).

Today, as part of the Pops on the Potomac series at National Harbor, Jeff, Dave and the wonderful Chesapeake Orchestra will once again perform “Hosedown” (if the weather holds out). Joining us will be the crew from PGFD’s Fireboat 858 (the Lawrence Woltz). If you are in the area please come on down (if you are a firefighter and have your gear with you we will make you part of the act … just find me before the performance). It should be fun. There will also be a lot more music, including jazz vocalist Hilary Kole singing songs from the American Songbook and, of course, “Stars and Stripes Forever”.

This should be a memorable Independence Day for me. As I’ve done in years past, I am recycling a column (below) and showing some videos from a previous memorable fire service related Independence Day.

Enjoy the holiday. Remember what it’s about. Keep in mind all those who fought for our freedoms (including that pesky First Amendment thingy) and all of those who protect us. Stay safe.

On previous July 4ths I have told you about my 1993 trip to New York to see FDNY in action. Two videos from that trip with fire buff extraordinaire Vito Maggiolo are on this page.

One of the videos (above) is of a most unusual experience, the crash of a blimp. Here’s what I wrote about that in 2007 (don’t you love it when an ego driven blogger quotes himself?):

Independence Day in 1993 was one of the stranger days of my life. I had gone with my friend Vito Maggiolo to New York to experience July 4th, usually the busiest day of the year for FDNY.

In the afternoon we were visiting one of Vito’s friends at Manhattan Fire Alarm in Central Park.

As we were sitting around chatting, the phones suddenly began ringing. We were hearing bits and pieces of only one side of the conversation. But the call takers were asking questions with surprised looks on their faces. We heard: “A what?”; “Where”?; “It’s deflating?”; “Over the Hudson?”.

Vito and I raced south and then to the west toward the Hudson River. We arrived just after the first firefighters and saw Pizza Hut’s Bigfoot Pizza Blimp draped over the side of an apartment building. We watched as the two injured crew members were brought down from the roof.

The other video (above) is more relevant to today’s column. It gives you a glimpse of Brooklyn at a time when citizens with massive amounts of fireworks helped make Independence Day the busiest day of the year for FDNY.

Mike Ward at Firegeezer.com beat me to the punch and reposted that 1993 video yesterday (NOTE: July 3, 2011). So I have returned the favor and added a video that Ward found (below) of vintage FDNY footage and audio from July 4, 1991. It does a good job of illustrating the impact of fireworks freedom (and there are some other interesting videos in Ward’s post).

Here is what I wrote four years ago about my 1993 experience:

It seemed as if fireworks were going off on every street. Barrels of fireworks burned in the middle of many blocks. Bottle rockets struck our car. M-80s exploded in trash can after trash can. The radio blared with reports of neighbor’s homes set on fire by fireworks along with numerous reports of injured people.

On one hand it felt as if I had been transported to a war zone. I’ll admit, being new to this, it was a little scary. At the same time, it reminded me of something very beautiful — one of my favorite movies, Barry Levinson’s “Avalon”.

The scene of Russian immigrant Sam Krichinsky arriving in Baltimore on July 4th is repeated throughout the film. As he walks under exploding fireworks all around him, this is the voice-over dialogue:

I came to America in 1914–by way of Philadelphia. That’s where I got off the boat. And then I came to Baltimore. It was the most beautiful place you ever seen in your life. There were lights everywhere! What lights they had! It was a celebration of lights! I thought they were for me, Sam, who was in America. Sam was in America! I know what holiday it was, but there were lights. And I walked under them. The sky exploded, people cheered, there were fireworks! What welcome it was, what a welcome!