There were a lot of practical jokes on the job. This is one that was memorable and still talked about to this day. One night, I got a call from a fellow Captain that was in another area. He wanted to get even with his Firefighter for...something. The next shift, he brought in two jars of molasses and a feather pillow. He went back to his station, and that evening he called me and told me that he was sending his Firefighter out to our station, and that he had a chicken. He said this Firefighter was going to put it in our dormitory so that at first light the chicken would crow and wake everybody up, and it would be a big joke. 

But...he told us that when that Firefighter came into the station, we should tar and feather him with the molasses and feather pillow. Anyway, we agreed, and we waited. We were hidden inside the kitchen, around the fire engines and such. He came to the station but he couldn’t get in because he didn’t have the right key. So he had to leave, and I communicated with the other Captain again. This went back and forth a few times, so I finally told the other Captain that I would just leave the door open.

This time, the Firefighter happened to have the right key. He came in and was sneaking across the floor. This was at about 11:00 at night. Just about the time that he got to the dormitory door, we jumped out and grabbed him! We opened up the molasses jars and poured that all over him and then opened up the feather pillows. We tarred and feathered him, and sent him out the door. 

He got to the sidewalk, and then he came back in. We asked him what he wanted, and he said, “I want my chicken back!” So we had to find the chicken, which was hiding somewhere in the fire station. He took his chicken, and he also looked like a chicken walking down the sidewalk down to his car. And off he went. The ironic part of this story is that Firefighter became a Battalion Chief, which is senior to us Captains. So he was our boss for a while, and that story is still told at all the academy classes. He doesn’t like it and he insists that everybody quit telling that story. They say okay, but it’s always getting told. It’s a classic, and it will last forever in that department.