"You can begin Sunday, if you like. That's a drill day. Or wait for your suit. We've got enough aprons and leggings for now. You'll have to find your own wellingtons till then."
I jumped at it. I should have been told how to march, stand to attention and the Fire Service salute. Leading Fireman Percy Sparkes gave me an FS manual, with the words
"That will tell you to go on. Forget the salute. That's for commissioned ranks. The kind of salute I get is not in the book, or any other that I know of. We'll show you how to use the pump from ponds or hydrants, run hoses, fit branch and diffusers, lash tripods, double up from one hose to two and use foam. We've all got to go to Sudbury to learn foam, so you'll know as much about that as all the others."
Percy, to his credit, was no swank or big-head, and made a rookie feel equal. He added:
"You'll be as good as the rest in about a month. Me, Leading Fireman Good and Firemen Osborne and Shinn are the only ones who've been to a real fire, and then we were under the command of a senior crew, complete with two section leaders and an Officer."
Taking my turn every fourth night from 9 to 6, and learning my drills, I got on well, with one small hiccough, when Fireman Moore failed to hold a canvas hose and I got wet, to the great joy of the crew.
As I had seen Moore hold a full jet of water from a rubber hose, a performance that required great strength and skill, much more than the canvas job, I had my suspicions. So, collecting some coke and sticks for the tortoiseshell stove, I scattered them in what I thought was his bunk on his night of duty.
The bunk, it turned out, belonged to Leading Fireman Good, a man that was not as easy going as Leading Fireman Sparkes. It resulted in the only time I stood to attention to a member of the Glemsford Brigade.
"If you like coal so bloody much, I can arrange for you to be a miner,"
- not such an empty threat in the time of the Bevan Boys -
"What do you think we are, the so and so air raid wardens? Clean the station up, bits of boys ..., cradle marks ..., etc. etc.."
I crept off up to "The Cock" to find Fireman Moore with one of the looks he used to wear in the choir.
"You been upsetting Billy Boy?" he said, looking very angelic-like.