Day After Easter and Much More

I have just found a holiday that I can fit into my schedule. It seems that I have missed it for many years and have not had the reason to enjoy the day after Easter as more than one more day to eat Peeps and chocolate marshmallows. The people of Buffalo New York seem to have come up with this holiday to celebrate many things but mainly the Polish heritage of the city. I think that because many of us have done so many bad Polish jokes over time, we need to celebrate and commemorate the less publicized and more important good works and honestly the important history of the Polish people.
Part of the celebration of any group is to party and that is because it is always important to know the part of any community that not only takes itself as serious but has the time to show that it also has a sense of humor. I was also impressed with the fact that as a part of the celebration they have some sort of water spraying event. It includes the world largest squirt gun.
That is actually a historic fire boat from the Buffalo fire department.
The Edward M. Cotter is, in itself, a treasure in that it not only represents the past, but is still doing its primary responsibilities of fire protection and helping keep the area free of ice, as an ice breaker around the Lake Erie area. It is considered the world’s largest squirt gun and should be considered a treasure by everyone in the nation. This designation is all in fun, but that is part of the fire tradition around the world. Firefighters do an exemplary job at what they do and at the same time that they serve, they enjoy the work and show it by the good work that they do, that is not really part of their complicated job. We know that a big part of the “firefighter” work day is in preparation for the jobs that they do and that most calls are for life protecting from accidents or illness as First Responder medical personnel.

My only personal contact with the good fire departments in different cities has been to observe them as paramedics and I will always be thankful to them for this very professional work. When the major response to my fender bender turned out to be very unneeded, I think that at least 10 fire people asked me if I was OK. Overdone – maybe, but the accident occurred next to a major rail line and I think that is what caused all of the fire trucks to be sent to the location (four automobiles and no injuries).
I will finish with a personal comment. When I watched the volunteers of the Hicksville, NY Fire Department work, I can honestly say that they were as professional as any group of paid workers and that they give the whole city a good name. The tradition of Volunteer fire fighter is very old and still is an important part of many cities around the USA.