July 5, 2023
Today is a me day. There were a few things that I was interested in doing but Nancy wasn’t. So today is my day to explore. Nancy will have the day all to her self and she can sew. She’s been working on another quilt so she will finish that up today. She has already done a quilt and a teddy bear for the Senior Park Ranger, Michael. He and his wife are expecting their first child in October. This current quilt will be our birthday gift for Aunt Carol. The plan is to give it to her Friday when they all come over again for a cookout. Fingers crossed that the weather holds.
On to my day. I started by visiting the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Fallen Fighters Memorial. It is located in Colorado Springs in the shadow of Pikes Peak. The IAFF is the US and Canadian firefighters union. I was never in the union as they did not unionize until after my retirement. Carmel Fire Department is Local 4444. The park itself is beautiful. From the parking lot the entrance has two statues one on either side and you take a short stroll to the memorial. The memorial is surrounded by two circles. The outer circle is concrete and in the concrete you will see words like Honor, Sacrifice, Family, Courage, etc. The next circle is composed of the granite from the original walls. This park was rebuilt in 2015. There is a large statue in the middle of the memorial with walls surrounding about 75% of it. On the walls are the names of the fallen firefighters by year. Next to each name is the state and local they are from.
Carmel Fire had started their paramedic response with medics and an ambulance from Riverview Hospital. That was the county hospital. They were stationed at Station 3 which was my station. One of those medics was Dave Edwards. He was a fabulous medic and very good at his job. He was also a volunteer firefighter with Castleton Fire Department. In 1988 he responded to a residence fire. After he entered the structure, he fell through the first floor into the basement where the fire was located. He lost his life. Since then I have seen his name on the Fallen Firefighters Memorial at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. I just happened to look here and found his name. I also remembered that Carmel had lost a firefighter a few years ago. I looked for his name, Mark Robinson, and found it in 2017. I was long gone before Mark was hired.
From the Memorial, I took a short drive to the Lester L. Williams Fire Museum. It is housed in the Colorado Springs Fire Department Headquarters. It was so named for the man that was their department physician and brought a lot of the equipment back to it’s original home. The museum is filled with many artifacts from firefighting history and Colorado Springs history. I watched a short video on a multi-department response to the Garden of the Gods area on a woodland fire. It destroyed several homes but a lot was saved due to the efforts of the responding agencies.
After the museum I headed north and arrived at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and the American Cowboy Museum. I arrived just in time to see the video on the history of rodeo. It was very informative and entertaining. When we were in South Dakota we went to a regional rodeo and enjoyed it. Then in Tombstone we watched bull riding. Both venues were a lot of fun. Back home we have a local who sponsors a Pro Bull Riding (PBR) event. His name is Jerome Davis. I am hoping to get to more rodeo events once we are home. The museum and hall of fame is loaded with artifacts and explains the equipment and clothing cowboys wear and why. There is even some displays about Olympic events and ladies in rodeo. I thoroughly enjoyed my day but after all this walking I am ready to go home and sit down.
