Firefighter
He quit high school at age 15, got involved in stealing cars and buying drugs but a judge gave him one final opportunity to straighten out his life and he did.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
DS’ father was an immigrant who suffered from severe mental illness and was institutionalized when DS was two years old. His father had no further contact with the family. DS’ mother worked hard at three different jobs at the same time: a telephone company worker during the business day, then afterwards cleaning apartments and taking in other people’s laundry. She was a strict disciplinarian but instilled in her son a love of books by respected, well known writers, including poets.
EARLY CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER
Attending parochial schools in an ‘economically challenged’ area (most families including his, received welfare benefits), the teachers never suggested to their students that they consider becoming a doctor or a lawyer but instead, either a policeman or a fireman. (Editor’s note – at that time, there were no careers in technology because computers and the internet had not yet been invented.)
HIGH SCHOOL AGE DAYS
DS quit high school. His lawful employment was to deliver flowers. But he also engaged in illegal activities such as stealing cars and experimenting with heroin. Eventually he was arrested and brought to criminal court. The Judge noted that none of DS’ criminal conduct involved violence (the car owners had left the keys in their cars; he had not threatened anyone with a weapon to steal their car). DS seemed sincere when he apologized for breaking the law, so a sympathetic Judge offered DS a choice: time in jail or finish high school and join the military. If he avoided further unlawful activities, all the criminal charges would be dismissed.
MILITARY SERVICE
Taking advantage of his opportunity to lead a law-abiding life, not having to worry about being arrested for any new criminal misconduct, DS graduated from high school and enlisted in the Air Force, serving as a radar operator.
(Editor’s note – Military service can be a long-term career with satisfaction serving your country or military service can be an interim step for several years, learning self-discipline, functioning within a team, experiencing travel, and possibly learning a trade involving skills transferrable to a civilian career. Whether serving on a long-term or short-term basis, men and women soldiers, sailors and air personnel will be physically fit while gaining self-confidence meeting mental and physical challenges.)
TRANSITIONING TO CIVILIAN LIFE
When DS returned home following his honorable discharge from the Air Force, a friend suggested that DS join him in the local fire company. DS became a full-time, city firefighter.
DS later admitted that the prospect of becoming a firefighter led to picturing himself idealistically, “climbing ladders, pulling hose, and saving children from the waltz of the hot masked devil. Tearful mothers would kiss me, editorial writers would extol me in lofty phrases and mayors would pin ribbons to my breast. “ But, after eight years, his romantic visions had faded. “I have climbed a thousand ladders and crawled Indian fashion down as many halls into a deadly nightshade of smoke, a whirling darkness of black poison, knowing all the while that the ceiling may fall, or the floor collapse, or a hidden explosive ignite. I have watched friends die, and I have carried death in my hands. With good reason have Christians chosen fire as the metaphor of hell. There is no excitement, no romance, in being this close to death. Yet, I know that I could not do anything else with such a great sense of accomplishment.”
At the same time, DS continued his love of reading, first developed in childhood. Figuring he might eventually want to teach about literature and famous writers at a community college, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from a local university and then continued his education by earning a Master’s in Communications.
ONE LETTER TO A NEWSPAPER OPENS AN ADDITIONAL CAREER DOOR
While still a part-time student, working full-time as a firefighter, DS wrote a letter to the New York Times Book Review, challenging a famous writer’s opinion that Yeats was a ‘universal poet.’ To the contrary, wrote DS, “Please remember that the poet, as evidenced by his writings, was Irish first.” (DS was very proud of his Irish heritage.)
(Editor’s note – Recall the definition of ‘Luck’ for the purpose of these career stories: “Experience meets opportunity.”)
The NYTimes Editor was stunned to note that DS’ letter identified himself not as a literary critic or public intellectual, but as a full-time, city firefighter. In follow-up discussion, the Editor learned about DS’ passion for writing and possibly teaching, so the NYTimes Book Review Editor arranged for DS to be introduced to the Editor of a widely read magazine, which paid DS for an interview, which led to DS being paid significantly ($30,000 in the 1970s) for DS’ proposed book about his firefighting engine company, which eventually sold 3 million copies and was the first of several more best-selling books written by DS.
CAREER SATISFACTION
While DS gained fame as a best-selling author, one book reviewer noted that “The author’s pride clearly derives not from his writing, but from his job as a firefighter – the most hazardous job of all, according to the National Safety Council.”
DS recalled a tenement fire in which an 18-month-old girl died. The teary would-be rescuer, a fellow firefighter, sat by him on the stoop, holding the body, and saying over and over, “Poor little thing, she never had a chance.” To which DS wrote: “I wish now that each man who intends to file for the coming fireman’s test could have seen the humanity, the sympathy, and the sadness of those eyes, for they explained why we fight fires.”
