Bud and Lou, Phil and Don, Stan and Tim.... We all (well, almost all of us) know the first two as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and the second two as the Everly Brothers. But what about the last pair? We all know and love these twins, even if we don't know them as Stan and Tim. Allow me to explain.
  
We've all had a Stan (short for "Shucks, that ain't nuthin'") and a Tim ("the Topper") in the firehouse. These are the guys (and gals, too) who can beat every story told in the house. Tell a story and Stan says, "Shucks, that ain't nuthin'! One time...." And Tim, he's almost in a class all by himself. You don't have to wait for a Stan comment to start his tale. Tim gets that look in his eye, his mouth starts to move like he's reading to himself, and as soon as you pause to take a breath, there he goes. Tim just speaks up. Imagine this: Your significant other gets you a gift for your birthday. Tim's at your party. You open your present, a new watch, and Tim says something like, "Hey I used to have a watch just like that. Except mine came in a gold box."
 
My personal favorites are those Stans and Tims among us with a couple of years under their belts in an extremely slow system. Some of those people claim to have seen and done everything. Stan, who's been on the department for all of six months but spent a year on another department, tells many tales about work at his previous department. Here's one story Stan claims is true:

It seems Stan's department was at a car wreck. The air medical service for that area came in to pick up the patient. The flight nurse stepped out of the helicopter and broke her ankle. Lucky for the original patient, Stan had CPR training. The flight medic from the air med service said, "Stan, you're going to ride with us in the helicopter while the your ambulance takes the flight nurse to the local hospital." And away Stan went.
 
Stan is indeed the man, or woman (yes, I have found the woman that puts half of the male Stans I know to shame!), as the case may be. Stan and other Stans and Tims fail to realize that the fire service is a small world, and some people have absolutely no problem picking up the phone to verify a tale.
 
Next week, the true tale (I swear) of one of Granbury's Stans moves to the great state of California and the surprising phone call yours truly received from a perplexed fire chief. I'll also address the moral of this whole story about Stan and Tim, with a special message for the twins. Of course, the names will be changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike....

FireRescue Technical Editor Scott Cook welcomes reader feedback, and invites you to contribute your notes to his column on firefighter ingenuity and street wisdom. You can reach Scott by e-mail at scott.cook1@sbcglobal.net.