By Barry Lytton
The Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Rooms away from where his friend fell dead of a heart attack last summer, Kevin Creamer was boiling down oxtail Wednesday.
Creamer, a retired St. Paul firefighter, is one of the many firefighters who spent the past three days working -- both on- and off-duty -- to prepare a booya for their fallen comrade, Shane Clifton, who died of a heart attack while working out at Fire Station 14 in the Merriam Park neighborhood.
There will be two 55-gallon cast-iron kettles full of their hard work -- and turkey, and beef shank, and chicken, and oxtail, and vegetables -- on sale Saturday; all the proceeds will go to the family of Clifton, 38, who died while on duty Aug. 31.
Booya will be on sale at O’Gara’s Bar & Grill -- two blocks north of the Snelling Avenue fire station -- from noon until 6 p.m. Saturday (or when the booya runs out) for $5 a 16-ounce cup.
“He was a bull and he worked out like a bull,” Creamer said of Clifton. “A kid dying at 38, that’s not a normal thing. ... You do whatever you can. What can I do? I can do booya. So I’ll do that.”
Station 14 is busy, and it’s the place for firefighters and paramedics who like to work hard, Creamer said -- “We’re all type-A guys and gals.”
And Clifton was one hard worker.
“He was a fabulous medic, a young, big strapping guy, and he liked to have fun,” retired St. Paul firefighter Dick Leitner said.
A Navy veteran, Clifton spent much of his time at the station.
As two firefighters helped Creamer wrap up the oxtail and mocked him for his booming personality, a call came in. All of them, except the retired Creamer, left the station and went on a run.
“See?” Creamer said.
Although Creamer, 57, retired last year, he and Leitner are often in the station, and over the past few days they’ve been working a retired form of overtime. The two plan to sit in O’Gara’s parking lot overnight Friday stirring the stewing booya.
The two retirees have been getting help from firefighters across the city.
Most of the booya’s contents have been donated by firefighters, friends and family.
Eight fire stations chopped vegetables Thursday for the booya, Creamer said.
And younger firefighters will do the lifting, said Leitner, 64.
Although the more than 200 pounds of turkey, chicken, beef and vegetables are common knowledge, the spices are not. The recipe is a Leitner family secret.
“It’s all in the spice bag,” Leitner said.
The spice bag contents are such a secret that even Leitner isn’t allowed to know it, and it’s his grandparents’ recipe.
Only his sister knows the secrets of the spice bag, and he had to ask her to make enough spice for 110 gallons of booya on Saturday.
“I think it’s locked away somewhere in case something happens to her,” he said of the recipe.
The booya should generate several thousand dollars for Clifton’s family, Leitner said.
“He had two young daughters and it’ll take a lot to take care of them,” Leitner said.
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