By Kejal Vyas
The Star-Ledger
Copyright 2007 The Republican Company, Springfield, MA.
All Rights Reserved
NEWARK, N.J. — Every weekday morning at 8, a handful of old-timers begin their day with coffee and good conversation at the Pequannock Township Fire Engine No. 2.
They chat about anything, from current events to the good old days volunteering at the firehouse.
“We solve all of the world’s problems in one hour every morning,” said Lou Barthelemy, 71.
Many of those who come each morning are members of the company’s 50-Year-Plus Club, 10 men who have volunteered at the firehouse for more than half a century. Now all retired, they still maintain their dedication to the company where they “stuck it out through thick and thin.” The firehouse, where they share stories and keep up their friendship, continues to be their daily hangout.
“This is the poor man’s country club,” Jack Lowe observed. Now 80 years old, he served for 58 years with the company.
The club’s service to the fire company is an inspiration to current members.
“They have a lot of experience. These are the guys that literally built the place. You pick up from them the trades that you don’t learn in school,” said Rick Woodham, 34, a volunteer at the company for 17 years.
But members of the group are pessimistic about another 50-Year-Plus Club forming after them.
“Most of the people today are working two jobs. They can’t afford the time to go to fire school,” said Harry Amborn, 79 and a volunteer for 61 years. Volunteers must now take classes at a fire school to join the company.
And “too many people move around, so you don’t see guys stick around for many years,” Lowe added.
“When we came on, there was a long waiting list to even become a volunteer. You don’t see that anymore,” recalled Ed Ver Hage, 76, a volunteer for 53 years and chief from 1964 to 1984.
“I had to wait a year before I could join,” added Leo Garlick, 84, a volunteer for 54 years.
Amborn was only 17 and a junior at Butler High when he started volunteering. The year was 1945. “It was wartime and they needed help,” Amborn said, recalling why he became a fireman.
William Schmidt, 86 and a volunteer for 67 years, was already working at the firehouse when Amborn joined, and over the next eight years, the other eight members joined the firehouse.
Lowe and Amborn were the last two from the 50-Year-Plus Club to have gone out on calls. They both responded to their last fire three years ago.
Schmidt was a plumber during the time he served, Ver Hage a quarry foreman, Milton Sabanosh a hardware salesman, Garlick a paint contractor, and Jack Van Ness a maintenance worker for the Pequannock schools. Each man in the group came with a trade that came in handy when they served the firehouse, said Ver Hage.
Over the years, the club has completely redesigned the building that today serves Pequannock Township. Five bays, used to store the firetrucks, were built in the back, opening up room for a large meeting room where the group now gathers, said Ver Hage.
Today, the meeting room is fully equipped with tables, reclining couches and a large-screen TV and is decorated with countless trophies from over the years.
For younger volunteers, like Woodham, who grew up in and around the firehouse, becoming part of the next 50-Year-Plus Club has become a goal.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll make it up there, too,” Woodham said.