Smoke Eaters' Gazette

I spied some firefighters the other day in West Portal, a district very near to where I live, standing on the sidewalk having a coffee and a chat. One of them was wearing a hooded sweat shirt that looked like it was an advert for the 80s American cop show Miami Vice. Any of you remember it? I think what I remember most is the look of the show: palm trees, pastels and slick cars.

I said from a short distance away, 'Is that Miami Vice?' The firefighter wearing the hoodie nodded and I laughed. -first time I'd seen SFFD apparel done in the style of a long-since cancelled cop show. It was pretty clever. Most (fire)houses have their own gear replete with number identifying out of which house the firefighters work. Also included is usually an image unique to an individual station. For example, house 34, out by the ocean, has an aggressive-looking shark emblazoned across its kit. -not as fun as seeing a pink and blue palm tree, but OK. 

The West Portal firefighters approached and we had a short talk about the Miami Vice-inspired kit--who made it and that if one swings by their firehouse there is said kit for sale. I used to like to share that I come from a long (for San Francisco) line of firemen. Even though it's no longer at the forefront of my mind when interacting with the SFFD, I found myself sort of sputtering out that four generations of my family were SF firefighters. The first one joined the department in 1921. The last one retired in 1995. That last man was my Uncle. My Uncle, the bigot. 

I mean I knew he was a bigot---he wrote scathing letters railing against the modernization of the fire department published in the local paper under a pseudonym while still employed as a firefighter. He then publicly aligned himself with anti-affirmative action folk of some prominence after having retired from the department. And as Bugs Bunny would say,  the 'pasty resistance' was just today finding out that my Uncle along with other disgruntled firemen wrote a monthly newsletter discretely distributed interdepartmentally called the Smoke Eaters' Gazette. It was, of course, published anonymously. By reading the Gazette, others in the fire department would learn that women firefighters were called, 'firewatchers' supposedly because they were too scared to actually enter fire-stricken buildings. Other minorities in the department were referred to as 'affirmative action welfare recipients'. It's pretty revolting stuff, but knowing him as I do this revelation tracks.