E9 Kathy

Kathy Lentini!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Hi, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Good, how are you? Good.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

It's nice to virtually meet you. I'm Noha, I'm Rob's wife. I'm Kathy. Kathy, it's nice to meet you. So the podcast that I'm doing, it's called Firewives. And the idea kind of came about my husband was listening to a podcast, and he heard this woman who was a fire spouse that had unfortunately lost her husband. And she had a really beautiful story. She kind of used that to her advantage and went and made sure that all the firefighters, it was kind of in the 80s, I think, all the firefighters in Chicago ended up with bunker gear, which they didn't have already. So she kind of did something great out of a horrible story. So he was like, you know, why don't you do something like this? And so kind of started this. I don't really have such a good story, but it's just been really nice to talk to people. So I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Thank you. I know we were supposed to meet with Brenda also. But Brenda mentioned to me that you know she thought it might be a different experience for you. So we would just kind of have a separate conversation. I hope that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Totally perfect. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

About me myself, or we so I'm right now we're both retired, and we're actually in Florida, as you know, and we're snowbirds. So we do January, February, March, April here, and then we do the rest of the time. But we also have a place on the Cape. So we're actually what I refer to, Michael doesn't, but I do. We're trailer trash for the Cape. Why would you call yourself that? Because we're in a trailer park. Okay. And it's it's wonderful. Don't I I tease, but it's wonderful. We love it there. We have a bunch of friends. So we spend, we're not in Natick as much anymore, but we just built a house in Natick. We had sold our life has been complicated since we both retired. You know, so we sold our house that we used to have, and we bought his childhood home, which was right next door, and tore down an old house and built a new one. Wow. Crazy, crazy, crazy since we both retired. But that I worked in Boston for I was full-time. I never was a stay-o stay omet mom. I wish I was, but I wasn't. And I was an IT director in Boston for a law firm for about 20 years. I think I worked in Boston. So I took the train in every day. We had this ritual where he would drop me off at the train and I would walk, get up at work, take the train home, walk to the fire station, take the car because he didn't need the car. And then I would go home, get the kids and do all that, and then in the morning I would take the car back to the fire station, drop it off, walk to the train, and he'd get in the car and go home. Wow. So it worked out perfect for a while.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

That's really funny. So you just had the one car then?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

No, well, he had his truck. He had his truck. So but when I during the week he wouldn't take his truck, we would do to my car. So and at that time, it was well, still today it it was he just did two days, you know. So it was only two days out of the week he was taking the car. So but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Right. Did he have a separate job outside of the fire department?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

For a long, long time, when we first were married, he was an auto-body guy. He did autobody, and then he really started dabbling into construction. And so then he just became like a repair man, construction decks and little stuff, not he didn't build houses till later, but so but for the longest time, I say a third of his career, he was at the Autobody shop. So while the kids were young, he went directly from high school into Autobody, and he was late getting on the fire department. I think he was 29 or something like that. You know, a lot of them get on early.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Doesn't sound late, but it is for the fire department, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Exactly, especially back then. So and the reason I say back then is because they didn't now a lot of them might do college or might do an EMT, I mean a paramedic course, whereas they didn't do any of that back then, you know. So they got on early. But my dad was a firefighter in Natick.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Oh, really? Did they work at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Wow. What was that like?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Just for a few years. It was good. It was funny because my whole world, my whole world was firefighter, right? I mean, oh god, I have I don't think I ever missed a firefighter Sunday until you know, I I think I missed the last couple. He went, but I didn't. But yeah, I mean, because that was I mean, my whole world was firefighters. My parents' friends were firefighters, our friends were firefighters. I mean, we used to go to Christmas parties with my parents.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

You know, so but that was fun because then my dad was able, every promotion he got, my dad was able to do the pinning of whatever. It was nice.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Oh, that's so sweet.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Wow, that's really nice.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Now, how did you two meet?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Michael and I went to school together. We started dating. We started dating in the ninth grade, I think. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

So really it's been your whole life.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yeah. So there was a period, I call it my hiatus. I actually we dated from ninth grade to probably a year after high school. And then we broke up. I went off and got married. Yeah. And that was a disaster. And it turns out a very long story, but it was only a five-year period bet between us breaking up and us getting back together. And then and at that time Michael was not on the fire department. And I I never my ex-husband never was in my ex-son's life. So Michael ended up adopting him, and then we had another boy. So we have two boys. But but yeah, yeah. So we went to school together.

unknown 7:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

And then I can't remember. My dad maybe kept saying, because Michael kept saying he didn't want to do Autobody. And my I think it was my dad that was like, take the test, get on the fire department. And Michael was like, oh, I don't know if I can do that. There's a lot of downtime. I was like, go for it, you know. I mean, but then when I he did finally get get on, and it's kind of different having your dad be gone nights. It's like dad, see you later.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

But when it's your husband, it's like, oh crap, he's gone. So but um, but yeah. So that's kind of like our story.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah, that's really nice. I didn't know that you knew each other that young or any of that. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

We started in Kennedy Junior High.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Wow. And did you go to college?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Oh, I did not.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

You did not. So how did you get started with your position?

SPEAKER_01 8:11

I worked at at the time of there was a company called Digital Equipment Corporation in Maynard, and I worked there right out of high school. And I just started getting into computers and everything, and I worked for them for about 15 years, and they started to go under. They started to have problems. So I took the buyout, and right away I got a job at a law firm in Boston, a pretty a medium-sized law firm in Boston as their network manager. And then I worked my way up to the IT director there. And I ended up at the end, I ended up leaving, uh, which I never should have done, but I ended up leaving there. I had to work, I was traveling to London, DC, New York. We had offices all over the place, and they were expanding into Paris and they were expanding into California. Look, I I had a career, but I wasn't a career person. I had a career because I was making good money. And but I really was a working mom. I didn't there was I wasn't that and there's nothing wrong with having a career and being that person. That wasn't me.

unknown 9:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

I I was just doing what I was doing because I was making good money and I couldn't walk away. And so I wanted to dub down, so I went and took a job with another law firm, a smaller law firm. And that was a disaster. They didn't like me, I didn't like them. It only lasted like six or eight weeks, and and I left. And they said goodbye. So it was kind of like a mutual thing. And and so I didn't, I took a year off, and then I got the town. The town of Natick had a communications officer, and that was like a perfect semi-retirement for me. You know, there wasn't a lot of stress, I wasn't working tons of hours, it was just nine to five, and and it was a fun job, and I loved it actually. So I stayed there until till we retired. So that's great.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Did you retire at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, because he was not retiring before me.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

No way, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Actually, I retired before him. Nice. I retired, I think, in March, and I think we retired both at the same time, but he stayed a little longer because they didn't have a chief yet, so they were searched doing the search. Yeah. So stayed a couple months longer than his, even though he was retired. I think he was contract. So we both retired at the same time, but he worked just a couple months longer than me.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

It was funny though, because I retired and I was so scared because I had worked since I was, you know, young. So I was so scared I got a job at our trailer park down the Cape for the summer and check people in. When I worked at the law firm, years I used to teach Michael, tease Michael, saying, Mike, when I grow up, I wanted to, my biggest responsibility was gonna be working at Roach Brothers, asking if it was plastic or paper. So I wanted so the prelapar, checking people in and out, it you know, the transients, and that was perfect. So I'm still there. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. I love it.

unknown 11:52

It's great.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Crazy. I love it. I only work like two or three days a week, and I work in the office and I book bands and I make golf tournaments, and yeah, it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

That's great. Wow. Not what I would have expected. I guess I would have thought you would be happy to just kind of be done.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

I you know, no, I think I just couldn't. I ugh, I had a hard time letting go altogether. I just wanted to do something, but it I was I will say in the last probably in the last few months, I'm like, do I really want to go back? I mean, I'll go back for another year because I told them, but it might be my last. We'll see. We have grandchildren now.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

So oh congratulations. How many grandkids do you have?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

We have three. We have um a seven-year-old, she's turning seven in a couple weeks, and we have two twins, three years old. They just turned three, so yeah, they're our world. Yeah, they're our world.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Yeah, you must miss them while you're in Florida.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Very much, very much. We have this. Alexis has this, it's called the show. And I don't know if you remember the commercials, the daughter's cooking uh a supper, and her dad's on the show, and their dad's helping her cook because the show is like an iPad. Okay. And it says you talk. If you move over here, it will follow you. So we have that.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah, and I uh we have that, and the kids can drop in on us anytime we want or they want. So yeah. That's really cute. Yeah, so like our granddaughter, she lost her tooth last week and she dropped in to show us that she had no tooth, and so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

It's a nice way to stay connected, that's really great. Do you find it's hard for you to disconnect from technology having been in IT for so long?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

At first it did. Now, no, because technology changes so fast that there's so much I don't know anymore. But I will say what happens is I'm I don't think I'm afraid of it as much as other people are. So somebody will be having a problem, and I'll kind of be like, well, give me a minute, let me see if I can figure it out, and then I'll go from there. So I guess what I've learned in the technology world is I'm a great troubleshooter, but I might not know the technology anymore. But I can usually figure out a way around it. So, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

That's great. I kind of always thought of myself as somebody who was, you know, medium tech savvy, having grown up needing to use computers and whatnot. I'm really not. It's really kind of embarrassing. You know, I'll be at work and something will happen with my computer. I'm like, I don't know, like I gotta call somebody. I have no idea. So I think you know, if you're not somebody who stays up to date with stuff like that, it's really easy to fall to the wayside.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

It does. It goes fast. And now things, there's things out there that you just because you're not in that world anymore, you don't even know what's out there, never mind how it's changed.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the whole uh AI thing then. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Oh, that's kind of scary, but it isn't it? Well, the older you get, and I've been saying this a lot to people, the older you get, the more I frightened is not probably the right word, but you get more anxious about things. You than you and it's really weird because I used to think, you know, my grandmother, it's like it's okay, it's okay, don't worry about it. It's okay. But it is true, the older you get, the more anxious you are. So change, I guess that's why old people probably don't like change, right? So the AI is scary. So I've you try to dub it down and think, but it could be so good because I so I I don't know. I think for me, I'm still judgmental about it, but I'm not closed mind about it.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Right. That's a good way to think about it, yeah. Yeah, I guess the part that kind of throws me off a little bit. I have we have young kids and they're I don't think they're gonna know what to believe. Or maybe they'll know better than I do.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

That's the scary part.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

And AI, that's like because we had neither one when we were growing up. Yeah. I can't say that all the you know, there was tons of rumors, you know, people start rumors all the time. Now it just starts on their own. Like it doesn't take word of mouth anymore. It just takes a picture.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, and you don't even know if that picture is real or not, and I have trouble telling the difference.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah, this I don't even know, you know, uh to the you know, just to the raw picture. I don't even know if you could. Yeah, you know, so it is that part's really scary.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

But I try to look at the other parts, you know. I mean, crazy, stupid stuff like, you know, AI will help you pick out your outfit. You know, I mean, that kind of thing is kind of cool when you kind of think about it. So that's the part I have an open mind with. But the other stuff's really scary, really scary. But times right now are very scary.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

So that's a very valid point.

unknown 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Yeah. Yeah. So kind of coming back to the whole firepiece. Tell me what it felt like for you. What did it mean to you? Tell me your favorite part, your least favorite part. What was it like, especially knowing that your dad was also a firefighter? So really you didn't know anything different.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

No, so it wasn't, yeah. My world has stayed the same. You know, I went it was a little bit different only because it was my husband and not my father. I don't we had a scanner in the house. My dad never had a scanner, my mom would never do that. Um I had friends that their dad had this had a scanner, but we had a scanner. And matter of fact, I think it was one of my Christmas presents. Funny. Um but I didn't you I it was funny because I never paid attention to that scanner. People would come in and be like, what is that noise? And I'd be like, What noise?

SPEAKER_02 18:38

And you forgot it was there.

unknown 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Until he worked. And when he worked, I paid attention to that scan. Subconsciously, I the bell would go off and I'd be like, you know? And it was weird that I would it was automatic. Like it I wouldn't even listen to it, and then that bell would go off, and I would be like, Oh, he's there. So but I mean, I was never nervous. The only time I was nervous, that's not true. The only time I was nervous, I really got tripped up with the the whistle fire.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

That was a tough time. That was a really tough time. Because that was something that I guys could get into, you know. I mean, if you think about 9-11 and which is terrible, terrible, terrible. But the odds of that happening in NADEC were very nil. The odds of nine the Wisterfire was huge, huge. So that I probably think that was probably my worst time. For for my whole life, I think that was probably my worst time. Plus, it was Christmas time. I I think it was like a couple days before our Christmas party. And so everybody was talking about it at the Christmas party, everybody was feeling it. Wasn't the best, you know. Yeah, it was it was a tough year. It was a tough year. Yeah, it was a tough year. So that was probably my my worst time. The best times I think were just um I left my drive-by kisses. I used to have to go, I could go for drive-by kisses, or I would get a sub and and get him a sub and me a sub, and I'd pull into the apparatus floor, because I used to he used to refer to it as the apparatus floor, and I would laugh at him because it's like, who uses that? Right. So I would pull in, he would open the doors, I would pull in, and we would have dinner, or we would have a sub. Or maybe he ate dinner with the guys and he would just sit with you. Yeah, yeah. So I did love that. I really loved that.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

That is so sweet. That is like maybe that's so sweet. That got to me.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

I really that. But there was a point where Michael made captain, I think, and he had to go into the office. He actually went into the office twice when he maybe, I think. But I loved the office because it was nine to five. Right. Sunday through Friday. It was like, oh, I love this one. He hated it.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Was this because of injuries or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 21:38

No, I think um at the time you had the the lowest captain had to do fire prevention.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Oh. I think they still have it. Yeah. Like the training captain.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yes. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

I don't know if the lieutenant ever had to go into the office, but but anyways. I just remember the captain one. And I used to be like, oh, this is great. This is what normal people feel like. He hated it.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

I bet.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

So I think that I guess that was my other high point is when he was in the office. Yeah. When he took Chief, he really didn't want to do the Chief thing. But for pension retirement reasons, he did it. Yeah. He loved being a deputy. He loved being a deputy. It was kind of the for him, it was the best of both worlds. Okay. He he got to run the fire and he got to be that guy. But he didn't have to do any of the political, which was not that bad. Mostly it was the personnel issues and stuff like that. He didn't like as chief. But but he he did a first pension. But I love the chief thing because it was not.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Yeah, from the spouse point of view, it's it's very different. So you enjoyed him being chief. Do you feel like that changed you or changed him or your social interactions with people? How did that affect you guys?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Him being chief.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Oh god, our whole world changed. The only good thing was all our friends had retired by then because we were the younger of them all. Well, all of them. Yeah, maybe a couple weren't. But the ones we really hung out with had, because some of them, like the Tommy Franchos of the world, who I mean, we you know, Rocky and Brent, uh Rocky and Brenda and Karen and Tommy. I mean, we were all that that shift close because Tommy had started so early on the department. He retired early.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

So most of our friends were retired because we lost all our friends. All our the one, you know, and it and it wasn't their fault. You know, we never you didn't you don't get invited to the parties anymore when you're chief, you know what I mean? You don't get invited to pretty much anything anymore. Which for us it was fine because we had the retirement world, you know. So for us it was fine. But I think if he had gotten chief earlier, it would have been devastating for us. So the timing was perfect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

And how long was he chief for?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Just for four years, I think. I think it was four years.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Yeah. So did he talk to you about it?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, he didn't have a he a lot of crap happened when he was chief. Yeah. A lot of personnel. I mean, you know, we had a huge building fire, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

I think I remember that one. That was a big one.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

That was a huge one, and he had an attempted suicide. He I you know, I mean, he they used to tease him that they had never seen a chief deal with so much crap. So yeah, so it was amazing. His blood pressure went down, and he, you know, his his health got so much better when he retired.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah, it's that Florida air.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Yeah, yeah. So, but but yeah, the chief was, I mean, as much as it worked for the pension, was it worth it? Yeah, but it was it was tough.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

It was tough.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

It was tough on him.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

He loved the guys, you know. So of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

So, but do you feel like your marriage was different while he was saying in the office versus on shift?

SPEAKER_01 26:06

No, we had we had agreed. So there were some firefighters that worked all whatever hours they could get because they, you know, overtime, it was very hard for people to pass up overtime. I worked. I had a good job. So we had we made a deal. I I'm not saying I think probably the first he was there 32 years, probably the first seven to ten years, he took everything, and then it got to a point where I worked, he worked, it was just too much. It was just too much, and our marriage was suffering tremendously. And so we made a deal that he would work any overtime during the week. It just, you know, he could take it. Any Friday or Saturday nights we had to talk about. And and most of the time he would turn them down unless we truly weren't doing anything. We also found and it's hard. Communication probably is the worst thing ever, right? For any couple, no matter what they do or what their career is, but because there's so much single life in a firefighter wife, you got to communicate. Like you have got communicate. So we had many conversations, hey, you know, I'm not happy. So yeah, and it was just stupid stuff. It was a lot of it was just talking it through, being insecure, or or he's wanting more time because I work. So yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of that.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

It's nice to talk about it, even if you're not saying, hey, this is the end, right? But just explaining right now this doesn't feel good.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

You know, that's really good advice.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

I don't think for us any of our talks ever included the end. And it was maybe because I had been in a bad relationship, you know. So that was like I had already known I didn't want to do that again, you know. So and I went through uh annulment from my first marriage and it took me it took me five years to write it. It was very it was emotional, but but I talked to him about it a lot, you know, so that probably helped in our communication because I just needed to talk about so much with him to you know, writing things down is like screaming at you sometimes. So before, you know, before my my paper was sopping wet from tears, I would talk to him about it so that I could put my thoughts together and and and write it down. So I don't know if that helped our communication. He didn't leave me.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

You're doing well now, that's good. Do you feel like he that made him think you were comparing him to your previous marriage?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

No. Okay. No. Good.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah. My previous he he was verbally abusive and an alcoholic.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

No, that's okay. You know what? It was me being naive and stupid, and um I learned so much from that short. Michael and I have been married for 40 years now, you know, so that doesn't even yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Feels insignificant now, but it was I I I don't know anything about the situation, but I'm sure it was not your fault.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Yeah, it was tough. It was tough.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

I bet.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

But I bet we got through it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It you definitely need to talk. Talk, talk, talk.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

More than probably anybody. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

I normally ask, you know, what advice do you have, but I think that's probably probably the best one of the best pieces of advice I've heard so far. I think if we don't tell them how we feel, how are they gonna know?

SPEAKER_01 30:33

How do you do you I mean, how not it's um now I'm just curious. And somebody that just came into the firefighter world, how do you feel? Do you feel I always wanted to know this? Do you feel so for me, because I knew all the firefighters throughout the generations, I never felt like I was in the outside coming in because it went from my parents to my parents' friends, and then you know, you you get a mix of the old and the new in the firefighter world, so it just kind of everything kind of evolved. So I never felt like I was coming in, and I used to think I remember we went to one Christmas party, and I I don't know if it was um Chris Mix's wife, Melissa. I don't know, but we were all standing around, and and the stiff was gonna have a Christmas party, and they wanted to change it up or something, and they they wanted to do a like a Yankee swap, right? And and I remember standing there, I think it was Melissa. I remember standing there, and she went, the look on her face was like, Oh my god, like she knows nobody. How do you have a Yankee swap knowing nobody? And it's and I'm like, oh my god, people, we're not doing that. We're not putting this poor girl in that position. We're not that they're like, What? And like, no, we're not doing that. Let's just everybody get a gift and whatever, or no gifts, or I can't remember what we ended up doing.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah, but yeah, it was pretty it's very thoughtful of you to notice that. I don't think I've ever felt that way though. I think I was I think 21 when he got on, so I was already pretty young. So was he. I think everybody was incredible, everybody was super welcoming, and he was super close, is still super close with Tommy Forence. You mentioned Tommy and Karen, and I spoke with Karen.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

She loves you.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Oh, she's she's the greatest. And I think everybody was really welcoming. I'm sure for somebody, maybe this is not me tooting my own horn, but like I'm I am social. I tend to talk a little too much, if you ask me, but it's easier for me to talk to people. So maybe somebody who's not, maybe not so much. But out of me and Robbie, I'm the more social one. So like I'll bring them into a conversation, you know. So for me, it was always nice. I think now it's gotten harder now. What I'm realizing is we did so much more when we we quote unquote got on, but now we have young kids, and it's been and they're wonderful, but it's just harder, and we don't live in Natick, so it's so it's it's not easy to just like have a babysitter for an hour, you know, or something like that. But but I never felt that way. And he was grandfather grandfathered in for the distance of how far you can be. I don't know now what the deal is, yeah, but it kind of goes back to the overtime thing, you know, or if you're away or something, I guess. I forget what the what what it was about, but if you're too far, you can't take the overtime.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

But it's 45 minutes, it's okay. We can manage, you know. Like you said, you go in one day and you leave the next, so it's fine.

unknown 34:05

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

That's exactly right. I mean, uh, I mean, my God, I used to travel to digital in Maynard from Natick, which is an hour away or 45 minutes away. So yeah. That, you know.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Yeah. But you are the first person I've talked to who almost I feel like I'm in a similar position. Like I ha also have a good job. So the overtime thing is sometimes I don't want to say we don't need it, right? It's not I'm I'm not rolling in the dough, but No, I get it. But when it's you know an overtime pay versus you know one or two nights a week at home, sometimes it may be not worth it in a way, I guess. You know?

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yeah. That was our biggest. Once we got over, that was really our one of our biggest things because I only had Friday and Saturday nights.

SPEAKER_03 34:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Right? Because you work. And yeah, that was a huge thing for me. I will say what I used to do is I can be kind of crazy. I love this. Michael would come home, I would get the boys involved, and we would plan game night for daddy when he got home.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

And I would ask our best friends over, and Michael would come in, and it would be like, surprise. He probably wanted to kill me half the time. But it was always like, pour him a drink, get him calm down, and we're gonna have family night.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

So I and that was our way of not spending a lot of money and still being and it usually I try to include, but we lived in Natick, so my youngest went to school with some of the kids, you know, whether it was the Albuquinis or the Florence's or something, they used to, you know, come over.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

So, but yeah, that was that was kind of you know, me being crazy stupid, but yeah I don't think so, but I wonder if that was before he was on 24 hour shifts.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

That was when we did two and two.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

Yeah. Which, what do you think? What was better?

SPEAKER_01 36:22

So the 24 hours opened up more of his weekends. He wasn't because if it was two and two, he could either work both Saturday and Sunday, or he would be Saturday day, Sunday night, you know. So You know what's really weird? When I was younger, uh my parents we used to have it, you know, I'm old, so my parents my mom used to have Sunday dinners. That's what we did. My dad was a meat and potato guy. And I we would have to take my dad some the Sunday dinner every single Sunday that he worked, and we would put it in a pie plate, and somebody would run it down with if I was driving or if I wasn't driving, my mom would drive and I'd run it in.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

That's really nice. They all pitch in and they cook, but um oh wow, they didn't cook together then, not like they do now. No kidding. Oh wow, all I hear about is how you know so and so is a great cook and this and that. I have so much competition at the firehouse.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

No kidding, no kidding. Or Michael would be like he thought he was this wonderful cook because he could cook one meal.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Did he ever do it at home?

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Uh I after a while, I think I made him start cooking. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Yeah. It's funny. Wow, that's really nice though. We stopped by the firehouse yesterday just because we were in the area, and I like we'll make an effort to be in the area so we can stop by. But it's definitely it's tricky because if if I'm driving that far and he's on a call and I have two little kids, like I'm not gonna sit there for an hour and hope he comes back, you know? So it makes it a little harder. But but it's still we enjoy it and it's it's still really fun. We have a four-year-old and she loves watching him slide down the pole. So she's still like at that age where it's really exciting to see the fire trucks.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

So I bet. I bet we could actually go down the pole when we were younger.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

I said I was going to yesterday, and he's like, No, you're not, you're not allowed. I'm like, Oh, come on. Who's I don't work here? I can do what I want.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

For five or five Sundays when I was young, they used to walk from downtown to the two cemeteries down on Pond Street, and and they used to go to one cemetery, across the street, go to the other, and walk back. And so they walked in formation all the way down, which is what, a mile, two miles, I don't know. And then we would all gather at one of the gravesites in each cemetery, and on the way back, the kids could join in the walk.

unknown 39:03

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

So we used to walk back, and this was when it was at the old fire station teacan is now there. We would so they would have coffee and donuts. They would get the local donut shop because Dunkin' Donuts wasn't a thing then, I don't think. And they would have coffee and donuts, and all the kids did was line up at the pole, and we would just pull, we would just ride the pole down stairs, ride the pole down, walk the stairs, ride the pole down. So it was kind of disappointing when they stopped. I don't know when that happened. It must have been when I was, you know, older and didn't. I bet somebody got hurt. Yeah, yeah. So wow, but that's fun.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

That's really great.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Totally get it wanting to go down that pole.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

It seems so fun. Maybe one day, maybe they'll change the rules again. I don't know. Honestly, I probably shouldn't. I am the clumsiest person ever.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

So no, I don't think there's any more clumsy than Brenda.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Brenda Franchos, really? Do you like living close to her?

unknown 40:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

Yes. You guys must be very close. Very, very she kind of was joking that when they moved out to Florida, they kind of followed you there. And she was like, can we can we also join? So it's kind of nice that it worked out that way.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

It was nice that they they because they had rented. So Michael's parents lived in this neighborhood. His sister bought the house, she passed away, left it to his parents. His parents were snowbirds for a while. And then because we all worked, his sisters worked and we worked, they would rent the house. And they the sister, so they stopped renting it, the sisters bought it, and we ended up buying five doors down. And but Rocky and Brendy used to rent the house, and I I didn't help her because I'm like, oh, this for sale, up this for sale, up this for sale. Get down here. Look at this, it's for sale.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

That's great. We're waiting for you. That's awesome. Nice. Do you think you would ever stay there the whole year?

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Probably I don't think I could leave my grandchildren. They I mean, when I say they're our life, they're our life. We have this tiny trailer. It's not tiny, but it's nice on the Cape. We have a private beach.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

I'll take a picture of it. It's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

And I've been going down there since I was 16, 15, and we raised our two boys there. And it was a place where we could come go on the weekend, be on the beach, and they would have their friends and they would get on their bikes and go and they would have their summer friends. It was perfect. It was perfect. But I'll send you a picture of it because it's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

That would be lovely.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Look, it's not for everybody. I know that. And it's not. There's no who cares?

SPEAKER_02 42:09

I'd like to see it. That sounds great. We I mean we love the Cape. It's unfortunately, I'm not sure we're ever gonna be able to manage even a trailer park in the Cape. It's it's wild, but but it would be lovely to one day be able to kind of I don't know, it's close by, we love the beach, but it's two hours away.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

You you have your own beach, and it's you just leave your stuff there. You know, you don't bring it in and out or anything, but it it can be expensive, but yeah. It never used to be expensive, but now it is, so but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Yeah, anything in the Cape, honestly, even Natick.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Oh crazy.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

Crazy, crazy. Yeah. Well, any any funny stories, any kind of funny last things that you would want to share?

SPEAKER_01 43:01

I don't think so. Michael lost his shoes once at the fire department. Um he first got on, he came came home with no shoes. Like, how do you do that? He was on the back of the truck, and I don't think they're at the time, you know how they sit behind. Well, at the time, I don't know if they still do. At the time, the officer and the driver, and then like the officer and the driver, and then there was one, the third one in the back was face back, but there was no door. So he was taking his shoes off to put on his boots.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

And it just flew off.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

I don't know if that's how they said now, but I think they change before they get on the truck.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Yeah, I mean they have their boots right there.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Yeah, yeah. That's a pretty funny story. Was he much of a prankster?

SPEAKER_01 44:03

No.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

No.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

I mean, Lawrence was, but no.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

No.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

I mean, I think if the guys were doing it, he would he would do it. But I he would never think to do it. You know, he he didn't have, I mean, I think he would do it just to, you know, with the other guys, but he would never come up with the idea. Right. But yeah, yeah. He's too, he's not that funny.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

So you think of yourself as the funnier of the two. I think you're pretty funny. I think we're the opposite. I'm the more social one, but Robbie is honestly hysterical, sometimes a little, a little inappropriate. But yeah, I definitely like I enjoy the jokes, but I don't have the ideas for it. Right, right. That's great. Well, I appreciate your time. Anything else you want to share?

SPEAKER_01 44:57

No, I think this was great.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

This was great. It was so nice to meet you virtually. It's so nice to talk to you. Hopefully, we get to meet in person one time. I've been I've been talking to a lot of people and I'm building up the motivation to starting a party because I think that's what we're missing right now. To restarting like something annual that's big. Yeah. I'm thinking summer might be better because the you know, holiday season is tough. But if you guys are here in the summer, you'll be the first on the list.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. You too. Take care. Thanks, you too. Bye.

unknown 45:30

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed being here as much as I did. If you have any questions for me or if you'd like to be interviewed, please reach out at the firewivespodcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Tune in next week for the next episode of Firewives.