Raw Dog Podcast S1 E2: Jeff Taylor

Chicago Firefighter Jeff Taylor talks zookeeping, firefighting, and gets a lesson in grilling a hot dog with Wiener’s Circle HBIC.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Raw Dog Podcast. Read the five.

SPEAKER_05 0:03

That's not the pocket.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Will we keep it 100? Raw enough filter.

SPEAKER_05 0:07

That is. Oh, hell no.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Yeah, take it in, baby. Welcome to the Raw Dogs Podcast. I am Poochie the HBIC along with these two motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I am Matt, and this is Ari, partner in crime.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

And today's guest we have Jeff Taylor. Okay, Mr. Jeff Taylor. You looking sexy over there.

SPEAKER_06 0:28

Don't get close anymore.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Might be your next wife.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Pretty happily married.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

His wife was my preschool teacher, so be careful. Is that true? She was? Oh wow.

SPEAKER_06 0:43

Yeah, I known this guy since he was a baby. Oh wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Well, well, thank you for being here with us. Obviously, uh the the audience will learn, but you're a hero. You have worn lots of hats in your life. And in Chicago, you have put your life on the line for the city in a lot of different ways. So we're going to talk about it. Uh, but maybe you can just start by telling us a little bit about your life and and your career.

SPEAKER_06 1:12

Sure. Uh I grew up on the north side of Chicago uh with my brothers and sisters. There's nine of us. And uh we didn't uh we lived pretty close to Wrigleyville.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Well what high school did you go to?

SPEAKER_06 1:24

I went to San High School. Um that was that was a good time. I was a greaser then, you know. So it was a was mostly Jewish at that school at the time I I went there.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

What what is a greaser?

SPEAKER_06 1:35

Uh a greaser is a guy that uh in the young days in the 50s and 60s was uh was uh they hung out on the corner, they had a jacket with the corner name on it. Black leather jackets. It was your turf, you know. Hey, what are you doing down here? Well, I'm sorry, man, go the other way, you know, and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So you you fucked a lot of people up. I didn't say that.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

So now fuck that. Let's get he was a fucking gangbanger.

SPEAKER_06 2:01

He started that that's the difference between a gangbanger and a greaser, big time.

SPEAKER_07 2:07

What's the difference?

SPEAKER_06 2:08

A gangbanger is an asshole. Okay, a greaser is a guy that hangs out with a bunch of guys that he knew, they grew up with, and they'd hang out in the corner, and they hang out and play basketball and do their thing. Go to the go all the socials and yeah, it's a group of guys that but we don't go out looking for trouble.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

You know, it's not one of those like like the the play, the musical and the movie.

SPEAKER_06 2:33

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

You know, it's that kind of thing. Were you were you John Travolta? Who were you? Uh let me see.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

He was Sandra D.

unknown 2:44

Woo woo.

SPEAKER_06 2:45

But anyway, so I family's always been politically connected with the neighborhood, you know. And so we always knew some, you know, the committee man, the alderman. And I came back and uh Alderman, this guy, uh Bob Cherry, who was a state senator. Taylor, I need a I needed an Alderman for your precinct, and I don't mind you're a man, you know. So I became the precinct captain. And it's all it's all my votes, you know what I mean? Because I got the Irish families and so it's a pretty good job. I mean, there are some Swedish people there, but don't bother them, you know what I mean? So but anyway, so I was then Bob Jerry says, Oh yeah, I'll get you a job, man. I said, Yeah, I need something. So he gave me a job as driving a garbage truck. This was the cat's meow, man, I'm telling you, you know. So I go over there and the guy says, and I knew how to drive a truck, so no problem. So I got so I have these routes where you just go down the alley, you know, and what do you smoke in? And then he said, Go ahead. I go, go ahead, man. You know, and stop and then go ahead, go ahead, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh, yeah. I mean, you're gonna go ahead after this interview. I gotta come fight. I would bring back those memories and yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:01

Yeah, but that was the best job ever, you know what I mean? Like this.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I got the best job ever. I do. Motherfuckers should be so lucky to work while I work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:15

But uh the the aldermen that uh came in, they split the wards because that's the way they did it back then. And the 48th was split, and I ended up with the with a new guy, his guy, Marty Chuccio, you know. And uh kind of like uh, hey Taylor, you got that great job, you know, with the garbage truck. And he's paying good money, you know, yeah. And so he went ahead and sold my job to another ward. And they traded him my job to a job at the Lincoln Park Zoo as an animal keeper. So he calls me up and says, Taylor, I got you, can you do me a favor? You gotta save this job. It's down at the zoo, man.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

I said, I gotta drive the truck. Just go down there for me and save this job.

SPEAKER_06 5:00

So I went down to the zoo. How how old were you? I was uh probably 26.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

And you were driving the garbage truck and now you're going to the zoo.

SPEAKER_06 5:12

Well, just to save the job, of course, supposedly, but it was already planned. That job.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

What did one have to do with the other?

SPEAKER_06 5:19

Well, the job, well, because the job driving the garbage truck pays a whole bunch more money than it does for so he was able to get some cash. Oh, okay. It's almost like, you know, all right, I'll give you that, you give me this. You know what I mean? So it was a little money in his pocket. And uh, but I was uh I was then a hippie then because I had just come back. I had the long hair and the beard. I was pretty freaky looking. You had come back to what? Vietnam? I was in Boston. Oh, Boston, yeah. Anyway, so I went for this interview at the zoo, you know. I got my moccasins on, I got my, you know, look at I'm looking pretty good. And uh I go into the office, and uh the secretary's like, oh my god, oh my god. So anyway, I get for this interview and just the guy goes, Oh, yeah, well, you're you're you're gonna have to get a haircut, shave the beard, no, no sideburns more than this. Uh yeah, it's going on and on about you know, I said I'm thinking, this is picking up shit, man.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Right, what the fuck am I? I gotta cut my hair to pick up some shit.

SPEAKER_06 6:22

Yeah, do I have should I wear a tuxedo or what?

SPEAKER_05 6:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:27

So anyway, so uh I I go back to the bar and I'm having a cup of beers and I call up Tucho and I said, Yeah, hey, I'm sorry, Marty. I said, I'd like to take hold of that job for you. But this guy wants me to get a haircut, cut my beard. I said, Who said that? I said, this guy, Dr. Fisher, he's a director, I guess, or something. You'll be at my office tomorrow morning at nine. So I go downtown. He was a county commissioner at the time. And uh Cook County. Cook County. And he also was uh he had about five different titles that so he drives me over to the zoo with and he goes into the office.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

He says, This is my man. When I send my man here, you don't tell my man what to do, you'll just write on a new.

SPEAKER_06 7:13

I'm going, oh my God. You know, that's really he's and uh Fisher wait he says you couldn't hire or fire a monkey. And then out the door he says, All right, you're set. So I ended up getting the job, which I didn't want. And this guy Fisher hated me. And uh anyway, because I was a hippie, and everybody said, Oh, he's gonna be fired. He's he's gone. He can't stay here. Right. And what were your responsibilities at the I was uh I worked at the birdhouse. I took care of the the parrots. I had 150 parrots. They loved me.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

The parrots?

SPEAKER_06 7:48

The parrots.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Did they talk back to you? Yes, they did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

What type of shit you was telling them birds to think?

SPEAKER_06 7:53

Uh no, they told me, man. They were all donated from uh different homes and stuff. And one of them, uh Jose, was an opera singer. You know? And uh I I'd say, Jose, come on now, I got friendship with sing me a song, and he'd say, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. I would take this the phone book and I slam it down and he'd he'd sing this beautiful opera.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06 8:19

Yeah, yeah. And then I'd say, then he'd say, Okay, I'd say, okay. And then he'd fly over and attack the phone book and I'd be swearing at it. And I don't know. But there were so many of these birds that were so cool, man. I mean, it's they're all gone now. It's a shame. But yeah, I was in the bird office for five years.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Wow. As a zookeeper.

SPEAKER_06 8:37

As a zookeeper.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

With zero knowledge of how to handle it.

SPEAKER_06 8:41

Never, never had a most of the people there don't. They're just political hex that are put in there and hope that, you know. Uh, but uh I, you know, I was kind of like a natural with the with the birds. But anyway, so my clout, this guy Tucho, got caught by the feds and he was sent to prison for a bribe. The guy down the road down in the precinct wanted to put put some condos on. He said, Oh, bring him over. He wanted like 20 grand. So the guy went to the feds and they got him. The guy choo choo?

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Not me. I was not involved. But the guy choo choo, right? Tucho went to jail. That was your homie.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yeah, yeah. So my so what's his name was Choo Choo? Marty Tucho. Tucho, Marty.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Okay, you can't trust the motherfucker with a last name Tucho. Yeah, and I used to tell everybody.

SPEAKER_06 9:36

I used to tell everybody, I use Chinese.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Wait, so $20,000 in exchange for what was he? Well, how was he able to do it? Well, he was able to take care of it.

SPEAKER_06 9:45

He was going to have the permits. Oh, permit permitted. Oh, yeah, he was gonna take care of everything, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Give me his phone number.

SPEAKER_06 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Not 20 G's who has asked right now.

SPEAKER_06 9:56

That was a lot of money back then. Anyway, so the minute he went to prison, this guy free uh, you know, the director goes, Oh, Taylor, you're clout. You don't have any clout.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Oh, you ain't finna get your ass back. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:10

So he says, uh, I'm sorry I tell you, but now you're transferred to the monkey house. I'm doing birds for five years, little shit.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

You know what I mean? With holes. Wait, when you say monkey house, you meant like private ape house.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Primate. Oh, apes or primates?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, apes, primates, silver bags, motherfuckers. That's why he's on my house.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

There's an ape house and there's a primate house.

SPEAKER_06 10:29

Yeah, well, this was You were in charge of both? No, this was the big this is going back when it was an old. They were on one at the time.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

The gorillas on one side, the monkeys on the other. And so you were like fighting monkeys.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

So we got attacked my one.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Well, I didn't know anything about monkeys. You ever been monkey slapped? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:45

Okay, they got my hair once. Yeah, they come down from the cage up above coming by the fucking hair. And you can't get away. And spider monkeys, they got arms to go and they go, and they grab my frigging hair, and then I got nobody back in the room. Come on, come on, you know, and then then once that happens, then everybody goes, and they all start running around shitting and go up, something's gonna, man! You know, and then now you got a whole mess to pick up, you know what I mean? Oh shit. So uh but when I first started there, this guy, Hoff, Bob Hoff, old timer, he had been there forever. And he says, Okay, kid, uh, you're gonna go do the gorilla run with me today. He says, This is gonna be your first day. They're not gonna like it because you don't smell like them. You don't, you don't, they don't know you. They're gonna throw shit at you, okay? Oh, wow. So literally. Yes, literally. You know them off. So take monkey. He had the garbage can cover from the monkey child. He says, Okay, take that with you and just hold it up there and then you'll be okay. Bang, bang.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

They threw throwing shit at you. Yeah, too. You were like fending off the shit.

SPEAKER_06 11:58

Exactly. I said, I got it, I I made it. And he says, listen, Taylor, if you ever get in trouble back here, don't run. If you run, everybody's gonna throw shit at you. I want you to do. I said, he says, I want you to screw what you do, you walk backwards real slow. And it fucks them all up. Yeah, and it works, man. It does.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

And so what do how do they react when you walk backwards real quick?

SPEAKER_01 12:31

You know what? You you two motherfuckers, when the other tell the brother too when y'all get home. Y'all need to really appreciate this man. Now he done cleaned up bird shit, he done dealt with gorilla, spider monkeys attacking him to put you motherfuckers through college. Y'all about to appreciate him. You understand? And then you had to turn around and clean up that shit. So you get some shit.

SPEAKER_06 12:52

Yeah, yeah, that's right. I respect diapers, everything, you know, wipe asses. I respect you. Well, I got after I got I was in the monkey house, he wasn't happy with that. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

When you said monkey house, I thought you were just like joking about like some figurative.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

No, you ain't listening. No, no. Birdhouse, no, no, the monkey house. Now you went to the goat house.

SPEAKER_06 13:12

No, no, no. And then she goes, Okay, I'm gonna really screw him. I'm gonna I'm gonna put him on nights. So you you just how they did me. Now you're on nets.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

That's that's how they did me. I start off on days and I fucked around and got on nights, and it was the look at look at me now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at me now.

SPEAKER_06 13:30

Um but uh so at night, uh, your responsibility is to uh close the zoo. And uh yeah, at five o'clock, everybody's gotta leave. You gotta have a guard dog that you can walk with, but you also have a policeman who helps you out. This guy Joe Esposito, he had his own dog, he bought his own dog. And um everybody's usually pre-quartered, close it up. And back then, uh it was uh there was all up and down the beach was all the three-wheelers, the coppers on the three-wheelers. So they used to come to the zoo, and we used to have uh dinner parties, you know. And uh they go down a rush street and get a couple of dinners out of the restaurant, come back to the zoo, I set up a table in the lion house, you know, they have a nice time.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Just for the your co-workers, you the employees. No, this is for the policeman. Just for the police. The policeman, you and the policeman. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:23

And uh so one night Joe gets up, he says, First of all, he told me the day before. I said, Listen, it's Olson's birthday. Call him three gun Olson, you have guns everywhere. Three gun.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Working at the line, I was you need a girl.

SPEAKER_06 14:38

And uh he says, Olson's birthday. I was wondering maybe you can get Tony, the elephant man, to clean out the pool real good, and we'll go skinny dipping. I said, Oh yeah, sure, why not?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Which pool?

SPEAKER_06 14:50

In the elephant pool.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

In the elephant pool, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

So with the elephant still in the elephant's in the barn, he's in the barn.

SPEAKER_06 14:56

You know, so Tony cleans out the pool real good. And I so all these guys in the three-wheelers go zipping over to the to the pool. They're all out there. They gotta get ready to go in. And I said to Joe, I said, Joe, I don't know, man. I said, I think those people in the high rises can see us, you know. And he goes, Oh shit, you're right, we better not. So I I said, uh, I know what you can do. Yeah, he says, I said, I'll put the hose line, they got these big hose lines, into the sewers, and they got all these sewer rats, you know, and they'll come up and you guys can you guys can shoot them. Oh, it's a great idea. So I put the hose line in there, and it was right by the mountain goats, right? And anyway, so the rats come flying out and old, and then bingo ricochet and hit the friggin' goat. I said, the goats down, man. Oh my god. Jesus, all right, get everybody out, everybody, everybody left. And I ran back to the and I called the police. Says, yes, uh kids in here shooting at the goats. And all these same guys shooting to protect Olsen. Yeah, of course. They all come back and I, yeah, it was oh maybe. Yeah, so anyway, it was a nice night. The goat, the goat survived.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Yeah. The goat survived. Yeah, but he got shot.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, I've shot the fucking goat. Yeah, yeah. And you the covered up for your homie. And what was the guy? What was the guy that gave you trouble all the time? What's his name?

SPEAKER_06 16:20

Fisher.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Dr. Fisher, we coming to kick your nuts saying, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_06 16:24

He's dead now.

unknown 16:26

Thank God.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Thank fucking God.

SPEAKER_06 16:28

Oh, he fucked with me my whole seven years, he fucked with me.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Asshole. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:33

I got him back.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, you got him back. Rest in peace, Fisher.

SPEAKER_06 16:37

The fuck?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:39

I got suspended, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

So that was trouble.

SPEAKER_06 16:43

When he put me in the monkey house, and this guy, uh Grant Strombeck, who'd been there forever, he says, Yeah, fuck him with your tailor. He said, You want to get him? I go, yeah. You watch. He's gonna ask you to get a specimen uh uh of uh of a couple of these chimps, you know, Mary, Mary and Keel, right? And they're nuts, the two of them. Sure enough, about two months later. Oh, Jeff, I need a specimen of Mary and Keel.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

What what type of specimen are you talking about?

SPEAKER_06 17:07

You know, some of their monkey shit. Shit specimen. So you put them in these little Dixie cups, you know. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:15

So girls want cups.

SPEAKER_06 17:16

So anyway, I I so if this guy, this guy, Strombeck, says, Oh, you want to get them good? I go, yeah. So you fill it up with fucking peanut butter, man. You know, and then you go in there and just tell them, you know. Uh anyway, so I I did it. I fill them up with peanut butter and I've got shit all over me. I bring it in there.

SPEAKER_05 17:35

I feel like, oh, Jeff, you forgot the mark. Who's who?

SPEAKER_06 17:40

I said, Oh, Jesus, let me see. I opened it up and I took it. I said, Oh, that's Mary. I gotta suspend it. Yeah, uh I had five days, and then they said don't come back, and then five day. Yeah, oh boy, it was like Friday. Yeah, right. It was a nice nice vacation.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Well, you parlayed it into a career in Chicago Fire Department and Yeah, I left there. I left right from the zoo. Onward and upward from there.

SPEAKER_06 18:10

Right from the zoo to the fire department.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Uh so you you you were a fighter fighter for how many years?

SPEAKER_06 18:17

28 years, yeah. I came on a job in 1978. Wow. And that's when Uptown was burning. And uh back then uh they would buy a building for 30,000, six flat, and they insure it for a hundred, and they burn it the next day. Oh wow. With the people in it. And and collect on the insurance. And so we had fires every night when I first came on the job for Uptown.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

And uh This was a regular occurrence all over the news in Chicago at the time.

SPEAKER_06 18:46

Yes, yes, yeah. And uh, you know, it was a it was out of control.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Didn't the insurance companies have some.

SPEAKER_06 18:52

Finally, finally, uh yeah, finally we put a state law together saying that if you were uh considered an arson, that you'd have to go on trial, and you'd if you of course if you went ahead and lied, that was perjury and there was gonna be laws that you would go to jail for the perjury. So they put a stop to it. But for years we we had a lot of fires, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Did y'all hit it? Was that a burp? It was like an inside burp. An internal right, it wasn't a fart, another fire. It was a burp. I heard it, so I'm just like, damn, did everybody else hear it?

SPEAKER_06 19:29

It wasn't me, man. I didn't do it, believe me.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

So thank you for your service, first of all. Yeah, yeah, of course. Thank you. Um you must have seen everything in those 28 years.

SPEAKER_06 19:41

Oh, there was some bad stuff. Yeah. Uh my first year in the job was the 191 crash out at O'Hare Field. Uh the worst crash ever, with 270 people, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_06 19:53

Well, we were at the house over there, and of course we get the bell. We had to change quarters, which means when one company goes, you go to another house and protect that area. And we were changing quarters, and then they said, Well, do we have this looks like a serious situation? Give me a 211. And we went out there from that area, and we got there, and it was like uh it was devastating. It was no, it was this one big pile of bodies. I couldn't believe it was this. So we had no water, and we were putting the bodies out with hand pumps, you know. Wow. Uh but we were there for nine and a half hours, tagging and bagging, you know, and it was terrible. But the Salvation Army came out, and it always did the best they could beat for the firemen. And they had the sandwiches, you know. So I thought, so I stuck a couple in my coat pocket. Who knows how long you're gonna be there? And about an hour later, the guy was with you goes, man, I wish you would have got one of them sandwiches. I said, I got one for you, man.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

But this is a famous airplane crash or a famous tragic problem.

SPEAKER_06 20:56

The 191 American.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

What year was that, do you know?

SPEAKER_06 20:59

1979.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Wow, that was the year after you started.

SPEAKER_06 21:02

Exactly. Just to candidate almost, you know, but uh yeah, but that that was one of the worst. But but like I say, we had a lot of a lot of uh fires in the uptown area that that that uh you know shock you.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

You know, it would uh was there ever a time you thought you might die on the job?

SPEAKER_06 21:20

Well, I had a uh area where I was on a I was a roof man, so my job was to go and chop a hole in the roof so the gases can get out so the guys can go in. And I got up on the roof and I chopped in a hole and I looked and I it was like butter. I looked down, these flames were just bursting out of that. I said, I ain't going in there. So I rolled off the roof. You know, I fell from the roof down, but I wasn't going into that fire, man. That yeah, yeah. So I had some close calls. I messed up my back and that's how I get how would you open up the roof? Well you you go you take your ladder to the front of the house and get up the ladder Normally you just use your axe and uh unless it's a flat roof, you can use your your uh saw. But mostly we did mostly a lot of frames that were you know peak roof. So you just get up there and you chop away as much as you can, make an opening and stick your candle down there and break the ceiling down, and out comes the the fire and the smoke.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Did you ever fall through anything?

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Have you ever failed the winning?

SPEAKER_06 22:26

Luckily enough I did not, but my uh I was at that fire where I went off the roof, the guy on the other side of the roof who shouldn't have been on there when he made the hole straight through. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

But it's you fucking save him? He was over.

SPEAKER_06 22:43

I told him don't get out of the basket, and he got out of the basket. Made a hole between me and the basket. That ain't helping me. But anyway. But yeah, it's a dangerous job, but uh it's but it's uh it's also uh, you know, we're like we're like family. We look out for each other and and everybody's uh try to be as safe as you can be, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Have any of your sons followed in your footsteps as far as like the fire department?

SPEAKER_06 23:08

Oh, not the fire department, no.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

They like fucking.

SPEAKER_06 23:11

They used to spend the night with me at the firehouse when they were kids. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 23:14

I drag them over. They say, Dad, you come and welcome you're too tired all the time. You're gonna lay on the couch. All right, let's see. You know, because you're gonna be up all night at that uptown man. So I bring them in, okay, let's go. And they're in bed and the bell rings. Let's go, get up. All right, get your asses up. And they they went. And I stick them in the chief's car. I said, All right, stay there until let them see what it's all about, you know. But uh, they uh they they saw what it what thought it was uh was all about you know that it's good to get an idea what what your parents are doing, yeah. So yeah. See, I was the cook. So uh my job was to make a meal for these guys. But you see, you wait, wait, you were the chef? I was the chef, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Wait, we lost that part. Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_06 24:02

Yeah, yeah. I was the I was the cook uh at the station. At the station, yeah, because what what happens is you know, you we have to pay for our own meals and somebody I would go shopping and come and cook and you know how it is. But uh you get somebody youngsters that would come there that had never cooked. And they they're you know, they never made a bad beefing, you know what I mean? And uh so there's everybody gets a turn, you know. All right, you're you're the chef today. And of course they go out shopping and they come back with, you know, uh eight gallons of ice cream, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

They come back with bullshit.

SPEAKER_06 24:41

Yeah, yeah. And the and they I I went over the budget, you know what I mean? And uh but that in a sense gives you an idea of how uh uh the the the family keeps together, you know what I mean. And then you got guys that uh they are laggers, you know, that just I had a fellow that uh every time we had the dinner, I disappear for the dishes. You know, what the who is this guy? You know what I mean? And uh it's just it's not the right way. So those guys you you deal with, you know. And you wait till they fall asleep on the couch, and then you go over and you take that little dripper. It's a deer scent. Have you ever smelled deer scent? It's the female deer when she's in heat. And this the the uh hunters use it, they put it on a tree and you go over while he's sleeping, and you take one, you put it on his mustache.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Ugh.

SPEAKER_06 25:42

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 25:43

And he wakes up, oh Jesus, you you you guys smell that? You you smell that? Yeah, it's the upper lip motherfucker.

SPEAKER_06 25:52

Yeah, and they say, smell what we're talking about, you talking about you run outside, it's out here too, man, you know, and come back. Yeah, so you have to shave your mustache off.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

That's the greaser in you. You still fucking gang banger.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

He ain't listening. Your dad was a gangbanger, he just trying to slum it up.

SPEAKER_06 26:13

Yeah, but you know, that's so and the word gets out, you know. This guy's a that guy's yeah, but uh it's I love the job, believe me. I I had a lot of fun. Uh a lot of good a lot of good friends and uh families together.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah, brotherhood. Yeah. Did they give you a big uh retirement ceremony honor? I did.

SPEAKER_06 26:35

I had a nice uh retirement party with they we usually do it with three or four other guys, you know. And uh it's a it was at the White Eagle, I think there was like a thousand people there. Oh wow, you know, all Fire Amendment are families as an honor, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Well, just keep that in mind, motherfuckers, when I get ready to retire. How many years have you been here? It's gonna be 28 on Monday.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

And how many years? 28 years, 28 years, baby.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Playing it at the lottery, baby. All right, I'm playing it in a lottery as soon as I leave this motherfucker right across the room.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Cheers to 20 number 28. 28.

SPEAKER_06 27:10

Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

It's making that baby later.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

You are a hero to Chicago, yeah. Monkeys, everybody. Monkeys, everybody. Thank you for being here. All right.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Very honored and funny by your fucking stories. Thank you very much. Uh a lot of fun telling them.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

It's a pleasure. Thank you. All right, thank you for your service.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Thank you for your time. Clean up all the monkey and birds.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

City of Chicago, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Like you done picked up bird shit and monkey shit, and you was also a firefighter. So I want to see if you can handle the heat behind the counter at the Wiener Circle. So I'm gonna give you this apron. I'm gonna bless you with this, and I'm gonna tie it around you. Yeah. See that? Yeah. I still got it. I got the touch. Let's see if you can handle it.

unknown 28:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

All right, I need a char dog, cheese fry, and a Pepsi.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

You need more than that. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Turn up your hearing apron because I need a char dog, a cheese fry, and a Pepsi.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

Two dogs. Two dogs, okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

So the dog has to be charred. You know, my doctor wear these same gloves when it's time for the Pep smear. Yo, bitch, you want everything on them? Yeah, Chicago style. Extra pussy juice. Fucking fingers in there. I got bad hands, you know? I'm I'll help you. You got bad hands for the long as it's covering this time. So you're gonna hold this dog. Don't squeeze it.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Okay. I squeeze it all the time. I can tell.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

So a Chicago dog has mustard, relish, onion, pickle, tomato, celery salt, hot pepper. Okay? Bam, mustard. I'm only gonna show you this shit one time, okay? One time shit. Make sure your dementia ain't kicking in. Bam.

SPEAKER_04 29:15

Bam.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Bam.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

Bam.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Bam. Celery salt. And pepper. Pepper. Alright, baby. That's how I gotta look. You got it? Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Mustard. Relish. Look at that. He got it, bitch. Onion. I ain't never had a trainee like you. First time you got it. There you go. You're right. Pickle. Bam. Tomato. Oh shit. Celery salt. Get your boat. My boat. Set it in there. Bam. Peppers. Peppers, baby. Then you tell the bitch, here you go, bitch. All right, here. Just give it to her.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Where is that bitch?

SPEAKER_01 30:13

She right over there. Over here, asshole. All right.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Thank you, Solid. Just a minute. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Look at it. Just a minute.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Hurry up, motherfucker. Yeah, take it in, bitch. Take it off.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

That's a good bite. Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

You should see what I can do with a dick, motherfucker. Try this in.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

Try this in once. Oh yeah, she can do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Hey, that would be one good only fan segment.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

You wanna get one in the middle, baby?

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Uh-uh. So what you think? I think you can handle it back here. How much you would make a number? Um, you gotta talk to Mari about that. I don't even know how much the fuck I make a number.