Monday, September 10, 2012


I would ask everyone check out the links on this post.

Please visit Rescue 1's web site to see some of the others and the great history that they where a part of.
http://www.rescue1fdny.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Please visit our own squidkidd's dad site and see what a wonderful project he took upon himself to under take. I will never be able to thank Henry Kidd enough for all he has done.
http://www.henrykiddart.com/91101.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




I can't believe another years has gone by. I'm sure most of everyone knows by now that I was originally from the "Big Apple." I lived there for the first 33 years of my life and always wanted to be a New York City firemen since I was 5. I had the honor to know a few of the guys from Rescue 1 and was very supportive when I was taking all the test to just make the list. They where there for me from the moment I put in my application to when I got the letter to start the academy. It took a total of 8 years from the point of the application until they starting calling people. The FDNY had the biggest list prior to 9/11. My list was 42,631 deep. The guys from rescue one kept my spirits up and would offer to pay any of the fees that was needed to take the test. I don't think I could have done it without their support. It went a long way.

I worked as personal trainer in a near by gym and would see them almost every day. They would ask me to go with them on ride-a-longs and if they ever saw me walking home they would give me a lift home ( at the time I lived right down the block from them). I got dragged to a few fires because of it but that was ok. Thats where I wanted to be anyway.

When I did finally got the letter to start in the FDNY I had moved out west 4 months before for my wife's job. I had to turn down the FDNY 2 days before my start date. It was the hardest thing I had to do. Now being out west and had to start the whole thing from scratch I used their strength of character to get though all the training. I had to start a little older than most guys but got though everything and enjoyed every moment.

I wanted to share this with everyone here so they know a little something about these guys that meant so much to me. They gave so much so I think we should remember them this day of September 11
.
Firefighter Patrick O'Keefe Rescue1




Battalion Chief John Moran Battalion 49



Lieutenant Dennis Mojica Rescue 1


Captain Terrance Hattan Resue 1


Captain Patrick Brown Ladder 3

Firefighter Joseph Angelini sr. Rescue 1


The biggest regret I have is not going fishing with my friend Patrick. I will miss him and all the guys that I now call fallen brothers.


Please don't forget what they did on that day.


John

Friday, September 7, 2012


I wanted to give everyone a peak at how I work. I know most think I work one hat at a time but that would not be very productive at all. I work on a dozen and a half at a time. Sometimes more, sometimes less. This is one reason why I can't give an exact time for when ones hat will be done. A month is all I can do at this time.

 Im going to start with 4 photo's and add to them when I can. I'm open to any questions you might ask.

I'm going to start with me prepping bows/ribbon and sweatbands while I wait for the felt bodies to dry at one point of the production.





As you can see that I built and prepped the bows and measured and cut the sweatbands.