*My Ambulance Days
Lights and Sirens Blaring!
Once upon a time, as all true stories begin, there was a group of friends who met nightly for Bible study, sitting on the grassy banks of a hill in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Songs rang out in praise of God and there was enough love to go all around.
In order to put their faith into action, it was decided that an ambulance company would begin to serve those who needed it in the town.
In 1972, friends of ours, Bill and Marie Brown, decided to become investors in the local ambulance company my husband had established.
The first rig was purchased.
Hearses can have many uses, it seems.
First aid classes were begun as we learned the skills which would be needed.
One learning session was conducted in the driveway of the ambulance company with ‘practice’ injured people all around. My son, many years later, is still traumatized by what he thought happened that day. He was only 2 years old! Didn’t I explain what was going on that day? I sure hope so!
The ambulance company, situated on the main thoroughfare between Kalamazoo and Portage in Michigan, was named Kal Port.
Uniforms for the men were purchased.— blue pants for the guys with white ‘doctor’ shirts. They all looked crisp and clean. Kal Port Ambulance patches were sewn on strategically.
Another woman and I got out our sewing machines to stitch up some blue uniforms for the two of us.
One lady was designated as the Dispatcher — answering the emergency phone and sending the ambulance out to the correct address. I was the R.N. who was on stand-by since I had a two year old and couldn’t run out the door at a moment’s notice.
To fill out the ranks of ambulance personnel, a friend from Detroit was brought to help. He was an EMT and KNEW what to do in emergency situations. He had his work cut out for him as he ‘worked’ every single call, day and night. Everyone else rotated.
We lived in the house where the ambulance was ‘housed’ . It was a busy place! The basement was for Dispatching and for the guys to sleep.
Upstairs on the second and third floors was ‘my’ domain as I tried to keep a semblance of a home — cooking nutritious meals and keeping healthy food stocked in the cupboards for hungry workers.
The EMT friend would thoroughly enjoy the meals I cooked, especially the tuna sandwiches. Yet at the end of each meal, he declared he was going over to Taco Bell. I still laugh at that to this day. He was like a bottomless pit as I tried to fill him with food. He later informed me that he had Taco Bell after each emergency run. Who knew since it was located two doors away.
As the ambulance crew grew, having one house was not sufficient. Thus, next door was a huge country style home where one of the crew lived with his wife and newborn twins.
On the other side, there were apartments above a dentist’s office. Married couples lived there, each having their own space.
When an emergency call would come in, alarms would sound in each residence that an ambulance was needed and the crew would spring into action. One fellow even had to jump over a fence to get to the ambulance.
We were always ‘on’, becoming exhausted. We never knew when a call would come in. My husband, the ‘owner’ of the company, slept each night with the police scanner going. THAT was NOT conducive to rest while sleeping as the static went on 24–7.
According to the newspaper, we became known as “The ambulance company which makes its runs for Jesus.”
If someone could pay or have insurance, they were billed. There were many poor, though, who couldn’t pay so they were served for free in the name of Jesus.
Even my son at age 2–4 helped by lending muscle to help wash the ambulance and wheelchair van.
Since competition between the two ambulance companies in town was SO stiff, my son’s biggest job was that if we heard a siren from the competitor’s ambulance, he would stand at the big picture window in the living room declaring, “Ambulance going north!” He was so young! He could barely talk. We’d always need to double check to make sure he didn’t get his north or south mixed up.
Competition was ‘on’ as one morning we woke up to find sugar in the ambulance’s gas tank. NOT good!
The sugar was cleaned out and we were back in service that same day.
For me, I didn’t care for emergency runs but preferred the pre-scheduled wheel chair runs. I am NOT suited to emergencies!
One emergency run is especially memorable. After picking up lunch at a nearby fast food place, we received an emergency call while we were in the ambulance. On went the lights and siren as we flew down the busy city street, over the top of a hill and down the other side to someone in need.
After three years of service, the crew was getting burned out. They weren’t getting paid … they had families to support … hard feelings were developing between some of the crew. It was time to stop.
Sadly, everyone scattered and the ambulance service was closed.
All that is left are a couple of photos and memories of a special time.
Sometimes that’s good enough!
Thank you for joining me in my journey down Memory Lane.
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