I was up on my aluminum ladder between storms and football games on the weekend, and the November breeze carried back some memories of long ago November Sundays and aluminum ladders.

Back in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, the boys from the Zone 1 Volunteer Fire Department put up the Christmas lights in the downtown in November and took them down in February. It always seemed to be planned on Grey Cup day or Super Bowl week-end.

The strings of lights were pretty basic — coloured 60-watt bulbs attached to cable with a hook on each end and a plug. The tricky part was that the eyes for those hooks were set in the wooden telephone poles about 30 feet off the ground, and that’s where we came in.

We would pick up the strings of lights from storage, each one supposedly tagged with the right string for the right location, and take the trucks with the 40-foot ladders out to Fraser Highway.

The senior guys would get to attach the cable ends on one side first, then the rookies would carry the other end up, stretching the cable as you climbed. Once you were up you had to wrap your leg around the rungs in a leg lock, grab the pole with one arm and pull for all your might to set the hook.

As you were straining in this precarious position, you were encouraged from down below: “C’mon ya wimp, do I have to come up there and do that?” “Do you want me to call my wife to come give you a hand?” “I thought we hired men to do this job?”

Then after you got it hooked, you went up one more rung and plugged it in. It was more dangerous than any fire we ever fought.

But it always looked great when it was done and it wasn’t until much later that I realized if you organized something on Grey Cup day, everyone worked a little faster to get the job done. From a training perspective, there were many times down the road that I found myself leg locked onto a ladder directing a high pressure hose stream down onto a fire knowing I wasn’t a wimp and that I didn’t need someone to come up and do the job for me.

Putting up those lights was pretty basic training, but as the streets got wider and the City purchased a bucket truck, our Christmas light crew was phased out and no one was ever injured, at least physically. A lot of those men from those Sunday mornings are gone now, but their humour and wisdom lingers on. Those were great Sundays.

The exercise also taught us a little bit about our department. There were some who never showed up for those mornings, and participation is a good measure of the success of your organization. Some never flip the burgers or pound the nails but they show up in their best bib and tucker for the Christmas party. Some never run for office or attend the business meetings, but they sure know how the association should be run.

If you are part of an organization, don’t be afraid to take a risk. Climb to the top of the ladder, pull for all you are worth, disregard the cat calls from below. I can assure you when you get the job done, it feels pretty good. At least that’s what McGregor says.