I swear it was the car fires. Did you have the year of the Torino and the other one same make, 8 cyl with the stupid 4 inch rubber gas line gizmo, went from steel to rubber into the carb. We had at least one fire per shift for a while. Some other car had the rubber power steering hose right beside the manifold and one day while turning it spit the fluid on the manifold, which made a big white smoke before the big black smoke on the horizon.

Back in the day the masks were hidden under stuff in boxes. If you wore one you were a sucky-girl. We wore huge woolen mittens in the winter, carried one in your pocket soaked it with water and stuck it between your teeth.

After a car fire your pulse raced for hours, all pumped up like Arnie would say..suck the plastic smoke, it's GOOD for you.

Here the cancer you had (if you were 15 years on the force) is covered as 'presumptive'. Means of course it's work related. 80k payout the day of the diagnosis, it's a work injury, too many stats say so. In my case they are saying it's lymphatic and I have the 20 years to cover that. Last week week it was for sure lung cancer, until the CT scan came back clean. That was going to be a fight, if you smoked they push back and did for 6 years, other than the odd Cuban.


John Conley
Musica est vita