okay, so you can have a good laugh at my expense, in the last 3 weeks ive found all my bedsheets, pillow and blanket in the freezer. my boots have been tossed off of a 30 story building after a training exercise, i've had the tanker quick dump dumped on me twice, that's ice cold water! we got dispatched and arrived on a scene and i found an interesting undergarment strategically placed in my bunker gear, went to my locker to get changed and my underwear was gone and replaced by a pair of womens thong underwear, my last name on my locker was replaced with a piece of tape and written on it reads "jerkoff" i went to drink my coffee the other day and realized a little too late that someone put superglue on the handle. i found my hat up on top of the flag pole one morning. the other day i had one guy calling the rear phone, another calling the office phone, on at the front door and another at the back door all at the same time, yea they were laughing their asses off at me watching me run around like a freak not knowing which way to go first LOL. this morning the alarms went off, i jumped out of bed to grab my gear and go but my gear was gone, so i go down in just my socks and underwear and there's the crew laughing their asses off! good thing i have thick skin and these are good guys lol.

Jesse,

i am constantly amazed at your inner strength. so much of my abuse by my brother and his friends involved complete humiliation with them laughing at me ... by now i would have quit the job.

i admire your strength and am slightly jealous at your ability to be "just one of the guys".

Mark

hey thanks, its all part of the act, being a ff is more important to me then how i feel if im humiliated so, yea i suck it up, laugh and smile right along with them. this probie shit won't last long and like i said, theyre good guys, not out to hurt me, just have to get me in line, its just how it works. believe me inside im torn up most of the time but like i said, its part of the act and out of everything my father thought he was teaching me thru abuse, it was the being able to suck it up part that i really learned.

Jesse,

We used to do pranks at my old airline job. One guy is sitting at a test panel with some high voltage gear hooked up to it and flips a test switch. At the same time he goes click, someone from behind pops bubble wrap. Watch them scramble to get the switch back off! Someone once tied the arms of my jacket so that when I went to put it on, I couldn't push my hand all the way through the sleeve. I in turn put some of his tools back in his tool box so he would have to get them back out, but I lined the edge of the drawer with lotion so his fingers felt the goo when he opened it back up. Or someone working on an RF generator uses it to interfere with the radio across the aisle that is playing country music. The list goes on...

Andy

i am SO warped

andy yea its funny harmless shit supposed to make me feel welcome there lol

funny ...

well, i guess it's no surprise i don't see it - but as long as you do, that's what matters here

Just as a side note Jesse, I hope they are ok with the favor being returned.

LOL, you mean you hope the NEXT probie is OK with the favor being returned!

I suppose there is that pattern of paying it forward, yes. lol

I was thinking more along the lines of pay-back, like it happened at my old job.

ah right there's no payback to the seniors here, or at any fire station that i know of, they were all probies once and had to put up with the shit too. right, its all about paying it forward, someday i'll get to throw someones boots off the 30 story traning facility too LOL good thing they have steel toes huh? it was actually pretty funny watching them fly... but it sucked to have to walk back down in my socks!

At my old job, we wore badges at the airport and the hangars. A few of us got on the elevator once and just before the doors closed, one of the guys grabbed my badge and tossed it out the elevator doors right when they closed! Didn't seem funny at the time, but looking back I can only laugh.

A

lmao, yea i think thats pretty funny.

someday i'll get to do it to somebody else ...
this is a valid reasoning??

honest question guys - i do NOT get this at ALL!

M

Mark these seem like they would be cruel pranks if played on people, I understand; but, the pranks are actually done in a spirit of fun and are part of the culture of those particular jobs.

we have the same craic when a new officer joins the team in the malls, when you have the full run of a shopping mall at night the things you can do are endless, sending rookies of to fetch the good ole useless objects, e.g like gettin the long stand from the basment, or the striped paint, or after they hoist the flag in the morning telling them they hung it upsidedown and laugh your ass off watching them take it all the way down turning it around and putting it back up, even funnier is their reaction when they realise what they done (the irsh flag cant be upsidedown). or sowing their trouser legs closed before they come to get changed. my fav was puttin a load of party poppers in someones locker with the strings all tied off to the door.

mark, these pranks arent done with cruel intentions and believe me when i say no one does anything or goes so far as to really hurt anyone, its just a lot of bullshit ball busting because im the low guy on the totem. the seniors get respect you know? like i said they were all probies at one time and had to fall in line, be shown the pecking order, its just the way it is, the way its always been, it might sound messed up but if they didnt pull pranks on me and remind me that my job right now is to cook, clean and haul equipment i wouldnt feel wanted there. and look at it this way, when we're on a call and heading into an inferno, i know damn well who my cap is, who i take orders/direction from and i know i can trust him, not only that but i know these guys have my back on the job. and yea some of this shit does bother me, a lot, and it all has to do with the abuse but like i said in a different post, this job is more important to me than my feelings about my past.
when i say someday ill get to do it someone else, is it a valid reasoning? yea, it is, its tradition, im not gonna hurt anyone or make anyone feel like shit mark but am i gonna trick him into standing behind the dumper so i can soak him? hell yes! not everything has to be related to abuse, not everything IS abuse, some things are just about tradition, comradere, bonding. im not gonna feel bad about it, im not going to let the fucking abuse shit stop me from feeling normal for one time in my fucking life!

i'm sorry - you're right of course. this is my issue i need to deal with. i didn't mean to side-track the conversation.

what matters is you're ok with what goes on.

M

Coming from a firefighter family...well hey its part of deal ain't it....humiliating...maybe but it builds a bond that is unbreakable. I have seen guys retired for 20 years hanging out at station one just BSing with the guys. Its a bond i dont understand but I have seen it so often.

its tradition, makes me feel like part of the team

one time I pulled my patrol car up to the edge of a bank at the river so when you open the door you fall in the river. The guy riding with me fall asleep so i uplled up there hit the light and screamed there he goes he open the door and went right in the river. we still laugh about that one LOL

one time I pulled my patrol car up to the edge of a bank at the river so when you open the door you fall in the river. The guy riding with me fall asleep so i uplled up there hit the light and screamed there he goes he open the door and went right in the river. we still laugh about that one LOL

this isnt career related but i was rafting and a guy always brings fireworks some one through a m80 out of our boat and it floated underneath the boat in front of us blew a hole straight through it... it was very funny although it wasnt quite a prank more of a accident.... we had to tape the guys boat back up but he laughed it off it was all for fun

Mark i understand not getting these jokes for a long time i didnt get them either. my brother picked on me to no end. so i naturaly thought that any one who teases or plays a joke on you is being mean to you. i was in scouts though and somthing pretty embarasing happend to me... i was very upset by how the older kids were making fun of me but then one of them came and talked to me and he said once we tease you your in your one of us.

i think large groups of males are naturally going to pick on each other even when the group truly cares about one another