I am sorry to hear of the passing of my dear friend and Captain, Kenneth Dickerson. I worked for KD my whole time at Talladega Fire Department. When I started the guys on my shift were KD, Jimmy Harrell, Grant Smith, Larry D. Vincent at Station 1. Lt. Joey Sexton and David Elston at Station 2. Roy Johnson was the Chief. That was my shift. I worked over on the other 2, but these were my original brothers. All have passed except LV, David and myself. Man, I miss those guys.

Not sure why I posted this. Most of the guys I worked with are gone now. When people tell you firefighting is a brotherhood you cannot understand it unless you've done it. Spending really more time with them than you do with you're actual family, you get close. Putting your life in others hands day after day, you get close. At TFD we really did do it every day. It has to be highest number of actual structure fires for a city that size in the country. Anyway, just miss my buddies.

I know what ya mean about true brothers. It’s hard for anyone to understand, and it’s often taken for granted by us (me too), but it’s a tight nit group. What city is TFD? Tuscaloosa,Trussville, talledega?

I would guess Talladega??



Thank you for your service.
May your Brothers' memories continue to be lived out through you.

God Bless,
David B.

I reckon you know Nick?

Sorry for your loss Hojo. I only met KD once at a retirement party so i can’t say i really know him but he seemed like a really nice person. You’re right, the group of guys you work with are just as close as your family. LV was my captain from the day i started until he retired. I guess we’ll be seeing you soon.

LV and I were close. Did he ever tell you about the sandwich throwing incident? It was a good one!!

I will be at the visitation on Wed night.

Oh yeah, he told me about the sandwich incident. I haven’t received any details about arrangements yet but i probably will tomorrow.

Sorry for your loss. Attended at least 10 friends funerals this year.

We had some good times! Ol Grant-- got a few over on him. The old Engine 1 was a Quality. It had a buzzer on the tail board for the days when guys actually rode on the tail board that would let the driver know you were ready. The speaker was in the cab. Anyway, we had to crank the trucks at 7 every night--just one of those things(???) Jimmy stated pressing the button and it got Grants attention. He kept on for a few minutes and Grant couldn't figure out what it was. Then we started taking turns pressing it and everyone would ask Grant what it was. After about 15 minutes, Grant called Roy (Chief) at home and told him we needed to take the truck out of service. Roy instantly knew what it was and chimed right in and made Grant take the phone over to the truck and hold the phone out so he could hear it. We were all dying!!!! Grant finally saw us standing in the window laughing and realized what was going on.

Another good one was the drop ceiling in the day room. Grant sat in the same chair every shift. At about 7 am I took a styrofoam cup and an IV catheter, poked it through the cup and ceiling and filled it with ice. The theory was it the ice would melt slowly and it would drip every few seconds. Well--- about 7:00 pm, and after we had all forgotten about it the whole cup unloaded in a stream. I guess just a small piece of ice was over the opening and finally melted. About 10 seconds of water hit him right between the eyes. He jumped up and yelled, "KD we done sprung a fu----- leak!!" We all busted out laughing and he knew I did it. He started chasing me around the room, then he fell off the couch and broke his foot. Explaining that to Roy was tough. It was an instant classic though!!!


Grant died a few years later from a heart attack while fighting a brush fire. He was a great guy.

Don't have many folks I consider a true friend. Have more acquaintances than true friends. With that said, had a close friend die a few years back and it was a special kind of hurt. Had family members pass and it not hit me as hard. Difficult to explain. Sorry for your loss of a friend. They can be hard to come by and never truly replaced.

Those are good times. I’ve got some good ones i could tell but i won’t put them on here to protect the innocent. The best fd stories I’ve ever heard were Rod Hall telling stories about Jeff Travis.

I graduated high school with Jeff. Tough as a pine not, smart as one too. There's so many stories about him........