A Small Town Love Story: Colonial Beach, Virginia. Sherryl Woods

can remember being called away from school many times to answer emergency calls. She took calls at night, as well.

      At one point, while Carlton was driving a truck for Norman Oil, he got an emergency call and ditched the truck on the side of the street so that he could shift into volunteer mode and handle the emergency. The passing fire truck stopped so he could jump onboard.

      Eventually employers tired of losing staff to these volunteer duties, and the town and county combined to bring in paid workers. Staffing for both the fire department and the rescue squad continues to be supplemented by dedicated volunteers, with each group supported by active ladies auxiliaries who do their share to see that funding needs are met.

      1955 Rescue Squad: Gander Frank, Vaughan Drummond, Mac Coates

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad building, 1950s

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad: C. Hudson, E. Moore, E. Fenwick, C. Lee, C. Lee and E. Baird (from left to right)

      Carlton and Pat both admit it’s not always easy taking calls when the emergency involves people they know well in the community. Pat recalls going to the scene of a fire at Carlton’s house, in fact, and racing around to the back of the house to show firefighters where to find her longtime friend.

      “All Carlton could talk about was the fact that he wasn’t dressed,” she remembers. “I just kept telling him we had to get out of there.”

      Hospital workers are always pleased when the volunteers come in with a patient, she says. “Often we know their history. That’s the positive side of it.”

      But if Carlton is proud of the years he spent taking calls and driving the ambulance or a fire truck, he’s even more proud of the years he served in Korea.

      He was assigned to the motor pool. “If one of the jeeps broke down, I was sent to deal with it.”

      He remembers a staff meeting in which his first lieutenant stood up and announced Carlton would be taking over the motor pool. “Two months later he called me back in and said it was in better shape than it had been in years.”

      Not only had he kept the equipment in top working condition, he’d improved the record-keeping, too. “I had four of the best mechanics you could find and the best generator man. We got that motor pool straight,” he says proudly.

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad, 1950s

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad, 1969

      Vintage Fire Truck

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad, 1955

      Colonial Beach Rescue Squad, 1955

      At one memorable inspection, he recalls that though they did pass, points were taken off for one thing. “There was grease underneath our fingernails.”