Cal Hammond recalls the many calls he took as a volunteer firefighter

The lines of the Morris Fire Protection and Ambulance District weren’t set until 1991, which meant the Morris Fire Department had a lot more ground to cover as a volunteer department in the time before it.

Cal Hammond, a Morris firefighter for 48 years, recalls much of it, whether the calls kept him in Morris, had him traveling to Dwight and Coal City, or even had him and the rest of the department out on the Illinois River in the days before there was a specialized river rescue squad.

He did all of this while working as a press operator at the Morris Daily Herald and, after that, running his own print shop. Hammond still owns his own print shop today, Cal’s Printing at 123 W. Illinois Ave. in Morris. There were times when he’d be in the middle of printing the next day’s paper and he’d have to run off, leaving someone to do the job by themselves while the delivery boys waited for the printing job to finish.

“It wasn’t too often you had to shut it down,” Hammond said. “You had to get the paper out. We’d usually run the printing press around 3 in the afternoon, I think, and it was 45 minutes to run the paper.”

Most can’t afford it now. The guys going back then were self-employed. We had plumbers and electricians, you know. We had a lot more self-employed people. They could get away.”

—  Cal Hammond

There were days where something would come up, and they’d hold the press back a bit, or something would break down, but Hammond said that didn’t happen too often. He said that in those days, there were enough people who knew how to run the press that it wasn’t a big deal if he had to run for a fire call.

He can’t imagine an employer allowing that these days.

“Most can’t afford it now,” Hammond said. “The guys going back then were self-employed. We had plumbers and electricians, you know. We had a lot more self-employed people. They could get away.”

The firefighters didn’t have pagers back then, either. Instead, they had bells in the house that would ring when a fire call went out, and the station had a bell that would ring, letting everyone know the firefighters were heading out on a call. The new Morris Fire Station at 200 Armstrong St., which isn’t yet open, still has a bell, although it’s electric.

Hammond said he still helps out on calls by handing out water and Gatorade as the firefighters need them. Meanwhile, he bikes or walks to his shop every day, where he works, occasionally taking breaks to pet his cats.