European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 07, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes tuesday june 7, 1977 new York the lieutenant looked up when Lenny Smit walked into the firehouse to Start his  got a letter or you the lieutenant  did t want to touch the letter. But the lieutenant put it into his hands and Smit walking up the stairs to his locker opened it. Mayor came and i express our sincere regrets the letter began. After working a year and a half As a new York City fireman Smit was being Laid off. He stared out a window at the hot West Side Street. This Wasin june of 1975 and Lenny Smit had no idea of what he would do for a living. Once he had taught in a parochial elementary school and had tended bar on the Side. He could t eve do that now school was closed. He went to the phone and called his wife Elizabeth. She handled this particular Call All right. Three Days later the mailman came Tomsit s House in Staten Island with another  they Don t have to Lay you off his wife  give me one break Here Smit said. When he opened it he found a copy of the letter he had received at the firehouse. On his last Day of work on july 1, 1975,Smit and his wife went to the firehouse to clean out his locker. As his wife began taking things out of the locker she began to cry Smit told her to Stop. Then he started tory too. He was Young and somebody sitting in an office someplace with ledgers was taking his Way of life away from him. When he got up the next morning he had to find a Job. He delivered new cars from new Jersey for eight dollars a car. In the fall his wife s Cousin a principal of a Paro Chial school in Manhattan got him a couple of Days of teaching each week. Then the Cousin left. Smit went on unemployment at$95 a week. He wanted to save lives for a living and he was Home watching , he caught on As a Driver for United parcel service. The Job paid $225 week. Walking into work in the morning was not the same. Lenny loved going into a fire House. But the delivery truck Job was there a rail on a wet deck and there now was baby at Home. He was going to stay with this Job. Then one morning last september he showed up for work and found pickets in front of the  can go  the Boss told Lenny. Uliey re shutting the place Down until the strike s  to walk the streets and ask for work an then  return Home and stare at television can do physical damage to a Man Ever bit As real As a broken Bone. It was close in this Case. As Lenny Smit s life started to drip away on sidewalks common sense made itself Felt to the people running the City. How can you Lay off firemen in a City that Burns Down fiscal responsibility be comes moral irresponsibility. Last fall on unemployment Smit hear from the fire Union that there was a Chance he would be rehired. In november he received a letter from the City saying he could have his Job Back. On the Day after Christ Mas Lenny Smit his body swinging walked into ladder co. 24 on West 31st Street. Head been gone for a year and a half and we nearly had lost him but now he was Bac again. He was at the firehouse when the alarm rang for a fire on 28th Street Between Broadway and sixth Avenue a big fire. The lock is in the Flower Market. By Day it is crowded with crates of plants and rows of potted Bushes filling the sidewalks a City Street that smells like a country Field. A night the District looks like another empty factory Block. The gloomy three Story build ing at no. 28 West is 100 years old and has. Been a health club since the 1920s. For thelast couple of years 11 has been called the Everard Baths an All night place frequented by homosexuals. As the engine carrying Lenny Smit came up to the building there were windows on the third floor Small rectangles and the were filled with faces. Get them Smit told himself. Get  body strained to run and As the engine stopped Lenny Smit was off it hand grabbing for a ladder. He and an older fire Man named Loughlin threw one ladder up tothe rectangular windows High up on the building. Loughlin went up first and Smi stayed at the Bottom steadying the ladder. Loughlin began pulling a Guy through the Small window. The truck s Aerial ladder came up to the windows. The Aerial had platform. Loughlin got the one Guy onto the platform and now Lenny Smit went up the ladder. He went up very fast and the ladder Shook As he came into the smoke and heat and the faces at the window. We got you Don t worry about it Smi called to them. The faces did not answer. Fear had turned them to  reached in and grabbed one Guy under the arms and pulled him through the window and hauled him to the platform of the Aerial ladder. He turned and went Backoo the window. Nobody was there. The ones who had been there had passed out in the smoke. Smit and Loughlin had no masks on. They went through the window head firsthand tumbled onto the floor in the smoke and began to pick up bodies. Smit remembers that he had his hands on five people who were pushed and tugged through the windows. He grabbed breath through the windows and then put his face Back into the smoke again. Now they were left with one Guy and Loughlin was holding the Guy s face up to the window trying to give him air and then he pushed him out through the window and onto the Aeria ladder. Lenny Smit went Down on All fours with his nose on the floor and he began to crawl away from the windows. He wanted to get More people. He kept telling himself that the window were directly behind him. He could see no fire but he could hear it everywhere. Ahead of him. Straight Back into the blackness men were screaming. Smit crawled and his ears began to pain him. The ears Tell it to you first get out. Smit turned around nos directly against the floor and began to move like a dog. When he reached the Wall became up and Dove for the window the ladder was right there. Altogether 20 lives were saved by Smiland three or four other firemen who made it to the windows. When Smit got Down to the truck he strapped on a mask and oxygen tank and went into the building through the ground floor doorway. He made his Way up to the second floor but now it was useless. The third floor had collapsed. The water Cascad ing Down on Smit was boiling hot. The fire was conquering the water being thrown on it. Lenny Smit had to turn around and crawl out of the building. He went onto the Street and took off his mask and sat Down on the truck with Loughlin. They looked up at the windows which were filled with flame now and both started to become emotional. They had been forced to leave people inside a fire. Somebody in charge passed by the Engin and he waved for a doctor. The doctor took a look at the older one Loughlin. Put an Armon his shoulder and took him away to the surgeon s office for a Complete  worry about them when they re Over 35. The doctor left Smit alone. He knew that Smit would get Over it. He was Only 28, which is the perfect age for a fighter. Be sides there is nothing the matter with people like this being upset. It is just another sign of How Good they arc. T new Vork in pm go Trabont Onn across 1 disease of fowl 4 air  8 location 12 epoch 13 moved swiftly14 Kiri 15 a White waxy solid 17 shield18-Mode 19 a new doctrine 21 Cottontail 24 pad for the hair 25 past26 fabled Bird 28 conical tent32 Chest sound 34 negative particle 38 sloping roadway37 one of the muses39 ending for men or sten41 River in spain42 House Wing 44 ethics46 Safe shelter 50 insane51 River in England 52 a pattern 56 actress Negri 57 Ireland 58 yellow or coral51 legendary archer60 baronet s wife61 Conger down1 Energy 2 or. Gershwin 3 a plane curve4 asocial function 5 sprites strap for horse s bit7 possessor i a refuge9 villain in "othello"10 neat 11 facile avg. Solution time 24 min. T -7 answer to yesterday s Puzzle. 16 a vestment20 Cereal Grain 21 unusual22 seaweed product23 ending for car or cot27 tent bed 29 Eden 30 actor j arming 31 epic poetry33 everlasting 35 male turkey38 Corrida cheer 40agypsy 43 coat part45 dosage of absorbed radiation 46 engrossed 47 cry of bacchanals48 Turnpike charge 49 Scarlett s Home a Odiser. Cumber 54 command to a horse55 ending for nor or for today s crossword 6-7 dear Ann your letter about  wives and Abby husbands got to me. I refer to your statement slow me a married Man who looks like refugee from a rummage Sale and i la show you a wife who does t care about  my husband s appearance has been the Bane of my existence. I would give anything if he would take some Pride in the Way he looks. But it s hopeless. I have bought him Beautiful shirts and ties even dragged him int stores and made my buy hand some suits but they hang in the closet. He does t want to Wear them out or get them  after Day he goes to the office i he s an executive in threadbare Slacks and jackets with patches on the elbows. He look see a care package. I just die when i think he is meeting clients colleagues and other executives who Are Well  is nothing i can do about it because that s the Way he is. I hurts when you say it s the wife s fault just medea you i received dozens of letters from women who Are sing ing your song. Here s another Ann Landers my husband looks like a refugee from a rum Mage Sale and it s not my  do care but he is stubborn As an of and refuses to buy himself decent clothes. He says he is much happier when he buy second hand suits. The Man makes $52,000 a year and has . I say he s sick. What do you say his wife dear wife i can t improve on your diagnosis. You be pegged  on there i More dear Ann when my husband was courting me he looked like a million dollars. After we we remarried he decided he did t need to dress up  pleaded with him to buy some new suits even gave him gift certificates for his birthday and Christmas. He never used them. Finally i threw our almost everything in his closet and left just enough for him to get himself downtown and buy new clothes. He was furious but it worked. And looks like that Guy i used to know.  Sweet i m not recommending your solution to every body. But glad it worked for  s More dear Ann if a husband does t want to dress like a Fash Ion plate i say leave him alone. My old Man never cared much for clothes. After we were mar ried seven years be began Toby italian shoes and tailor made suits. He also went in for fancy colognes and cuff links things he never used  i found out he was having an affair caught him Flat footed in a Motel. He and she were checking in and i was buying magazines. I gave him a Nice Belto nodded to her and walked out half an hour later he was Home on his Knees in his Cream coloured gab Ardine suit begging me to for give him. He swore never again and that was the end of  is dressing More like he used to and it s perfectly All right with me. Content dear Content glad your Story had a Happy ending. 1c �7 Field eur run inc