[I was a fireman] 20 years. It was all volunteer. Then the department elected its officers. During the Second World War, there was no one in Cary except young people and old people. I was trained with the fire department when I was 12 years old. I answered my first fire call when I was 15. The chief gave me the hose and sent me through the window. I went all around the room and was able to put it out. We held it in that one room.

Pete Murdock

I was in the volunteer fire department in '52. It was all volunteer; we didn't have paid firemen. Mr. Midgette was the [fire chief] in Cary. He come up to me and says, "Pete, would you like to be chief of the fire department?"

I says, "I don't know. You're going to have to check with all them boys out there to see whether they want me to be chief of the fire department." So he talked with them and they said yes, it would be all right with all of them.

We had Fireman's Day in Cary, always the first Saturday in May. All the fire departments around would come in, bands would come in and be in the parade. We'd have a fish fry at Cary Elementary School, then we'd have a square dance down the side of Ashworth's [Drugstore]. I would call bingo that Saturday night. We'd make money like that. [That's how] we got that big Seagrave fire truck. [I was a fireman] about fifteen years. I was only chief two years, and then we elected another chief, Bob Heater.

Robert Godbold

They'd blow the siren on the corner of the drugstore, and the men in town would come up and find out where the fire was and go. That's what it amounted to. I went on the fire department in '56 and spent 20 years. My brother was on it too.

We had the first Fireman's Day in North Carolina. That's a day where we had a big fish fry and a street dance and sold raffle tickets and all to raise money to build a fire station. It was a lot of fun.

Ned Perry

When I came to Cary [as the paid fire chief] in October of 1975, it was a combination paid and volunteer department.

We had 11 volunteers and 14 paid personnel. As funds were available, we increased the numbers of the paid personnel over a period of eight or ten years. We kept our volunteers until they chose to retire or move.

They were eligible for a retirement program under the North Carolina Firemen's Pension Fund. Several volunteers in Cary completed 20 years and are drawing that pension today.

[I was fire chief until] I retired in 1993.

Cary's Heritage is taken from the book, "Just a Horse-Stopping Place," an Oral History of Cary, N.C. .