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I received this one from both Abie and Dragnet about a New Jersey Italian
Volunteer Fire Company...

One dark night in the small town in Garfield, NJ, a fire started inside the local
sausage factory. In a blink the building was engulfed in flames. An alarm
went out to all the fire departments for miles around.

When the first volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the sausage
company president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All of our secret sausage
recipes are in the vault in the center of the plant. They have to be saved, so I
will donate $50,000 to the fire company that brings them out and delivers them
to me."

But the roaring flames held the firefighters off. Soon more fire departments had
to be called in because the situation became desperate. As the firemen arrived,
the president announced that the offer to extricate the secret recipes was now
$100,000to the fire department that could save them.

Suddenly from up the road, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came
into sight. It was the fire engine of the nearby Lodi, NJ Volunteer Fire Company.
and was comprised mainly of Italian firefighters over the age of 65.

To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine, operated by these
older firefighters, passed fire engines parked outside the plant, and drove straight
into the middle of the inferno.

Outside, the other firemen watched in amazement as the Italian old timers jumped
off and began to fight the fire as if they were fighting to save their own lives.

Within a short time, the Lodi old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the
secret recipes.

The grateful sausage company president joyfully announced that for such a
superhuman accomplishment he was raising the reward to $200,000. He then
walked over to personally thank each of the brave elderly Italian firefighters.

A TV news crew rushed in after capturing the event on film. The on-camera
reporter asked the Italian fire chief, "What are you going to do with all that
money?"

"Well-a," said Chief Pasquale De Luccinelli,the 70-year-old fire chief, "de furst-a
ting-a we gonna do iz-a fix-a de brakes on dat fockin-a truck!"
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