The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Years of service, fellowship, memories
Jefferson Fire Company’s Chester Cloud feted for 65 years with the organization
WEST NORRITON » 1953 was a very big year. The first color television set went on sale at the bargain price of $1,175. The Korean War ended in July. Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president. Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. And 21-year-old Chester Cloud signed up as a volunteer member of the Jefferson Fire Co. No.1.
“I knew the chief from the neighborhood,” recalls Cloud. “I told him that I was interested in volunteering. He handed me an application. I filled it out, and I was soon accepted, He was a good chief. He listened to what you had to say, was approachable and we worked as a team.”
Cloud has seen a lot of changes in his 65 years of volunteer fire service, including 25 years as a fire policeman. For his long tour of duty, Cloud was recognized early this year at a Jefferson FC banquet given in his honor. Company members, local and state dignitaries, and family members, showered him with words of praise and thank you’s. For his achievement, he was given plaques and certificates of appreciation.
This was not the first time
Cloud was recognized for his service. Throughout the years, he has been awarded numerous certificates, citations, and commendations from the fire company and area fire police officers.
But what he remembers and cherishes the most are the many, diverse incidents that marked his time with Jefferson FC.
Perhaps his first memorable event occurred in 1968 when his mother, Miranda Cloud, was awakened from a sound sleep by flashes of light coming through her shades at her home in West Norriton Township. Since it was New Year’s Day 1968, she fully expected that the light came from exploding fireworks. Peering out the window, she saw embers overhead. She quickly called her firefighter son, Chester.
“My mom asked me ‘Where is the fire?’ I said ‘Mom, there is no fire. Please go back to bed.’ She got all excited and replied, ‘Yes, there is a fire. There are embers flying over my house.’ My mom was right. There was a fire at the Presbyterian Church. I immediately raced over,” recalled Cloud.
Ordinarily, Cloud pointed out, he relied on the fire alarm bell and the house siren to alert him when a fire was in progress. “The fire alarm bell makes a shrilling sound when it goes off and, in the middle of the night, it promptly jolts me out of bed.” But on this occasion, he turned off the fire alarm bell out of courtesy to the baby-sitter who was taking care of their three daughters, Margie, Eleanor, and Karen.
During his early years with Jefferson, Cloud was dating a girl who would later become Mrs. Edith Cloud. When Cloud told her that he was a volunteer firefighter, “I told him, ‘Good for you. You like it — OK then,’” recalled Edith. “I was not overly concerned about him being a firefighter till I saw him in action once. He was fighting a house fire at School Lane and Egypt Road. He was holding a hose shooting water onto the flames that were leaping out of the house.
“‘Oh my,’ I thought. This is a dangerous job.”
Getting up in his years, Cloud had difficulty with the physical work. Yet, he still wanted to remain a volunteer with the fire company. In 1993, he became the company’s first fire policeman. “The responsibility of a fire policeman is to direct traffic away from the fire or the accident scene. You have to talk professionally and calmly to the drivers. You tell them: ‘I am sorry but you cannot go up that road. You’ll have to use the alternate,’” explained Cloud.
He well remembers a fire police incident that took place on Prospect Avenue. “I was holding a flare, directing traffic away from going up Highland Avenue. Some guy in his new pick-up truck came within inches of me. He made rude remarks to me and said to get my flare away. I told him if he does not get away from me now, he would not have that pickup truck. We were throwing jabs at one another. I accidently tilted the flare onto his hood and singed it up,” recalled Cloud.
Cloud was born and raised in West Norriton Township on Prospect Avenue. He attended West Norriton Elementary School, Stewart Middle School and graduated from A. D. Eisenhower School. In 1951, he entered the Navy and was honorably discharged in 1955. He then started working in his father’s radio shop called Cloud Radio Shop in Norristown. When his dad died, he took over the business. And later, he took a job with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit as a computer repairman. He was assigned to schools that needed his attention.
“I decided to take this job. Something different. I did not know anything about computers. I did it for a while and got the knack of it,” confessed Cloud
From 1998 to 2017, Cloud worked as a landscaper at the Westover Country Club in West Norriton Township. “I was in my glory,” stated Cloud. “I loved working outdoors, and was my own boss.”