Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: chief

They bought the Chief a Buick. Martin Sernstinger took a bunch of photographs of Kalamazoo fire equipment in the mid-1950s; they have the look of official photographs but it's quite possible he was a firefighter. I inherited these pix from my dad, who was a firefighter for much of that decade. This photo was taken at the Kalamazoo fairgrounds; the horse-racing oval is in the background. I always thought that grandstand was something wonderful. Explored! #376 on Saturday, July 5, 2008, but no longer in the day's top 500. Thanks!

Kalamazoo Fire Department, circa 1955. No idea whose house that was, nor where. Clearly not a fire station, though. Continuing my series of Martin Sernstinger photographs, inherited from my father, who was a Kalamazoo firefighter for much of the 1950s.

Railroad carferry Chief Wawatam at St. Ignace in either 1977 or 1978. The Chief was the last and greatest of the Mackinac Straits railroad ferries. By 1978, cross-strait rail traffic had been reduced to a trickle, and this ship's crossings were relatively rare. She'd retire in 1984, be cut down a few years later, and is now in service as a barge. Since I didn't know our family had ever photographed her, discovering this snapshot was a bit of a shock. I scanned a carousel of slides this afternoon. Except for this picture and a couple fine Marquette photographs, the set is pretty much a generic northern Michigan set. The box believes the photographs were taken by my brother , but there's some internal evidence that at least half, including this one, were likely taken by my sister . Regardless, this photograph was developed and made into a slide in May of 1978. Debbie, Dick: Do either of you remember taking this? My best guess is that Debbie took the shot, from Sandy Kimbrough's car , just days before the set was developed.