Today we’ll finish up our little chat on the infamous Woodie’s Warehouse Sales (WWS) that we started yesterday HERE.  I was telling about the poor, elderly lady that had gotten trampled when the shopping mob tore into the building as the doors were opened.

Well, as the shift schedule worked out, our crew was working again the very next year when the big annual sale event took place.  But this time Woodie’s had learned their lesson after the previous year’s debacle.  They had better control on the entrance and were letting people in by batches in a more orderly way.  And about 15 minutes after the starting bell we relaxed.  A smooth start.

About an hour or so later, we got our first call of the day to the warehouse for a man down.  That called for both ambulance and engine to respond and sure enough, there was this poor soul in the rug department on the floor and no vitals.  So we began the full-blown CPR routine on him.

While the six of us were all doing our assigned tasks and concentrating on trying to get this guy back for a second chance at life, some woman comes over, grabs his ankle and lifts his leg so that she can pull out a rolled-up area rug he was laying on that she wanted to look at.  (I am not making this up.)  After she tugs the rug out, she lets his leg back down and walks away without a second glance at what’s going on.

We were all so busy with the CPR, and it happened so quicky, that none of us really noticed at the time what this dame was doing.  It didn’t register with us because it was so surreal.  It wasn’t until we got back to the station and started comparing notes and our recollections of the incident that we were able to piece together exactly what happened.  And then we were just flat-out flabbergasted.

There really are no words to describe what it felt like after realizing what went on.  You see an awful lot of strange things when you’re an emergency responder, but this was a genuine head-shaker.  Keeping in mind that these two events that I shared with you occurred about 30 years ago, you can see that civilization really hasn’t progressed much since then.

Just the same, we need to get this equipment checked out.  Sunday schedule today, turkey and biscuits for breakfast.  I’ll get the coffee started.

That was a weird coincidence yesterday morning with the Long Island Wal*Mart stampede (HERE) taking place just as I was making a quip in the Lineup about people getting trampled at a Wal*Mart (HERE).  I really wasn’t seeing into the future, but rather I was looking back into the past when I wrote that, thinking about the infamous “Woodie’s Warehouse Sales.”

There was a prominent department store chain centered in the D. C. area called Woodward & Lothrop that was known locally as Woodie’s.  And one of the fire stations I worked at was first-due in an industrial park that was the location of Woodie’s warehouse.  It was a huge place with a railroad spur built right into the building that carried the bulk of the stock for the chain’s dozen or so stores.  Once a year, in order to clear out strays and outdated merchandise, they would have a huge sale to make room for the incoming Christmas shopping inventory.

The warehouse was strictly that – a warehouse with no retail activity or sales space provided.  But one day a year they would open up a portion of the place for customers to wander through piles of clearance items that were marked way down so that they could be removed.  It was heavily advertised and promoted as the Woodie’s Warehouse Sale and was the forerunner of today’s mob scenes that you see now on the day after Thanksgiving.  And don’t mention the parking situation.

One year my shift was working on WWS day and moments after the doors opened for the event we got a call to respond there.  The crowd was so anxious to get to the goodies that when they swarmed in they knocked over an elderly lady who was in her late 60’s and ran right over her.  Fortunately, she was not seriously injured and no broken bones.  But she was banged up and bruised.  Even now I can still remember her words as we were getting her ready for transport:  “All I wanted was an electric broom.”

There’s more.  The next year our shift was working again on WWS day.  And it was a memory-maker, too.  We’ll cover Part 2 in tomorrow’s Lineup.  But for now, we’d better get this equipment checked out.  I’ll get the coffee going while you do that.

Update:  Part 2 is now posted HERE.

Happy Leftovers Day, everybody.  For the next three days nobody will be asking “What’s for dinner?”  It will be more like, “Again?!”  But when you see Mom pulling out the recipe for turkey croquettes, then it will be time to call the Chinese carry-out and sever the stuffing connection.

For the past 10 years or so, retailers have successfully convinced a segment of the population that the day after Thanksgiving will be your only chance to find good prices for Christmas presents and you absolutely must go shopping TODAY !  And enough people have fallen for it that the roads and shopping areas will be a real mess today.  So keep that in mind when you respond to a medical call for somebody who was trampled just inside the entrance of the Wal*Mart.

Myself, I haven’t fallen for the shopping trick yet and I’ll be sticking close to home today.  In fact, when it comes to buying presents, I’ve been doing more and more of my shopping online over the past few years.  Instead of spending hours and hours going from place to place in search of something, you can find what you are looking for easily online and the choice of sizes, colors, etc., are much wider.

And these days a lot of places offer free shipping if you purchase more than a set amount of dollars.  Since the retailers are already geared up for the big rush, if you order during this coming week, you will get some really rapid deliveries.  It’s the only way to go.

Let’s get the equipment checked out now.  I really need to make some more coffee.  It was a slow start this morning.