FORMER FIREFIGHTER NO STRANGER TO DANGER.

Byline: BETTIE RENCORET Senior Columnist

Retired Firefighter Harold Rehm has a healthy respect for all infernos and can recount some tales that would make Dante's hair stand on end.

But that isn't all. He worked at a lot of other things before his life went to blazes.

At various times he was a general store clerk, a private first class in the United States Army Signal Corps, an aircraft worker for Northrop, a builder of springs for automobile cushions and he even worked for an oil company once.

Born in Minnesota, he moved with his parents to Sonora, North Dakota, where they bought a general store and where he went to work when he was 10.

``We bought cream and eggs in the back, sold gas out in front, had a liquor store on the side and sold chickens out in the back yard. Now that's what you call a general store!'' he said.

``Dad had me working there from 1936 to 1944, so I was in the general store business eight years before we came to Hawthorne, California in 1944 and opened a grocery store,'' he continued.

From 1945 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Korea, then came back to Hawthorne, where he started a flame in the heart of young Polly Thompson.

Fresh out of the service, he got a job with Northrop and supplemented his income by working for a brick mason and in the family store.

``It was all intertwined for a while,'' he said.

Then he and Polly got married Jan. 29, 1948. His father told him he couldn't pay him enough to support the two of them and he needed to find a more lucrative position.

In 1952 he went to work for the fire department.

``One of the requirements,'' he said, ``was that you had to be at least five-eight tall and I was five-seven and three-quarters, so I went to a chiropractor and had him stretch me so I could pass the physical.''

Polly started to laugh.

``The only thing was,'' she said, ``we lived in north Redondo Beach and by the time we got down there to L.A., he had shrunk back up again. We had to find another chiropractor to stretch him again.''

It worked. He passed and spent the next 30 years fighting fires.

They came to Lancaster in 1964 and he rode with the sirens out of Station 117 for many of his 19 years with the department here. He retired in 1981.

He had only been on the job a few months down in Hawthorne when he got his first taste of the real hazards of fires.

A workman in a downtown store was washing something down with lacquer thinner and the whole building exploded into flames. The fire was so intense that it melted the asphalt tile flooring. The workman, running for his life, left asphalt footprints wherever his feet touched down.

``That was my debut as a firefighter and the first time I ever got my picture in the paper,'' he said. ``I was so amazed at the sight that a news photographer took a shot of me as I pointed at those foot prints.''

He didn't dwell on the dangers of firefighting but said fires were not easy to fight then or now.

``I could see why people succumbed in those fires,'' he said. ``They're tricky. They can take an instantaneous turn and be over just as fast as they started. You never know what's going to happen with them.''

His and Polly's years in retirement have been some of the busiest of their lives since their children are grown.

They have five: Daniel of San Diego; Michael, Janet Christie and Diane Howard, all of Lancaster; and Barry of Temecula, Calif.

``We have 11 grandchildren and right now they are our biggest hobby,'' Harold said.

When Florence Edwards stepped down as president of the Florence and Ray B. Edwards Chapter 819 of the City of Hope, Harold took over.

He also serves as president of the Lancaster Roadrunners Good Sam Club. This weekend members of the traveling organization arrived from all over the West Coast and other states to hold a Samboree at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

They are both members of Father Serra Parish in Quartz Hill and work on many church projects. Harold is a member of the Knights of Columbus, which named the Rehms its Family of the Year for 1994.

Harold also received an award in 1990 from the Antelope Valley Convalescent Home, where for three years he served as Santa Claus for the patients at Christmas.

Polly has been chairwoman of many committees for the Quartz Hill Woman's Club and is a member of the Catholic Daughters.

She also writes poetry and has chronicled their trip to Alaska, via the Alcan Highway, in her ``Ode to the Road,'' a satirical piece about the fact it took eight hours to go 150 miles.

``We've got a lot more motor home traveling to do,'' Polly said. ``We might really retire someday and have time to do it,'' agreed Harold.

LANCASTER - Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and Pearblossom have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk for the suggested congregate donation of $2.

Monday: Spaghetti and meat sauce, mixed vegetables, tossed salad and orange.

Tuesday: Baked ham, sweet potatoes, peas, juice, lettuce/tomato salad and apple crisp.

Wednesday: Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, Harvard beets, garden salad and ice cream.

Thursday: Barbecued chicken, oven-browned potatoes, Normandy vegetables, marinated salad and cheesecake.

Friday: Baked fish fillet, au gratin potatoes, green beans, coleslaw and fruit cocktail.

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) Harold and Polly Rehm have lived in the Antelope Valley for 34 years, when they weren't traveling the country in their motor home, that is.

Bettie Rencoret/Special to the Daily News