Related story: Geneva celebrates 100th anniversary

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Journal Staff Writer

There were two stories to write from this firefighters' reunion and, when I was done, I wasn't sure I'd written the right one.

The story I didn't write was about how the old volunteer fire companies fit into the byzantine political world of North Providence.

Everyone who's anyone in North Providence politics or business seems to have once belonged to one of the volunteer fire companies, which in turn originated to protect the old mills. The fire companies were sort of like sweatlodges: Young men entered them as teenagers, and the older men taught them everything they needed to know about manhood -- how to fight fires, how to play pool, how to throw a punch. Political alliances were forged there.

Six months' experience has taught me that the right Nort' Prov' angle is usually the political one. But I had also talked with David Giammarco, the young firefighter who was an expert on Geneva Company history and who'd masterminded the reunion. It was so important to him to have these people all together in the same room -- there was something a little desperate about it. Other people were enjoying the reunion, but no one seemed to care as much as Giammarco. He didn't want the evening to end.

Giammarco was under some kind of emotional pressure that he couldn't quite articulate. I stayed late at the reunion because I had no deadline pressure. Driving back, I thought about what he'd said to me and realized Giammarco was afraid all those old-timers were going to die on him.

He'd also said, ``This is the biggest thing in my life.'' And one of the things I enjoy doing most is writing about the most important things in people's lives. So that I told the story from that angle, at the same time feeling like a patsy for not writing the shrewd political story.

Later, though, I discussed it with reporters Scott Mayerowitz and Bryan Rourke at their weekly Sopranos TV-show watching session, and both agreed that the human story was more compelling.

Save the political stuff for later, they said: You'll use it someday. And I will.