By David Harry

Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Jan. 5, Stan Payson will go to the monthly meeting held by firefighters at the Pine Point fire station, 51 years after attending his first one.

This time, he will hand over the black spiral notebook listing financial activities; Payson is retiring as company treasurer.

“I gave them a verbal resignation a year ago,” said Payson, 86. “This time I put it in writing.”

The spiral notebook filled with lined sheets is all Payson said he ever needed to keep accounts straight.

“My kids are computer-bound, I have never had much use for one,” he said. Payson has done more than keep track of the company accounts that are built from community donations. He said he has helped fight fires in Scarborough for more than 60 years while also keeping the fire engines running.

“He is an honest man of the highest integrity,” said Capt. Richard LaMontagne, who commands the firehouse on King Street.

Marine Resource Officer Dave Corbeau said Payson rarely misses a call and attended every training session, even with retirement imminent.

“All the people accept me as I am,” Payson said. “Which is good thing – I am an oddity.” 

Payson said he began fighting fires while living with his parents. He became treasurer after he told members that money residents donated for supervised field burnings “should not just sit around.” 

“They made me treasurer on account of me pushing it,” Payson said.

After living in Portland for about a decade, Payson and his wife, Virginia, built a home across the street from the house his parents owned on Ross Road. Stan said his wife might not have been great at pounding the nails, but her work staining kitchen cabinets is something he enjoys pointing out.

In June, the couple will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. They’ve raised three sons and two daughters.

The sons all followed their father’s boots into the fire department – sometimes literally.

When the fire whistle blew at night, said Virginia, her husband and sons would scramble for their equipment as they headed out the door.

“One would say ‘you have my boots,’ another would say ‘you have my gloves.’ Then the first one out the door would start tooting the horn,” she said.

The hazards of firefighting were always clear to her, she said, but she did not worry when the Paysons answered a call.

“I figured each one would look out for the other,” she said.

The couple met through a mutual friend who worked with Payson at a machine shop in Portland.  After moving to Scarborough, they worked together at Snow’s Canning on Pine Point.

Virginia said she worked in the accounts payable department. 

“I liked paying bills,” she said.

Payson said he oversaw maintenance on company trucks.

“I’ve always been a backyard mechanic,” he said.

Skilled at repairing car, truck and boat engines, he said he keeps a wooden lobster boat in his yard, but painting and scraping it is becoming too much hard work.

Nearby is a black 1951 Ford pickup truck Payson uses to respond to calls.

“My truck is known all over this end of town,” he said. Firefighters call it “Engine 4 1/2,” he added.

From the days when a whistle over Snow’s Canning summoned firefighters to a call to the present when the radio on his belt alerts him to any emergency, Payson has seen and helped the company expand. 

In his early days, there was little training for new firefighters.  Payson said he enjoys the sessions that now are combined with company meetings and dinners each month.

“You are never too old to learn something new,” he said.

As he considered stepping away from the last of his work at the firehouse, Payson said there is nothing he will miss in particular.

“I enjoyed all of it – everything that was involved,” he said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219