Since I was a little kid, the annual Shelter Island Fire Department Chicken Barbecue loomed large on the calendar in our home. My dad, Mike Zavatto, was a long-time volunteer fireman. From when he first married my mom, Ginny, back in the mid-fifties and he was part of the all-volunteer East Rockaway Fire Department, to signing up in Shelter Island the second they moved our family there when I was toddler in 1970. He proudly wore his SIFD fireman’s jacket until his last days, impressing upon me the importance of duty to one’s local community.
But it was social, too. In the days before constant contact (and trying to keep phone bills down), volunteering meant meeting up with your friends and neighbors, collected around a common cause — which, in this case, happens to save lives.
When Northforker managing editor Lee Meyer pitched this story, I don’t think he had completely even verbalized the entire idea before I said, “YES! PLEASE WRITE THAT!”
I don’t really even know where to begin to talk about how much I love this story and the hard work Lee put into it, but also how it illuminates so many wonderful and important facets of this time-honored tradition in small towns where all-volunteer fire departments still put everything on the line because it’s the right thing to do.
Lee dove into the topic, drawing a rich and finger-lickin’ good tale of the past, present and future (we hope!) of the chicken barbecues on the North Fork — events that are not only what I like to call the Great Social Equalizers, with working class folks and the well-heeled sitting side by side and clamoring for Wet-Naps under the same big tent, but also generally the largest fundraisers of the year to keep local firehouses running.
It’s a story that celebrates an important (and very fun and delicious) tradition, and chock full of super interesting pieces of information that I sure didn’t know before reading (and re-reading; it’s definitely worth a re-visit or re-listen to the podcast). Check it out here.
