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Editorial: Why we have rescue squads

All you millennials, read this: the elderlies who surround you grew up without rescue squads.

This is true.

If you were a sick person who became ill in the 1950s or 1960s, for example, your doctor would make a house call to see just how seriously ill you might be. And then, someone would call … the funeral home!

But not for the reason you think. Unless you had already expired, that call was for the ambulance service for which funeral homes were the standard providers, in those days.

Gentlemen employed by these homes would show up at your door in a vehicle that looked like a cross between a station wagon and a hearse … the main difference being that it had a flashing light on the roof of the car.

These gentlemen, attired in suits and ties, would load you onto a stretcher, place you gently into their ambulance, and whisk you away to a hospital.

A state mandate of 50 years ago brought us something much better than we had.

Rescue squads were formed in Gloucester and Ma...

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