Firefighter, dispatcher, paramedic, entrepreneur Greg Perry did it all: The Story Line

"Hi," I say. "Is Greg home?"

"Yes," says a woman on the other end of the line. She pauses a moment, trying to see if she recognizes my voice.

She doesn't.

"Just a second," she says. "I'll grab him."

I'm sitting in the studio at CBC in Charlottetown, talking to a stranger on the phone. I do this every month. "Everybody's got a story," is the theory I'm working on. To prove it, I open the P.E.I. phone book to a random page and stab my finger at the first name I find.

This month, I've picked Greg Perry.

'I loved it'

"Hello?"

I found Perry in the Wellington section of the phonebook. He's at his cottage in Union Corner, but he is a Summerside boy through and through. He was born there in 1950.

"My son says I was born in the absolute best time ever," he jokes. "That was the time of the Beatles and all the other groups. Summerside was quite vibrant then."

I remember it was raining. The winds must have been blowing 40 or 50 miles an hour. Greg Perry

He never thought of moving away. So he stayed. And he had no fewer than seven careers.

He started out as a clerk in the offices of Irving Oil, before moving to something a little more exciting.

"I was a firefighter," he says. "It was scary, at times, but I loved it."

'My initiation'

He remembers his first big fire vividly.

"My initiation," he says.

The call woke him up. It was just before midnight the day before New Year's Eve, 1977. Jenkins Cannery, on the Summerside waterfront, was on fire. It was his first fire, but his team didn't take it easy on him.

With the amount of moisture in the air, when I got out, because it was minus 30, I was frozen stiff. Greg Perry

"I was on the aerial platform the 65-foot aerial platform," he says. "Myself and another individual were up there for quite a period of time. I remember it was raining. The winds must have been blowing 40 or 50 miles an hour."

The bucket he was in blew back and forth in the wind. Perry's team did their best, but the fire was too far gone by the time they arrived. The building was lost.

'Frozen stiff'

A few years later, he fought another memorable fire. The Bedeque ice rink caught fire in the dead of winter. The sub-zero temperatures made a dangerous situation even more so.

"I remember going inside the rink," he says.

"With the amount of moisture in the air, when I got out, because it was minus 30, I was frozen stiff my firefighters coat. I remember two guys picking me up and putting me in the rescue salvage truck."

Perry says they carried him like he was a plank of wood. The floor of the rescue truck was heated. He thawed out pretty quickly, ready to head back into danger.

Moving on

Perry took a job as a dispatcher with the fire department for a few years. Shortly after, he was invited to work part-time as a paramedic.

Perry was later approached to buy the ambulance service in Summerside, so queue up his next career as the owner-operator of Royal Ambulance. He was a full-time entrepreneur and paramedic for 25 years.

He sold the business and moved onto his next career. He worked for a few years as a clerk at Prebilt Steel in Summerside.

His very last career would be with the provincial transportation department. He was a wash bay technician, washing school buses and "anything big enough to fit in my wash bay."

'The rest, of course, is history'

The one constant through all those career jumps was his wife, Barbara. She was working at Charm Jewelers in the County Fair Mall when they met.

"The owner's wife said to me, 'Oh, I know a girl you might be interested in,'" he says with a chuckle. "So I first had to check her out. The rest, of course, is history."

I remember two guys picking me up and putting me in the rescue salvage truck. Greg Perry

Greg and Barbara will celebrate 33 years this year. They have two kids who have since grown up and moved on. Their son lives in Vancouver. Their daughter lives in Fort McMurray.

That Island summer is a pretty strong magnet, though. Perry's daughter is back this week visiting, and she's brought along their first grandchild. Their son arrives in a few days.

"Isn't that the best part of the P.E.I. summer?" I ask. "They all come back."

"Oh yes," he says.

More P.E.I. news