For 50 years he did so as a volunteer firefighter in Enfield.
Now he is retiring, although the proper term is probably stepping back.
“I was never a gung-ho person,” he said at the Enfield Volunteer Fire Department Thursday. “I didn’t crave the excitement or the power. I felt like here’s a chance to do something. I feel like I am blessed, I feel like I was raised in a wonderful place, had wonderful parents. I wanted to give back.”
That his retirement from fire service can be viewed more as stepping back than fully walking away shouldn’t surprise those who know him.
At 75, Short still works daily at Enfield Tractor and Equipment as a service manager. After a stint hauling oil after school, he became a mechanic there and has outlived his original bosses.“I feel lucky to be in good shape at my age.”
As a young man, he never got a case of wanderlust. “I’m a hometown boy. I could have gone to more places. I like being at home. I never had the urge to fight the world. They say charity begins at home and it’s a good thing. You do it for the people you see every day.”
Born in Roanoke Rapids, his father worked for what was then known as VEPCO, now Dominion.
When his dad had a heart attack the family moved to Rich Square, then to Whitakers.
He married the former Joyce Vaughan, an Enfield girl, and his wife’s brother-in-law was in the fire department. “He suggested I put in an application at the fire department.”
For Short, it was an organization as good as any for a person who wanted to give back and that’s where he found his place to help his community and rise to the rank of first assistant chief.
“When I started out, we had a small equipment truck, one pumper, one water wagon. We had an old Mack,” he said, explaining the Mack still pumps and can be seen at the station as well as in parades.
Now, Short says, “We have probably the finest equipment in the county. When you look at the tax money, for the people of this community, it’s some of the best expense there is. EMS is right there. It’s some of the best Halifax County has.”
Now training standards for volunteer firefighters are as rigid as they are for those in paid organizations.
The demands of his full-time job made him shy away from ever accepting the chief’s position, although he has served as acting chief.
He and longtime Chief Ronnie Locke discussed this matter, Short recalled. “The chief’s job was out of the question. I told him I felt like he had more time than me. I told him, ‘If you take the chief’s job, I’ll take half the blame.’ He’s been chief ever since.”
There is mutual respect and admiration between Short and Locke. “From where I’m at, I look up to Jimmy,” Locke said. “I need him. He’s just a good friend. He helped everyone that got in. Jimmy, being a mechanic, is a huge asset for the department. Everyone in this department looks up to Jimmy as a father figure or a brother figure. He’s behind you every step of the way. When something comes up, you always call Jimmy. He is going to be missed. Jimmy has a heart as big as gold.”
Locke sees Short’s retirement role in the fire department as one just as crucial as the day he started. “Jimmy’s going to work until the day he’s gone. It keeps you in shape mentally and physically. That’s just Jimmy. He’ll do what he does to help the guys in the department. He’s a person everyone wants to call their friend.”
Locke said when Short announced he was going to retire, “There were a lot of tears shed. There’s not a guy in this department that won’t tell you the person Jimmy Short is. Everybody loves him, young and old.”
In his 50 years of service, Short has seen the worst, an infant who died in its crib in a house fire, the gruesome death of a serviceman in a car crash, with whom the firefighter rode in the ambulance as he succumbed to the injuries.
“The bad things, you don’t ever forget,” he said. “You’ve got to learn to put it somewhere else.”
Short sees his retirement as one where he continues to pull hoses until he is no longer physically able to do so, being a safety officer and being an adviser to younger firefighters. “I’m going to help as much as I can, be as active as I can be.”
For Short, he sees the good more than the bad. “The people, the people you deal with day in and day out, the faces you look at, at 3 a.m. when you’re on a call. It’s family. They’ve always been my family.”