From Centerfolds to Certifications: A Salty Look at a Not-So-Salty Saying

“Used to be there was firemen sitting around the station reading pussy magazines. Nowadays it’s a bunch of pussies sitting around the station reading Firehouse Magazine.”

Yeah. That saying.

It’s the kind of line that gets a slow head shake from the old guys, a defensive eye twitch from the new ones, and an HR memo drafted somewhere in the background. It’s crass, outdated, and intentionally offensive—and yet, like most firehouse folklore, it didn’t come from nowhere.

To understand it, you have to stop taking it literally.

What the Old Guys Think They’re Saying

The salty firefighter—capital S, coffee-stained, knee-braced, and counting days to retirement—isn’t actually nostalgic for centerfolds on the kitchen table. What they’re mourning is a version of the fire service that felt raw, simple, and unapologetic.

Back then (according to legend and selective memory):

You learned by doing, not PowerPoint.

If you screwed up, you got corrected immediately—and loudly.

Pride came from surviving bad calls, not collecting certs.

Brotherhood was forged in shared misery, not team-building exercises.

The magazines weren’t the point. They were just a symbol of a firehouse that didn’t care what the outside world thought. No polish. No branding. No hashtags. Just firefighters, fires, and figuring it out together.

To the salty crowd, today’s fire service feels softer—not because people are weaker, but because the culture is different. Safer. Cleaner. More careful. And to someone who came up when “safety third” was more than a joke, that feels like something important was lost.

What the New Guys Hear

Now flip the perspective.

To the newer firefighter—the motivated, fitness-focused, EMS-heavy, professional-by-choice member—that saying doesn’t sound like wisdom. It sounds like gatekeeping wrapped in nostalgia.

What they hear is:

“You wouldn’t have made it back then.”

“Training makes you weak.”

“Progress is a problem.”

“Suffering is the point.”

And here’s the thing—they’re not wrong to push back.

Modern firefighters are:

Better educated.

Better medically trained.

More accountable.

Operating in more complex, higher-risk environments.

They read Firehouse Magazine because fires aren’t the only threat anymore. Cancer, liability, behavioral health, EMS burnout—these are real problems that didn’t get talked about “back in the day,” not because they didn’t exist, but because nobody wanted to admit them.

Calling that weakness misses the reality: today’s firefighters are being asked to do more, not less.

The Truth (As Usual) Lives in the Middle

Like most firehouse sayings that survive this long, this one sticks around because it contains an uncomfortable truth—and a big blind spot.

Yes, something has been lost:

Grit sometimes gets replaced with credentials.

Experience can be overshadowed by policy.

The firehouse can feel more like a workplace than a home.

But something has also been gained:

Fewer dead firefighters.

Better medicine.

More inclusive crews.

A profession that’s finally admitting it’s human.

The danger isn’t in Firehouse Magazine.
And it wasn’t in the magazines before it.

The danger is when one generation stops listening to the other.

A Salty Conclusion

The old salts don’t miss the magazines.
They miss being needed.

The new firefighters aren’t soft.
They’re adapting to a fire service that no longer allows ignorance to hide behind tradition.

If we’re honest, the firehouse was never made stronger by what was on the coffee table. It was made stronger by conversations—bullshit-filled, loud, uncomfortable conversations—between people who cared about the job.

So maybe the real question isn’t what we’re reading in the dayroom.

It’s whether we’re still willing to sit there together long enough to learn from each other.

And if that conversation makes everyone a little uncomfortable?

Good.

That’s usually how progress smells—right before the coffee finishes brewing.