North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By James Pease II
Susan Langley moved to North Myrtle Beach after her father’s passing in November 2024. Her father, John Langley, served as a firefighter for Fairfax County, Virginia, for many years. On December 16, 1997, he was awarded a fire truck plaque for his 25 years of service. His daughter Susan inherited this plaque after his passing along with other belongings.
Recently, Susan and her son built a gingerbread house for the holidays. She took a photo of their creation with the plaque she inherited from her father and decided to post it on her Facebook page. Within a few hours she was messaged by a firefighter who worked alongside her father. That firefighter, Jimmy Minyard, informed Susan that the fire truck on the plaque was a bank and that a note resided in it. He was unsure of what it contained but he knew he had written something for her father.
Later that day, Susan and her son took a trip to Lowe’s and explained the story of the plaque. After asking for help getting it open, they accepted. With over an hour of finagling the crazy contraption, the fire truck had been taken apart, revealing the handwritten note. Jimmy Minyard wrote this note to Susan’s father on December 16, 1997, before presenting him with his plaque for 25 years of service. The note reads “Hey bite me you old dinosaur. I bet you rode the first one of these out the door. See you after my 25”. The note referred to the early 50s design fire truck on the plaque, a fire truck way before John Langley’s time as a firefighter. After reading this note, a realization was made. The day that Susan read this note was the same date as when it was written, December 16, 1997. She had opened the fire truck bank exactly 28 years after it had been gifted to her father.
After Susan and her son returned home, they decided to research what day of the week December 16 was in 1997, and sure enough it was the same day of the week as the opening of the fire truck. “I believe that it was a God wink by my father from heaven”. Susan had received one last Christmas present from her father.
