So…I`m discovering that, like most proud owners of antique fire apparatus (this can`t be a very large demographic), I’ll accept any excuse to take the old girl out for a run. So it came to pass that I crashed a big local antique car and hotrod show at a beachfront park. Needless to say, they weren’t expecting anything quite as large to pop in, but they seemed to cope well.
Marshall: So…uh…what class should we put you in?
Me: How about the ‘firetruck’ class?
Marshall: Uh…no. Nothing like that on the list.[long pause] I think you’ll be in the ’specialty vehicle’ class.
He hands me a tag and tells me to follow the guys in the yellow tshirts. They usher me to a distant corner, way beyond the Model Ts, the Mustangs, the ‘vettes and the heavily modded cars and park me next to a kit car made to look like an old English sports car. The owner complains that my 26′ long, 10 foot high fire engine is blocking the view…I shrug apologetically as I bracket the rear wheels with chocks. As the elephant in the room, I don’t think it’ll matter where exactly I park.
The next 6 hours sees a myriad of squealing young boys and girls, inquisitive French and Russian tourists, retired firefighters and giggly young women climbing on various parts of the pumper to have their photos taken (actually, the retired firefighters didn’t climb on the rig…but I know they wanted to.). More than one young lady mentions replacing her Facebook photo with the one they just snapped in front of my rig.
Yep…I’m feeling pretty cool now. Even though half a dozen people have asked me why an adult would want to own a fire truck, as if owning a 50 year old fire engine is a bit weirder than spending 20K to trick out a 2005 Dodge 300. I dunno…an old car is pretty cool, specially the ones from the 30s or 40s…but an old fire truck? Man…you don’t need to spend a long time in a firehouse to get a feel for the history that a fire truck can witness in half a century.
There were a few hiccups. Since the generator isn’t working, my dual batteries didn’t have the juice to start her up after the 4th time I shut her down. Mind you, I did turn on the lights and crank up the electro-mechanical siren a few times… but a quick boost got me home. On the plus side, I won first place in my category. The kit car next to me placed second…but only because there were only 2 vehicles in our category. Poor him. How can you compete against a big red truck?