Fire truck gets a good home

I'm glad there's somebody out there as sappy as I am about memories that are worthless to most and priceless to me.

Case-in-point is the city's vintage 1954 Ford F800 "Big Job" open cab fire truck that recently went on the auction block. In the 1970s I walked past that truck almost every day on my way to check the fire and police blotter at the old city hall.

It was a gleaming red, chrome and brass testament to the work of the Du Quoin fire service in another era.

The truck has the same kind of meaning for Shannon Clark, 44, a former Du Quoin firefighter who worked for the department from 2006 to 2009 before taking a job with Pinkerton Risk Management to teach firefighting at Caterpillar in Peoria. He was also the assistant fire chief in Sesser for a time and now lives in Glassford, Ill., a Peoria suburb. His mother, Tina, is a Du Quoin telecommunicator.

He remembers how proud he was to work for the Du Quoin Fire Department as a volunteer and one fire, in particular, helping fight the huge night time fire at the Virgie Leach home on Vine Street.

On Monday, the Du Quoin City Council sold this great truck to Shannon for $2,016, one of two bids. The other was $450. In a telephone conversation Tuesday morning Shannon was amazed and grateful that his bid was accepted.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought the truck would go for between $5,000 and $10,000," he said.

Why did you want it? The answer came quickly.

"I rode on the top of that truck when I was in kindergarten at Wheatley School (as did hundreds of kids during Fire Prevention Week," he remembers. "I drove that truck one time--took it down the street--with the wind in my hair," he said.

He felt he was behind the wheel of history.

"I don't know if I will trailer it up here or find a place for it down there. I have a niece--Mercedes Day--who is in school and she might want it for a parade," he said. "I don't know what I am going to do with it, but it is a one-of-a-kind truck. Towers Equipment Co. only built two like that," he said.

Clark said he has a surgery scheduled for Wednesday and it may be a few days or weeks before he can get the vehicle.

"I'll find a place to store it," he said. It was a small price to pay for a great memory and he can't wait to climb back into the cab.