Antique Firetrucks Decked Out For Christmas Draw Crowds In Cheyenne

CHEYENNE — Light up the neighborhood with twinkling Christmas lights and you light up the eyes of every child who gets to see them. Put those lights on a pair of antique firetrucks, and the magic goes to a whole new level.

That magic happens every year at the home of Brian and Brittany Bartow, who have two vintage firetrucks they decorate with their children every year when Christmas time draws nigh.

The Bartows often start the process of putting out their decorations well before Thanksgiving, when the weather is still reasonably nice. After all, it can be hard to move two antique firetrucks, one from 1938 and the other from 1942, during icy, snowy weather, particularly since neither truck is operable yet.

But, even so, the Bartows are sticklers about not starting the Christmas show before Thanksgiving eve.

“We’re kind of sticklers that holidays don’t happen until the next one,” Brian told Cowboy State Daily. “So we might have stuff out, but they will not start until the night of Thanksgiving, and they’ll only run through New Year.”

Things You Learn About Christmas Lights In Wyoming

Tape doesn’t stick in the winter, and the stakes for their strings of lights are a lot harder to push into the ground when it’s frozen.

“I’ve been out there before with a bucket of hot water, pouring it on the edge, trying to get the stakes to go in along the edge of the sidewalk,” Brittany said. 

That becomes a lot of work, because there are a lot of lights — enough to surround not just their own yard, but the next-door neighbor’s as well.

Their son, Carsen, has set his watch to the time that the family’s many lighted, inflatable decorations are going to pop up each night, so he can check to make sure there’s no snow on the top of them, and that nothing has gotten twisted or tangled.

The inflatable decorations have a blower that continuously pumps air into the sealed fabric, keeping them puffed up.

“If we get a lot of snow, we have to be careful,” Brittany explained. “Because if (the decorations) start to blow up, and we have too much snow on top, it will kill the fan.” 

Wyoming’s snow also prompted the family to build wooden boxes to go around the blow-up decorations’ fans, to keep the snow out.

If wind is bad, the blow-up decorations don’t go up at all, because they are too fragile to stand up to Wyoming wind.

After the holidays, Brian dries out all the blow-up decorations, making sure none of them are wet before storing. He also takes note of any that need to be replaced.

Blow-up decorations only last about five years, he said, and then a lot of them need to be replaced.

In fact, they bought three this year, to replace two and build on the collection. 

About Those Firetrucks

The firetrucks in the display are themselves quite unusual and are conversation starters, for sure. 

One is a 1942 American LaFrance, while the other is a 1938 white Studebaker.

Brian, who is a firefighter, picked up both trucks from private collections, the first one in Cheyenne and the second from Torrington.

“The first one was a thing of happenstance,” Brian said. “They were going out of business, and it was for sale. And it was the right price.”

The family decided as a group whether to buy the 1942 LaFrance, taking a vote that was unanimous. 

“It’s not every family who can say they have firetrucks,” Brittany said, smiling at her children and her husband.

“Like we don’t even give directions to our house,” Brian said. “We’re like go to the house that has a firetruck in front of it.”

“Our neighbors up the road, that’s how they give people direction to their houses,” Britany agreed, laughing. “Once you see the firetruck on this street, we’re two houses down.”

The second truck, which was the Studebaker, came about thanks to an auction in Torrington, where the collector had about 20 engines for sale.

Brian had actually gone to look at a Ford firetruck that had been advertised. His wife gave him a dollar limit for that one, but ultimately, the Ford never showed up.

So, Bartow used the allowance on the Studebaker instead — after discussing it with the family by phone first.

LaFrance’s Original Color Was Green

Brian knows more history about the LaFrance than the Studebaker. 

The LaFrance was originally built for the military and was used at a military base in Grand Island, Nebraska at the then Ordnance Depot. After that, it was decommissioned and went first to the Colorado Fire Department and, then, the Colorado Department of Forestry, the latter of which painted it yellow.

Brian pressure-washed the flaking paint job away, getting to the red color underneath, but that wasn’t the firetruck’s original color at all. Its original color was green.

There’s some history behind the green color. According to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, during the Dec. 7 bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, one of the first vehicles targeted were bright red firetrucks. The Japanese hoped to cripple firefighting capability as they bombed their targets.

After that, many organizations decided to paint firetrucks a different color. For the military, that color was OD Green — olive drab green — so they’d be easier to camouflage. 

Other firetrucks were painted white for similar reasons, which may help explain the Studebaker’s white paint.

Bartow hopes to restore both firetrucks to their original colors eventually, He also wants to get them working again, so they can be driven in Christmas parades and the like.

Not Young Forever

For the Bartows, the firetrucks are part of a grand, overall plan to create the magic of Christmas for their children, with their children. 

“It’s not like they’re going to be young forever,” Brittany said. “Our oldest is 18, and Paige turns 12 in January and Carsen is 10.” 

The family also does enjoy the sense that they’re lighting up their neighborhood with Christmas spirit, for all the other children.

Over the years, since they’ve started putting the firetrucks in their Christmas display, they’ve noticed a substantial increase in the number of visitors, and their home has been put on Cheyenne Street Railway Trolley’s annual Holiday Lights Trolley Tour.

“There’s a couple of families who stop and take pictures of the LaFrance every year,” Brittany said.

And Carsen has noticed there are often tracks leading up to one or the other firetruck. He’s taken to clearing snow off the sideboardswith a shovel, so that people can sit for a photo there if they want.

“We haven’t had a huge problem, but that’s been an issue we have,” Brian said. “We don’t care if people go up there to take pictures, but don’t climb around on it. The LaFrance just has a piece of plywood for a seat right now, so we really don’t want people climbing on it.” 

The family has taken to putting some blow-up decorations in the trucks, to try and discourage any adventurous sorts from climbing on the trucks.

More Lights Than Ever

Every year the family talks about what else they can do to build up their cool display. 

They’ve considered adding stuff to the roof, but that’s a lot more work and effort — and a bit more dangerous. 

They’ve also talked about putting in more blowup decorations, but they feel the yard is already getting too crowded. They don’t want it to become so crowded that one decoration blocks another from view.  

One thing they’ve considered is taking over decorating duties for a neighbor’s yard.

“We have enough lights ourselves, that we would not have to buy anything,” Brittany said. “We have all these light that were given to us by friends who don’t decorate anymore.”

In fact, they’ve already taken over one neighbor’s yard. 

“She’s elderly and we had enough extra lights, so we asked if we could decorate her place, too,” Brittany said.

Brian, meanwhile, feels that the family’s effort is just boosting Christmas for the neighborhood children as a whole. He’s noticed how other families have started putting out lights too, and that makes him feel just a little bit like Santa Claus.

“There’s probably 700 to 1,000 lights on each of our firetrucks and the houses are probably 500 a piece,” he said. “And it’s nice to see, especially this year, it’s been nice that everyone got out and got some stuff up. There’s quite a few lights and everything.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.