A tall tale of a 1927 Bulldog Mack

1927 Mack AC Pumper built by Charlie Rowley

The Village of Tremont was like so many other small America towns after the First World War; giving much to the war effort and waiting for better days to upgrade some of its ancient municipal equipment.
To top it all off the Gennrus Shoe and Galoshes Factory that employed many of the folk who lived in Tremont burned to the ground in the winter of 1926 for the lack of adequate fire equipment.
The early spring of 1927 found the Village of Tremont in its annual Town Meeting haggling over the price of a new fire pumper for the Tremont Fire Department.  If it were not for E. R. Gennrus, the owner of the shoe factory coming to the town's aid with a whopping donation, the new fire truck might not have become a reality.
But things worked out for all concerned.  The village of Tremont gave E. R. Gennrus a tax break on a new factory and he in turn helped them to purchase a brand new 1927 Mack AC Bulldog Pumper.

10 Years later..........1937 built by Mike Randall

Now it is 1937 and E. R. Gennrus is planning on expanding his shoe and galoshes factory once more.  The Village of Tremont can see the handwriting on the wall: another fire and there won't be another donation.
So the wise Village of Tremont votes in the Spring of 1936 to sell their Mack AC and to purchase a new American LaFrance Model 500 Pumper.
The Mack AC is put out for bid and it is won by K. Randall who is just starting out in the oil business.  Randall opts to strip the fire truck of its fire body and install a used Flying A tank body.  He also installs a used top including the windshield to combat the winters of upstate New York.
Randall isn't too fussy about some of the features of the old fire truck but he adapts and keeps some of the appointments of the former fire pumper intact.  Being too old for military service, he does exceptionally well by grabbing a delivery contract for oil to military establishments in eastern rural New York and runs the former fire service glamour girl until after World War 2.  Once more the old Mack is put up for sale as Randall buys a new Mack LJ for his booming business.

Spreading the Wealth around..........1947 built by Jeff Harper

In the meantime a cousin of Randall's had just got back from the War and was looking to start a business of his own.  Oiliver Randall knew that small towns were going to grow and need new roads and infrastructure.  That included towns like the Village of Tremont.  Oillie Randall was quite ingenious in his own right having spent his time in the service repairing and operating heavy equipment for the U.S. Navy SeaBees.  So with the money he won from playing Acey Deucy, he bought the used AC from his cousin and proceeded to turn it into an oil spreader, naming his newly formed business Tremont Road Maintenance Company.
During its time as an oil delivery truck on the back roads of rural New York, some of K. Randall's handiwork had started to deteriorate.  The wood windshield finally rotted to the point where it needed replacement.  Seeing no real need for a new one, Oillie simply welded up some pipe at the corners of the roof to hold it in place.  The first week he had the truck he misjudged a turn, couldn't stop in time and crunched the right front corner of the truck.  Again, not being too hung up on fanciness, and figuring that most of his work was during daylight hours, Oillie just kept on spreading oil and never bothered to get the headlight fixed.

It's the Fabulous Fifties and 1957 built by Gene Herman

Just when Oiliver Randall figured he was in good shape in his road maintenance business he was called up with his Navy Reserve Unit for active duty.  So in 1957, when Trumbull M. Dogginton, a well known truck enthusiast and collector of Mack AC's came along and offered him a good price he just couldn't resist and sold it.
Bull Dogginton, as he was known locally, saw something in the old AC and decided that with some spare parts he had in his collection, he could really put it back in not only running condition, but almost pristine condition as a fine example of a Mack dump truck, complete with new pin-striping, NOS windshield, pneumatic tires and all.
Bull had a lot of good years with the AC, taking many first prizes at local truck shows.
Bull Dogginton had lots of friends, some of whom were truck collectors in their own right.  However, Bull was never a good judge of character and when he traded the restored AC to the grandson of old E. R. Gennrus he never expected that it would end up like it did.

A new generation with a new explanation..........1967 built by Stu Marcus

The year ws 1967 and Highram Naughtsough Gennrus had a new toy.  Thinking that an old truck was "far out!"!, and having no appreciation whatsoever for classic machinery, he used the old AC without any thought to its rightful place in trucking history.  To him it was just an old truck with no history, no future, just "cool, man".  It was used and abused, (including for target practice), left out in the dirt and weather and slowly but surely began to rust away.
Naughty, as he was known, was to some extent a chip off the old block, at least in knowing how to make a buck.  One day an opportunity was presented to at least get something back on his "investment" in the AC.  A Johnny-come-lately to the antique truck world, Andy Figgerd, happened to be going by Naughty's place on that same day and saw the old truck.  He was smitten immediately and wanted the AC so bad he could taste it.  Naughty could see that coming a mile away and without hesitation began to tell Andy what a great restoration project it would be.

Present day..........The end of the line built by Lance Gregory

So, Andy loaded up the AC on a flat bed and hauled it home and figured that he really had something that he eventually could show off at a future truck show.  When he got it home he went all about for a very brief period.  He started stripping some of the paint to check the metal underneath.  Things didn't look so good.  He also remembered that Naughty told him something about the engine but couldn't remember exactly what.  He figured that was no problem until he did some engine inspection.  It was seized tight.  Go figger!
After finding that out, Andy figured he better do some other checking.  Again he came up empty and soon realized that the truck was too far gone for restoration.  With all of the rot on the cab's panels and hood, seized engine, a frame so rusted it was really beyond repair, a missing drive chain, not to mention a sprung dump body, Andy Figgerd gave up.
With this disappointing conclusion he abandoned all hope of restoring the AC to its former glory.  So he pulled the truck out back and parked it in a field far behind his workshop.  After 40 years of being picked over for this part or that, and the continued exposure to the elements, the old AC had finally been given up and was slowly eroding away in the dirt and earth from which it originall came.  Rust in peace, old friend.