SPAAMFAA’s Golden Anniversary year! It’s hard to believe that half a century has passed since Dick Horstmann cajoled his friends and family into putting up $182.50 to save an old fire engine! The rest, as they say, is the history recorded on the preceding on these pages. As you can see, we have much to be proud of!

The North Texas Chapter hosted the 2008 Winter Convention in Dallas. The mid-February program included a tour of the Dallas Fire Department Shops and several stations, and the fire and rescue apparatus at the huge Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport. Instead of the usual Saturday muster, the North Texas members hosted a full day of educational seminars in its North Texas Fire Museum – the former Dallas F.D. shops which the chapter acquired for the token sum of one dollar. One by one, various pieces of apparatus were rolled outside for pictures.

Fifty years later we head back to Where It All Began. We’re coming home to Syracuse!

What an incredible 50 years it has been. Here we are in 2008 with more than 3,000 members from coast to coast, in Canada and overseas, members of more than 50 regional chapters. Between them SPAAMFAA members own more than a thousand pieces of antique and vintage fire apparatus. But what’s really relevant here are the countless number of retired and neglected rigs SPAAMFAA members have saved from the scrap heap, and have lovingly restored and maintained for future generations to enjoy.

Preservation and Appreciation…..that’s what SPAAMFAA is all about. As true in 2008 as it was when Dick Horstmann coined our tongue-twisting moniker away back in 1958.

Thanks, Dick. May our next 50 years be as eventful and enjoyable. On to our Centennial in 2058!