Dear Shareholder: Here is your copy of the first periodic report of the Society. It has been a long time coming, but at the six-month anniversary of this great venture, your faith in what looks like, and may well turn out to be, a fly-by-night outfit is commendable, and your patience through long periods of silence has been worthy of merit.

The eight-page report covered all the first half-year’s events, listed each shareowner’s name and address (you could call it the first SPAAMFAA roster), and promised big things for the future.

There is no end in sight, either for items for this truck, or for the eventual acquisition of one or two more.

Fulfillment of that prophecy came as quickly as the following April, when Syracuse placed their reserve 1923 Seagrave tractor-drawn 85-foot aerial on the bid list. I tossed $400 more into the fire engine account, issued myself 80 more shares, and an offer of $365 made Seagrave No. 33455 mine – SPAAMFAA Truck 1. With two rigs to care for and enjoy, 1959 was a fun year. A request to provide height for flagpole re-roping at the New York State Fairgrounds resulted in a storage arrangement for the new machine and her companion – an arrangement perpetuated for Central New York Chapter apparatus to this day – and at year’s end, shareowners stood at 41.

Two new Macks joined the SFD roster in 1960, shoving aside a 1928 Seagrave 1000 gpm pumper I’d been in love with for years. A transfer of $400 from my savings bought 80 more shares, supported a winning sealed bid of $353.50 for No. 53715, and I had my third: SPAAMFAA Engine 2. As the stable grew, so did the list of those willing to own a minority share or two –up to 57, including the ever-faithful Alex Black and firefighter/merchant Tom Laun.

Fire engines are like martinis in that one is too many, two are just right, and three aren’t enough. With a spring-raised wood aerial, and both a rotary and centrifugal on hand, the obvious missing element in 1961 was a piston pumper. That circumstance was rectified by my purchase of still more shares, and the acquisition in Saddle River, New Jersey, of 1924 Ahrens-Fox K-S-4 No. 1153 for $400. New and old shareowners helped, too, and there were 65 on the list to greet my fourth rig – SPAAMFAA Engine 3.

We’d broadened the scope of annual activities to include Fire Prevention Week planning and participation along with the customary paint-up, fix-up parties, flagpole roping sessions and parades. Ten stockholders came aboard in 1962, including future officers Dave Sinclair and John Corcoran, running the membership total to 75; they were joined in 1963 by three more –including the incomparable Eric Sprenger.

After six years of local fun and frolic, 623 shares were outstanding (my 472 and 77 other folks’ 151), and we faced another major problem without the money to handle it: How to replace Truck 1, which had become troublesome and infirm, with a handsomer and more reliable younger sister, 1930 Seagrave aerial No. 61245 – one of the last of Syracuse’s first-generation motor apparatus and due to be traded in on a new ALF Aero-Chief elevating platform. The solution was more communication.