WATERTOWN â Fifty-four years ago, Robert J. Johnston learned how to work on a pumper truck that was the first piece of equipment that the Watertown Town Fire Department ever owned.
That same 1952 truck â old Engine 77 â is back where it belongs, sitting in the departmentâs Fire Station and back from a refurbishment project that started six years ago.
âIt came back looking pretty good for being 69 years old and almost as old as I am,â said the 73-year-old firefighter.
For the past two years, the fire truck was up in the town of Louisville in St. Lawrence County, where it went through an extensive bodywork and paint job that got it looking like it did when Mr. Johnston was a 15-year-old firefighter trainee.