The 1959 Chevrolet fire engine has millions of tiny fissures throughout its faded red exterior and is a giant in the midst of rusting trucks and cars populating the field owned by Robert Pierpont Jr. of Jefferson.
Residents approached the town over their concern for pollution and unsightliness of what some called junk. Selectmen spent considerable time tracking the owner down and when they did, along with the town code enforcement officer, asked him to clean it up. At a Jefferson Board of Selectmen meeting last year, Pierpont said a representative from the Dept. of Environmental Protection had visited and approved the site.
The town has issued Pierpont a temporary junkyard permit and, according to selectmen, he has been paying his fines. He also has been getting rid of his collection.
He recently sold a 1957 Chevy, two-door hard top. Called a Sierra Gold, the car was a two-tone adobe-beige color and had vertical fins. He also unleashed a 1959 El Camino to some fortunate collector. It was the first year of its kind, according to Pierpont. The last year of the El Camino was 1987.
Cars have been a big part of his life since childhood. When he was younger, he invested in CDs, but Pierpont said after awhile got tired of it and turned to old cars and trucks.
“Everything I’ve bought (and later sold), I’ve got a decent profit,” he said.
Pierpont bought his first vehicle, a baby blue 1951 Chevy half-ton while in high school. He was just over the age of 15 and worked on the truck body at Lincoln Academy in 1984. It still reigns supreme (for the moment) over the collection on his family’s property.
“I’ve always had a passion for it,” Pierpont said. “It was something that was in my blood.”
He said his father had always been into old cars and trucks, but it was the younger Pierpont who found he couldn’t let them go. He still has a Matchbox collection from his childhood.
The fire truck, used for a number of years by the Vinalhaven Fire Dept, was put out to bid in 2004. All 7241 miles on the engine were used in firefighting activities on Vinalhaven, he said.
When Pierpont saw the advertisement in a Rockland newspaper he took the ferry out to the island to see the engine firsthand. Pierpont said he didn’t want to bid on the truck without looking at it first. He drove it back from the ferry to his property in Jefferson.
“Everything works,” he said, “The bells, the buzzers, the horns, everything. It’s amazing.”
The fire department had the option of whether or not to have armrests and sun visors, neither of which were included. They kept the ladder, as well as an axe and the radio, Pierpont said, but all the other original working parts are there. He said the fire chief told him the truck has a 327 cubic inch V8 engine under its hood.
People have suggested to Pierpont he tear the fire engine body apart and use it to haul equipment and cars with.
“I’d just hate to take it apart,” he said, adding that the engine has historical value and someday might end up a museum.
He believes state law requires people to have no more than two unregistered, uninspected vehicles on any one property without a permit. The town of Jefferson has given Pierpont a junkyard permit with the stipulation that he get rid of his collection. He told selectmen last week that after selling some vehicles and cleaning up his property, he didn’t realize he had so many. Pierpont guessed he must have collected over 300 cars and trucks since 1982.
Trudging through the wheat-colored, knee-length grass of his field, the car collector pointed out some newer models that were given to him. A lot of them have gone to the crusher, he said, while other, older cars have sold to collectors for more than crusher price.
He also has a 1969 Plymouth, a 1966 Ford Thunderbird, a 1970 Cadillac Coup D’Ville, a 1969 Camaro and a 1968 Cadillac Coup D’Ville convertible with a 472 big block, among others. Pierpont said he drives different vehicles in the summer months, but his work car is a 1996 Buick Regal.
“A lot of these cars have historical value,” he said.
Pointing to a two-tone blue 1972 Chevy Blazer with a white hard top, Pierpont said it was the last model of its kind. Some people used to take the cap off, either lying on their lawns or in a garage. Pierpont admitted it was a little impractical. It took two people to remove the cap and he said he could understand why the company discontinued the model.
Pierpont said he likes the retractable hard tops. The Ford Motor Company made a model with a retractable hood in a 1950s model. Chevrolet made a Corvette with a similar design made of fiberglass in the 1960s, he said.
A 1968 Impala Fastback sits just a few feet away, in the tall grass, beyond the Blazer’s hood. It has a long, sloping torpedoed shape, its light green fading in mottled copper. Pierpont said the car was left over from the “Coke Bottle” era of the 1960s.
Pierpont said he drove his 1972 Cadillac El Dorado for years. It has a 500 cubic inch engine and he claims to have been able to get 16 miles per gallon with it on the highway. Comparing engine size and economy of use with modern vehicles, Pierpont said the older cars got better gas mileage. He said he’s not really impressed with the new technologies, because the manufacturers could be much further along than they are with the engines they use.
He’s concerned about the future. He and other collectors wonder what future generations will talk about. He doesn’t think people will look back with the same nostalgia he and other collectors do, toward the modern vehicles of today. His comments suggested there is nothing as attractive or mystical as the metallic beasts that belonged to past generations, to a lifestyle built around taboos and the accompanying quest for adventure.
“I don’t drink or smoke or do drugs,” Pierpont said, adding that since he doesn’t have a family of his own, he has been able to dabble in his collection, his habit.
He has worked in a variety of career fields over the years before selling his first vehicle last year. Pierpont used to make snow plows, working on the blade line and attachment welding. He said he has had a very diversified career, from dishwashing in his younger years to truck driving for an oil company. He also built boats.
Pierpont said he has a lot of fond memories attached to his cars and it has been difficult to part with them, but he is ready sell.
“If I can’t have them all, they can all go,” he said.
