Community Corner
Beth Bales: GFD 'Clown Car' Rejoins Swedish Days Parade
The Geneva Fire Department resurrects the miniature fire truck–known as the "clown car"–from decades ago. After rebuilding, refurnishing and a paint job from Black's Auto Rebuilders, the replica fire truck returns to the parade lineup.
will feature a small attraction not seen in decades: a replica Model-T, painted fire-engine red and known for all those decades simply as the Clown Car.
It is slated to be driven by second-generation GFD firefighter Colin Burgess, and will include a license plate honoring “Chuck Lencioni, the late GFD firefighter (and Geneva building commissioner) who helped run the original Geneva Fire Department Clown Unit."
The car had appeared at the Swedish Days parade in the late '70s and very early '80s, as well as in other parades, including Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, with the driver and other firefighters in clown attire. Following Lencioni’s death last July, the car, which had been in his garage, was taken to the fire station, and rebuilding began.
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The “gold shift” at the headquarters station took on the task. “We took the entire thing apart and rebuilt it from the ground up,” said Lt. Todd Loomis, pointing out they’re part of the department’s “maintenance guys.” Firefighter Scott Anderson did the bulk of the work of rebuilding the 1960s-era engine.
Black’s Auto Rebuilders of Geneva donated body work and a new paint job (fire-engine red, again, naturally).
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The firefighters rewired the car to get its lights and siren working. Deputy Fire Chief Jerry Koster made ladders to hang on the side.
The replica Model T originally was owned by the First National Bank of Geneva, said Deputy Chief Scott Spencer, also part of the original clown unit.
“Somehow the fire department got it and painted it to make it look like a little fire truck,” Spencer said.
And for a period of perhaps four or five years, the car, and the accompanying “clowns,” appeared in various parades. “Chuck was one of the ringleaders,” said Spencer. Other “clowns” included himself, Craig Burgess (father of Colin Burgess), John Stoffa, John Brayton, Arlyn Lund and Father Jack Heraty, then-chaplain of the department.
Spencer reminisced about a St. Patrick’s Day parade appearance, in which he and Craig Burgess rode a tandem bicycle, complete with light and siren. About a block or so into the parade, Spencer and Burgess crashed into the Lencioni-driven clown car, a collision which derailed the front wheel of the bike.
Undeterred, they attached the rest of the bike to the back of the clown car and finished the parade that way.
The Swedish Days parade in those days went past the old fire station on South First Street. Naturally, water fights broke out. Big water fights. Very wet people.
“We had a blast,” Spencer said of the days of the clown unit. “Those are great memories.
“It’s going to be great that it’s back in the parade,” Spencer said of the clown car fire truck, adding a big “thank you” to Black’s, for the work the firm did in renovating and painting the vehicle.
Lencioni loved all things Geneva. He loved Swedish Days, and was honored and humbled to be named its grand marshal for the 2010 parade.
On Sunday, the parade will pass by the home on Anderson Boulevard he shared with wife Joan and family. The clown car will zip past, driven not just by any firefighter but by the son of one of the original “clowns.”
And Chuck will be looking down at the car, the parade, laughing. We will have to remember to send a salute, and a smile, skyward.
