A year or two back the hydrant got painted the Oregon Duck's colors. Really, all they did was add some green to the already yellow hydrant, and paint an 0 on it to mark their territory. I was actually surprised that the hydrant stayed that way for as long as it did seeing how we are deep into BSU Bronco country. But I guess no one was willing to repaint the hydrant. There were a few Duck fans out here, and they seemed to have gotten their way. I personally didn't care, I like both teams and the hydrant did look pretty cool. But alas, the hydrant couldn't stay supporting the Duck's forever.
In the beginning of the college football season last year BSU travelled to Oregon to play the Duck's on their home turf. BSU had won the year before at home, and Oregon was determined not to loose again, especially at home. Unfortunately for them, they did. Shortly after the loss, the Oregon hydrant was repainted with the BSU blue and orange. This was done by my Capt who is a BSU fan, but also likes to just jab at the other guys for the heart breaking loss. He claims that he just wanted to paint the hydrant the same colors as our engine colors (every engine has a different color combo on all the tools to ID where they came from. Ours just happened to be blue and orange). B-shift didn't take too kindly to the new pain scheme, and so started hydrant wars.
During the course of the hydrant wars, the hydrant got many new coats of paint. So many, that it's joked that the hydrant will never rust or corrode since we never removed any of the old paint, but instead just added new paint. It went back and forth from Oregon to BSU several times (I actually lost count), then it went pink once or twice, and it even got a black and yellow paint job for the University of Idaho Vandals. All of the new paintings would take place on the shifts 4 days off. When B shift left on a 4 day, we (A shift) would paint it. When we were gone on a 4 day, B shift would paint it. It got to the point that you almost expected to see, and look for, a freshly painted hydrant when you came back from your 4 day. All the while, the other shift, C shift, just sat back and laughed and enjoyed the show.
B shift had essentially given up on winning the hydrant wars toward the end of the football season, and the hydrant had managed to stay blue and orange over a full 4 day. We thought we had won, but we had another thing coming. BSU had lost their most important game at the end of the season. A loss to TCU, which prevented BSU from going to a BCS bowl game. After the loss, C shift decided that they would jump into the hydrant wars and painted the hydrant purple and black. Even with the loss fresh in my mind, I had to admit that the hydrant looked really good. My capt went out and sprayed just enough yellow all over the hydrant to cover the TCU and walked away. That is how the hydrant was left through all of winter, until the other week.
With his retirement, my Capt is moving to Wyoming because of lots of snow (he loves snow mobiling) and no state income tax. So as part of his going away present, I decided to revamp the hydrant wars, and I painted the hydrant the Wyoming Cowboy colors of brown and yellow. Yes, technically, it's supposed to be brown and gold, but the yellow works just fine in this case. So here's some before and after pics of the hydrant.
As you can see, I added some fresh yellow paint, and then added the brown. It actually looks pretty cool. Every time We pull into the station, I say "Go Cowboys" and my Capt just laughs. He noticed it the first time we got back to the station after a call when it was all done. Luckily it was pretty warm that day and the paint dried super quick so I was able to get the entire thing done in less than an hour before we got another call. The rest of the guys at the station thought that it was pretty funny to, and have so far left it untouched. I have my doubts that it will stay like that when I come back to work from my 4 day now that he is gone, but at least they left it until after the retirement.
So, to Capt Lonnie Sutton, even though you will never read this, thanks for all the great memories and laughs. Enjoy the retirement and don't have too much fun on your sled.
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