Page 48 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Summer 2022 - Online Magazine

BILL SIDES

Protecting
otecting
Pr

Roosevelt

FOR45 years45 years by Ron Cox

ill Sides has been a volunteer community
firefighter for a long time. In is not a
Bfact, he has been the Fire Chief town. It
for the Roosevelt Volunteer Fire consists
Department since 1977. He is also a of the
full-time farmer. This is Bill’s story. elementary,
junior
Bill’s dad Adolph and his 12 siblings high, and
came to West Texas from Canton in senior high
East Texas in 1917. His granddad schools plus
started a cotton farm near what is a Baptist
now the Roosevelt community. Bill church
grew up on the family farm, learning and a few
everything that a farm kid needed homes. On January 30, 2018, Bill was at
to know. His dad grew cotton, However, it is a focal point for the home at noon. He got a call; there
sorghum, alfalfa, and soybeans. Bill surrounding farms and small rural was a house fire in Ransom Canyon.
graduated from Roosevelt High communities. In the mid-1970s, they He went to the nearby firehouse
School and then went on to study depended on the City of Lubbock and drove his 500 gal. brush fire
Agricultural Engineering at Texas for fire protection. In 1977, Bill was truck to the scene. It was the Bricker
Tech. He learned civil engineering, VP of the Board of Directors for house fire that is described in detail
building design and construction, the nearby Acuff cotton gin. At one in the article on Rand McPherson,
soils, and surveying. Bill had to meeting, it was decided that they Ransom Canyon VFD Chief. When
learn finance while operating his really needed to create a volunteer Bill arrived, it was obvious that
own farm. A farmer also has to be fire department located in the the house was gone. The Bricker
a mechanic, electrician, carpenter, Roosevelt community. It would house is located on the east edge of
agriculturist, and a businessman. serve the Roosevelt community, Ransom Canyon. The land to the
as well as the surrounding farms east was dry pastureland. There
The Roosevelt School District was
formed in the early Depression and small communities. Bill was was a strong west wind that day.
years by the merger of three small asked to serve as its first fire chief. When the house’s tile roof collapsed
rural schools. The first graduation He thought, “Well, this might be at 2:00 pm, flames shot into the sky
was held in 1936. The Roosevelt interesting; I’ll give it a try.” and embers flew into the pasture,

48 Lubbock Senior Link