William Chauncey went to the Naval Academy, then spent his twenties as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps. He left in 2021 as a captain. He has been a firefighter and paramedic in DFW ever since. His department has given him its Life Saving Award twice.
He lives in Harvest, in Argyle. The houses he lights are the ones he drives past.
Four days on, four off. A trade that runs hardest in the eight weeks either side of Thanksgiving fits into that better than a normal job would.
Plenty of people could do this themselves, and do. What the ones who call are paying for is not being up a ladder in the cold in December, and knowing that if a run goes dark on the twenty-second, somebody picks up.
Ask him about the lights and he doesn’t talk about lights. He talks about being a kid in the back of a car, driving around a neighborhood looking at houses, picking a favorite. He has three boys of his own now.
Do the job right, look after people, and don’t put your name on work you wouldn’t be proud of. That is most of it.