Wayne Baldwin's Amazing Story: Baldy's Eual Eldred Baldwin [Archive]

Master Oil Racing Team

01-09-2010, 09:21 AM

BALDY'S

I can clearly remember the moment I heard President Kennedy was assassinated. I just got dropped off at school after lunch and was about ten feet from the flagpole when two or three of my friends ran up and told me. Small groups of kids were standing all around talking about it. That's about all I remember. Other than old news footage I have seen since then, I don't remember anything else about those days. My Mom was real sick and died a week after the assassination. One week before I turned fifteen. She almost died in childbirth when left unattended and her lungs collapsed following an epidural. My Dad could be heard over the whole second floor cursing the doctor and telling him to get the hell over there. She recovered but my baby sister was stillborn. After that my Mom got asthma which led to emphysema. She and my Dad were Camel smokers and they both quit cold turkey, but she could never overcome all the problems from the collapsed lungs. Her name was Frances but everyone called her "Dodo" like the goofy bird. She was always saying funny things and sometimes acting a little bit crazy. The Mexican cowboys on the ranch where she grew up called her "Poco Bueno", which basically means "pretty good".

My Dad knew early on she was dying, but never let on to us kids. He set up a trust fund for us, and for it to become final she had to live past a certain date. She did, but barely. She held on and died within a week or two beyond the date certain. I think it was the death of John Kennedy that killed her spirit and she gave up. My Dad voted for Nixon, and although my Mom was a Republican, she liked Kennedy and I always had the feeling that she voted for him. It was during the week between Kennedy's death and hers that everything is fuzzy. We didn't go to church, but I had begun praying for her almost a year earlier. She couldn't sleep laying down any more so set slept on a couch in the living room having to sit halfway up. Some nights at our lake house I would stay up with her late watching the stars. She had died some time during the early morning hours November 29, 1963.

Several months later the IRS began trying to break the trust. They worked very hard, but my Dad used a very good attourney when he set it up. I can remember after months of negotiations several IRS guys with big satchels came to meet my Dad and his attourney at our lake house. They left without getting what they wanted. Then they began auditing him every year. Sometimes they would find little things in their favor, but his CPA could usually find stuff in his favor, but they kept it up year after year. Finally, in the early 70's he filed a harrassment suit against the IRS claiming that the audits were in retaliation for not breaking the trust (which they stilled poked around in from time to time). After that, I can't remember him ever being audited again.

There were a lot of flowers at the funeral, and there were so many of one kind that Baldy planted them in the road front flower bed. Whoever heard of planting potted flowers outside in December? But that's what Baldy did, and this is one of the first pictures I took with my new Kodak Instamatic camera. Those flowers flourished in the spring and filled the whole flowerbed. That's really all I can ever remember that was planted there.

I have to break off here so I don't get timed out. This doesn't pertain to boat racing at this point, but it is relevant to how we ended up getting into racing so I am giving some background. Hope that's O.K.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-09-2010, 11:16 AM

My Dad was born Eual Eldred Baldwin on November 6, 1920 at Friendship, Arkansas a couple of gulleys and a draw down the road from Hope where President Clinton claims to have been born. Baldy was six years old when his Dad died from yellow fever contracted in a mining camp. His Mom, my Granma Arkie, remarried and her husband Grampa Arkie moved from town to town in the oilfield building wooden derricks. In one year Baldy attended around twenty one schools. One day Granma Arkie checked him in and two hours later checked him out. All his old friends called him Eual, but I think it was in the Navy serving in the South Pacific he acquired the name of Baldy. It was either that or in the oilfield. The IRS always had his name down as Eval E. Baldwin and he never told them any different.;):D. His mail was sent to E.E. Baldwin and some of the A.P.B.A. council members who didn't really know him well addressed him as "E.E.".

My Mom first saw him when he was shirtless on the roof of her sister's house replacing shingles. They only dated about a month before they were married. It was kind of crazy during those months after World War II ended and my Dad fell for my Mom's wacky ways. He resumed his life as a building contractor after the war, and had built some good contracts, but when he couldn't find any nails he went bankrupt. As luck would have it, he found out about a boxcar full of nails shunted off on a siding around Alice, Texas. He went to a banker and asked for a loan. The banker put his trust in Baldy and gave him the money to buy the wayward car load of nails. Baldy knew people who really needed those nails and he sold them for enough money to finance his newly thought of business. He got out of the construction business and built a warehouse in Alice to service the booming oilfield. He named this new venture "Alice Specialty Company". The year was 1946. I spent my first year living in a corner office in that warehouse with my parents and older sister Brenda. Baldy and a black man built the house we moved into before I turned two. As usual, he didn't have plans. He just drew the foundation in the dirt and built it. He never did anything standard. It had some angles and was sided with Arkansas stone that took him back to his childhood. When he put it on the market in 1959, it was snapped up and we moved to a new house built on Jefferson Street in Alice.

That same year he bought four lots at the Pernitas Point subdivision on Lake Mathis. He immediately began dredging a boat canal, building a pier and making a private one acre lake just west of the canal. We had always gone hunting and fishing, but the fishing was always salt water. Baldy loved the water so he got the lake place to be on the water more often.

In 1960 he moved our hunting trailer off the main lot and built a spit level house with the upper and lower sections having the main view facing the lack. The upper room was only two rooms. A full bathroom and the rest just one gigantic bedroom with one bunkbed on the northwestern corner and four single beds spaced along the southern edge that had a rail overlooking the kitchen and bar below. The upper bedroom had a deck running all the way across and facing the lake. It was a great house. It had only two bedrooms that had four walls and a door for privacy. There was a bathroom downstairs too, but most of the downstairs was a very spacious kitchen with a three by five foot grill and a bar facing the grill that curved around and was about twenty feet long. Baldy loved to entertain, so that was the centerpiece of the house. His view from cooking was toward the lake, and also facing his guests sitting at the bar.

Baldy didn't start off as a good cook, but learned it from necessity after my Mom died and the housekeepers he went through didn't know how to cook a decent meal. He always had a knack for barbequeing, frying fish and outdoor cooking. He didn't start the type of cooking he became famous for until one day he came home and saw our cat working over a piece of something tied to the storeroom door. The maid had put a rump roast in the oven and forgot about it. It was probably turned up too high as well. When I smelled smoke, I opened the oven and found what had started out as probably an eight or ten pound roast had blackened and shrunk to one third of it's original size. I pounded a thirty penny nail through the hardened crust, tied a short length of quarter inch rope to the nail and hung it on the door. Baldy opened the car door and went over to see what that thing on a string was. After that...no more cooking chores for the housekeeper.

Baldy tried to enlist help from my older sister Brenda who was a junior in high school. Her cooking was mostly the simplest and quickest fare to make unless her boyfriend Kenneth Cobb was coming over to eat. Then she did her very best experimenting. It was always good. Kenneth was tall with thick black hair which he wore in the Elvis Presley style. He would not make it as an Elvis imitator, but he did very much resemble him. Baldy had him pegged for a simpleton, but that's the way all Dad's are when their daughters begin dating I suppose.

ADD:
First pic is Baldy around the time he met our mother.

Second is The Alice Specialty Co., Inc. warehouse Baldy built then got into the oilfield business. I am not sure of the year. Maybe someone who knows cars can figure it out. Baldy is all the way to the left. Don't know who the other two guys are. It's possible that the guy on the first right is his first partner Calvin Cron.

The third is Baldy with his hand on the rump of my colt Nikki. Lakehouse in the background

Time for another break....

F-12

01-09-2010, 02:12 PM

I know how sometimes its hard to write about loved ones and earlier life growing up. Your Mom must have been a wonderful woman............and I know your Dad was first class in whatever he pursued. I look forward to the next pages and pages of this thread. And it will give all readers a little insight on what it takes to be successful not only in racing, but in whatever is important to you.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-10-2010, 03:11 PM

Thanks Charley. It's been awhile since I thought of some of this stuff as I ponder what to write. It took a long time to get over those days.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-10-2010, 03:42 PM

I didn't want to go back to school at all after a few days at home. Everyone would be offering condolences and every time it would just send the pain back up. I don't really remember a lot of things from then because it seems like I was in a fog. About the only things I do remember were that the Beatles just hit the airwaves with "She Loves You" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", and I began drivers ed that spring. That was a real bittersweet remembrance. While I was glad to start learning to drive, mine and Reynaldo Torres' day to drive was 5th period on Fridays. Seems like nearly every other week we had an assembly at that time, so that by the time school ended, Reynaldo and I did not have enough hours to take our driving test. Everyone else got their licenses except us. We had to go to school during the summer just to get enough hours in to take the test.

Baldy was not only tied up with business, but also the IRS and other matters regarding my Mom's estate. But, at our lake house we had neighbors that took us in pretty much the whole summer of 1964. Kenny and Polly Valentine helped my Dad out a lot then. They lived in Corpus Christi, but they spent that summer at the lake to do things with us four kids. Of course Brenda was mostly hot rodding around Alice showing off for the boys, Kenny took Mark and I out hunting arrowheads and other things and Polly took care of Jan. Then very often they took us to Padre Island in their homemade dune buggy. They were beach bums and had the most fantastic collection of oddities they had picked up on the beach. They had a large roofed in area in their back yard in Corpus that was made completely of materials they recovered on the beach, including a thick floor of the floury sand from the beach. Gigantic ropes, nets, japanese glass floats, anchors, homemade wooden ships washed up from somewhere and lots of things with writing from around the world.

The Valentine's dune buggy with Brenda, Jan and Mark aboard

One day Kenny told me to take his little john boat out for a spin. I had been in various types of boats all my life and even had one Baldy built us that had a three horsepower Evinrude on it. Even then, I was not prepared for what was about to happen.

It was all aluminum around nine feet in length and it had a mercury engine, but I don't remember the horsepower. !5 or 20 I am guessing. But with my weight and it being empty besides me, a life jacket and a tank of gas, it had plenty of power. Kenny told me just take it easy until I get the feel of it. I cleared the shoreline, turned toward the main lake and cranked the throttle all the way over. Instantly the little boat was patting the ripples and the wind was blowing in my face. When I went to turn it, it started skidding a little. I backed off a little at first when I had experienced something like I had never felt before, but then I got back on it. How exhilarating that first lap was. I couldn't believe the extreme joy and sense of nothing but speeding over the surface with the wind in my face. All my troubles went away. I went round and round, getting better control of the skid. I could feel the lightness of it going into the wind, and favored that as opposed to running with the wind. To this day I can still feel that first time out.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-10-2010, 06:36 PM

Brenda's "Elvis" style boyfriend's best friend was Jesse Smith. One of my memories of early Johnny Cash was Kenneth and Jessie getting in to "Ring of Fire". Jessie's Dad was George Smith....a pilot who besides teaching others how to fly flew "pipelines" for oil companies every week. He flew contracted pipeline routes to detect surface leaks. Baldy always knew Brenda's friends and he got to know Jesse. He was tall, wiry and had curly golden red hair. In talking to Jesse, Baldy thought it would be something good for me to learn how to fly airplanes. So, in 1964 I started flight lessons.

There were six people in flight school. A grocer and his wife, and the only other one I remember was George Townsend who continued on to get his IFR and dual engine rating and became a successful commercial pilot. I passed flight school on my first go around. We had a round "slide rule" that was really neat. We figured our distance, fuel, eta, converted air speed to ground speed and all kinds of things that I don't remember. The flying lessons I learned here served me well later on.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-11-2010, 08:13 PM

I only remember a couple of things about Christmas in December of 1963. Our aunts and my Mom's friends came by with the most bountiful loot of cookies I ever saw. I haven't seen or tasted any since I can't remember when, but it seems like were were overloaded with the white cookies with pecans called "divinity". Maybe nobody makes it anymore. The other thing was that I got a Kodak Instamatic camera with what was labeled 126 film. It came with little tiny blue flasbulbs. The film was preloaded in a cassette with an empty spool on the right to take up the exposed film and a spool on the left with unexposed film. When you insert the cassette and closed the back, the camera automatically forwarded to the first frame.

I took lots of pictures....and as soon as I had gone through a roll I got somebody to drive me to Connally & Rushing's drugstore on main street to send it off. They were all rolls of color. I always asked when they would be back, and at the soonest opportunity I would get my sister Brenda or someone to take me there to pick them up. The whole time I took film to Connaly & Rushing, then later when it became Rushing & Gonzalez, there were only two guys behind the counter. They got to know me well.

Gene East

01-11-2010, 08:20 PM

Wayne,

I look forward to each edition of this new thread. Keep them coming.

BTW: The reason you don't see divinity as much these days is because that stuff is very hard to make.

My failure rate is about 75% and I think I'm a pretty good cook.

The really good cooks say don't even try on a humid day!

Master Oil Racing Team

01-21-2010, 09:01 PM

I am sorry for the delay, but I had some photos to scan before I continued. I am missing the hardware disc from the new scanner to make the connection for me to make the scans. I think the computer guy has it from when the computer crashed, but he says he doesn't, but he said I can download it from the manufacturer. I don't have a clue. If it weren't for BRF....I would never learn this computer stuff.:confused::D There were many people at the Old Pharts Party that said they couldn't wait......but.....as smart;) as I am....I may have to buy another digital Nikon for the disc I need to make the photos I downloaded be able to talk to the picture file.:D Hope to get it going again by this weekend.

Dave_E71

01-22-2010, 05:06 PM

Wayne,

Windows or Mac and what is the make and model of the scanner?

Dave

Master Oil Racing Team

01-22-2010, 05:41 PM

Dave....it's Windows and Epson Perfection V500 Photo.

In the meantime, I'll push a little further on.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-22-2010, 06:18 PM

While my Mom was still alive, Baldy began to teach our older sister Brenda, Mark and myself firearm safety and how to become a marksman. He knew full well that most of the other "baby boom" kids Dads were so busy in the South Texas oilfield that they didn't have time nor the place to teach their own kids. So Baldy wrangled the use of a large quonset hut aluminum building at the Jim Wells County Fairgrounds on the west side of Alice, Texas and did what it took to become an NRA firearms instructor. He was on the Board of Directors of the Alice Rifle and Pistol Club and was intrumental in moving and reconstructing a superior all inclusive shooting range to the west side away from the swamp that surrounded the old one.

Before Hurricane Celia blew away a lot of Baldy's records, I would sometimes go look at the shooting scores of various kids he taught. There must have been at least around 100. The best marksman ever was Bill Winters who lived next door to us and was about three years older than myself. He went on to study under one of the best gunsmiths in Texas and later on went to the CIA. He achieved Distinquished Rifleman. I guess I ended up the next highest going to all but the last three bars of Expert before I quit. But that's one of the lessons I got from my Dad. Patience....breath deep and be calm...focus and most importantly.....SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER.;):D

After all the legal entanglements with our Mom, business and us kids, Baldy had to quit teaching shooting classes.

Dave_E71

01-22-2010, 07:57 PM

Wayne,

Try
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?cookies=no&oid=88368&infoType=Downloads&platform=Windows&prodoid=63070478&com.broadvision.session.new=Yes

if that doesn't work, google Epson Perfection V500 Photo driver
it's the first hit

Dave

Master Oil Racing Team

01-22-2010, 08:20 PM

Thanks Dave...You have given me a little confidence.:cool: I found that exact page and tried it every which way. In fact I thought maybe I had to download all four links. It might be my security thing not letting it in. Do you know about E Set. My very first problems had to do with some kind of "protection racket" software that wiped out all the communication links so that I had all my stuff downloaded, but could not acess any of it.:mad: I will try it again tommorrow. I'm not too swift on this stuff, but right now the computer is not even allowing me to download new discs. AGGGGHHHH....!;):D

Master Oil Racing Team

01-23-2010, 06:32 PM

Baldy had some good people working for him at Alice Specialty and knew he could trust them to take the helm while he tried to engage us kids in activities. He still worked hard, but always was near to see that we were taken care of. We continued to go to skeet shoots and in November of 1964 we went to Cuero, Texas for a turkey shoot. We weren't there too long. It was cold and overcast. The crowd was big. There were different events to prove marksmanship and it wasn't long before Brenda, Mark and myself had won smoked turkeys handling our Remington pump 22 rifles. Baldy solved the problem of trying to cut a string with a pistol by using his Smith & Wesson semi automatic filled with wad cutters. The strings were tied against a wood backboard, and would give away against the 22 caliber greased rounds unless it was a direct hit. Baldy's wad cutter clipped the string whether his shot was dead on or only a partial clip. After we won 8 or 9 turkeys, they would not let us shoot anymore. So we went home.

ADD: Something in my memory was kicking me upside the head when I was helping Debbie make salad. The strings were tacked to a wooden board and dangled down about a foot or so. Baldy shot the wadcutter into the wood just below where the strings were attached. They did not have any rules to say you couldn't do that, so that's how he cut the string....and probably why they wouldn't let us shoot anymore (besides taking all those turkeys). Baldy studied the rules, and that's how he and Henry Wagner challenged each other on the rules. Henry always said "If it's not in the rulebook...you can't do it." Baldy always said the rules in PRO are free and "If it's not in the rulebook...you can do it". They were always friends and respected each other, but they battled over that philosophy.

Here's part of the trophy collection

Master Oil Racing Team

01-23-2010, 08:12 PM

I am running ahead of my photos and scans now, but it will be late next week before I can resolve these problems I think. So I will go forward and refer to the photos after the computer gets it's a$$ kicked and starts recognizing the commands again.:rolleyes:

Master Oil Racing Team

01-23-2010, 08:23 PM

I was hooked on speed on the water from that first solo ride in Mr. Valentine's john boat. I was down on the corner of Main & Texas Boulevard at the Ice Box, an early version of a conveniece store, when I spotted my first "Boating News" magazine. I had been riding my bicycle the two miles to that store for a couple of years to buy comics. My favorite was "Sgt. Rock". I flipped through the pages of "Boating News" and immediately bought it and headed home. I read and reread it throughout, then took it to school to show my friends. The next and following months, I would drive down to the "Ice Box" when I thought the next edition would be in. In the meantime, we would be practicing shooting and I was newly into my flying lessons.

BPIII125V

01-26-2010, 11:59 AM

I'm very happy to see you doing another story, you do a fantastic job.

Bill Pavlick

Master Oil Racing Team

01-26-2010, 04:22 PM

Thanks Bill...I appreciate the kind words. I've been thinking about this one for awhile to honor my Dad for what he did, and without him I never would have joined the most wonderful fraternity of racers that exists. I'm anxious to continue.

F-12

01-26-2010, 05:16 PM

Can't wait for you to get into some of your Dad's great recipes. I know there are more than a few drivers that gained weight sitting around the Baldwin dinner table...................

Master Oil Racing Team

01-26-2010, 07:11 PM

I have the pictures of "Oyster's ala Baldy" in the computer Charley....but I can't get to them right now.:mad: It's like when I broke the transmission linkage on my Pugeot in 4th gear. The motors running, I'm going down the road, everything works except I can't shift into another gear. I saw my photos downloaded, and they are filed away somewhere, but until I can get the computer to get the command to retrieve them....it's like a gear shift that's not connected to the transmission. I haven't had time to get the computer guy to come over in the last week.

So before the recipes (and I hope you and some others will actually give them a try) I will continue a little further ahead. I want to be able to take pics of the recipes as they are being prepared so it may help those that might want to try them. My Dad didn't look in any cookbooks, and sometimes they changed up as he tried different spices, but the basics were all the same.

Master Oil Racing Team

01-26-2010, 07:47 PM

What I really liked about flying was the different perspective. We always flew under 5,000 feet and mostly around 1,000 to 2,000 feet, and sometimes higher. Seems like the most popular light planes I heard people talking about flying were Piper Cubs and Cessna 150's. George Smith had a Cessna 172. What a sweet plane. Not too fast and scary, but with plenty of power. I still remember the FAA number and call sign. November 5379 Tango. N5379T.

I always got a little shot from my gall bladder as we took off and it would stay with me while I flew. I also got a slight headache. The fresh air from a cracked window would help, but it was looking down at all the things on the ground that got me through the slight nasea and headache.

I got the hang of stalls very quickly, but I hated the power on stalls more than anything we did. We would climb and climb until I thought we would spill over backward. Those power on stalls were the ones I really feared doing. Once, when George cut the power and said "We lost the engine.....find a place for an emergency landing", it never even bothered me. I just started down, adjusting trim tab and flaps and getting ready to set down in a field. When we were very close to the ground, I thought we really were going in. Then George shoved the throttle in and said "You were going to land with all those stumps and sticks on the ground?" He had never said anything about my choice until we were about 50 feet off the ground and he applied power. It DID get my attention and I thought about all the dead branches and stumps on the otherwise smooth grassy field. I guess I must have gotten his attention too, because I was not in the least bit concerned, nor said anything otherwise to him about setting down there.

Then one day he put the "hood" on me to see what it was like to fly under intruments, or "IFR" conditions(Intrument Flight Rules). I was used to the artificial horizon intrument by then which has a set of wings that show if you are climbing, descending,or banking right or left. As I flew along George would say "Watch your intruments". I was always veering up, and banking to the left, then I would correct. The longer we flew, the more my mind was bending to the right and I would correct left and high. George continued to tell me to look at the instruments. I was astounded to see the artificial horizon not on course. It became harder and harder to force it back in place. In my brain I knew which way level flight was, but it felt like a magnet going against me as I fought to bring the instrument back to level flight. When I was looking at some other instruments, George snatched the hood off and the ground was off my left shoulder. We were flying almost perpendicular to the ground and the artificial horizon was almost 90 degrees and we were slipping toward the earth. WOW! What a shock back to reality. I know exactly how unexperienced pilots can fly into the ground or stall in fog, rain, night or other conditions that limit the visibility.

Dave_E71

01-28-2010, 05:06 PM

Wayne,

Did you get my PM?

and and isn't IFR, I Follow Roads?

Dave

Master Oil Racing Team

01-28-2010, 06:25 PM

I got it Dave and sent a reply, but who knows where it went...maybe IFBS:confused:(I follow bad satellites). Yeah...Dave about 4:am the next morning it woke up thinking "that's not right"...seems like it was "rules", but then since I never went for my license....I didn't have to think about it anymore. My Son-in-Law's friend who has a computer business fixed the crashed one, and cleaned out the one that is in the racing room littered with Andrew's friends junk didn't download some of my hardware stuff, and forgot where he put it. Debbie just had him take the other computer and give it an enema without telling me, so that's where we are. I've been busy...he's been busy, but he said he will start doing the fix tonight. I appreciate your offer, but he can fix it, and says will take care of any hardware downloads I might need that he can't find.

ADD: To continue on...and also do what I had intended all along and forgot when I started. I planned to include some of the goings on during the year being discussed. The year in play is 1964.

Master Oil Racing Team

02-11-2010, 02:47 PM

OYSTERS A'LA BALDY

As anyone whoever ate at Baldy's may remember....all his cooking utensils down to the plates and flatware were commercial. He bought his cooking tools from a wholesale foodservice store. Big stainless steel pots, ladles, spatulas, strainers, platters, bowls, etc. The exceptions were the cast iron skillets and dutch oven from Grandma Arky. Baldy didn't have any plates other than salad plates. He served on the food on off white oval platters. That's what he cooked Oysters ala Baldy on, but I didn't have any. Debbie fried most of the oysters so I didn't have enough to cover the dish and I ran out of jalapenos, but you will get the idea.

Rinse as many fresh oysters as you want to get any bits of oyster shell off.

Arrange on the platter and cover with cheddar or if you prefer velveeta or other cheese slices. The cheese has salt, but you may lightly salt and pepper before adding cheese. Baldy always used cheddar. You can put in in pieces like I did, but if you have enough oysters to cover the platter, then just place the whole slices on top.

Add the jalapeno slices. I didn't realize we ran out. There should be at least one per oyster, but more is perfectly fine. I use the mild, or make my own. Eating jalapenos is not about being macho to see who can stand the hottest...it's all about flavor. But if you like the hot ones...go on ahead.

The oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. It doesn't take long to cook them. Only until the cheese is thoroughly melted. If you want, you can brown them a little first, then add the cheese and jalapenos. A lot of water will bake out while they are cooking, and that is normal. Baldy would sometimes tilt the platter and scoop up the soup with melted cheese calling it "oyster stew" with a wink.;)

Jeff Lytle

02-11-2010, 04:01 PM

Looks awsome!

BTW--My Dad was a pilot too........Owned his own Beech Bonanza. I always remembered this:--IFR = I follow railroad

Master Oil Racing Team

02-11-2010, 06:24 PM

In reality Jeff...to me it looks yukky if you don't know oysters. But I can tell you must know them. The shiny bulbs of gray bubbling out look poisonous.:D But in actuality, it is delicious. Oysters spawned and grown in clean bays are sumptous. These pics are not the best representations of "Oysters ala Baldy", but I was anxious to get going again. I took them some time last year and because of computer problems wasn't able to hook up with my camera, I used these pics because the oysters we had a couple of weeks ago are no longer able to lay around for the camera.:(:D. That's why I suggested that those who may be quesy about raw oysters, may want to brown them a little before dressing them with the rest of the ingredients and finishing them out. However you do them though....if the oysters are fresh....it is a most delicious dish.

F-12

02-12-2010, 09:24 AM

Looks good for the races in Daytona This weekend. I have heard them from my house testing, racing, and r&d laps. Watch it on TV, walk out in the front yard and hear them. Just ordered a bushel of Oak Hill oysters for the event. Thanks agin.........

Gene East

02-12-2010, 03:51 PM

In reality Jeff...to me it looks yukky if you don't know oysters. The shiny bulbs of gray bubbling out look poisonous.:D But in actuality, it is delicious. Oysters spawned and grown in clean bays are sumptous. These pics are not the best representations of "Oysters ala Baldy", but I was anxious to get going again. I took them some time last year and because of computer problems wasn't able to hook up with my camera, I used these pics because the oysters we had a couple of weeks ago are no longer able to lay around for the camera.:(:D. That's why I suggested that those who may be quesy about raw oysters, may want to brown them a little before dressing them with the rest of the ingredients and finishing them out. However you do them though....if the oysters are fresh....it is a most delicious dish.

Wayne,

They look delicious to me.

It's hard to imagine Bill Van Steenwyk eating oysters of any kind after all the guff he gave you and me about Spam.

Do you suppose he could eat a dozen raw ones on the half shell, maybe with a saltine cracker and a little shot of Tabasco??

Bill Van Steenwyk

02-12-2010, 05:03 PM

Gene:

As my lovely wife Eileen will testify to, I am a very finicky eater, possible more so than Morris the Cat!!

That being said, in some cases you are better off to just "dive in and get with it" especially when something that looks like raw or cooked oysters do are concerned. As I have recounted many times, Baldy like to harass me as much if not more so than anyone else, so if I were to refuse to eat something with him around, especially if it were something he had prepared for me and his other guests, you better have a really good reason. Since we were usually full of either Lone Star, Bud, or Black Jack Daniels when the oysters came out, it made little difference at that point what they looked like. Add to that all the fun times he had shown you earlier in the day, and you better eat some if you wanted to have peace the rest of the night.

Anyone who has studied the "culinary arts" knows that appearance is a great part and function of how something tastes. I was very lucky to have eaten my first oysters, both raw and cooked, when for reasons previously mentioned, I didn't much care what they looked like. Get past the initial first look, pop one or more in your mouth, and they were great. Add to that a raw oyster very seldom stays in the mouth long enough to be tasted anyway, the hot sauce, peppers, or other condiment taste masking the true flavor, the booze previously consumed, and they were just fine, thank you. The mention of the hot peppers brings to mind another story that concerns a Great Dane dog that I believe belonged to Wayne's sister Jan, but I'll leave that for another time later on in this thread.

The only point I will argue, is that no matter how good a cook and host Baldy was, he would have never been able to convince me to eat that "stuff" in the spam can I have discussed previously.

Master Oil Racing Team

02-12-2010, 06:58 PM

Had Baldy known about how you feel about Spam Bill Van.....I guarantee you would have eaten it and loved it. He would have figured a way to either get you to eat it in something you didn't know it was in, and conned your "fabulous praises" out of you before he told you it was in the dish...or he would have cooked it "straight up" with all of us around where you couldn't turn it down. Convincing was not a part of his makeup. When did you ever hear Baldy say "Hey...why don't you try this? I think you would really like it." He either cooked it and you ate it, or if you didn't like it, he would make you something else if it was handy and possible to throw it on the grill or in the oven with the rest.

I'm not sure about the Great Dane yet Bill Van, but there is also one for later concerning the "broken legged (pronounced legg idd) calf" to come up later. You will know when to add yours.

ADD: Gene....I always grew up knowing that there were too many bones in carp to eat. I was taught that by Baldy. I wish he would have heard about the carp burgers and had been able to taste one. He would have loved to have made them for our neighbor friends and anyone else who came to visit.

And Charley.....are you going to give Oysters ala Baldy a try?

Bill Van Steenwyk

02-12-2010, 08:16 PM

Wayne:

You need to reread the previous posts about "Spam and Me". It is NOT the spam I don't like, it is the yucky, gucky, greasy, awful looking stuff it is packed in. Looks like a piece of meat packed in snot, and as I said previously, looks are a great part of a food being attractive to the palate. Just for clarification, I do not object to the taste of the Spam itself, just the packaging. If placed on a serving platter or other type plate, neatly sliced, cooked or uncooked, garnished or not, with bread or plain, I will partake.

When I first read your previous post of today about my not liking Spam, and realized you didn't remember what I objected to, I was going to say something smart like "where did your memory go, same place as your hair", but you will notice I am trying to be nice so I won't mention it.

F-12

02-12-2010, 08:32 PM

You bet I am, Wayne. I think with the sharp cheddar and enough jalapenos for the perfect blend, it sounds like a perfect race dish. 1/2 bushel raw, 1/2 bushel ala Baldy. I'll let you know how it turns out..............

Master Oil Racing Team

02-12-2010, 08:54 PM

Looking forward to your report Charley. Include the sounds, VS. television and how your guests took to the oysters.:cool:

Bill Van! I do remember your post about the gelatin and how it you felt about it, but when you said "he would never convince me to eat that stuff in the 'Spam' can"...I thought you referred to "stuff" as the meat content and not the gelatin, because Baldy would never try to con someone into eating "the wrapping". And that's what the preservative you don't like basically is....so you kind of threw me off. But now that Baldy is not around......see if you can remember whether or not I will make oyster stew when you and Eileen come to visit, and if I mention I will have a special sauce that will make it very tasty.;):D

Master Oil Racing Team

02-12-2010, 09:10 PM

Actually Bill Van....you win this one, because if Debbie caught me emptying the liquid contents of the Spam can into a stew pot..........she would not only agree with you on the point you made, but also disagree with me on why it would be a good thing to be cooking with horse, cattle and pigs hooves. marinated in fat:rolleyes::D

Bill Van Steenwyk

02-12-2010, 09:20 PM

Wayne:

I always knew that two good looking, intelligent gentleman like ourselves could settle our differences in a grown up manner.

On another matter and all kidding aside, Eileen and I were really happy to see you in Fl. last month. I doubt I would have gone to the trouble and expense you did, and get up as early for the trip back, if I had not been able to spend more time than you did. Just goes to show, old boat racing friends are the best kind, especially when you hadn't seen some for 30 years. Was great to see you and hope you make it to Lake Alfred this fall.

Master Oil Racing Team

03-02-2010, 08:17 PM

To get back on track. I had originally planned to throw in the highlights of each year as I got to that point for everyone to recall those moments of time who were around then, and to give some perspective to those following the thread that were not. Our oilfield work is highly irregular both in time and date, so in the last couple of months I haven't been able to get this story going like I planned. So after thinking it over... I decided to introduce the highlights as I go along for the nostalgia of us that lived it....and to plant guideposts for those that were too young to remember, or were not born in time to get the climate, sounds and feelings for those days.

Master Oil Racing Team

03-02-2010, 09:01 PM

It was in 1964 that the United States of America authorized the war in Viet Nam. It was recognizing the fact that there was leftover business from WWII and the Korean War that the communists were really our long time insidious enemys.

Beatlemania had come to America and were the first wave of what was to become the "British Music Invasion". I loved every minute of it.

I never liked boxing. I hated going to my "Unce Buck's" house if we were going to stay up late have to watch the "Gillette" boxing matches. Those were televised boxing matches in black and white in the late fifties and early sixties that I had to endure. Yet in 1964...there was so much hype about Cassius Clay...I had to listen with the AM radio close to my ear when I went to bed. I was listening to a disc jockey who called himself "Wolf Baby" He was capitalizing on the success and fame of "Wolfman Jack", but he had a high and whiny voice. I did not get it. For some reason AM listener's from California to Chicago to New York could pick up Wolfman Jack less than 200 miles from my house, and it was a couple of years later before I actually heard what he sounded like. So that was when I heard about Cassius Clay beating Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title.

It was also the year that "Fatah" made the first armed attack against Israel, and the future and unrepentant winner of a "Nobel Piece Prize":confused::mad: Yasser Arafat was a leader.

On January 16, 1964 HELLO DOLLY appeard on Broadway. Two days later the Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand" appeared on the Billboard Charts at number 35.

March 9th 1964....one of the historical moments in automobile history...the much anticipated Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line. I think most if not all the production was already sold. A friend of my sister Brenda had been wringing his hands waiting on for his for awhile. I can still remember him driving up to the Pernitas Point Lodge at Lake Corpus Christi.

While we were asleep, sometime around 5:30 to 6:00 am on March 29,1964 the wave from the second largest recorded earthquake reached South Texas. It was 9.2 on the Richter Scale and originated at Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 28.

Master Oil Racing Team

03-02-2010, 09:31 PM

Baldy had brought in a drag line and made a canal for our boats to come in close to the house at Pernitas Point at Lake Mathis. It was a natural cove, but with the drag line, he had the canal and cove lengthened and deepened. the fill went to the left side of the accompanying picuture and additional earthwork was done to build the pond. It was a private fishing pond, but I was the primary fisherman. A three foot dyke was thrown up around the big mesquite tree to protect if from the water. It is an arid tree, and while it can thrive close to water...too much will kill it.

I had baited five or six throwlines and tossed them out into the pond on the 28th. I had been having a problem of catching turtles on a couple of throwlines and I don't remember if I tried different baits, or some different hooks, but I was anxious to see what the next morning's catch was. When I got up early to check the lines, I found the basin surrounding the mesquite tree was half filled with water and some perch and small bass were swimming around in it. I was totally confused. Then when I went to check my throwlines which were on the north and back to the east side going clockwise, I noticed a number of dead perch and bass, all small (1/8-1/2#) on the north shoreline. Then I noticed that the grass was wet all along the northern embankment,

It was shortly after I went back to the house that Baldy's ex partner Calvin Cron called Baldy on the Telephone. Calvin spent the money from Baldy's buyout to purchase a brand new lot directly across from us and build a Marina. He was sitting there early in the morning drinking his coffee when the big shake got there. Calvin told Baldy that the whole lake sloshed back and forth. We never felt it. I guess the earth didn't move, but the seismic wave moved the water. Here is a pic of the pond, and the mesquite tree surrounded by the dyke which became half filled with water.

Master Oil Racing Team

04-03-2010, 09:21 PM

We had a black and white television then. It was the next year that we got a color TV.

One of the ads on the B&W that I will never forget was the Anacin one where there were three blocks. One had a hammer pounding, the other a continually zapping electricity, and another of dripping water. That ad was on all the time. But the one that I always stopped whatever I was doing to watch was the Bardahl ad. Having only gone maybe 25 mph on water and felt so exhilerated, I could not imagine the feel of driving an unlimited.

I did not try to put myself in that pilot's seat, because there was no way I could even imagine that. I was just enthralled by the speed and the roostertail. The way the ad was done...and the slo mo way the roostertail falls is still an inspiration. The boat is long gone before the last of the water lands and is still.

This is when my gut for boat racing is forming. I never saw a boat race before and there was never any racing going on around where I lived that I knew about. It was just a feeling for going fast on the water.

David Alaniz

04-04-2010, 09:25 AM

I have enjoyed your writing....it has stirred some memories of the "climate, sounds and feelings for those days".

Master Oil Racing Team

04-05-2010, 03:18 PM

Baldy had built a workshop at the end of our carport in Alice....approximately 30' X 30' with a tack room/storeroom and bathroom on the west side. There was no longer anyone at our lakehouse that could take care of the horses. After summer was over I was too busy with high school, flying lessons and night school once a week to be able to drive back and forth to take care of the horses, so we moved them to a fifteen acre plat behind Alice Specialty Company. One of Baldy's first employees lived there and raised pigeons so he helped me feed and water them, but I still had to trim the hooves and groom them.

The shop had a large worktable right in the middle. About ten by twelve. Hand tools were hanging on peg board or in drawers and power tools were on the eastern and southern sides. In addition to the typical hand held power tools were a radial arm saw, jigsaw, drill press, grinder, and wood lathe. We had all kinds of woodworking hand tools. My brother Mark was good at working with wood, but I was not. I made a birdhouse and a few things that did not require much craftsmanship, but I could turn out more weird things on the lathe than he could. I could have made lamp stands, but don't ask me to make things with legs unless you didn't care if they didn't match. I could have made matching legs, but they would have been more simple, boring and time consuming.;):D

It was sometime after school started in 1964 that I found blueprints for an outboard runabout in a magazine. This was before I found Boating News, and read about fast boats only in something like Popular Mechanics. I don't believe it was Glen L. In fact, the only plans we had were in the article itself if I remember correctly. It was not "Minimax" or "Minimost", but it was probably someone trying to capitalize on that formula.

We had a fine hardware and lumber store several miles west of us, and Mark and I got to know the owner of JE Moore Hardware & Lumber, Johnny Moore very well. I showed the plans to our Dad and he enthusiatically supported us all the way in the project. He even went down and bought some more tools he thought we would need such as planers, wood chisels, sanders, etc. He told Johnny let us have what we needed and send him the bill. JE Moore Hardware & Lumber already stocked marine plywood that the plans called for. He also carried the Anchorfast type nails in both copper and monel. Then of course, there was plenty of Weldwood powdered glue in stock.

We got home with all the basics to get us started and went right to work. That's where I first learned about stringers, chines, etc. The plans were not detailed enough for someone that had never built a boat, nor much of anything like that for us to get to far at first, but Baldy showed us some tricks and stood back to watch. It was slow going due to us taking time to measure, set up the tools properly, then make careful cuts. Mark and I took pride in our progress, and I think it was Mark's eye for woodworking that brought me, his older brother, some patience to see that we got it right the first time. For one, I could not imagine what we would have done if we got something wrong and that Weldwood glue set up. We didn't want to start over. I gained tremendous respect for how strong a powder can get when mixed with water and properly applied.

Master Oil Racing Team

05-22-2010, 09:11 PM

We got off to a tremedous start on building that boat. The first part of it went very quickly. Stringers and crossmembers got laid down. We worked hard, but got the chines correctly angled, nailed and glued in place. Then when we got to the deck, we realized the flaw in the plan. The bottom was almost 48 inches. The deck was supposed to be made from on 4 X 8 sheet of plywood. We had already split that sheet and cut the deck out according to the pattern. When you consider the extra width that the chines spread out from the bottom we were several inches short of connecting the deck pieces. There was a curved piece of wood from the "dashboard" to the bow where the bow handle screwed on, but the left and right section of the deck did not come together at a point to where we could fasten it to the framework. Baldy did not give us any guidance. I cannot to this day remember if it was because he wanted Mark and myself to figure it out, or because he was so busy with business. Anyway.....when my brother and I didn't know what to do......we quit working on it.

Master Oil Racing Team

06-30-2010, 09:09 PM

Here are a few pics of what we were working on. The last photo is my brother Mark checking the bottom. He was the woodworker.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-02-2010, 10:21 AM

1964 was the year they started working on the Civil Rights Act. I can remember watching the TV and seeing rioting black people being hosed down by firehoses and getting clubbed by policemen. There were not many combines in our area and a lot of black people came in to pick cotton. At Chester's, a local restaurant in Orange Grove, they had a screened in porch where the blacks would order their food through a side window and eat at tables inside the porch. I was confused about what all the rioting was about because non of the black people in our area caused any problems. I also could not understand why they wanted to eat in the porch rather than inside. There were really not many black people in our area, and I was politically naive. Baldy did not really comment much on any of this stuff, so I was unaware of what it was really all about.

Brezhnev took control of the Soviet Union when Kruschev went on vacation.

Goldfinger came out and Shirley Bassey had a really big hit with the song "Goldfinger". I think that was probably why all subsequent Bond movies searched for really good music as themes for the shows.

Baldy never ever commented on any of the music I liked except for one time. I was watching a B&W TV program and Gale Garnett was singing "Sing in the Sunshine". Baldy stopped what he was doing and listened to it, then he said to me "I like that song", and nothing more. I can still hear him saying it, and I have always thought it was because of the memories he had of our mother.

One more shot of the boat we were building.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-02-2010, 12:47 PM

1965 was a good year for music. Rolling Stones recorded what some say is the greatest rock & roll song ever written.....Satisfaction. And then another of my favorites "Like a Rolling Stone", by Bob Dylan put him on the pop music charts and also cleared the way for other tunes longer than 2 and a half minutes. Had that song not stayed on the charts as long as it did, the long version of "Light My Fire" may have never been played on the air.

The Vietnam War was escalating and operation "Rolling Thunder" commenced. The first protests over the war started appearing on campus and in the District of Columbia. Hippies came on to the scene, and as a 16 year old boy, the debut of the miniskirt got my attention.

Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty began the road to poverty we are now faced with'

Sound of Music won the awards and Gomer Pyle USMC was one of our favorite TV shows. Baldy would watch it with us.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-02-2010, 02:29 PM

Baldy was still taking us to shooting events....mostly with shotguns. He took Mark and I to compete along with himself in the Texas State Skeet Championships in San Antonio. He signed me up to shoot with the adults because he watched a kid about a year younger than me and concluded I would have a better chance shooting against the adults. We had practiced a lot, and daily for the last week or so. In the 20 guage division, I was rated class F I think. I forget exactly, but that put me averaging around 88 to 90 targets out of 100. I ended up shooting 96 out of 100 which bumped me all the way up to class C and the winner. We shot 400 rounds each that day between the various gauges and I had a splitting headache at the end of the day. I haven't shot one round of skeet since then.

I continued to fly, but I had been slacking off, due to my interest in fast boats. Baldy told me I need to keep up the practice or quit. One of my last flights was one of the most memorable. It was a very stiff crosswind about 40 miles per hour and out of the west. There was no runway built for that direction so we didn't do touch & go's that day, but my flight instructor George figured it was the best day we had to teach me how to fly crossways and land in a bad cross wind. We flew around awhile and he had me going in directions to make the plane fly crabwise. When it came time to land I was nervous because you have to come down sideways then straighten out just before you touch down. I came in too hot and the stall warning never went off, and instead of landing the Cessna, I basically flew it into the ground. It hit hard and bounced about 6 feet back into the air. I didn't even try to figure out what to do. Instinctively I worked the pedals and yoke to aim back into the wind to keep from drifting left and to the runway's edge, then I pulled the yoke way back, and at the same time left rudder and the plane settled in so softly you couldn't even feel it. The wind was blowing so hard it seemed we were only doing about 30 miles per hour. George looked over at me and just said "Nice recovery". It was these flying lessons that gave me the "seat of the pants" sense of flying that pilots talk about that I attribute my successful boat racing career to. I knew what it felt like at the point you are about to "take off". George even taught me how to take off without the hands on the wheel....only using the foot pedals and throttle. Because of those lessons I only blew over one time in all my days of racing and testing. But my flying days were just about over.

Baldy had bought us a little red boat that I believe was called a "Nomad". It was about twelve feet long and equipped with a 20 horsepower Mercury. Baldy was always an Evinrude guy, but when it came to racing motors he figured you needed a Mercury, so that's what he bought. We were on the lake all summer "racing" it. Here's a couple of Mark driving it, and a few shots I took while at the wheel.

Bill Van Steenwyk

07-02-2010, 03:10 PM

That is some steering setup Wayne. I have never seen anything quite like that before. Was that something Miguel Sanchez rigged up for you?? (Private Joke)

What ever happened to that boat? I don't ever remember seeing it during my visits with Baldy.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-02-2010, 04:29 PM

Back then Bill Van.....I knew nothing about rigging, set ups or anything. All I knew was to mix the oil in the gas, choke and crank it, then push in the choke and open the throttle all the way.:cool: I don't know who rigged it up, but I'm guessing since it went straight when you wanted it to....it must have not been Margil.;):D

You never saw the boat because Baldy sold it or gave it away sometime in 1966. Mark and I had pretty much torn out the transom by then anyway.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-02-2010, 04:44 PM

Baldy loaded us kids up into his Chrysler station wagon in the spring of 1965 and went to the Buccaneer Days Boat Show in Corpus Christi. It was held at Parkdale Plaza in Corpus Christi....the first strip mall I ever saw. That was our first boat show. I am not sure why we went, but it might have been because Baldy read in the newspaper that Miss Budweiser would be on display. It was right in the middle and we made a beeline for it. I stood there staring for a long time, not being able to absorb the size of it. It was a little disappointing that it wasn't the racing boat, but a 4 seater that Bernie Little built I guess to take friends and media for a ride. Nevertheless, it was still a great thrill to stand beside an unlimited boat and look at it closeup. I was also taken by the fact that it was tilted on its trailer. I had never considered how big the boats were and how they had to be loaded in order to get them down the road. I returned to stare at the Budweiser boat several times before we left. I really don't remember much about the rest of the boat show except that I left with a brochure with pictures of boats and motors. Don't remember if it was to sell boats or motors, but I can remember referring back to a particular page all the way home for a glimpse of a particularly sexy model in a bikini setting on the deck of a performance boat.:D

Master Oil Racing Team

07-02-2010, 06:10 PM

Baldy bought us a 16 foot fiberglass lap straked design semi vee with a 75 HP Evinrude.

It was at this time that I would watch "Where the Action is" on TV while eating the newly introduced "Doritos", then wait the full hour as our Mom taught us before going back out on the lake during the weekends. Baldy was busy working and we more or less set our own schedule. We ate out a lot during those days while going to school, and there were a couple of pretty good restaurants in Alice, but Baldy preferred home cooking, and so was becoming a pretty good chef at things beside BBQ which he excelled in from the moment I took my first breath. On weekends he would cook up stuff, and growing kids always slopped it up.

The Lake Mathis State Park was North of our place at Pernitas Point by about 1 1/2 miles. In 1965 there were a lot of people with small boats that wanted to challenge each other. The state park had a small body of water but about 20 boats of all sizes, shapes and power churning in a left hand circle built a good maelstrom in which to show off their rigs. There was no starting or stopping point. It was a lot of fun in those days of unorganized speed trials, white teeth behind the big grin of the pilot, and fortunately...not that I ever saw or heard of...no accidents.

I was just a dumb kid then and never thought about what could happen, or even that us youngsters could get hurt. We hauled that MFG out of the water, took the windshield off and turned it over so we could really do a job on the bottom. Mark and I scraped, sanded and waxed the bottom. Then we put everything back together and Baldy first showed us how to cup a prop. Never asked him how he knew or where he learned. At that point of our lives....he knew most everything. Anway....he took a ball peen hammer and cuppped the three blade brass/?bronze prop on his trailer hitch. We took to racing out in the open water with mostly two foot swells. We always just raced straight ahead after challenging or accepting a challenge from a boat to see who was fastest. Before the summer was over, we had to pull the boat back out and reinforce the transom.

The dumbest thing I ever did was to open up the throttle and go all the way back to the transom while in the boat by myself. Baldy told me the further you are in back of the boat, the faster it will go. The steering was tight, so I felt comfortable doing that. I wanted to see how fast it would go, so I lined the MFG up on a long straightaway, pushed the throttle all the way down and went back to the transom and sat on the 6 gallon red Evinrude gas tank. There were not any other boats on the water that day and there was only a slight ripple. I did have the good sense to head into the wind. I don't recall though that it made much difference if any in our top speed. Never tried that again.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-03-2010, 08:03 AM

We did a lot of wave jumping to see how much air we could get. It wasn't long before we had the MFG out of the water and rigged down again so we could repair and reinforce the transom. Then sometime probably around April, Baldy found out there would be a an alky race at the lake in the very cove our house was. None of us kids had ever seen boat racing before, so we were very excited about the upcoming event. That got Mark and I stirred up enough to figure out how to make the deck work on our "racing boat" and go ahead and finish it up so we could enter the race.

Mark75H

07-03-2010, 08:30 AM

It was a little disappointing that it wasn't the racing boat, but a 4 seater that Bernie Little built I guess to take friends and media for a ride.

The 4 seater was the original Miss Budweiser Unlimited racer. Dragging Auggie along for a ride was what got the sponsorship. His first move was putting it where Auggie would see it in storage. Bernie knew an opportunity when he saw it.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-03-2010, 08:56 AM

Wow! So now I know I saw the ORIGINAL Miss Budweiser up close and touched it.:cool::D Even after all these years that still means something. Were there another other 2 or 4 seaters built and raced?

Master Oil Racing Team

07-04-2010, 08:16 AM

Some of my photos were stamped with May 1965, but I think it was maybe the last Sunday in April.

Woke up early that Sunday morning to a throaty buzz echoing all around the hills in our cove. It was foggy and still, so the sound probably carried for a couple of miles. I jumped up and ran down to the end of the pier with my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera. Since we had never been to a race before, we were not familiar with the pre race testing.

The bouys were laid out and the boats got on the water to check everything out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, hearing and smelling. They were the most exoctic racing machines I had ever seen.

Here are a couple pictures from that morning. I believe the first one was Lee Little who raced out of Dallas. I don't know who was in the Canalito. I only saw a couple of them during my first full year of racing.

Mark75H

07-04-2010, 08:49 AM

Were there another other 2 or 4 seaters built and raced?

Before 1950 most Unlimiteds were 2 seaters. Into the early 50's some new boats retained the old 2 seat design. By the mid 50's all the front running new design boats were single seaters.

The original Miss Bud was a 2 seater converted to seat more and was a fantastic publicity machine for Budweiser, Unlimiteds, boat racing in general ... and Bernie Little. The later boats were winners.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-04-2010, 10:32 AM

I have heard some criticism about Bernie, but you got to give him credit. Besides helping his own self, he did a lot helping the sport. It was Unlimiteds and Starflite that really helped capture my interest.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-04-2010, 10:41 AM

Here are some more pics from testing that morning. I was mistaken on the date. These slides say March 1965, so it was at least a month earlier than I mistakenly remembered. I had thought it was closer to school being out.;)

The first one is Freddy Goehl from Bryan. Second is Bruce Nicholson who called Pasadena, Texas home back in those days.. He ran a larger runabout in class B during the race. Third is the late great Raymond Jeffries out of San Antonio. Finally, there is Michael Mihalczeck from San Antonio (sp?) in the little Mishey hydro. ironically, Baldy would buy us this very rig a few months later.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-04-2010, 11:23 AM

This is the only photo I have of the pits. Wish I had taken some after all the boats had arrived. The boats in the water were Bruce Nicholson's and Bill Knipe's. I don't know all the drivers that were there, but here are some I remember, and think were.

Bruce Nicholson and Bill Knipe from Pasadena. Raymond Jeffries, Joe Bowdler, Artie Lund, Lucky Lund and Curtis and Michael Mihalczech from San Antonio. Lee Little from Dallas. Arlen Crouch and Freddie Goehl from Bryan. Dave Fuqua and Larry Baker from Corpus Christi. Dan Waggoner from Flour Bluff. Maybe Jim Mouton from (Lake Charles?) Maybe Phil Crown from Dallas.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-05-2010, 10:38 AM

Mark and I both signed up to run B runabout with our Merc powered Nomad. Baldy was going to sign up our sister Jan to run our 12 foot open cockpit MFG with a 9 1/2 horsepower Evinrude, but that was just to much for the officials and they denied it. It was lucky they agreed to sign up Mark and myself because we did not have a dead man throttle or a real racing life jacket, and we had half helmets like motorcycle cops wear with the leather on the bottom half. If there would have been a big turnout, we probably would have been turned down. If that had happened, I'm not sure if we would have pursued racing......But...it didn't.

March is a bad time for predicting weather in South Texas, and it turned out to get very windy about the time the races started. They explained to us at the driver's meeting all about the clock and the one thing I remember is don't be across the line before the hand hits zero and the cannon fires. I drove the first heat and Mark drove the second.

When the one minute clock had about fifteen seconds left it was obvious I was going to jump even though I wasn't going very fast. The rest of the field was back about eighty yards when I got off plane and did a doughnut to eat up time. When those guys saw me do that, they made sure not to come close to me before the start.:eek:;). So they laid back and when I saw I would be okay, I opened the throttle all the way and headed for the first turn. To my surprise I was the first one through the corner. Then even greater surprise when I led down the back straight and through the bottom turn. The water was very rough and that Nomad outweighed all the other runabouts. Bruce Nicholson and Bill Knipe put their motors on larger runabouts, but Dan Waggoner and Larry Baker only had their A/B boats and so were bouncing all over the place. I cannot remember when Bruce and Bill passed me, but I led the first lap. Seems like they went by in the first turn on the second lap or the back straight. I can remember however, the little Nomad leaping clear of the water in the first turn and on the back straight. It was rough even for that boat. I finished third in the three lap heat.

In the second heat, I was in Baldy's Thompson taking pictures. Baldy filmed the whole thing on 8 mm film, but I haven't had anything to watch it on since he lost the projector. After my episode in the first heat, the judge made it clear to Mark that altering your position past the safety bouy was not allowed. So he stayed back and did not get the head start I had.;) He finished forth and I think Larry Baker dumped. I have a pic of him behind Dan Waggoner in the bottom turn. Bruce won again followed by Bill, then Dan and Mark. They gave me a break and did not disqualify me. They liked having new blood in racing, and one of the racers there was getting out. Michael Michalczech was calling it quits and Baldy made a deal with his dad Curtis to by the Mishey, Merc/Quincy deflector, trailer, props and parts.

I don't know who the hydro drivers are. One pic with Dan Waggoner and Mark, and the last was Larry Baker with a Merc/Quincy deflector on what I believe is a Fillinger..

Master Oil Racing Team

07-06-2010, 11:21 AM

Lone Star paid 20, 15, 10 and 5. Here are a couple of pics of Mark holding our winnings. Gosh what a young looking kid.:D This was the only race I went to the pits by boat. We did not have a car or a trailer, fuel, props or tools in the pits. When Baldy bought his new place in the next cove over to the southwest, we ran on a different course but did not have to get on a highway to get to the pits.....just back the trailer down the front lawn to the water. The first race Tim Butts ran in, he also drove his boat to the pits. He won his race.:cool:

Master Oil Racing Team

07-06-2010, 01:00 PM

Time for another recipe. This was from Debbie's Mom Marcella. If Baldy liked something he would latch on to it. Sometimes he would try to improve upon a recipe like he did Gertie Chance's (Jack's wife) gumbo. At times his modifications worked, sometimes they were good, but just different, and in this case he didn't try to mess with it. It's very simple, easy to put together, but it's not an exact science on cooking times. You just have to watch it so you don't burn it, but it's not too runny.

Peel six large potatoes and slice 1/4 inch thick. Take a large onion and slice between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Doesn't have to be exact. I prefer the large yellow onions, but you can use either one. slice up a box of Velveeta (tm) cheese. Try for 1/4 inch slices or less. You know how tough that can be, but doesn't matter how uniform the slices are as long as you can cover everything.

Put down a layer of sliced potatoes in a big casserole dish and layer that with onions. Then put down a layer of Velveeta (tm) cheese on top of that. Do it one more time and stick the dish into an oven preheated to 350. Debbie cooked this on July 4 and it too her longer than she remembered, so just go for 1 1/2 hours, but check it after an hour or so and monitor it. This is called GROADY CHEESE. We had not had this in a couple of years and nothing is written down, so you can hardly make a mistake because it always comes out tasting good.

Note: the first pic is just starting the second layer with potatoes. The second photo is a paper plate of the sliced Velveeta (tm) that will top it off. Also....the large onion we use is about the size of a grapefruit. If you can't find one that big, then slice up two.

Gene East

07-06-2010, 04:35 PM

Some chunks of ham scattered among the taters sounds good to me.

Velveeta also makes good bait for trout and catfish. The real beauty of that is if the fish aren't biting, you can eat your bait!

F-12

07-06-2010, 04:57 PM

Sounds like you are talking from experience. Having faith in your ability............have you ever been skunked? Probably not.

Sounds good Wayne............on the list of side dishes here in New Smyrna. Thanks.

Ron Hill

07-06-2010, 07:03 PM

Growing up in California, I never thought of myself as a fisherman. Ellis Terrill, Wade;s son, could catch fish at every race we went to. Bobby Hada's mom would take me fishing on the "half day barge"...

We usually used shrimp for bait, but when we went fishing off the jetty,in Seal Beach, we'd reach down and grab muscles and crack them open on the rocks. The Butter Mouth perch loved those mussels.

The first time I went to Europe, I saw people eating mussels and came close to barfing, as the thought of eating those sucker threw me into spasms...

About 8 years ago, I was in Harve DaGrace Maryland and saw new ENGLAND FARM GROWN MUSSELS on the menu. I decided to try them. Eight years later, I probably eat mussels once a month at Zubie's. I don't think of them as bait, but the thought does cross my mind.

Thanks, Gene for your cheese story!!!

And Wayne, thank you for your "Baldy" story. Sounds to me that Baldy was and "TED MAY" from Texas!!!!

Hey what is what hyisen??? I feel a Ted May and Paul Drake story....in the making!

Master Oil Racing Team

07-06-2010, 07:34 PM

I don't know what Hysien is. Phoenetically it should sound like something in another language. Unless you are saying "Gwack aa mo lee" (guacamole) instead of "waak uh mo lay";):D

I understand exactly what you mean Ron. But Baldy was Baldy and Ted May was Ted May. They were souls of a kind but also very unique and stand alone. You couldn't cast and stand up a statue of Ted May at Garden Grove, Galveston, or Lake Havasu and people would think of both Ted and Baldy. You also wouldn't have a gumbo pot at Alexandria, a rack of prime rib on the pit at DePue, or fried venison, mashed potatoes and gravy at Barbon and think of Ted May. If....IFFFF....there were not the Rocky Mountains and deserts putting so many miles between the great states of Texas and California.....I could not imagine the stories those two guys could have made.

ADD: I don't know of the stories you're brewing, but one thing I do know.........they will be interesting and I am looking forward to them.

Ron Hill

07-06-2010, 07:48 PM

Paul and Ted were talking about reaching down and grabbing water Moccassins I thought, But later I understood that they were grabbing hand fulls of water grass called hyisin...

W Ted and Baldy were in the Navy at the same time....right?

Bill Van Steenwyk

07-06-2010, 08:05 PM

I never had the good fortune to meet or know Ted May, but I feel like I knew him a little based on the stories about him here on BRF and I certainly think I am poorer that I never had the opportunity to meet him in person and enjoy his company as the many who have posted here did. The same goes for those reading this that never had the opportunity to know Baldy.

I did have that opportunity to meet and get to know "Baldy", and Eileen and I both are better off for that unique experience. From his cooking skills, to all the hunts, both deer and quail we enjoyed together, and just the fun, interesting times we spent together from the very early 70's when I first had the opportunity to interact with him in the sport of boat racing, to the long phone calls continuing our friendship after he withdrew from the sport, I would be hard pressed to say I ever met a more interesting and fun person to be around. When Wayne called to tell me of his death, I felt like my own father had passed away.

He could be stubborn, and he was opinionated about the things he felt strongly about, both in and out of boat racing, but you could have strong disagreements with him about most anything, and when it was over, it was over, and there were no hard feelings if he respected you and conducted yourself in a way to deserve that respect. He did much for the sport of PRO Racing in the 70's and 80's, promoting out of his own pocket many World Championship races around the country, including several at the Dayton Hydrobowl that will probably never be exceeded in the number of foreign entries. In addition to that type of promotion of the sport, he promoted several National Championships and finished up one that had been blown out earlier by having the balance of the program at his place on Lake Corpus Christi.

He never shied from controversy, but he promoted and ran his boat races by the book, and everyone was treated the same. He was highly visible in his red, white, and blue uniform, and his large size made him even more so. Some disagreed with him and did not like him as a result, but if he was wrong about something, he was a "big enough man" to admit it, NO PUN INTENDED. You had to look a long time to find a mistake he made in the conduct of a boat race, IF EVER, for he knew his rule book, as many found out.

As Wayne gets further into the narrative, I will post a few "Baldy" stories that have to do with my interaction with him over those years. I know I provided him with a lot of amusement, primarily because of several stupid things I did that unfortunately he witnessed, and consequently I never heard the end of. It was all in fun, he was never mean spirited, and I really miss him since his passing. I look forward to this thread and am sure many of the rest of you will be interested and entertained by Wayne's story about him.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-06-2010, 08:11 PM

Water hyacinths Ron.. I don't blame you though. Most people call them water lillies. I thought you were going to add a story about an asian recipe. I know exactly the story you mean now...and Joe has more to add about Ted from what he saw, but that will come at Baldy's new place a couple of years down the road. Keep that story in the making because a lot of things happened that long weekend at Baldy's. Many of the historical racing people from those days were there.

ADD: I forgot to say Ron that yes they served in the Navy at the same time. Also, by the time I remembered about the Navy part of your question Bill Van confirmed the plant in question as his query beat mine, but finished second in reply because I started my answer first but was more windy. And I might add Bill Van and Eileen will have a prominant part in the hospitality of "Baldy's" as it plays out.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-07-2010, 07:40 AM

Mark and I were very enthused about the race and so got back to work on our runabout right away. In the meantime Baldy had made his first contact with boat racers. I don't remember whether I forgot, or most likely never knew when Baldy got with Curtis Michalchek to buy that Mishey, but it was probably in the pits at Fiesta Marina. He did a lot of things behind the scenes I never knew about or was only vaguely aware of.

It must have been a hot time all around the country for performance boats because OPC racing was growing and manufacturers were making more hulls meant for hot rodding on the water rather than skiing, cruising or fishing. There was a group of five or six guys from Corpus Christi that started coming up to the lake every weekend. At least half were owners or worked at AB Johnston Automatic Transmission in Corpus. I will look in some old magazines to see if I can find ads of the type of boats they ran. Scat Cat comes to mind, but I am not totally sure. They were catamarans I think around 15 or 16 feet in length and were all Merc powered. I think they must have been 80 hp or maybe 85. The cowlings were black and it seemed like after the color scheme like Sam's Mark 75 they went to black . I'll look that up too, unless Sam wants to fill us in first. I just can't remember.

They stayed at Western Shores Motel which was just up a cliff overlooking the lake and Fiesta Marina. You could enter it off the main road running down the spine of Pernitas Point, but my favorite route was a very steep winding one way road from Fiesta Marina to the top of the hill where Western Shores was located. You could only see about fifty feet ahead of you so whether you were headed up or down you didn't know if you were going to meet anyone else or not until you met head on. I backed down many times when I was almost to the top and met another vehicle. It was easier to back down than up. It was so steep some vehicles couldn't go up. The final 60 yards their tires would spin. But I still have fond memories of that road.

We would drive by Western Shores after they had pulled their boats out of the water. While the boaters from Corpus were either BBQing, eating at the fabulous restaurant there with an equally fabulous view, or enjoying drinks on the porch hanging out right over the edge of the cliff, we were checking out the boats. I had never seen quicksilver racing units and the high performance props on motors like this. That had me enthralled.

Then one weekend we were boating past Fiesta Marina when a small merc powered Vee bottom idled out. He had on a Gentex life jacket and helmet with a smoky bubble shield. When he punched it, the motor started screaming and he had to climb up on the bow for it to break over. He smoothly slid back into the single seat centered in the middle of the boat just as the prop grabbed and away he went. I watched that boat all day long master the waves, jumping and just flying. If that first race held out in front of Baldy's would have been an OPC race, I might have just become an OPC racer instead of alky.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-07-2010, 08:21 AM

The talk about the Scat Cats reminded me of Power Cat and an incident that happened during our first race that I had forgotten about.

We had an elderly neighbor I only remember as Mr. Goff. He had a large Power Cat. At first he had two big mercs on it. Like I mentioned before, seems like a lot of the people on the lake then were searching for more power and it was common to see boats forming up then challenging one another to a high speed duel. Mr. Goff hung a third Merc on his Power Cat to try to best all the others in rough water. He was watching the races from his Powercat and right in the middle of one of the hydro races he pulled onto the course and ran with them. The race was immediately black flagged, but he made two laps before the Texas Parks and Wildlife boat was able to coax him off the course. He was known to tip the bottle a little, but whatever they told him, he put his boat up.:D

The smaller more high performance Power Cats seemed to show up about this time too I think. I had thought they were made in Victoria, Texas back then, but I might be thinking of another similar boat. They seemed a little larger and more stable than the Scat Cats, and we saw them around the lake long after the Scat Cats quit coming.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-07-2010, 06:54 PM

I wish I could remember exactly when Baldy bought the Mishey. There was some elapsed time between when we raced and the next pics showed up. But maybe that's because I didn't finish off the roll at first. I only have two pics of the boat running and I think it was probably Mark driving and me with my Kodak Instamatic.

Baldy gave me directions to Curtis Mihalcheks house in San Antonio to bring the rig back home to Alice, Texas. My first vehicle was a 1964 GMC column shift 1/2 ton pickup that I suppose was an Alice Specialty pickup. I didn't ask. I had an Alice Specialty Company credit card for gas so I didn't care, and I had no driving restrictions, so all was cool. So I figure it must have been June after school was out I went to pick it up.

It was the first time I went to pick up a boat and the first time I ventured that far by myself. I knew most of the way though because it was the same way we went to the skeet contests in San Antonio. Just go straight up Memorial Highway out of Alice, north to the outskirts of San Antonio and exit west on Loop 410. Go past the stadium of caged monkeys and look for the exit on the right in the rolling hills on the southwest side of San Antonio.

I don't remember the main road I exited, but the directions were simple. I only had to go a couple of miles then go through three red lights, turn right and there were only a couple of other streets that led to the one I needed to find. In those days that area inside the loop was not built up. It was easy driving to get to the first traffic signal. Since then I have always wondered why they give direction by red lights instead of green. I guess if you go through it....it doesn't register as a landmark.;)

I go through the three red lights, turn right and wind up through the streets lining the hills. I go way too far. It's not supposed to be miles from the intersection....only a few streets and a only a mile or so. After driving around looking for the right street I go back to the first red light. I do the directions again, but end up in the same place so I circle around trying to cut the track of the street I am looking for. I was very anxious to get there, get the boat and get on back home so I spent more time looking than I probably should. I am a rookie at directions at this time so I firmly believe I have made a mistake myself.

Confounded...and not knowing what else to do...I go back to the starting point once more. At the intersection of the first red light I was to start counting from, there was an Enco service station on the southeast corner. I turned left into the station, pulled up to the pump to fuel up, then went into the office to show them the directions I had. I asked the manager if he knew where this street was and he said he did. He then proceeded to tell me, pointing in the direction I had just come from, to go down three red lights, turn right....etc. I stopped him before he finished and asked him to come out with me to the edge of the highway and point out EXACTLY where I was to make the right. You could see a way down the main highway and it went downhill from the Enco service station, bottomed out and started to rise. I pointed with my finger counting out the red lights with number one, the light at the intersection where his service station was...then two a couple of blocks down the street.....and three, starting up the rise. He then corrected me pointing at the light directly at the intersection in front of his service station saying "You don't count that one!"

So I found Curtis Mihalchek's house....finally....loaded up and headed back to Alice.:D

Master Oil Racing Team

07-09-2010, 07:35 AM

The one thing I can still recall the first time we tested the Mishey was the smell of castor oil that permeated the cockpit around the transom, and the smell of ether when we sprayed it into the carb. I can still smell that first day of testing.:cool: One of the things Curtis sent along was a big sponge. He said you need that when you race boats because you always need to soak up small amounts of water between the chines that aren't lined up with the drain holes. and you can't scoop it out. And he pointed out the little chrome tab about 2:00 from the carb and said not to mess with that. That was the spark advance and he had it secured with a heavy piece of rusty wire. The props were stainless steel and brass. I don't remember how long it took to rig up, but Curtis went over all that with me thorougly before I left San Antonio. It was fairly simple. I was used to the Merc style tower housing and clamps,. Attaching the bowden cable and securing the housing and adjusting the butterfly to the inner cable and tightening was simple. All that had to be because I knew absolutely nothing about mechanic work. We got it rigged up, started and out on the water. Unbelievable. The smell, the noise, the speed. This was heaven. I did not remember I had the next two pics until I started going through them for this thread. They were mixed in with the slides from our first race, but the coloring and water looked different. Upon checking the date, I found these were developed a couple of months later, and so after inspecting closely I realized this was either Mark or myself testing the Mishey out in front of our place. I am sure it was Mark in the boat and I took the pictures from our pier.

ADD: I accidentally posted the same photo twice. I didn't know how to delete the duplicate for fear of wiping out the rest, so I just added the second. Sorry! (Its not hard, I did it for you -Sam)

Master Oil Racing Team

07-10-2010, 09:07 AM

Curtis gave me the name of a man near Corpus Christi who could help us with our Merc Quincy deflector. His name was Dan Waggoner. He was the first one to help us, and give advice. Dan was racing long before I ever started and raced basically until Lone Star died a few years after we quit. Then his wife Blanche died, followed shortly by Dan himself, and not long after they were both gone, their only son, David died. I think it was all within a 6 month period. Dan was their only child and he was born with cerebral palsy. He always lived at home. They were a close knit family and always went everywhere together.

I'm not sure when Dan started racing. He told me, but that was long ago. I think it may have been in the 40's. When I met Dan he was a foreman retired from Humble Oil & Refining. He lived in Flour Bluff just south of Corpus Christi and on the west side of the Laguna Madre. Flour Bluff was a bayside community and most of the roads were paved with oyster shells. Between the shells and the fine sand from Padre Island all the sunflowers in Flour Bluff were coated with a fine white dust. I thought until a few years ago that's where it got it's name, but it wasn't. Smugglers used to bring in flour and other items there to avoid taxes. There may have been a big raid when a lot of flour was being brought in, resulting in the name, but I don't remember that part.

Flour Bluff was where Baldy stored our Thompson for salt water fishing so I knew the way well. I gave a call to Dan sometime in the summer of 1965 and he told me to come on over. He had a garage just south of the clapboard house where he kept his boat. That's the way it is with boat racers isn't it? The boats go in the garage whether or not there's room for cars.:D. I can't remember if he had any older boats around or not. Probably did. All I ever knew him to run was A/B runabout.

His shop was built onto the east side of the garage and was about eight by ten or twelve. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was wall to wall Merc and Merc/Quincy deflector and looper parts, with the occasional boat hardware and other things you need to work on racing rigs. It would be unbelievable to go back and look at that stuff now. I don't know whatever happened to any of it. I don't recall Dan ever talking about any other relatives.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-10-2010, 10:37 AM

I'm not sure how old David Waggoner was when I first met him. It was hard to tell his age. He was slightly bent and his right arm bent also. He could not fully open his right hand or close it around a glass. David was right handed so he had to drink by sticking his index finger inside the glass and grip it with the third and fourth fingers. It was awkward, but he had been managing it for years before I met him. His left hand and arm were okay, and that's how he helped Dan lift his runabout. He could walk okay, but had a slight limp. It was hard to understand him because he couldn't enunciate his letters very well although he knew how to read. I was around him enough where I could understand what he said while others not used to being around him could not. I always made sure I talked with him at all the races and would find out what he had been up to because some of the people who weren't around him much felt uncomfortable. Not that anyone was ever unkind or shyed away, but when you can't really understand much, it's hard to have a conversation. He had a sense of humour though and would laught a lot. Blanche and Dan devoted their lives to David. Maybe that's one reason Dan raced for so many years. David loved boat racing and was able to participate as a pit man.

He did have a job. He worked in the maintenance department for the city of Corpus Christi. I'm not sure if he could drive a car. I never saw him drive one. But he sure could drive a motorcycle. One evening Dan and Blanche invited all the Corpus Christi Boat Club members to his house for a BBQ and David took me for a ride on his Triumph. It was a new one he just bought with more horsepower and he wanted to show it off. I think it was around 600 cc's or so. We had no helmets and it was night time. Waldron Road was one of the main blacktops that ran north and south just one block west of their house. Back then, there were no traffic lights on it, and no traffic either when he took me for a ride.

He gradually brought the bike up to about 30 miles per hour, then suddenly punched it. I had my arms around his torso, but only loosely. I had to grab tight to hold on to keep from falling backward off the bike so suddenly was I thrown back. It seemed only an instant that we must have been doing eighty or more.:eek:. That was one of the scardest moments in my life. Since he couldn't actually close his right hand around the throttle for a proper grip, he did something with his right hand to ease off before shifting, then get back on the throttle for a constant acceleration. He did it as quickly as anyone with biking experience. To do it though, he had to jerk the bike to the left, then back straight again as he got back on it. It only took a fraction of a second, but I'm telling you it was frightening. I told I was going to suffer a long time before I quit tumbling and then died. Fortunately we only went straight and he turned around and took me back to the party. To this day that ride is burned in my memory.

Here is a pic I took of David at Baytown after a hard day of racing and lifting boats up and down the seawall. The tide was out then. It was the first race I ever hit the starting line with an honest to goodness alky rig.

I was in photography class then, and I took this for an assignment. I always liked the picture because it's kind of a bittersweet moment. While the cerebral palsy took a normal life away from David and his family, he was more fortunate than probably the vast majority in that we was able to do so much. You just wonder what he is thinking when this pic was taken. Alone amongst a lot of friends.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-10-2010, 06:21 PM

Mark and I had finished the runabout by the time I met with Dan the first time. I told Dan all about it, and I don't recall whether we wanted it fiberglassed or whether Dan suggested it, but he gave me the name and number of a guy in Corpus Christi that was good at fiberglassing over wood. We painted the boat all white. We took the runabout to Sam Savages shop for it to be fiberglassed and had to wait for a week or so until he got it done.

shenders

07-11-2010, 08:29 AM

Wayne

The bit about Mr. Waggoner brought back memory’s . Dan was just a great guy. I don’t know what happen to all his racing stuff but I bought his last B flathead in 1970. I think that was the year they quit racing.. I found a B swift hydro , if I remember from Phil Crown. Boy that flathead sure made that little swift go fast. Only problem was that thing would throw me out in a turn faster than you could blink. But it was a lot fun. A bit of history here, Phil Crown got my dad Stanley Henderson in racing in 1950 or 51. Then my dad’s brother Joe Henderson started racing also and that lead to, you know who Denny racing. I drove my first hydro 1952 and denny was 1 or 1 1\2. I had a picture of him setting in a Tide sope box on bank of mountin creak lake. I have look high and low for it but can;t find it.
Long time of racing for the family.
A lot memories.

Stan Henderson

Master Oil Racing Team

07-11-2010, 08:22 PM

Dan didn't quit in 1970 Stan. He just didn't maintain a high profile, but he always was there at the Lone Star Races. Dan didn't travel any further than Beaumont that I can recall. I am not sure, but I think he may have gotten a new looper and runabout around the time you mention Stan.

I kind of knew a little bit about the Henderson's beginnings, but thanks for telling us how all that came about Stan. I first remember Joe and Denny at Garza Little Elm in Dallas on July 3rd 1966. Denny spun out in A or B hydro and got a serious slice from the prop on his ankle. I have posted in by scrapbook the Dallas Morning News story of that.

This is a scan from a contact sheet instead of the negative I took of Dan at the APBA/Lone Star Western Divisionals in San Antonio in May 1976. My darkroom has been a total mess for more than a year. I have cabinets halfway complete to file magazine holders in order to try to get some semblance of order. I have a number of unanswered E mails or PM's because I haven't had enough time to get to what I'm looking for, scan, post, then refile. I never thought when I posted my first comment on BRF that I would get so tied up with boat racing again. I'm rambling now....but thanks to all you boat racers out there that have contributed so much to our precious and dwindling history.

So here is the pic of Dan

ADD: Stan...I hope you can find that picture of Denny. Priceless.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-12-2010, 07:37 AM

We got our runabout fiberglassed and rigged out. I don't know why we chose white. It could have been at the suggestion of Sam Savage who did the work. It will last longer and look better weathering the south texas sun. So we had the Mishey also repainted white, but with a black canvas cowling. I never did make a start with boats of that paint scheme though. A couple of photos of the runabout at Baldy's. The last view was taken from the upper porch and we were about to do some practice runs with the Mishey. Behind the willow trees in the background is where turn two was in that first race Mark and I ran.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-12-2010, 09:41 AM

I'm not exactly sure when I sunk the Mishey, but it was more than likely before the new paint job. Mark and I had been practicing to get some seat time before we went to another race. It was my time in the boat and I was just making laps while Baldy watched from our twin engine Thompson idling in the cove. The Mishey didn't fly like our subsequent hydros. It pit patted the sponsons as we ran along. As I got used to the speed, I went faster and faster. The center fin did not hold the boat into a turn like a side fin, and so the faster I went through the turns, the wider my arc. Coming off a turn near a point of land opposite Fiesta Marina, I tapped a rock on a peninsula just below the surface of the water. The peninsula was very narrow and steep, but it stuck out about 70 yards from the shoreline. I didn't realize I was that close, and I didn't even feel the rock crunch through the right sponson. It wasn't a gaping hole, but it allowed water to start coming in every time the sponson dipped, and all through the left hand turns.

I made a complete lap, but after coming through turn one again the boat was visibly slowing and I didn't know why. I made it about halfway down the backstraight when I felt the water. I immediately shut off the Merc and jumped out of the boat and into the water. Baldy got over to me just about the time it went under. I had enough presence of mind to hold on to the bow handle and between my life jacket and the bouyancy of the wood and padding, I was able to get a line on it and we towed the little hydro back to shore.

I don't know how we got the motor restarted, but we were able to do so after dumping all the water out. We knew that we needed to run it some to dry the motor out and protect the crank, bearings, etc. The only way we could do that was to rig it up on the runabout, which at that time had never had a motor on it.

We got it rigged up, fired off and I got back out on the lake. I found out right away I couldn't go very fast. With the eight foot length, a 48 " bottom and all that lift on the deck, it was light as a goose feather underway. My flight training kicked in and I could feel it lifting at half the speed I was running that Mishey. I backed way off the throttle and was just making time around the cove to dry out the engine. As I came around to head into turn two, I was going straight into a steady southeast wind. In the turn it started lifting and was about 30 degrees before I got it settled back down. I went through that turn three or four times, and each time the boat would start to lift, and the transom would rock side to side while spilling air. It was almost like riding a kite. And I don't think I was even going over 35 miles per hour. That ride did give me an everlasting memory though and we were able to get the motor all cleared out.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-13-2010, 06:40 AM

It was a fun summer, but now it was time to go back to school. One of my favorite all time groups the Lovin' Spoonful released "Do You Believe in Magic". I pretty much quit finding time to fly. Between looking around for an old gasoline deflector, and finding one, to fix up to put on the runabout, doing schoolwork and having to drive to the lake everyday to take care of the horses, I just didn't have time. To this day I have $90.00 on account for my lessons I didn't finish.;):D Baldy kept on me about either finishing up the lessons or get the money back. I never did either.

I signed up for photography class, and if I could fit anything into a lesson to do with boat racing I would. Baldy was checking things out behind the scenes and had learned of an uncoming race in Mexico south of Zapata,Texas. So we got the Mishey repaired and everything ready for that race.

The first photo was to learn studio lighting and seamless white backgrounds, the magazine ad was to learn close ups with a cheap, not very good screw on close up filter attachment . I don't know the assigments of the life jacket and helmet or boat and trailer. I took these in Baldy's front yard and driveway at the house in Alice. You can my white GMC pickup in the carport.

ADD:This was the favorite place for me and my friends to eat lunch in high school. It was K&N Root Beer stand. That was back in the days when root beer was real, and not the artificial flavored root beer of today. The waitresses name was Elmira, but we always called her "Elvira", I guess after the song she always gave us as hard a time as we gave her. It was one of the photos I took in my photography class. Check out the prices.

Bill Van Steenwyk

07-13-2010, 11:52 AM

Wayne:

Is that a "BUCO" helmet in the picture. If so I had one very similar as my first boat racing helmet in the 50's. Later wore it while spraying and dusting cotton in Arkansas.

jrich

07-13-2010, 02:20 PM

Really enjoying the stories, Wayne. I love seeing those old pictures of the Baytown club.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-13-2010, 02:50 PM

I don't really know Bill Van. Could be. Here is more of a close up. The bottom half was soft black leather.

Glad you are enjoying this Joe. Got more Baytown pictures coming up.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-13-2010, 06:31 PM

It was at this time I wanted to learn all I could about outboard racing. I even leaned into the tight left and right hand switchbacks on the road to Sam Savage's shop. I quizzed Dan about other racers around Corpus Christi. I do not remember him telling me about current racers but I do remember Red Coburn. He had a place on the north side of Lexington Avenue that led to the causeway across the Laguna Madre and on to Padre Island via two swing bridges in between that allowed traffic ffrom Hunble Channel and the Intracoastal Canal to pass through. The boat traffic had the right of way. That road is now a four lane highway, with no toll roads, no swing barges and is now officially called South Padre Island Drive (not to be confused with South Padre).

Red Coburn had a lot of trophies on the northern wall of his shop. His showroom was expansive, and he had a lot of boats and motors, but the atmosphere seemed dead. All I remember was looking at the trophies and talking a little bit about Dan Waggoner, who he knew, and that I was going to start racing. I don't recall anything more other than he was tired...did not talk about his trophies....they were just there.,,,,and.......that's it!.

I nevr went back to talk to him although he was considered a top driver at least in South Texas.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-13-2010, 07:14 PM

Talking to Dan or maybe Red....or someone...who knows, because I don't. I wanted to buy a junk motor to practice on to learn the ins and outs of Mercury's. I had no clue, but Baldy let us buy everything the Snap on Tool man thought he could get away with. We filled out our tool chest mostly with one fell swoop.

In the meantime, somewhere, I found a motor that had been burnt up. As I remember, it had gotten very hot. Water pump or plugged intake or something. Not lack of oil. It may have been run without a good water pump for awhile because I remember everything was black. The pistons, the rings, the crankcase...it was a pain to pull it apart. I cannot remember what Merc it was. Seems like KG7, but I think it was 15cc or an A motor. The name Hurricane comes to mind with one of the motors we had.

Dan told me about one of the most excellent tools I have ever purchased. Its been years, so I don't exactly remember the size, but what I recall was 7/16 socket with a swivel end, and a 7/16 open end. This was a simple and easy tool to remove the power head from the tower housing.

On the particular motor in question, I think I twisted off all the bolts except the two in front. I was able to pull the cylinders apart from the crankshaft housing with much difficulty. However.....since I had never done that before....it was making progress. All was black, gritty and sticky. But all was good until I got to the crank. I was able to remove the rods O.K., although I seem to remember having some trouble with the big end.

After that, I thought it would be easy going...but not to be. I thought the crank would come right out of the housing, even though the cylinders had been pretty well coked up. So I hammered on the top a little after having replace the nut. Master Oil was about 6 months away from becoming a reality, so I had no clue about that. ( We used WD 40 back then , and even though they were a competitor, I am still a big fan of that oil.)

As a neophyte mechanic, I thought the crank was just as hard to get out as pulling the cylinders, and the dirty black pistons. So I had a brand new puller. It fit around the upper bosses of the crank and I lined everything up so I could push the crank our through the bottom of the crankcase. I thoght it would come right out with pressure, but it didn't. I left the pressure on overnight and found the next morning that I could take another turn. That's what I did for several weeks. After I came home from school, I would turn the puller as far as I could then hit the top with a hammer.. One day I came home.....turned the T handle and when I whopped the top....the crank fell down.. Boy was I happy!:D It was after I picked up the crankshaft and was trying to find what the obstruction was...I saw an iron bolt about 3/8" diameter that held the brass reed block in place. I didn't know about stuff like that then...and I did not ever see it...or understand what it was. But I never forgot that lesson:cool:

Master Oil Racing Team

07-14-2010, 08:12 PM

The race in Mexico was held near the town of Nuevo Guerrero on Falcon Lake I think in Septiembre of 1965. It was part of an annual celebration of moving of the town. Guerrero was flooded when the dam closed on the Rio Grande river to provide water for Texas and Mexico. In 1953 the federales had to go in and forcibly remove the last few residents before flooding of the town of Guerrero. It is now a ghost town, sometimes under water and during long droughts a resurrected dry ghost town. I always wanted to go there and look around, but never have.

Nuevo Guerrero is southwest of the dam. We didn't go into the town for any of the panchanga, but a lot of the residents came out to watch us race. Zapata was about two and a half hours from Baldy's house in Alice, and I guess it was another hour to cross the border and get to the pits by the time we got through all the border stuff. I do not remember that part of it at all.....nor coming back home. We didn't stay overnight.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-15-2010, 09:39 AM

We didn't paint the number on our Mishey yet. We pitted on the far end. No one to our left and Steve Jones from Corpus Christi just to our right. It was the beginning of a long relationship with Steve. To the right of Steve was a guy who went by the name of "Whitey". C99. I don't remember his last name. He only raced here and the races close to Corpus Christi. In the middle of the pit picture is David Waggoner standing next to Dan's C77 runabout. These C boats weren't from California. C was Lone Star Boat Racing Association's letter designation for the Corpus Christi Boat Club. A lot of these drivers I don't know who they are. Maybe Joe can help.

In one of the runabout classes, the Mexicans had an entry with a sport boat. You can see in one of the pit shots which looks like the Mexican press.

Bill Van Steenwyk

07-15-2010, 02:44 PM

Those pictures are fantastic Wayne. It's hard to believe that they are in that good of shape after all these years. Steve Jones is easily recognizable also. Doe he still live in the Corpus area?

That looks to be a BIG lake with not much protection from the wind. Could probably get rough with a little wind or pleasure boats just based on the waves coming in where the hydro is sitting on the stand. I especially enjoyed the last picture. Was that milling for the start or a typical Mexican boat race? Reason I ask is I remember the way the natives drove on the roads when I was building boats across the border from Rio Grande City.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-15-2010, 07:48 PM

It does get rough Bill Van. That last pic were Lone Star drivers. It was actually taken during testing and not racing. Yeah....Steve Jones looked the same the whole time I have known him. Especially that s*&t eatin' grin. But I have no clue where he is now. I have tried to find him for a number of years, but finally gave up. I last talked to him on the phone around 2004 and he was still in Corpus then.

In the first pick you can see a guy left of the trailer with a straw hat. I believe that's Joe Fuqua because he wore a hat like that.

I never went to the place where you built your boats Bill Van, but it would not be that far up U.S. 83 toward Laredo, and hang a left at Rio Grande City, or was it Roma a few miles further north.

Bill Van Steenwyk

07-15-2010, 09:45 PM

Right across the border from Rio Grande City in Camargo. I don't remember the name of the small motel in Rio Grande City I stayed at but I do remember two things about it. The room rent was 6.00 per nite, tax included, and there was a sign displayed in every room that said "DO NOT CLEAN DOVES IN SINK OR BATHTUB", referring to the white wing dove season in that area.

It was very clean and neat, although nothing fancy of course. I don't remember there being more than the one motel in town at that time although I could be mistaken. That was a very interesting time in my life with many experiences indelibly imprinted on my brain that I will NEVER forget.

Among many other experiences in my life at that time, the Rio Grande City times provided Baldy and I many interesting conversations for quite a while afterwards. I learned from that experience what other folks meant when I had heard them say "that guy better hope I never find out I have a terminal illness with only 30 days to live".

When you get to that time frame in the thread, if you want, I will contribute a few stories that might be interesting now 35 years later, especially since Baldy was the primary instigator of that adventure. Like the guy said that was drafted in the army, "I would not take anything for the experience, but I would never want to repeat it."

Master Oil Racing Team

07-16-2010, 06:02 AM

Yeah....keep your thoughts. Ray Hardy was part of our Rio Grande City experience as well, though not connected in any way with boats. Incicentally, the famous Capt Richard King was able to get his river boat all the way up to Rio Grande City when he did that prior to buying up land and starting the famous King Ranch.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-16-2010, 06:16 AM

After we got our A hydro rigged up, I went out on the water to test. This was the first time we tested at a race. Our first race we didn't know about testing, and we didn't need to either. So I got out and started doing practice laps. Normally, it is calm in south Texas this time of year, which should also apply to northern Mexico. However, the wind was already up early. I was circling the bouys and pounding those sponsons across the tops of the waves. I was used to rough water on our lake, but I had never taken the Mishey out before when it was rough. I didn't know any better and as other drivers were going out, I did also. The others though were all in runabouts. Texas in those days was primarily a hot spot for runabout drivers. I don't have any pictures of hydros running, so maybe I was the only one that went out.

After about four laps, I was halfway through turn two when I topped a wave going too fast and spun out. Water was everywhere and I had the throttle open. As the boat came to a stop going backwards the engine suddenly stopped. I got towed in and we unclamped the Merc, took out the two sparkplugs and dumped the water out of the cylinders. We then attempted to get it started again in the same manner we successfully used after I had sunk the boat earlier that summer. In spite of all we tried we could not get it started. By then it was time for the races to get kicked off, so we became much more familiar with Steve Jones by helping in his pits. He was by himself, but as typical of racers you could always find help in the pits.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-16-2010, 07:46 AM

A few more pit shots. The 44T runabout is Phil Crown's boat.

The second pic was my first fan. He was a young Mexican boy. He spoke no English and I spoke no Tex Mex, but he came up and made it clear he wanted to hang around and help us. We let him help lift the Mishey on the trailer and set it up, and other little things like that. He was very much enthused about the boat races and I guess since I was the youngest driver and closest to his age, I was the most approachable. I wonder if he still remembers the races?

I'm not sure who is in the pits helping Steve, but I think they came from the S10 Fillinger? It's hard to make out the numbers, but it wasn't Kay Harrison.;) There is a list of abbreviations for the letters of the Lone Star clubs on the Lone Star thread.

After the races started, they were competing against Steve so Mark and I helped as I mentioned previously. It got rougher as the day went on. I think Steve had an A Merc on his Ashburn and he stepped up into B runabout and maybe C. What I clearly remember is having to go get our sponge in addition to his to help get the water out of his boat. There were no corks. While waiting for the 5 minute gun we were bailing, then Steve kept having trouble getting his motor started. After two or three heats it seemed like we couldn't keep up with the water. As soon as Steve got into his runabout we started soaking up the water, but when the motor wouldn't start, and we set it momentarily back in the water to rest, when the water that was up in the bow rushed back and settled down, it seemed like there was more than before. Mark and I wore getting worn out lifting the back of the boat and then bailing like crazy when we set it back in the water. Finally I told Steve that I thought his boat had a leak somewhere. It must have been when we couldn't get it started and the one minute gun fired that we put it on the stands with a lot of water still in it. Then we could see water leaking at the joint between the transom and the bottom. That pounding on Falcon Lake just made it worse each time he went out. All that work though cemented the friendship between us and Steve and was just the beginning of a number of calamities with Steve over the years of our racing together.:D

ADD: The guy in the orange sherbet shirt looks kind of like Larry Baker from the side. He was from Corpus, but I never was around him much. He quit around 1967 and came back briefly for a race or two in the early 70's.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-16-2010, 08:31 PM

It was the following Saturday I took our 15 cu. in. Merc/Quincy to Dan Waggoner's shop to diagnose why our dependable little motor wouldn't start after it was completely dry..had decent plugs and the fuel was fresh.

I had called Dan to make sure it would be OK if I came over. He was ready. I brought the motor into his shop and he had me set it on a slanted 2X8 or 2X10 rack where he set motors. He had already made a space. Since Dan had just come from the race where our motor quit...and he apparently had watched or heard of the laps I was making, he had made a quick inspection and showed me something we never noticed.

On the right side of the block (looking forward), there was a solid crack. It started at the top and ran through the tower housing until it quit where the lower unit was bolted on,

All the science I had learned at that point about water, and hydraulic pressure didn't mean anything compared to what Dan showed me. He said I had the motor running and the carb open......yes!......and water came into the motor.........Yes!..........and the motor quit.......Yes! Then he traced with his finger, the crack running from the block, down to where it was so great it split the tower housing. Dan's explanation of how the water did all that in just a couple of minutes was more than I ever got in science class.

I don't remember what happened next. I don't know if Baldy had Dan replace the busted parts and rebuild the motor and buy a new tower housing, or if we replaced the old powerhead with another used one. Some of these parts are not forgotten....but that Baldy did stuff that I didn't know about.

jrich

07-22-2010, 01:52 PM

I wanted to buy a junk motor to practice on to learn the ins and outs of Mercury's.

Your story reminded me of when I was very young my dad gave me a blown up 4 cyl Merc after he had scavenged everything usable. He gave me enough burnt pistons, bent rods, etc so I could "build" the engine. With no bearings or reed blocks I could put it together and turn the crank and everything would move. I was maybe 6 or 7. One day a friend of my dad's was over and I showed it to him and when I turned it he said it sounded like it was full of rocks. That kinda bummed me out so I asked my dad why it sounded that way and he told me it had no bearings or reed blocks. Some time later when my dad was at work I dug through his "good" stuff and got some reed blocks and bearings and stuff and tried to put my motor back together. I could no longer turn it over and Pops wasn't too pleased with my "taphammer" method of trying to get everything to fit. Good times........ :rolleyes:

Master Oil Racing Team

07-22-2010, 07:31 PM

No Joe....that's not a temporary Hi Jack. You did exactly what I was hoping for. Adding your own personal stories as a kid growing up into a boat racing family...or starting out on your own as Tim Butts and I did.

I still haven't finished "An Amazing Story", but I changed the dialog up as I went along, because I had no idea of the following, and the many comments along the way. It brought out members that had not posted before, and many that had but added more to the story that they knew from a different angle.

No one ever remembers ALL that happened at an event, or even remembers things that happened to them or those around them, but sometimes they get a spark from something someone else said or posted. Joe Rome and I do that all the time.

So the way I approached this particular thread was.......I would tell the story of the beginnings of my boat racing career, add some spices to it along the way, and in between hope for and respond to comments. Without my Dad Baldy Baldwin...it would have never happened, and this is about him for the encylopedia. He did so much for our sport behind the scenes that I didn't want to just list the few titles he had. It was so much more than that. I am doing the racing part of the thread because it introduces all the people that entered into our lives, and how Baldy thrived on entertaining our boat racing friends.

So the way I plan to do it is to tell the tale as it goes, then respond to any comments or stories in between. And that was an excellent story Joe. Stay tuned for some really old Lone Star photos coming up.

Gene East

07-23-2010, 04:24 AM

Master Oil Racing Team

07-24-2010, 08:04 PM

How we look back and wish we could have had foresight instead of hindsight. I think about how many more things I could recall had I taken more notes and pictures Gene. At least we have experiences that a lot will never see, and your motive was laudable, and who knows what good might have come of it. Jerry would have done the same. Still...I understand your feelings.

Master Oil Racing Team

07-24-2010, 08:20 PM

Joe Fuqua and his son David were from the Corpus Christi boat club, along with some of the others that raced at Nuevo Guerrero, Mexico. I don't know any details, but Joe was getting out of racing, and I suspect he approached Baldy about buying his B Merc/Quincy deflector. I don't know any facts about this....only that a few weeks later Dave Fugua showed up at our house in Alice, Texas with that B. There was no boat...no parts...no nothing except the motor and maybe a couple of sparkplugs. They were the biggest sparkplugs I have seen to this day. Russ Hill told me about them on another thread.

After Dave set the motor down in our garage, he Baldy and myself started talking racing. This was my and Baldy's first BS session away from a race. Dave was really laying it on about the speed. I can clearly remember him saying that one of his dreams was to drive a D hydro. He then went on to talk about their speed, handling, etc. I was thinking to myself that there's NO WAY I will ever drive a D hydro. I thought to myself HOW could anyone ever drive something so powerful and so fast. To me....on that day....no driver ever started out driving an A runabout, a B hydro or anything. The D hydro drivers were just crazy...fearless....and....what?..........just knew how to drive!

Danny Pigott

07-30-2010, 04:28 PM

Wayne, I never knew your dad Baldy, i may have meet him once but he would not have remembered me from Adam. I always thought he was one of the greatest people in Pro racing . He tryed very hard to put on professional races an put pro where it should have been at the top.. One of the best things i remember he did ,was give the pro drivers a little butt chewing for not attending the World Championship at Firebird Lake in AZ.. His thoughts were if you run pro, you should attend a World Championship in the USA if at all possible, an i agree. I went to a lot of races that i could not afford to go to, but made up for it in other ways

Master Oil Racing Team

07-30-2010, 08:41 PM

Thanks Danny...I appreciate that compliment of my Dad....Baldy. He was opinionated...he was boisterous....he was outspoken....and he didn't hesitate at all about his opinion on what he thought about what was going on. He studied the rule books. He even purposefully had me run an illegal lower unit and paid the protester's fee to get a ruling that had been languishing for most of the year. But anyone that knew him loved him. I wish sorely that we had gotten to know you and your family.

As I mentioned previously on another thread, Debbie and I were on our honeymoon when we went to Hinton, and it was the only time I never walked all the way down the pits. Most of the racers were down that way. I have kicked myself many times for not getting pit shots of the other areas. If I would...I would have some of you and your Dad for my collection.

I go back from time to time to look at the pics you posted of me and my Dad at Hinton, and think about those days.:cool: I look forward to all your post's because I have the same sense of where we came from that you do.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-03-2010, 08:43 AM

Here are two pics of our deflector Merc-Quincy's in the room off our shop in Alice. The one on the right is the B we got from Joe and Dave Fuqua, and the other is the one from Curtis and Michael Mihalched after Dan Waggoner fixed it. I was a terrrible photographer back then. These were two I submitted for grading in my photography class. The instructor wrote on the back of the first one "No composition" and on the second "Too dark". Oh well....at least I saved them.:D

Master Oil Racing Team

08-03-2010, 10:15 AM

The next race we went to was at Sunset Lake just north of Corpus Christi, Texas It was a little salt water lagoon cut off from Nueces Bay. The NOA World Championship was held there in 1957, and I believe it was during Dieter and Flo Konig's honeymoon that Dieter raced there at that event.

All this time I remembered that we pitted just to the right of Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch. When I was getting these pictures ready to post, I realized that we were actually pitted to the right of Louis Williams, Jr. and that Freddie and Arlen were the next trailer to the left of Louis. To our right were Alex and Tommy Weatherbee. In several pics you can see the trailer of Freddie and his T 42 boats. In one pic Baldy is standing by the trailer of Freddie checking out the motors. At the two previous races we had attended the motors were all either Mercs, or Merc-Quincy's. Baldy was very curious about these Konig motors that had a very different look and sound.

The last black and white photo is the Weatherbee's with Alex on the right, Tommy in the middle on the other side of the hydro, and Steve with his back to the camera. They had two Merc-Quincy loopers that could really fly. They were very impressive.

ADD: In the 5th pic Dan Waggoner is in his runabout, the trailer in the foreground is ours, and to the far right Louis Williams is entering in the picture. I had previously thought the pit man on the left side of Louis Williams' boat in the third pic was Joe Rome. Now I'm not so sure. I think Joe would have been taller. But then in 1965, he might have still had a couple of inches to go. The pit man does have on a straw hat like Joe used to wear though.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-03-2010, 01:11 PM

Mark went out testing our A on the Mishey hydro, and he didn't drive it back into the pits. He made a right upon leaving the pits, and when he started through the first turn and tried to make the bend to go down the back straight, the little Mishey just kept sliding and sliding. Before he ran into the bank on the far side, Mark shut the motor off. He never tested much and just didn't use his throttle and body to bring it around. By the time a pickup boat bothered to retrieve him and tow him back to our pits, it was too late to switch motors and for me to test. B hydro must have been up first because that's what's hanging on the boat in the pictures. I can't totally recall all that happened that day, but I never got out on the race course.

I think Mark was signed up for A hydro and I was going to run B hydro. I do remember suiting up in my Gentex and slipping on a white Bell helment, then sitting in the cockpit while Baldy pulled on the rope. He continued to pull on it until the one minute gun fired....both heats. The furthest I ever got was maybe ten or fifteen feet before the motor, firing on one cylinder, died.

We watched the races in ernest. This weather was a little cold, and the water a little choppy, but there were more boats here than came to the first two races. And, the water was good enough that we saw some real speed. Freddy Goehl was the most consistent out there, if not winning almost everything he entered, he was second, or third. Also just as important, he was finishing all his heats, unlike some of the others whose electrical systems were shocked by the salt spray. Baldy, fascinated by the Konig motors, introduced himself to Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch from Bryan Marine in Bryan, Texas.

Baldy wanted to know where he could buy some Konig motors. As Baldy would tell this story many times over the years Freddie offered to sell them his. Baldy's reply..."I'm through buying second hand junk. I want to buy some brand new motors." Freddie quickly responded "We're Konig dealers. We can sell you new motors, and we have all the parts and we carry all the parts you need in stock." He made the deal then and there for a brand new FA and FB Konig. I'm not sure when Baldy ordered the DeSilva runabout, but it was probably watching the races and determined there would probably be more racing in Texas if you had a runabout than a hydro. Texas was a hotbed of runabouts in those days. The DeSilva, in any case, also was ordered through Bryan Marine.

His is a pic of Freddie Goehl in his T 42 hydro with I think an FB Konig with open pipes, although it may have been an FC.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-03-2010, 06:57 PM

Since Baldy did all the ordering, negotiating, and paying....I did not have much to do with buying the DeSilva...except I wanted it white with black trim like our Mishey hydro. To this day I do not know why I wanted that paint scheme. I remember sitting in the deer stand though for hours upon hours waiting for javelina's, turkey's or a whitetail buck to show up dreaming about the beautiful white and black DeSilva. I really liked the lines of that boat, and it was a newer slimmer line according to Freddie. I couldn't wait until our boat was delivered to Bryan in January or February 1966 when we would pick it up along with two bright and shiny new Konig motors.

Gene East

08-04-2010, 04:10 AM

F-12

08-04-2010, 07:25 AM

I stand next to Gene looking forward to another installment of Baldy's thread (as we do with all the threads you have continued.) Thanks for all your time spent to bring back the golden years of boat racing.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-04-2010, 07:31 AM

I had a long conversation with Paul a couple of years ago and he wanted to know why we never even tried a Quincy Welding motor. Chris and my Dad were friends and he talked to Baldy a few times about giving one a go. I even have a letter Chris wrote, apparently after some new innovations. I told Paul about our inauspicious start, and how as newcomers and no mechanics in the family, we had to have something simple and reliable. We found that in a Konig, and as the mounting brackets, throttles, and all that was different, we wanted to stick with just one brand. Paul understood, and we had a long great discussion about both our Dads.

When I took the B Merc-Quincy apart I found a dime size piece of the head missing in the top cylinder about 2:00 position. I don't know what became of those motors, but I suspect Dan Waggoner ended up with them. They would have been good just parted out for Dan, because he could use every piece.

If it would have happened as you said Gene, I would have had a lot of photos of Quincy Welding to the extent Chris would have let me wander around with my cameras.:cool: The good thing is we found each other and a lot of other old friends here and gotten to know each other even better since we don't have to worry about rigging up boats and motors.:D

ADD: It would seem that Merc Quincy would have been the logical way to go at the time because that was what most of the racers ran. The only people I can recall that had Konigs back then were Freddy Goehl, Jack Chance and Clayton Elmer, Deannie Montgomery and Louis Williams with Konig distributor Burt Heitmann helping him.

jrich

08-04-2010, 01:36 PM

I check BRF daily to see if you have posted anything new. I'm sure I'm not alone!

You're not.:D

Master Oil Racing Team

08-05-2010, 08:19 AM

I think this photo assignment I took of the pier at Baldy's was---Perspective. This is the pier I took the shots from of the early morning testing from our first race and the pic of Mark later on testing the Mishey. The race course is in the background and to the right. At the very end of the pier was a T about 15 X 20. The T reflected in the lower right corner was the original end of the pier.

Lake Corpus Christi was permitted for a maximum elevation of 94' above sea level. When the gates closed on Wesley Seale Dam in 1959 to begin raising the level, it was only brought up to 88' elevation. That was because some oil and gas production would be flooded when raised to the 94' elevation. The operators would be given eight years to produce before the wells would have to be plugged and abandoned, then the lake would be allowed to fill to capacity at the earliest opportunity.

As is common in South Texas the lake level would rise and fall with inconsistent wet and dry periods. Baldy had been waiting for the lake to fall as low as possible before adding on another section of the pier. We were coming out of a dry period and there was a lot of flooding upstream. The Nueces River (considered the original northern border by Mexico after Independance in 1836), was the main source of water, but the Frio and Atascosa Rivers join the Nueces at Three Rivers, Texas about 30 miles or so northwest. There was widespread flooding in the upper drainage and it takes a few days to a week before we would get any significant rise depending on the amount of rain, and where it fell.

Baldy put out the call for my Uncle Jay and his son Randy to help us put in the long section before the rise, because it would soon be too deep to do it. This is where I learned to sink in posts.

Baldy had a number of 16 or 20 foot (I forget) creasote treated pine timbers delivered to our lake house. We started at daybreak. Baldy had a centrifugal pump with a two inch black poly hose swedged down to a piece of 3/4" galvanized pipe. In the shallow water (6" to 2' we would dig the hole with a post hole digger, then set the pole. It took all of us to raise it and stab it in the hole. Mark, Randy and myself weren't very tall so we had a couple of ropes tied high that we would pull back on to bring it upright. We would be opposite Baldy and Uncle Jay, who were doing the heavy lifting and we were separated so it was more like a triangle in order to keep the pole from falling to the side as it was being placed in the hole. Once we got it raised, Baldy would insert the galvanized pipe beside the pole and let the water pressure jet the mud, sand, silt and rocks out of the hole. The posts would rapidly sink several feet through the mud and silt. When it hit caliche, it took longer to jet out from round the bottom. As we held the pole in place, we could feel the small pebbles and rocks settle around our feet. When a more solid section was hit, and the pole didn't fall much more, we filled in around it with the mud, rocks and sand that had just been jetted out. Baldy would use the level to get it as vertical as possible as we stamped the fill in as best as we could. It would stiil be soft by the time we came to tieing all the posts together so we would be able to move them where we wanted.

Us kids were always ready to take breaks and go swimming and playing, but Baldy and Uncle Jay kept us at it all day with only a lunch break. By the end of the day we had planted all the posts leading out to the T and had the whole length of the right side running board fastened to the posts, as well as the cross braces to keep the posts on the left side stabilized overnight. When we went to bed we were dead tired. I often complained about the minor chores Baldy had me do, but it was really not all that much. This was the first time he cracked the whip all day, but I can remember looking back at all we accomplished that evening and was very proud.

We were up early the next morning and it was cold wading into the water. The lake was mirror smooth. Baldy and Uncle Jay took a measuring tape to get the distance from the water level to the top of the primary "running" boards we nailed down the day before. It wasn't long until that was done and we started on the T, which was in the deepest part of the water. Once we got those in place, the deck squared with the boards to nail the top part of the deck on, Baldy and Uncle Jay began cutting the 2 X 6 cedar deck planks for us to nail down. They started it off, showing us how much gap to leave and how to line up the ends, then two galvanized shank nails for each side. They measured and cut, and I think Mark delivered the boards while Randy (a couple of years older than me) and I nailed them down. It was't long before we had the whole walkway to the T complete, and we were ready to start on that.

While we took a break to admire our work, Baldy and Uncle Jay walked to the end. It was probably about 150 feet. At first they had a strange sensation, but couldn't put their fingers on it. They water was a long way down, and there was a feeling of a slight loss of balance. Another walk up and down the pier and they concluded the walkway slanted to the left. At first they couldn't figure it out, because they were both good carpenters and it was them that took the measurements. It wasn't a perfect tie-in to the previous T, but how precise does new construction on a pier have to mate with an old weathered portion?

They scratched their heads then one of them had a light bulb turn on. They had used the same measurement to nail on the runner board today, that they had used the previous afternoon for the boards on the right. The lake had risen overnight between 1/4 and 1/2 inch, and they did not account for that. So the deck planks slanted to the right causing you to feel like you were being pulled to the side as you walked down the pier. That was when I learned what shims were for.

Baldy went into Klatt Hardware & Lumber in Orange Grove to buy a box of pine shims. He showed us how to pull the nails, hammer the shims in, check with a level, the renail all the right side planks. While we did that Baldy and Uncle Jay went on to do more bracing on the T, nail in the joists and prepare it for decking with the 2 X 6 cedar planks.

I learned a lot from that experience, not the least of which was you have to keep on working if you want to be able to complete the job. The lake continued to rise to past that grassy point in the foreground of this picture. Had we not finished when we did, we would not have been able to complete the pier for another year because the main part of the floodwater came in the next day and it would have been too deep to finish the T.

shenders

08-05-2010, 10:24 AM

Come on Wayne, it’s 1836 not 1936. You want everybody to think us TEXANS don’t know
our history.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-05-2010, 11:20 AM

Thanks Stan.:o Maybe it's too close to 2036.:D I will correct my error now.;)

Master Oil Racing Team

08-08-2010, 02:02 PM

The racing season for 1965 was now over. Nothing to do but wait for the new DeSilva and Konigs. We did have hunting to occupy our time however. We hunted dove, deer, quail, turkey, javelina and rabbits. Baldy's favorite though was quail hunting. He loved to watch his english pointers work.

The first boat racer that I can recall that Baldy entertained was Curtis Mihalchek. If you remember, it was Curtis we bought our first alky rig from. Baldy arranged to meet Curtis at the intersection of Highway 281 and Farm to Market road 624 about 20 minutes southwest of our lakehouse. We met at a gas, country market store everyone knew as "Midway. Baldy stocked up on Saltine crackers, a pound or two of sliced cervelait (like summer sausage), a big onion, a pound or two of sharp cheddar cheese off the big wheel that was always waiting on the counter, ice, water and refreshments. Curtis just had a straight shot down 281 from San Antonio, so it wasn't long before he arrived, and another 20 minutes we drove in through the gate at the pasture where we would hunt quail. It was very sandy country with low blue stem and buffel grass, without much prickly pear cactus. It was a good place for the birds.

Baldy was a big man, but he could outwalk me in that sand. If fact, he would wear just about anybody out. We had an excellent hunt and Curtis was thrilled with the experience of his first hunt over dogs. After we had a late lunch, we hung around talking. They did....I just listened. After Curtis drove away, we never had any further contact with him, but it was the beginning of Baldy surrounding himself with a new crowd of friends. The shooting group, with the exception of Andy Anderson was coming to an end, and the boat racer group was just beginning.:cool:

Baldy's first two dogs were Delivery Boy and Ramblin' Dan. Bill Van is probably the only one left of the frequent visitors that has heard this story.

Baldy was hunting with some friends, I think near Beeville. It could have been at the end of the 1965-66 hunting season not long after the hunt with Curtis, or it might have been the following year. Anyone who knows about bird dogs knows that honoring a point is one of the primary marks of a good dog. Also a dog's total concentration and focus on the hunt is one of the most enjoyable aspects. Baldy like to watch the dogs perform even more than shooting the birds. Wherever it was they were hunting, there was a set of railroad tracks outside the fence and they were near the highway. We never hunt near a highway, and I was not there so I can't remember details, but I believe it was on property that belonged to an oilfield friend. Delivery Boy caught the scent of some quail and immediately took up the chase. A barb wire fence means as little to a dog as it does a bird, and the quail were hold up in some buffel grass just beyond the railroad tracks. A good dog knows just how close it can get to the birds to keep from flushing the covey. If a dog doesn't pursue quickly enough, the birds will just stay on the ground and continue to run. (Blue Quail have been known to ruin a dog because they hardly ever flush). A dog must persue fast enough for them to stop and try to hide, but then himself stop and go on point to hold them and not flush them.

Delivery Boy found the exact spot he needed to hold the birds on top of the train track. Unfortunately, a train was coming. Baldy could not get there in time, and Delivery Boy just held his point stiff as a statue. The engineer was sounding his air horn, but Delivery Boy's only movement was the quivering of his shoulders as he waited for his hunters. There was probably brush line preventing Baldy from peppering him with shot, but in any case there was nothing anyone could do and so Delivery Boy was run down by the train. That took the hunt out of the rest of them, and Baldy brough Delivery Boy home and buried him.

ADD: Delivery Boy on the left and Ramblin' Dan on the right. Delivery Boy delivering the quail to Baldy. (This was another school photo assignment)

F-12

08-08-2010, 03:34 PM

That is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard from you, Wayne. It had to effect Baldy almost as much. There is no better dedication than a bird dog to his task. I just lost my weimeraner and this one brought tears to my eyes.............many years later.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-08-2010, 06:41 PM

It's very hard to lose a pet you love Charley. But Baldy didn't consider his dogs pets. They were hunting partners. In fact, they are the experts who found the game. And he loved them. Baldy's dog's were skinny. You could see their rib cages stand out very well, yet he fed them good, and gave them all the medical treatment necessary. His friend Andy Anderson also had a bird dog, but Andy kept his inside the house like a pet and it lazed beside the fireplace. When it was time to go hunting, Andy's dog had the want and spirit to hunt, but after about 15 minutes, he was panting so much all he could do was walk while Baldy's dogs were covering ground. We had to go back to the car and put Andy's dog in the trailer. Those dogs were never happier than when they were hunting, and they loved Baldy as much as a dog knows love. As we all know...a dog will lay down it's life to protect a loved one. That's why dogs have a special place in a man's heart.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-08-2010, 06:54 PM

This is the only picture I could find of the waterfront side of Baldy's lakefront house at Pernitas Point. I'm not sure any others exist. I only took pictures toward the lake and not back, but for some reason I took this backlit pic at the end of 1964. Baldy didn't use plans for any of the houses he built. He just drew out what he wanted and watched over the construction. The bottom was a screened in porch. Us kids had the upper section and behind the open porch above was just one long room with a bathroom on the far right. Girls and boys of all ages had just that room. There were six beds lined against a bannister overlooking the kitchen below, and at the far right opposite the bathroom on the near wall was a set of bunkbeds. Down below we could watch Baldy entertaining whoever was present behind his large grill and stove. The bar covered from one end of Baldy's cook territory to the other, and as he stood at the grill heaping stories upon the guests, they sat in their stools responding in kind and in turn back to him. He was in his element entertaining friends. And he designed his house to be able to do that.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-09-2010, 08:02 AM

As I mentioned previously, we moved our horses to Alice, on 30 acres behind Alice Specialty so I would be able to take care of them without having to drive thirty miles one way to the lake every day. I used them for another photo assignment for class. Soon after we started racing Baldy parceled them out to cousins that lived on ranches nearby. Everything from that point on would be focused on boat racing.

Second pic left to right. Brenda's Tennessee Walking Horse "Dolly", "Bumble" the mare that foaled Mark's horse "Stinger" the next one to the right, and my horse "Nikki". Not shown are "Nikki's" "Mom" "Smokey", or "Smokey II", or Jan's Welsh Pony "Gus". If anyone ever thinks about getting a shetland pony for their kids, forget about it. They are mean, stubborn, selfish and bite people. A welsh pony is taller than a shetland, but shorter than a horse. They love people, horses, and dogs. They are smarter than other horses and enjoy taking kids for rides.

I wish I would have at least saved my saddle, but we cleared everything out of the tack room to make a place for the race motors and parts. I had never worked on any kind of engine before, and Baldy thought that would be something good to learn.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-13-2010, 08:48 PM

1965 was rolling to an end. Jerry Garcia and his band the "Grateful Dead" had played their first concert in San Francisco. The Soviet Union had announced they had shipped rockets to North Viet Nam. Don't know when they started, but they would not admit it until evidence was overwhelming. The first Charlie Brown Peanuts Christmas Special was aired. Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" was number one on the pop charts.

We were working on modifying the boat trailer to hold the new runabout. And I think Baldy must have been talking to Freddie Goehl about a new hydro as well. Baldy must have checked out how the boat racers had their trailers rigged out, because soon, we had a new box to house motors and tools built on ours. I spent hours painting the box, then painting the letters. I bought Navy style stencils to trace out the letters, then painted, within the lines;):D, Baldwin Racing Team...etc.

Master Oil Racing Team

08-14-2010, 11:47 AM

I don't know how other races pick their numbers except for Louis Williams, Jr. He was a huge fan of AJ Foyt so he always ran 14T or T14. I've never told how I came about my number however, and I never told Baldy, Jack Chance, Joe Rome.....no one until now.

Baldy had probably gotten the National Outboard Association address from Freddie Goehl or Arlen Crouch. In those days we had Lone Star Boat Racing Association, and if you left Texas and raced in the South, then you would run in NOA. Lone Star actually sanctioned their races through NOA also.

I got the application and sent it in thinking that NOA would assign me a racing number. At that point we didn't have a rule book, a copy of Roostertail or anything. We had picked up our DeSilva runabout from Bryan Marine and I was anxious to find out what the number would be so I could paint it on the A/B DeSilva. The reply I got back was that I had to pick my own number rather than NOA assigning one.

I had no clue what number to pick, but 114 was Michael Mihalchek's old number and held no significance to me. Baldy just let me pick out the number I wanted to run, but it had to have a special meaning to me. Then I hit upon an idea.

Pam Yawn had moved to Alice from Kingsville 6 years earlier and we were always in the same classes together. Her Dad Jim set up a Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth dealership on main street, and as Baldy drove Chrysler's and Plymouths he and Jim became good friends. Plus they lived only three houses and the next block up the street. All the while I was painting and lettering the trailer after school Pam would drive by and give me a couple of toots on the horn of her red Dodge Dart. Pam always got the latest car to pick from when the new model year hit each September.

I really liked Pam, but I was very shy with girls, And after all the razzing that Baldy gave Brenda over "Elvis" and some of her cowboy boyfriends, I just didn't ask any girls out. After all, boat racing was the most important thing at this point.;) So I just continued to work on the race boats in the driveway waiting for Pam to drive by, toot her horn and wave.

That was how I came to chose the number for the boat. T-65. Seems weird now that that might have been my number, but that was my original choice. This is the formula.

If you assign a number to each letter, then A =1, B=2, C=3 and so on up to J which is the tenth letter and so equals 0. Then you have to start over with K=1, L=2 and so forth until you reach the end of the alphabet. I held up a finger for every letter I sounded out and P Y, the intials of Pam's name came out to be the number 65. So I added the T for Texas and notified NOA that I wanted the number T-65. Another wait for the mail to go and come. And upon receipt of that letter I was informed that it was already taken. Disappointment really set in because I had my heart set on T-65, and also to get it painted on the side of the DeSilva so it would take on the look of a real race boat at last. I would be doubly proud when Pam drove by and saw the number on the boat, although she wouldn't know the story behind it. It was always my secret until now. But I had to come up with another number, and I was bummed out about more waiting.

I had only attended three races so far and had not seen all the boats in Texas by far, so I didn't have a clue who had T-65, or even what other numbers were available. From the time I started racing until I retired in 1981, I have never seen a T-65. Nor do I recall a 65 number on the national circuit.

Anyway, I figured I would give my formula another try. I had a photo assignment in class to do studio portraits and learn lighting. One of the other girls I really liked, but was too shy to talk to was Gwen Mills. She was the Methodist pastor's daughter and I do not recall her ever having a boyfriend or dating in high school. I have not seen her since graduation day in May 1967. But, about the time I was in need of a number, she happened to show up for some reason at our photography class and I got to use her for my model. I was very nervous, because I thought she was very pretty, and that would tongue tie me. But I concentrated on the lighting and pose and got through it. That is how I came up with my number. GM=73. So T-73 was submitted, and another long wait to see if it would be accepted and it was.

Here is a picture of Pam Yawn (#65) from the junior year, and one of the shots I took of Gwen Mills (#73) in the class studio in 1965 when we were also juniors.

Bill Van Steenwyk

08-14-2010, 12:57 PM

Wayne, I love your stories and pictures. Bill showed me one of the pictures you posted earlier and the only person I didn't recognize was me!! Those 70's were sure fun.---Eileen:D

Master Oil Racing Team

08-14-2010, 01:05 PM

I like to go back and look at those pictures and hair styles Eileen. The leisure suits were the thing of the 70's. I've got some good photos of Ralph Donald and Phil Wagner all decked out in 1974 at Key West. Maybe I'll put those up somewhere

Master Oil Racing Team

09-03-2010, 09:10 PM

I was gone all last week to the District of Columbia, but the primary reason I have not added to this thread prior to leaving was due to the loss of not only one but two of my good friends. They were a big part of Baldy's story. Ray Yates and Johnny Dortch.

Ray went first, then just before I was leaving Joe left me with the double whammy about John, which Gene followed up with an E mail. Both these guys were such friends that we didn't talk boat racing. We did that in the pits. Other times it was hunting, fishing, calibers, shrimp, rare or medium rare, jalapeno's and you better get up in time for breakfast.:D

They play a big part in Baldy's story...Ray soon.....Johnny a little bit later.

Jeff Lytle

09-03-2010, 09:45 PM

Looking forward to it Wayne...........as only you can.

So sorry about the loss of your friends.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-08-2010, 04:30 PM

I finally got the trailer painted, and started to lay the racing gear out and take pictures.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-08-2010, 06:26 PM

During the time I was painting and lettering the motorbox on our trailer we had a night time assignment in our photography class. I was time exposure. In Baldy's parking space I had the paint cans, mixing buckets, thinner, square, stencils, pencils, rags and all that laying around. I took a back lit exposure from the light coming from our shop. I always liked this picture because it was a radical departure from the low contrast dull photos I had done up til now. I didn't get better, but I learned more about backlighting and time exposure. Baldy was still working his butt off because the oilfield was tough and he had to cover a lot of ground. He still had the plymouth green Plymouth or Dodge that was identical to the one Captain A Y Alee of Company D in South Texas drove. They had to only cars with antennas for mobil communication. When Baldy drove around at 80 miles per hour to cover all his ground, no one ever threw the lights on him. In those days, the rangers cars looked like others. So he got a pass everywhere he went. A Y Aylee knew Baldy not only from the Alice Specialty trucking business, but from other reasons I do not know. I have heard Baldy laugh and tell this to many people over the years and maybe Bill Van might remember. Captain Alee to Baldy "You're gonna have to slow down some Baldy....everybody thinks it's me."

Baldy was one of the first of the oilfield in South Texas to recognize the significance of how much a two way radio communication system could mean to a company involved in 24/7 business. It was a slow time in the oilfield when a Motorola representative called John Graves moved into South Texas and made his pitch on how much it would help the business. John spent time at our house on Agarita Street, and vistiting with Baldy. That was around 1956. Baldy committed to buying a base unit, equipping all trucks and other personnel with two way radio communications and erected a 150' tower in the yard behind the warehouse. Halliburton and maybe a couple of other oilfield companies had two way mobile communication at that time. It was too expensive for our competitors to invest in. (so they thought). I can remember after John Graves took our family out to dinner, he and Baldy smoked cigars on the way back to his apartment. At that time I had no idea what an apartment was. John had been commutting, but after Baldy signed on with John, he settled in Alice, Texas. It was Baldy that found the apartment for John to stay in while he scouted out his own house to buy. I can remember our Mom not being too happy about the cigars. John moved up in Motorola to become a bigwig, and from time to time he would call Baldy.

ADD: Another time exposure I found from the same assignment

Bill Van Steenwyk

09-08-2010, 07:10 PM

but I can't remember the circumstances. That was probably an evening with a little too much Budweiser.....

Talking about remembering, I have been going thru some old video on VHS and when I find what I am looking for, I am going to convert it to DVD and then send to Jeff Lytle so he can put on BRF. What I am really hoping I can find is the UIM 350 Hydro race at Dayton where they started about 25-30 boats and the Japanese video production company taped it. I know I have it here but just don't know which tape it is on and have about 15 tapes to go thru.

I came across one tape with "350 Hydro, Alexandria '78" on it and in looking at it it seems to have a lot of very good drivers from that time frame competing against each other. Do you remember whether that would have been a UIM race your Dad put on??

Master Oil Racing Team

09-08-2010, 08:31 PM

No Bill Van. The UIM 350 was at Dayton. I will look at the dates. It may be 1979 that your video was. No matter...get it done, then we'll figure out when it was taken.

ADD: There was a race at Alex in 1978, but no foreign drivers. I can't remember if it was 1978 or 79 that Neil Bauknight collided with Dan Kirts. Neil was driving our old 350 hydro which he still had the Master Oil colors and logo paint scheme.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-10-2010, 09:15 AM

Photos of our new DeSilva and FA and FB Konigs with newly chromed exhaust systems. And Snap-on tools neatly in place. No exhaust rings on the Gentex life jackets.;) Took these pics in January 1966 while waiting for my National Outboard Association number to be confirmed.

ADD: In the second pic you can see the door to the workshop above the nose of the deck. It was all the way to the left where the little motor room and tack room was that this picture was tacked to the wall.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-11-2010, 10:17 AM

Baldy was 44 when we started racing. If you go to post #5 on this thread you will see a picture of Baldy when he was 42. It was taken probably after he just got back or was heading out to our hunting lease about 20 minutes away. I looked for this photo when I started the thread, but only just found it. Then I had to learn how to add photos again since the updates. But it was very simple. No more advanced step.

The colt is my horse Nikki and his mother the mare Smokey who was also my horse. They were penned in a thirty acre pasture Baldy bought just across the road from our lake house. It was very easy to take care of them then.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-12-2010, 06:23 AM

Our class assignment was studio lighting for copying. All the classmates threw something from their wallet into the pile. For me it was my brand new National Outboard Association card. You just can't take a laid back attitude with your SS card like you could back in 1966.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-14-2010, 07:04 AM

Baldy knew the Mishey hydro wouldn't work with our Konigs and Freddie and Arlen found us a used Sidcraft. We made another trip up to Bryan to pick that up. Two songs I hear on the radio always remind me of going to Bryan. It was a six hour drive from Alice, Texas We made several trips in a short period of time when Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women (I forget the numbers)", and The Bobby Fuller Four's "I fought the Law" were topping the charts. Bobby Fuller had enough songs for an album, but he disappeared off the face of the earth when he was on top. Some people suspected a so called "friend" killed him and buried him, but no body was ever found. I heard an album was produced several years ago of his songs, but I've never found it.

I don't recall ever having taken any pictures of that Sidcraft. It was used. I think it was 10-6 or 10-8. I may not have ever raced it. I can't remember whatever happened to it, but it may be that I couldn't handle it with that FB Konig on it. The Konigs were so much more powerful than the A Merc deflector I had been practicing with, that I needed much more practice before we were ready to race. I have to do a little more thinking about that Sidcraft.

ADD: Not having any photos I could find (we lost a lot of stuff during Hurricane Celia in 1970), I looked at some 8mm films Baldy took when we first started racing. There were some races from Baytown where we first started and also from July 3rd and 4th races at Dallas and Fort Worth where we ran the Sid-Craft. I'm guessing that we probably ran it most if not all through 1966. When I saw the movie of me returning to the pits at our first race at Baytown, the smell of very find sand from sanding the cowling triggered my brain. I remember refinishing it. The cloth bow, fortunately did not have any tears. We had a painter repaint the deck of the bow, and paint the combing white. Then do the ugly brown T-73 on the cloth deck.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-14-2010, 07:23 PM

This is the first issue of ROOSTERTAIL we received. It was the February 1966 issue with a laughing Mama Smith on the cover. The first article inside was about the numbers. I guess that's why they made it so clear to a new member from the get go. I was never called about my numbers either being too small, not contrasting enough or being ineligible. We had a signpainter across from the Buckhorn Theater (one of the outdoor theaters so common back then) paint them. After he did I measured the length and width of them.

Papa Smith was one you learned about even when you first start. No matter how long it took before you ever came face to face, you knew he was one of the grand and celebrated members of alky racing. We had a run in with him, or should I say Baldy and Walt Blankenstein did, regarding one of our motors, but Baldy and he got along with, and respected one another.

I saw Mama Smith at the races, but I never talked to her. Louis Williams was one of her favorites. Louis ran a lot of Papa's props and it wasn't that far from Beaumont to Shreveport so sometimes Louis would drive up. For people new to this thread that don't know....Louis Williams was an undertaker. Louis called up to let Papa know he was headed to Shreveport one day. Mama answered the phone and was delighted that Louis was coming. She told him "Louis....come in your hearse.....and be sure to back it in the driveway. We want something for the old biddies to talk about.":D

jrome

09-15-2010, 06:04 AM

Wayne is telling the truth about Mama Smith. It happened many times. Louis would call me and tell me he was going to see mama and papa . We would laugh and [I] would tell Louis dont forget back in.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-15-2010, 07:21 PM

Here is an ad from that very first Roostertail. Little did I know at that time we would become Konig dealers within a year, and buy directly from Scott Smith at Overseas Dealers, become friends, and have many great times together. At that time I was in total awe of what my Dad Baldy and I had embarked upon. We started getting circulars on alky racing printed in a light blue, green, or yellow. There was information on everything we needed from the race course and how to get there to the classes, payout and other information. We had not gotten any printed circulars before....only word of mouth.

I digested every word of that first Roostertail, not once, but many times over. I desperately wanted to be accepted in this crowd and Baldy was very enthused also. He got the rule book to go through, and told me to read it through and learn about it also. This National Outboard Association was a dream come true. There were races scheduled all over the place.

ADD: It may have been the part of getting "new blood" into racing that got Baldy's attention, and at some point he called or wrote Scott Smith about becoming a Konig dealer.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-15-2010, 07:36 PM

Bill Van Steenwyk

09-15-2010, 11:12 PM

What a treasure of information and pictures we would be without, of alky and other boat racing history in the 60's, 70's and 80's, if not for number 12 on that page one list of the spiral bound notebook.

The notation about the "aloe 99" brings to mind the stories your Dad used to tell Eileen and I about his foray into the aloe vera plant raising business. Be sure and touch on that story if you had not planned to, as that is a perfect example of how government handcuffs small business.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-16-2010, 05:16 AM

I thank you for your comment Bill Van, and I took notice that I had it ahead of plugs, corks and props.;) I am indeed grateful that I took an early interest in photography because it gives me a great deal of pleasure to look at and talk about the people in those early days. I knew somehow that you would respond to my checklist, but I thought it would be about my simpleton mind writing down no. 1----not to forget the boats and trailer.:D I got a big laugh out of that myself.

You got me thinking Bill Van, and the Aloe 99 does have connection to our racing, and being it was one of Baldy's investments and forward way of thinking at the time, I will include it.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-16-2010, 08:34 AM

Here are the second and third pages of our notebook. This is from information given by Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch. While going through all my stuff in the past couple of years I came across the odd stuff here and there that didn't fit in fit into any particular thread except for one newbie one time who was wanting any and all hints on how to get started in racing. He was putting a list together, but at that time, I didn't know where this notebook was. Things like this were part of the inspiration for the thread. Everyone had to start from scratch, although there are many racing families last through several generations. But even the racing dynasties had the patriarch that began it all.

That was one of the motivations for starting BALDY. Not only was this thread to honor my Dad and tell some of the behind-the-scenes stories involved in our lives, but also maybe bring back memories of many racers to their beginnings. We knew absolutely nothing, but we got lots of help along the way. That's why , when we fell in with the boat racing community, that became our lives. I hope this thread will spark some good memories and bring a big grin to those who recall their early days.

ADD: The handwriting at the very top and bottom of the second of two pages is Baldy's

ADD: At that time neither Baldy nor I knew how to time a motor.

John Schubert T*A*R*T

09-16-2010, 09:02 AM

In the meantime, we had the brand new A/B DeSilva runabout and a used canvas deck Sid-Craft boat. I was very disheartened about the Sid-Craft ad in our very first Roostertail that Sid made the announcement of the introduction of a new line of stock and alky hydros under the name of SidSon Boats. I just had a let down feeling that something was not right.

However, we were testing, learning, and having a great deal of fun. At first it was just Baldy my brother Mark and myself when we went testing. But it was clear at that time, Mark had no interest in racing the boats. He became a pit man. But although he did not want to race competitively, he still loved going fast on the water.

Here is a cover of a spiral tablet I bought to take notes and the first of a number of entries I wrote down to help us get on the right track to race. I carried this inside the motor box of our trailer for the first year.

Wayne,

The reason Sid-Son came about is because Sid & Mickey, partners in Sid-Craft started having serious partnership relationship issues, so they closed the doors. Sid lived behind where the shop was locatec & Mickey to the left side when you were standing out front. Bothe houses were built at the same time as the shop. Also, the shop was approximately across highway 1 from the original shop which was merely a garage. Not quite a year after dissolving Sid-Craft, Bobby Urytzski told his dad that he wanted to build hydros again, so they expanded Sid's garage to a little larger then four bays (but with only one overhead door) and started building Sid-Son hydros. (Get it? Sid's son Bobby) In 1971 Bobby began to build tunnel boats as well and eventually went out as orders weren't coming in enough for him to support his family.

Bill Van Steenwyk

09-16-2010, 09:05 AM

Wayne:

Two things I always appreciated about Baldy, in addition to all the rest:

1. He always enjoyed a good "gotcha" and would remind you about it from time to time.

2. He always knew when to quit reminding, so it didn't become just "mean", instead of all in good fun.

I had my fun this month about your lack of "hat" when you were visiting Sam. That doesn't mean I'm done by any means, just taking a little time off till the next opening, as you do.
#1 really was the most important, so you had your priorities straight, even if you needed reminding. You could probably always borrow the rest of the stuff at the race course.

Really wish you could make it to Lake Alfred next month. Based on the advance registration list on Hydroracer it looks to be a really good race with great competition. Hopefully the US drivers learned from the last time and have a better showing this year.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-16-2010, 09:21 AM

Thanks for the information John. Here's an ad from the February 66 Roostertail.

Wish I could make it Bill Van, but too much stuff going on.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-16-2010, 10:14 AM

All but the last entry is Baldy's handwriting. We were trying to figure at this time how to do the ignition timing. Baldy mostly talked to Freddie, and Baldy was probably on the phone when he wrote these notes down. As you can tell....he didn't have a clue either.

I went down to talk to Cliff Walzel the local Mercury distributor in Alice. He explained how it was done, but I didn't understand any of the terminology, plus he was showing me on a stock fishing motor where the timing was not fixed, but changed according to the throttle setting. And he used a timing light with some marks on the flywheel. There was no way I could translate all that to the fixed timing when had on the Konigs. We had the dial indicator, but we didn't have the Southwestern Bell Telephone buzzer like Ray Hardy gave us some years later. We had some kind of a homemade device, but I can't picture how it was anymore..

Master Oil Racing Team

09-16-2010, 07:20 PM

Here is an example of Baldy's notes when he's doing some thinking on a project. In this case...it was how much weight was needed in the runabouts. Typical of Baldy...he would flip past pages that would be final to scribble his own notes. Unless he had a clean pad to start with then look out. If he was talking to someome on the telephone while considering ideas he did a lot of doodling. I can figure out what he was contemplating better than anyone since I was around so much of his ideas. This one is not too hard to figure out.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 07:30 AM

This was our first attempt at keeping track of which propellers worked best. Baldy took to studying props. While he never worked on props, I would say he became one of the best prop men around as far as what worked good on a boat. Baldy was the one who picked out which props we wanted to test at a race course.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 11:14 AM

In the second issue of Roostertail were these race dates. The first alky race we went to where I actually made a start with a real alky rig was Baytown in April and the second race was two weeks later at Beaumont. We later found out that Baytown kicked off the Lone Star circuit racing followed by Beaumont. They also did back to back races in the fall.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 02:19 PM

I am amazed as I go through these Roostertails to see so many names of people I eventually got to either meet or know and many became friends. Looking back I think how fortunate we were to become members of the tight knit boat racing community. Now I am amazed at how a new boat racing community can be tied right back to our earlier years through Boatracingfacts, and make new friends from racers from the past. Remember this letter Allen?

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 04:39 PM

This is a cover of my second Roostertail---March 1966. It was so alien....so cool. Color TV just became widespread over the airwaves, James Bond and Johnny Rivers were entertaining us with segret agent actions, Voyage to the Bottom of the Ocean had an underwater spaceship like submarine fighting giant squids, evil people and disasters all in color...and you could sense change...some good...some bad, in the air. The cover of Bill Holland in this fantastic looking hydro fascinated me the first time I saw the cover.

I looked at this cover many, many times during my early racing career and I kept thinking I will see Bill Holland at the races. He was living and raced in the same circuit I was just jumping into. However, he quit racing alky just when I was beginning. He had come to some of the races, but since he wasn't entered, neither he nor anyone else around thought about him being a big deal to a 16 year old kid who was fascinated by his boat and the nearly 106 mph it had been clocked at as reported in Roostertail. This was the March issue, so it would only be weeks until our first bonafide entry in an alky race.

As I mentioned I never saw him there or any race I ever attended, but at the Lone Star Boat Racing Association Reunion he and his wife Dortothy attended. He brought a couple of albums with him. I was so fascinated with his history, we talked at length. He was gracious enough to let me take his albums home to scan. At that time we were very busy in our business so it took awhile to get everything scanned and he was anxious to have his books back. One thing he showed me at the reunion were the concept drawings of this boat. There was not only the drawing of the boat on the cover, but another one with two engines. I cannot remember what the speed goal of that rig was, however, the drawings were very exceptional, and he didn't want to lose them.

We had numerous telephone conversations while I was scanning the photos and posting the story of Bill Holland here. Our business was really booming then so I did not have time to finish the Bill Holland story when the computer I had scanned everything on quit being able to send over the internet. It works now, but Andrew has commandeered that room and I very seldom can work in it because he has all his music stuff plugged in and one or more of my printers, recorders, scanners unplugged and it's a hassle to track down all the wiring. It's a full day's project.

I really enjoyed my conversations with Bill and was very upset to hear when he passed away. He was a very, very nice man. And very talented with whatever project he took up. I talked at length with his second wife Dorothy after he passed away. They had both known each other from racing, but it took Ray Yates' matchmaking to put a stop to their gloom and get them together and back into the boat racing fraternity. A son of Bill had contacted me several months after Bill's death mentioning that I had been posting Bill's history and he was going to help me with any additional info I needed. I was having numberous E mail troubles back then going on for more than a year, and I lost his E mail and name. I'm hoping he may pass through BRF again and recontact me so we can finish the Bill Holland thread.

ADD: The doodling on this cover was by my sister Brenda. Baldy kept the Roostertails by the telephone hanging on a wall next to the regrigerator in the kitchen and directly across from the grill on the island bar at our house in Alice. Mark, Jan and I had "our" phone hanging on the wall in the hallway between the girls and the boys rooms. Brenda would use the kitchen phone if Baldy wasn't home when she was talking to her boyfriend, and she would doodle while she listened. I was pissed when I saw what she did to MY Roostertail.;)

ADD: The reason Baldy kept the Roostertail there was so he could call somebody new when he saw something that he wanted to know about, and when he got home and started cooking, the Roostertail would be handy.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 06:42 PM

We had tested...we had everthing loaded...the trailer lights checked out...all was ready for our first race with brand new FA Konig, FB Konig, A/B DeSilva runabout and a used A/B Sid-craft. Fuel was mixed and loaded and Honda motorcyle batteries charged.

Other than our quick vacation to and from Santa Fe, New Mexico, us kids had never been further than Houston. Except for Baldy and my trips to Bryan Marine to get equipment and advice for National Outboard Association Pro Division racing.

I was both stoked and nervous the night before. Having been reading Boating News, and then Roostertail, which was to me the down in the dirt and guts of what I had been looking forward to, it was hard to sleep.

Baldy headed eastward through Mathis toward Refugio where we picked up a small county road and headed further east until we intersected state highway 35. It was not too far from where the Aransas National Refuge was where the Whooping Crane troop was built up from almost distinction. This was a route we were often to follow over many years. It was also the way to Jack Chance's house.

The road brought back memories because it was the same road we took seven years earlier when Baldy's stepdad was dying from cancer and we drove up that way to Galveston. Back then the road was very spooky. We crossed the Guadalupe River basin which was about 10 miles across. The road was raised very high with no shoulders and water on both side. There were trees, cane, lillies, and no telling what manner of gators and cottonmouths lurked only a mistake on a rain slickened highway away.

We stopped at Gordon's Seafood Restaurant for lunch located just at the western side of 35 where the Lavaca Bay bridge started. On the other side of the Lavaca Bay bridge was an Alcoa Aluminum plant. The whole bay was rust colored. The alumina discharge from making aluminum colored the bay and creeks all around. Passing over the bridge and just to the left were a series of abandoned barges. They were stacked against the abankment jutting out into the water....two in one batch and the other three just beyond. They were landlocked resisting the tide, only because of weight an water displacement. I would look at these barges being reduced to rust every time we passed by while also seeing the rusty colored water clear from the plant.

(Debbie's taking over the computer....I'm ordered to stop;):D)

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 08:05 PM

I got it back. Before I continue, I will add some more to this story as an aftermath. Thirty four years later I still look over at those barges. There are only two of the staunchest ones left and they are still banked in the same place Baldy and I first saw them. Rather than complete shelled barges, there are only a few ribs and some of the heavier siding and bottom still showing above the water line.

The water has been clear since around 1972. The Clean Water Act stopped direct discharges into bays, rivers and streams. I was a proponent of that and we saw improvement in a relatively short time.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-17-2010, 08:46 PM

We crossed the Karankawa Bay (named after the 6' cannibal indians), went through Bay City and got all the way to Sweeny, Texas where it was shift change. Philips 66 had a refinery there. It was a one horse town with one light. If you got there when everyone punched out.....you have to wait. After that, we always made sure we weren't going through there around 4:00 pm. The other times they changed were never a matter to our schedule.

Baldy's Stepdad was gruff and scary to us kids, but for Baldy...he was just typical oilfield. He was a rigbuilder back when they built wooden derricks and moved whenever the oilfield moved. When he got too old....Grandpa Arkie became a caretaker at a tourist place hidden among gigantic moss laden oak trees just west of highway 35 a few miles south of West Colulmbia. The last time we had been that way was several years earlier when he was treated for cancer in Galveston.

I looked then to see if I remembered where we turned off, but I didn't. Up through Angleton, turn right and head toward 146 that would lead us to Baytown.

Before everything built up it was pretty simple. In 1966 a four lane major highway was being built and we had to make a jog and left turn to go down the old highway to catch the turnoff to get to 146. For several years it was a cakewalk, but after the construction continued, we had to get onto a new section the remember the small county road to turn off for 146.

That very first trip though was unique. Around 5 miles after having turned eastward toward the intersection of 146 was a grain silo....a singular one....that was tilting. It was fairly tall. It stood leaning to the southwest at about a ten degree angle off to our left. The first several years we went to Baytown, Beaumont and Jack's it was no big deal. But after the construction and all exits looked the same, we weren't positive we were on the right road until we saw that leaning silo. It leaned over more through the years, but I don't know if it ever fell.

After going north on 146 we started encountering some bay smells and sights. I will never forget our first trip to our first real race to Baytown, Texas when we saw hundreds of roseat spoonbills scouping up their food with an additional hundreds of steel oilfiield derricks in the shallow bay. Those derricks were featured in the film John Wayne did about Red Adair. A lot of the movie was filmed around there. There wasn't much time for reflection on that because we instantly entered the tunnel going to Baytown that went under the Houston ship channel.

My eyes must have bugged out in awe. I remember a moment of darkness, then a deep descent into a very light, bright, damp, tiled tunnel. Then it was a very cool experience, but short lived before we came up on the other side. The Baytown Holiday Inn was not very far ahead on the right. Baldy pulled in to the covered entrance and booked us in.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 08:13 AM

I didn't like to eat breakfast in those days. I didn't like bacon, eggs or coffee. Baldy didn't drink coffee either, but he did like to eat breakfast, so we had to go into the lobby, order and wait around for the food....then eat. I was ready to get to the race course.

The race course at the Baytown Boat Club situated on the banks of the San Jacinto River, was actually next to Highlands, Texas. Highlands was back toward Houston about 10 or 15 miles and we had to exit and cross over IH 10 to get on the main road through Highlands. Baldy saw some guys at a table eating breakfast that were obviously boat racers. He asked them how to get to the race course. It turned out that the one telling Baldy how to get there was Reles LeBlanc. What I remember was to cross over a set of railroad tracks, then look for a sign on the left that said "DILL's"at an old gas station converted to a small engine repair service or something like that. We saw the sign and Dill had a boat and motor on the side by the road we were to take, along with a piece of plywood painted white and had an arrow pointing left and said "Boat Races." Right after we made the turn, we saw a yellow trailer with a hydro and runabout and we followed them the couple of miles down the road to the Baytown Boat Club. It was Reles we followed in.

I can still remember turning off the road to the right into the tree shaded club grounds. Lots of tents, campers and travel trailers were under the trees. There were many people milling about and a number of boats already in the pits. Baldy pulled up to the south side of the club and got out to scout out a place to pit. He found an opening about 50 yards to the right of the judges stand and just to the left of Jack Chance's trailer. The only people we knew at that point were Dan and David Waggoner, Steve Jones, Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch. Knowing Baldy and Jack, they would have soon met and become friends, but somehow I think pitting next to Jack and his driver Clayton Elmer for our first real race cemented our friendships and helped us get on the right track. Had things continued to go wrong and frustrate us, we might have given up. But Jack and Clayton were very helpful and offered anything they could to get us going.

John Schubert T*A*R*T

09-18-2010, 08:38 AM

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 08:54 AM

Homer Alford was the referee and his wife Joy was a scorer. Clayton Elmer's mom Ouita was also a scorer and along with Joy, got everyone registered. Some of you that read Modified the magazine covering the midwest outboard racing scene may remember articles coming covering Texas races. It was Ouita who wrote those articles.

I didn't know it at the time, but Ray Yates was starting out like us. He made have been to one or two other races before, but we were basically starting out together. Ray was pitted all the way to the left of the judges stand where the launch ramp was. He had a white boat with red trim and he ran A runabout and maybe B. I think he ran loopers in the beginning.

It was a beautiful spring morning while we were rigging up. There was no hurry and it was so relaxing to soak it all in...where we were.....what we were doing....the promise of a lot of exciting action. Country music was blaring over the P A. I didn't generally like country music except for a few crossovers like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Marty Robbins. One of my fondest memories is of rigging up the B runabout and Marty Robbins' singing his famous ballad "El Paso". From that very day til now, I think of rigging up that B runabout every time I hear "El Paso".

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 09:29 AM

I can't remember all the races like that John, but I had a lot of this particular race imprinted in my mind because it was a real promising beginning. We had real race motors that would start and run.:D I remember the sign because the road was narrow and hard to see. We missed it the first time, then Baldy had to turn around having gone into downtown. We went back a mile or so to recross the railroad tracks then turn back around to look for Dills. It also takes a lot to jog my memory like you just did. I couldn't figure out how we came upon Reles trailer, but I remember following him in. Just now it comes back that after we turned around to retrace the directions, Reles came driving by and we crossed the tracks again and saw Reles turn left. It was then that we found the Dill's sign and the small boat racing sign. We had been looking up in the air for "Dill's"but it was on the ground.

For breakfast I'm saying Baldy had country ham with red eye gravy, grits and over easy eggs.;) I'll bet Joe agrees. I had pancakes even though they made the roof of my mouth feel funny.:D I wish I could remember more John, but things come back in bits and pieces after I talk to Joe, Clayton or somebody else or look at old pictures and articles. I had forgotten about racing that old Sid-Craft until I looked at the movies. When I saw a close up after coming into the pits, I immediately could smell the sawdust from when I was sanding it to refinish.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 12:04 PM

I found a picture of the pits and we were between Reles LeBlanc in L-14 and Jack Chance and Clayton Elmer in T-30. Beyond you can the the T-61 runabout of Charlie Bailey. The other picture I have posted before, but I include it again to show the seawall we had to carry the boats over.

The San Jacinto River at this point was close enough to the bay to have influence from the tide. The water levels would rise or fall through the day depending on where the moon was. Lugging those boats up and down over the wall could really wear you out. By the end of the day we were beat.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 12:31 PM

I remember seeing Joe Rome at this race, but I didn't know who he was. It was hard to miss someone close to my own age and towering it seemed two feet higher than me. I was shy and didn't get around meeting anyone except the people right around us, but Clayton was very friendly and since they were in the minority of racers with Konigs we had something in common and we began learning from him and Jack. Of course Baldy got around meeting people, asking questions and having a very good time himself. One sour note though was when Louis Williams came up to our trailer and saw the chrome exhausts. He looked at the FB Konig and said in a derogatory tone to Baldy "You think all that chrome makes them run any faster?" That really pissed Baldy off, but he held his tongue. That was the first time Baldy met Louis as far as I know, and it got them off to a bad start. They would taunt and make snide remarks to one another at annual meetings, and other times, but years later after Joe Rome started pitting for us when we went out of state, they both mellowed toward one another.

Between heats the announcer would bark "Get over to the concession stand and git some fried chickin'....you also might find a Mogen-David snow cone." We did get the fried chicken and a heaping plate of french fries. Turns out that no other place we ever raced anywhere had food in the pits that could match that half of a chicken fried crisp. And I have never had better french fries at home or any restaurant than that deep fried in the Baytown cauldron's. And they never ran out. You could buy fried chicken and french fries when you headed out for home late sunday afternoon.

Baldy and Jack hit it off so well that they made plans to get together soon, and Jack would teach me to work on the Konigs. It was back at the Holiday Inn Saturday evening that I learned how to tell which rooms boat racers were staying at. We spent many years staying at that Holiday Inn, but this was the first time I ever stayed at a hotel where numerous tennis shoes were drying out next to the doors of several dozen rooms. So we took our cue from that and left our tennis shoes out next to the door also.

Allen J. Lang

09-18-2010, 01:42 PM

Hi Wayne-Thanks for posting my question about V4 rods in C Service Speeditwins. That was many moons ago and when the late Pete Hellsten was still running Speeditwins and we were looking to build up engines. Many years later when I was living in MI, I was looking to get back into racing in C Service and corresponded with the late Bud Wiget. He told me about many odds and ends to look for or do, but, could not figure out how the V4 rods would work in a Speeditwin. Needless to say, our move to AZ put an end to any plans plus the wife also said no racing. Sold off some of the parts I accumulated.
Boy, I wish I still had all my Rooster Tail and Propeller magazines. At least my friend Ed Hatch has a web site with most of the Boat Sport, Speed and Spray and Hydroplane Quarterly. Love reading through them. To many moves and loss of the magazines.
Love your postings.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 04:23 PM

It's been great Allen to reread those old Roostertails with now knowing people I read about. It's too bad you lost your Roostertails, but I know how that happens. Luckily there are people like Ed that have spent so much time to make some of those magazines available to read.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-18-2010, 07:44 PM

After having raced all day and all the excitement of making a start...getting wet down.... and spinning out in B runabout, we had a very full day. I only wrote down the final results, and not any notes of what happened. I did review the 8mm film Baldy took though to kind of refresh my memory. I spun out in the first turn of B runabout the first heat, and the Konig died. In one heat of B hydro I not only spun out in the same spot,but flipped over the right side. Baldy filmed the whole episode , including my paddling to the outside of the turn before the other hydros came around. That was my first annointing into the water.

In the end I got a check for $5.00 for 4th place in B runabout. I was surprised about that but it must have been from attrition and maybe a gun jumper or two. That was 4th for one heat only, as I spun out in one heat. Baldy, Mark and I were very happy though, and it was a long, tired drive home. Worse though was the next day in school. We didn't get much sleep so it was a loonngg day.

Baldy was hopped up about the racing, how we had done, and he wanted to talk to his new found friend Jack Chance. Jack and Clayton had not attended any of the races we had been to previously. At Baytown it was obvious that Jack as mechanic and team owner, and driver Clayton were at the top of their game. Jack had raced in years past, but now Clayton was driving. Clayton was a natural....and he was in top form. Baldy didn't cultivate a relationship because he thought he could take advantage of the two nor did Jack or Clayton think they could profit from a guy who knew nothing but to chrome the exhaust pipes to look shiny in the pits. We all left the race with friendships that would do nothing but grow. And Reles LeBlac and Ray Yates left lasting memories from that first race as well.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-19-2010, 05:30 PM

We were now getting acquainted with more boat racers. The race at Highlands was the first two day race and Baldy had time to spend talking around the pits Saturday evening. We knew who Bruce Nicholson and Bill Knipe were from the race in front of our house, but we had not talked to them yet. We came away from the race at Highlands though with a sense that we could fit in with these people. Despite the feeling we got from Louis Williams that we were just show off's with a complete collection of tools hanging on a peg board, no grease on the helmets or life jackets, brand new motors and runabout, and chromed exhausts, everyone else was very friendly and helpful. Baldy of course was very familiar with Louis' "leader of the pack" attitude when a new dog shows up in the neighborhood. That's the way the oilfield has operated since it got organized, and continues that way to this day....though not as rough. Baldy shook it off and we started getting things together for the next race. In the meantime, we had gotten our latest issue of Roostertail----the April one, along with race circulars that started coming in regularly.

ADD: That's Baldy's handwriting marking which races he planned for us to attend. Although he marked the NOA Nationals at Sanford, Michigan. We did not attend that race.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-19-2010, 08:54 PM

I failed to mention that the notations on upcoming races were Baldy's. As I said earlier, Baldy made the choices of where we would race.

Back home at Alice, I had Mark help me unload the boats in the driveway so I could clean and polish them, and try practicing on some of the timing, plug cleaning and other suggestion Jack had. And with the boats in the driveway....Pam would drive by and see a real boat racer as she tooted her horn.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-21-2010, 07:53 AM

We did not make the race at Beaumont a couple of weeks later. I am not sure why, but I think it had to do with being close to the end of the school year and it was a seven hour drive back home to put us into Alice around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. by the time we got cleaned up and had supper. Of the Texas races, we missed more of the Beaumont races than any because their first race of the season was usually close to finals and the end of school. Louis may have taken it as a snub from Baldy, but that wasn't the case.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-21-2010, 08:23 AM

The next race we made was in Texarkana, Texas. Baldy had business to attend to and would not be able to drive up. I had never driven that far in Texas before, let alone pulling a boat trailer. Baldy talked his mom, Grandma Arkie, to go along with us. Other than the one out in front of our house the previous spring, that was the only other race she went to. It wasn't for her to help with the driving so much, and being a responsible adult, but Baldy figured two seventeen and one fifteen year old boys with a 12 year old girl would not be able to get a hotel room anywhere, and may even be picked up by the cops for questioning. Along for the ride and to pit were Mark and a high school friend Tommy Albert and my youngest sister Jan.

Before U.S. Highway 59 was widened, it was a two lane road for most of the way.....and you had to go through downtown of most of the towns and cities we encountered. Nowadays it is a nostalgic trip back into the past to visit those east Texas towns with buildings built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It''s a big tourist thing now, but back then we were really put out by the delays.

That's not all that delayed us. Many times when we would stop on the road to eat, Baldy would pay the bill and get up from the table while I was still finishing the last of my meal off. Good thing he flew into Texarkana, because Tommy was almost twice as slow as eating as I was. I was getting impatient and ready to get back on the road myself, but I knew how it was to be rushed. I'm not saying Baldy or the others wolfed their food down like starving Doberman's, because he truly did savor a good meal, but I was a slow eater and Tommy was even worse.;)

It took us around twelve hours to get to Texarkana. We found a motel where a lot of the racers were staying and it was in Arkansas. The cafe just westward across the four lane highway where we ate breakfast the next morning was in Texas. Many of you remember the song sung by Johnny Cash as well as others that has the line "Way down yonder in Louisiana.....just about a mile from Texarkana...." is not true. Louisiana is a hundred miles or more south of Texarkana. Sometimes songwriters just have to do what it takes for the rhyme and count to work out.:D.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-23-2010, 09:48 AM

We got a late start to the race course Saturday morning. As we were winding through the deep piney woods, a red dust from the iron laden road coated everything on the edges as well as the boats, trailers and vehicles pulling them. We were not sure we took the right turnoff and were just about ready to find a place to turnaround and go back to our last reference point when we rounded a curve and saw red dust hanging in the air from someone had that just passed through. Baldy sped up, and we were all happy to see a tree frog green/tannish red boat racing trailer just ahead of us with Marioneaux written across the motor box. Baldy was relieved, as we all were, and he backed off far enough so we wouldn't be choking in dust all the way to the pits. Boat racer directions weren't nearly as accurate and well marked as the oilfield locations we were used to.

The race was on what was called Waterworks Lake. The pits were similar to the layout at Lake Lawrence in that they were looking head on into a turn. The main differences were the clock was on the opposite side, we were looking at the 2nd turn, and the pits were shunted to the right so that racers pitting on the right could not see the full race course. Having gotten their too late, we were mostly all the way to the right and were pitted with several of the OPC teams. Jack Chance and Clayton Elmer found a spot closer toward the middle about six or seven teams to our left. We pitted close to the Marioneaux's and got to meet Bruce and Lucien Marioneaux along with pit chief and "handler" Clyde LaFitte. The first time we looked in their trailer, we were blown away. The lid was the only wooden wall that did not have propellers on it. The row of props started about a foot from the top and it went down the left side, all across the back and back to the front on the right side. And they were all R. Allen "Papa" Smith props. It turned out that Papa Smith worked for H.B. Harry Marioneaux.

jrome

09-23-2010, 06:09 PM

Wayne I think it was the brewster company that Harry owned. I can remember looking inside the trailer and counting 160 props . I have never seen a trailer with more props.

Gene East

09-23-2010, 06:57 PM

I always enjoyed racing in Texas and Louisiana. I remember the Marioneaux brothers, but who was sponsored by the Cajun Egg Co?

Lucy, the bookkeeper at QW was not familiar with the term "cajun". She always pronounced it
cuh joon

jrome

09-24-2010, 06:23 AM

HE sponsored Don Nichols out of Baton Rouge and before that it was Jim Corbett out of Lake Charles.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-24-2010, 07:08 AM

Luciean only raced until around 1968 or 1968. He drove absolutely vertical in the boat...more than Wayne Walgrave. One time he was following Jerry Waldman in D hydro at Alex in Jerry's wake. He was about 50 yards behind. When Jerry's looper locked up (which was rare) Lucien had to jerk the wheel over to keep from seriously injuring both of them. I think he may have quit shortly after that.

Bruce continued off and on until the 1980's. Tim Butts says he had a warehouse full of Butts Aerowings....some that may have never been in the water.

I'm not sure of all the years that it happened, but before the Marioneaux boys drove, Harry had a driver named Bob McGinty. He was one hell of a diver from what I read in some old Roostertails. He at one time lived in Kingsville, but mostly he was know as being from Corpus Christi. Sorry that I never met the gentleman. But, I was just talking to Joe about some things someone had told me a long time ago. Harry had a beach house on an island off the Texas coast between Galveston and Bay City. It was accessible only by boat, helicopter or seaplane. Harry had a seaplane. I thought I had heard that Bob flew that, but Joe couldn't confirm it. All Joe remembers is that Harry would fly Bob to races and that one time Joe himself saw Bob arrive at the racecourse in a seaplane. Whoever told me the original story related that the plane hit a soft spot in the sand upon landing at the island one time, and flipped over. They had a heck of a time getting it either fixed to get off the island or had to get it off in pieces and after that no one went to the beach house much. Then I'm sure hurricanes finished it off. Probably Carla in 1961 because that island would have been a bullseye.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-28-2010, 12:48 PM

On Saturday the first heat up was B hydro and it was taken by Charlie Huff winning both heats and Lee Little from Dallas repeating second place. Ray Yates from Pasadena took two fourths. Clayton won both heats of D hydro with Lucien Marionueux a second and third. Charlie Huff won the first heat of A runabout with Bruce Nicholson taking second and I finished third. Bruce won the second heat with Dan Mitchell second, Ozzie Robinson from Bryan third, and myself fourth. The order of finish in C runabout was identical for the first four places. It was Freddie Goehl, Clayton Elmer, Clyde Bayer Jr. from Tulsa and Luciean Mariouneaux. F runabout was Freddie, Bruce, Ozzie and Phil Crown from Dallas.

Freddie Goehl, Clayton Elmer and Bruce Nicholson were the big winners on Sunday with Freddie winning C hydro and a heat of D runabout while having two seconds behind the double wins of Bruce Nicholson in B runabout. I finished fourth in the second heat of B runabout behind Ray Yates. Clayton Elmer won both heats of F hydro with Freddie again taking two seconds. I had yet to meet Denny Henderson, and I think this might be the first race we both competed against one another. Denny won the first heat of A hydro and Charlie Huff won the second. Denny was the overall winner in points because of his second place finish in the second heat. While Baldy and I didn't actually meet either Denny or Joe Henderson at this race, we did meet Charley Huff from Bartelsville, Oklahoma. I think he must have been pitted very close, because he and Baldy hit it off immediately, and he helped us with advice. Charley only raced for a few more years in A/B hydro and runabout, but we remained friends throughout our racing careers. Charley continued to come to the big races as long as NOA was around, and he always came to hang out around our pits.

This happened to be the first race where we found boat racing coverage in the newspapers. I think we had probably not thought about it before, and at the other races, we hit the road Sunday evening . This time we stayed overnight in Arkansas and walked across the street Monday morning to pick up a paper in Texas as we headed into the cafe for breakfast. The two articles from the Sunday and Monday morning Texarkana newspaper edition are the first two clippings I have in my scrapbook.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-29-2010, 08:29 AM

The news references to Charles Whitman yesterday because of the armed guy on the University of Texas campus reminded me that I have not include some of the highlights of the year 1966 yet. That one was I had planned to reference.

Charles Whitman went armed with a sawed off shotgun and M-1 to the University of Texas tower where he proceeded to kill 16 people and wound 31 others before being fatally shot himself. That happened on August 1, 1966.

I don't remember exactly where I was driving when the first reports began to trickle out, but it was like the early reports of the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City....you couldn't really believe something like that was happening. It was before the days of 24 hour news coverage, and in a vehicle most cars were equipped only with AM radio. Baldy had bought me a 1966 IH International Scout with 4 wheel drive to replace the GM pickup. I was driving somewhere around Alice with Pam when early reports of a shooter began to trickle in. As reporters began to gather and get more information, it suddenly became clear that the tragedy was unfolding as they were reporting.

The AM radio finally quit broadcasting bits and pieces of the story between music and advertising and went fully live. It was too difficult to drive and feel the emotion and enormity of the story as it unfolded so I drove back to our house and parked in the driveway while Pam and I listened. It started around 11:45, but we probably heard the first reports around noon. When they went full time live, I think the people that were killed was already over, as well as the bulk of the wounded. The reporters were talking about brave people going out to bring the dead and wounded back to cover. There were reports about an ambulance driver going down from a wound and others going to bring him in. Witnesses were interviewed and as always happens, there were conflicting reports.

I remember clearly that some of the students and people on the streets all pretty much said at first they didn't believe they heard gunfire. Whitman was a very accurate riflemen, and in the beginning he was able to bring down a lot of his targets before people realized what was happening. The people being shot would go down before the report of the rifle was heard because of the height and distance involved. For most of the people on Guadalupe Street, it wasn't until they saw several people going down and blood spilling, that they realized something was going on, but they didn't know what. There was a moment when people didn't know what to do, or where to go....then panic set in. People began to take cover, but some that were killed were shot trying to help their fallen friend.

By the time the radio station Pam and I were listening to went fully live, most of the carnage was over, but shots were still being fired. A number of citizens nearby, either store owners or people with guns in their vehicle began returning fire when they figured out where Whitman was holed up. Police credit them with keeping the death toll down more than it was because it limited Whitman's firing positions and his ability to easily pick his target. Police were on the scene quickly, and I think one or more in the vicinity when it first started were early targets and were killed or wounded.

We were especially concerned because some of our friends were freshmen at UT and Pam herself intended to (and did) go there the next fall. We listened in unbelief for more than an hour after reporters interviewed one after another witnesses and continued to tell when more gunfire erupted. It was three police officer and one civilian that made it to the tower guided by an employee and wounded witnesses hunkered down in the stairwell that got to Whitman. They were able to break in fire shots, then with a shotgun take Whitman out. It was something I will never forget.

Master Oil Racing Team

09-29-2010, 06:08 PM

A lot of stuff was going on in 1966. Heavyweight boxing champ Cassius Clay turned muslim and changed his name to Muhammed Ali. Federal spending was 135 billion and there were 197 million of us living here in the U.S.A. The Houston Astrodome was opened and miniskirts and bell bottoms became fashionable. Bat Mania was everywhere because of the TV show. Pete DeLackner was a few years later spotted on the highway hauling a Switzer Wing to his shop for some fiberglass repair and another driver pulled alongside asking Pete to roll his window down. He asked Pete, "Is that the bat boat?" Knowing it would be impossible to explain going down the highway Peter merely said in the affirmative, "Yeah!"

Regular gasoline was 32 cents a gallon. Color TV just became popular and the most watched shows were Bonanza, Red Skelton and The Andy Griffith Show. The first Star Trek episode aired and Jimi Hendrix was making waves in England. The Dow Jones was at 950. Beach Boys spent one million dollars producing "Good Vibrations" and the Mamas and Papas had numerous songs that topped the charts. Some of the top movies were Thunderball with James Bond, Dr. Zhivago and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. My first date was with Pam and "she" was the one who more or less asked me out to go see Alfie. The second movie we saw turned out to be one of my all time favorites....The Dirty Dozen with an all star cast.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-01-2010, 08:21 PM

The aforementioned tragedy was a little more than a month ahead of this story. Things like that did not happen in America....and when it did...it was something etched in everyone's memory.

We learned a lot at Texarkana. Baldy took 8mm movies and we ran those through so many times I thought they would wear out. The clock was not able to be seen from the pits, but Baldy filmed the boats coalesing into a start so we could tell when a heat formed up. The film was hard to follow as boats would disappear behind the tree line, then reappear on the back straight. Baldy wasn't the greatest cinematographer.....but if it weren't for him...I would not be able to piece together these times.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-02-2010, 08:03 AM

What was it that happened Karen?

I remember the first time I saw that bridge. We were headed to the North/South Championships at Knoxville in 1967. What an awesome sight. I can remember looking to our right "just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge" thinking that must be about where Johnny Rivers sang about in his song "Memphis".

Mark75H

10-02-2010, 08:50 AM

where Johnny Rivers sang about in his song "Memphis". In the song written by Chuck Berry about missing his daughter that lived with her mother.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-02-2010, 09:04 AM

While I had been to San Antonio and Houston numerous times, it was only the second time in Dallas. Baldy had taken us up there two years earlier while he competed in the Texas State Skeet Championships. I don't remember how he did, but I know it wasn't in the top tier. Us kids went to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. That was the original Six Flags and what an adventure that was.

The race was held Saturday July 3rd on Garza Little Elm north of Dallas. It was a very big lake and there were more big yachts and sailboats tied up and on the water than there were at the marina in Corpus Christi. It was a one mile five lap course. Jack and Clayton didn't make the trip, but we got to know some more North Texas racers. Charlie Huff was down from Oklahoma and we got together for a visit. Lee Little was a local racer, and one of the top A/B drivers. He was very friendly as well as another local Jim Wilkins who we became friends with also. Other than Phil Crown, it seems most of the Dallas area racers just ran A and B. Another one of those that we got to know and like was Ed Harrison. It seems more and more we were to find these boat racing people very likeable and friendly, and if you needed anything all you had to do was ask.

There were a couple of guys I got to noticing that were just about my age, but I didn't get to know them yet. One was a year older from San Antonio ...Joe Bowdler. The other was a skinny kid a couple of years younger than me...Denny Henderson. Joe was about 6 foot 4 or so. He had wavy brown hair and a big smile. Joe drove CDF hydro and runabout, and I was in awe of him. I was too shy to introduce myself.

Bruce and Lucien Mariouneaux along with Clyde Lafitte showed up and we talked with them awhile. It was good to see some familiar faces. Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch came as well, and Baldy must have been talking with Freddie about another boat. I am not sure where Baldy found out about Mustang boats, but it was sometime in 1966 that my brother Mark ended up with a very nice 17 foot bronze metalflake Mustang with a 110 Merc on the transom. I guess Pete DeLackner, builder of Mustangs, may have been at the race, but I think he was still in California at the time.

Freddie won D hydro and C runabout while Bruce Marioneaux won C hydro. Lee Little took B hydro, Roland Pruett D runabout, Alex Wetherbee B runabout and Ozzie Robinson A runabout. I finished second in A runabout. There were a bunch of gun jumpers. I didn't see any results for A hydro. It got very rough on the lake and two drivers were injured, so it may be that A hydro was cancelled. I had mistakenly said earlier that Dave Fuqua quit racing after he sold his B deflector to us, but I was wrong. He was knocked unconcious during A hydro and was hauled off to the hospital. He was released O.K. The other driver hauled off was Denny Henderson. He was thrown from his boat and his own propeller got him on the foot. I was kind of horrified to hear that, but he recovered.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-05-2010, 06:59 AM

We got up early Sunday morning, drove through "Cowtown" and to Benbrook Lake a little ways southwest of Fort Worth. The race organizers picked out a nice lake and pit area for the Fourth of July race. It was all rocky and gravelly with plenty of pit space and a nice gravelly, solid bottom with a gentle slope. The one mile course was less than a half a mile from the dam, and while there were boats on the water, they were controlled better than the yachts on the much larger Garza Little Elm. Also the weather turned out sunny and calm contrasting with the brooding overcast and windy day the Saturday turned out to be.

Since we left the evening after the races were over, we weren't able to get a newspaper clipping, but Freddie Goehl had another good race day as well as Roland Pruett and Raymond Jeffries. Jim Wilkins and Charlie Huff put on some good races, and either Bruce or Lucien Marioneaux were in the hunt in the C/D hydro events according to Baldy's 8mm films. I came in 4th in the first heat of B hydro and 2nd in the second heat. I finished back in the pack in a large field of A runabout, and I can't remember what happened in A hydro. I had a bad habit of getting wet down in the first turn of A hydro. I always tried to get outside, but seems like half the field was too, so I usually ended up in the middle right of the pack heading to the starting line. While I could sometimes get through all the water with the B Konig, that little piston ported A didn't have enough power to digest all that water I fed it.

(to be continued...yesterday it took too long and I lost all my narrative)

Master Oil Racing Team

10-05-2010, 02:37 PM

In the B runabout race everything started out as normal. The motor fired up, I checked the tattle tale after I got on plane and water was spraying out of the can, so I checked over my left shoulder and turned back down the course to start milling at the far end. The start was nothing out of the ordinary and after we got around the first turn, I began to sort out my position and whether I could make any gains, or just try to hold off anyone who might be behind. I was about in the middle of the pack until on the back straight of the third lap, the motor began to slow down. It seemed to be hitting alright on both cylinders, but it just was losing power. The only thing that came to mind was the Fram filter was getting clogged up. It didn't make sense though because I always checked and made sure the castor oil wasn't gumming them up. We kept good filters and hadn't even run them that much in a short period of time. As I began the fourth lap I decided to stay out in case some boats conked out and I could pick up some more points. By the time I was on the back straight of lap five, the DeSilva runabout had slowed to around 35 mph. There was nothing else to do but finish the lap as long as I was getting water through the motor, and it was.

As I coasted into the pits, I looked at Baldy and lifted both arms up and shrugged my shoulders. I got out and pushed the bow around toward the race course then waded over to help put it on the stands which were in almost knee deep water. Baldy grabbed the top of the Konig with his right hand to pull it over so Mark and I could grab the transom handles. Baldy had to grip firmly to pull the motor and a step second later he bellowed out an obscenity as he plunged his right hand into the lake. Confused and cussing, he spilled a handfull of water on the crankplate and little dancing balls of water instantly formed with a cloud of steam hissing and rising above the ever smaller bouncing balls of water. Mark and I heard and could smell burning flesh. Baldy high tailed it out of the water and ran to the Chrsyler station wagon and jerked open the door to grab an 8 oz plastic bottle of "Aloe 99" that rested on the front seat. He sprayed the pump bottle until his palm was soaked and excess was dripping off. He continued to do this every couple of minutes for about ten or fifteen minutes. One of the healing properties of aloe vera is it's ability to penetrate below the surface of the skin in fairly short order. So even though a lot of the aloe was dripping off, by keeping his palm saturated, he was assured as much as possible was getting into the epidermis below the skin.

In the meantime, Mark and I had doused more water on the crankplate to cool it off, and it took more than a few minutes because the flywheel was heated throughout its mass. Even though it wasn't big, the steel took a lot longer to give off it's heat. Before it even cooled to the point where we could put the wrenches to it I noticed that the aluminum ring on the stator protecting the points and condensers had risen up and was in contact with the crankplate. The FB we had did not have a single piece stator plate. The stator was bolted to the block, but the ring was held onto the stator plate with a bolt on either side from underneath to two small aluminum wedges welded to the ring. The were about 8 mm in width drilled and tapped. Apparently the rough water from the day before had loosened both bolts, and that plus the vibration of the two cylinder FB Konig caused the ring to rise with each successive turn of the bolts until it came into contact with the bottom of the crankplate. The bolt heads must have rested on a boss on the motor (I can't remember) and we had to start the threads and turn them to lower and tighten the ring in place. This was something we never had to deal with before, and when we got home and were doing our repairs, I ended up stripping them out while tightening them.

Baldy was in pretty good pain with such a searing as he got. The flywheel nut was branded into the center of his palm, and the outer edge of the crankplate was seared into the ends of each of his fingers and in a parallel crease along his thumb. Baldy regularly sprayed more aloe on his hand as we rigged down, collected our prize money and bid our farewells before heading home Sunday evening.

Baldy was a big man and as such liked his things cold---his house---his motel room--his beer---and his car. I was always cold natured and turned the air vent off of me or completely closed it when I was driving or riding in the front seat. But during the night, it was generally cool enough were the A/C was just motivating enough to keep him cool. This night however, he had it turned up all the way and it was an artic blast coming out of that vent on his right. I was riding shotgun. Baldy drove with his left hand on the steering wheel and his right hand up against the air vent. Whenever he wanted a dose of aloe he would move his hand from the vent and toward me, where I would liberally spray it down. We stopped somewhere around 11. We went home via U.S. Highway 281, so we most likely stopped in Lampasas near the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado.

The next morning Baldy's hand was tender, but not painful. We were all surprise, including Baldy, that blisters had not formed, but it looked horrible. His palm was nothing but mottled dead skin with purplish, brown and tannish hues. We were only ten or fifteen minutes on the highway before Baldy began to pick at the dead skin. He gingerly lifted a corner at the bottom of his palm and slowly peeled off a long stringer. It was not painful, so he took some more off. About halfway through, he realized there were barely any of the burnt indentions on his fingers. He quickly removed the rest of the stuff and realized that it was not his skin that he was pulling off, but many layers of dried aloe residue. Baldy's "Aloe 99" was 99% pure and not distilled, but merely pressed and filtered. There were very small solids in his juice along with the part that turns purple when exposed to air. That made a huge impression on all of us, even though we knew the healing properties. One thing I learned was that if you get burnt, the sooner you can get aloe very into the damaged area the better. (Unless it's a very serious burn that requires a dr.)

Bill Van Steenwyk

10-05-2010, 05:04 PM

Baldy was the first person to tell me about the healing properties of the Aloe plant, during some of the first conversations I had with him when Eileen and I visited him at the Lake house. He had a lot of Aloe plants around his house.

He encouraged us to take some plants home with us, and showed us how to dig them up and how to split the "leaves", (although they look more like a stalk) and use the raw aloe right out of the plant as a dressing on sunburn and other burn problems with the skin.

The plants we took home with us and replanted thrived, and as I am VERY fair skinned, and have had lots of sunburn, and later skin cancer, problems all my life, we started using the "juice" from the stalks on sunburn, by putting the jell in a blender and then putting the resulting liquid concoction in a jar in the fridge, as per Baldy's instructions.

I had a 73 Grand Prix with a 455 HP engine in it that I was having some overheating problems with, and it would occasionally get hot and I would have to let it cool down, crack the radiator cap, and add some water/antifreeze mixture. One time when this happened, I didn't wait long enough for it to cool down before cracking the cap, and the resulting boiling geyser sprayed all over my hand, scalding it badly. I was not far from home and hurried on there after getting some water in the radiator, and soon as I arrived, poured the Aloe mixture in the jar in the fridge over my hand. I repeated this treatment for the next 24-36 hours, and was very surprised and pleased that what looked to be AT LEAST second degree burns, disappeared entirely within a couple of days, and never did really blister up at all. I also had no, or very little pain or discomfort during the healing process, except for the initial "scald" from the boiling water.

From that point on I was a true believer in the power of Aloe and we still have some plants today that are from those original plants brought home from around Baldy's house on the lake. We keep them on the back deck during the nice weather, and of course Eileen brings them in to the basement with her other plants during the winter. That was 40 years ago, so those original plants have done very good duty over the years, and healed lots of burns and other skin irritations.

If not a family secret Wayne, perhaps the readers of this narrative would enjoy hearing about his "foray" into the Aloe plant business, and the problems you run into regards government regulations when trying to bring a product to market. Whenever we heard that story around the dinner bar in the kitchen, I could be sure he would get very red faced, and not from anything he had to drink.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-05-2010, 05:55 PM

You had mentioned that fact previously Bll Van and I am using this portion of the story to transition to Baldy's aloe venture. And now that you mention it....you are correct about where your aloe stock came from and the properties derived from it....and what it can do for you. I have to gather up a few photos before I proceed with the story. The aloe portion does play in with this whole story about Baldy as it leads into other facets of Baldy and boat racing.

The aloe vera I have planted in my yard came from transplants from Baldy's yard he gave me in 1979. When Debbie and I lived in Denton we carried cuttings to plant. The plants you have Bill Van came from transplants even earlier. Those were originated from the very first transplants Baldy brought back from our property in Mexico in 1965. That's how many years your transplants date back from when they crossed the Rio Grande. Aloe Vera mulitplies rapidly after rains, and will sit back and bide its time during drought. You can take a spade and cut some out with a root....let it dry out almost to a withered stalk, then stick the roots in the ground and before long it greens up....swells out the leaves and establishes a good root system.

ADD: I didn't exactly say it right that your transplants date back from the original. Mine did too, but you had yours in the ground a few years before I got my cuttings from the same line. And now to a sub story to do with Baldy.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-15-2010, 07:39 AM

I will have to do this in segments for a couple of reasons. First, I already wrote it three times, but it took so long it timed out and I lost it, and I didn't want to start over once more. Secondly, Debbie will be commandeering the computer shortly, so I will try to get as far as I can before she shows up.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-15-2010, 08:34 AM

BALDY'S ALOE VERA VENTURE

In 1965 Baldy invested some money into a venture to grow and harvest aloe vera plants in Mexico and market the extract in the U.S. as a natural medicine with remarkable healing properties. There had been some interest growing about the rediscovered medicinal qualities of this plant in the early sixties. I do not know who put the prospect together, or all of the people involved, but I just remember that beside Baldy, the guy I was named after and who showed it to him was Wayne Hendricks. Another guy was Dickie Haas who was a friend of Wayne and Baldy and who was a teammate of Baldy on the 1938 Texas State Championship football team the Miller Buccaneers. There were also three doctors from Dallas and a couple of scientists from Houston. One, George Warren remained a lifelong friend.

They bought into some property in Mexico near Cuidad Victoria in the state of Taumalipas. I t was either 10,000 hectares or 20,000 hectares, I can't remember. Since Americans couldn't actually own commercial property then, it had to been in the name of a Mexican national who lived and maintained a ranch on the property. I can't remember his name. He always submitted an annual financial statement to the group on the state of ranching affairs, and Baldy and Wayne always laughed about the fact that he must have only cows and no bulls, because the herd was always the same number every year.

Shortly after they bought into the venture the dam on Lake Guerrero was finished and a portion of their property was flooded. That lake now holds the distinction of being one of the top fresh water bass lakes in the world. Countless record bass records come off that lake. I am not sure which side of the lake the ranch was on. On the northeastern side was a jungle with ocelots, jaguars, parrots, snakes, bugs.....etc. Then there is a semi arid side. I have a picture showing an escarpment off in the distance, and if you magnify it greatly it shows that it is heavily forested unlike the escarpments we have in Texas. So it might be the property was on the northwestern side, and on the other side of the escarpment was the valley with the jungle. I never went down there, although my youngest sister Jan went there with Baldy a couple of times. I really regret now that I never went.

Baldy would take customers whitewing dove hunting. The Mexicans encouraged this, because it not only brought in revenue to their poor state, but whitewings were devastating to the grain crops. Unlike other doves who have to feed off the ground, the whitewings have the ability to perch on the head and eat the grains off the stalk. There were millions of them. Hunters would get their barrels hot during the first hour of shooting, then they would settle down and just try to time a shot to drop a bird at their feet. Mexican boys were hired to retrieve the doves. They made more money from the tips and gratitude from the "gringos" than their family probably made in a month. The ranch owner was friends with the mayor of Cuidad Victoria and the Governor......(to be continued).....of Taumalipas.

When a large party of the Norte Americanos came down, it generally called for a Pachanga on Saturday night. There was a lodge where hunters and fishermen stayed at the ranch and the politicos showed up including the Governor, Mayors, councilmen, generals, colonels, and invited guests celebrated. There was an orphanage outside Ciudad Victoria that received all the cleaned, uncooked doves that were not consumed at the Pachanga. It was a good publicity affair for all involved and the Texans were all given exemptions on the amount of shotguns and shotgun shells that were allowed to be brought in.

The ranch owner also had a huge mexican bodyguard whose name in Spanish meant "the black glove". I wish I had a photo, but I will describe him as I heard Baldy do it many times while entertaining friends. Bill Van will probably remember some of this. The Black Glove wore gloves on both hands and wore two pearl handled Colt 45's on his gun belt. He was named the Black Glove as an intimidation factor because, as Baldy put it, "He couldn't hit a bull in the *** with a bass fiddle." The ranch owner had them watch the Black Glove in a shooting demonstration one day. They did that often so people could hear him firing off rounds. Baldy said that even though he could not hit what he was aiming at "...he put enough lead in the air to be dangerous to anyone around him." It was never clear to Baldy why the ranch owner needed a bodyguard like the Black Glove, because it wasn't dangerous in those days. It was probably prestige more than anything else plus maybe a deterrent to some petty cattle rustling. The Black Glove was a lot bigger than the average Mexican and besides the two pistols, often wore bandoliers, but I do not remember Baldy saying that he wore a sombrero. I think he just wore a cowboy hat and large boots. He did have a drooping black mustache also.

One day the ranch owner, the Black Glove, Baldy, his hunting friend Andy Anderson and a couple of others stopped to eat at a cafe between the ranch and Ciudad Victoria. Andy walked up to the table first and tried to pull out a chair, but it was bolted to the ground. Without saying anything he gave Baldy a confused look who just then tried to pull his chair back himself. He was also puzzled as to why the chairs would be bolted down so close to the table. Just then the Black Glove grabbed the back of his chair firmly and scooted it back. Then Baldy and Andy tried again, but this time putting some muscle into it. The rancher and the Black Glove had purposefully held back to watch Baldy and Andy for a laugh. The wooden chairs were constructed of black ebony and were extremely heavy. (to be continued)

Master Oil Racing Team

10-16-2010, 07:29 AM

In south Texas there was a political boss named George Parr who also held the title the "Duke of Duval". He lived in San Diego ten miles west of Alice and was in Duval County. Were it not for George Parr, Lyndon Johnson would probably have never been President of the United States. A month before I was born George Parr orchestrated the theft of the 1948 election to the U.S. Senate in favor of LBJ. One person was killed, another beaten to within an inch of his life and no more witnesses stepped forward on the ballot box stuffing. The polling place was Box thirteen in Alice where Baldy and Dodo voted. The ballot box went missing for three or four days and when it was found, there were two hundred plus additional voters signed in on the roster, all in green ink, and all in the same handwriting. All other statewide precincts had been counted by the time that last box was found, and there were just enough votes to put Johnson over the top. When the Texas Rangers came down, the Duval County courthouse records suddenly burnt up.

The right hand man of George Parr I will call Charley Murphy. He was officially on the payroll of a nationally renowned mud company that supplied drilling mud to the oilfield. He was also on retainer of $100.00 per month each from about two dozen oilfield related businesses. There was a lot of oil and gas drilling in Duval County and adjoining counties in which George Parr held influence. Parr was married to a hispanic lady and spoke Spanish as good as anybody that ever lived in South Texas.

Parr was a judge and held other political offices over the years he ruled in his fiefdom. Any hispanic that ever needed help came to Parr and he doled out money. He had money for kids 15 year birthday parties, weddings, education, accidents, health problems....anything that community needed, Parr was their with cash. Of course it all came from the taxpayers, but it bought loyalty...lot's of it. Parr could always depend on 110% of the hispanic vote. More if it looked like the election would be close. A Duval county democrat had the rights to vote even after they were planted six feet under the ground. So to do business in and around Duval County you had to be in the favor of George Parr. Charley Murphy was the guy most people dealt with when doing business with George Parr.

Ten pound brine is a saturated solution of sodium chloride commonly known as table salt. In Duval County and neighboring county Jim Hogg were some of the largest salt deposits in North America. Solution wells were drilled into these domes and fresh water pumped down and circulated out. The result is ten pound brine, which is utilized extensively in the oilfield. It was also a valuable commodity to PPG, Pittsburgh Plate Glass which used it in some manufacturing processes. They had a plant located on the ship channel in Corpus Christi. The solution mining was hundreds of feet higher than the plant in Corpus near sea level. Although it was around 100 miles to the east from the brine fields, the elevation allowed a pipeline to gravity flow the ten ppg brine solution down to the plant. The pipeline passed less than 100 feet northwest of the Alice Specialty Company property line. Alice Specialty was our oilfield service company and we sold many truckloads of brine each month. All the brine however, had to be loaded at the mine. Baldy knew he could corral the 10 pound brine market if he could set a meter on the pipeline and have it flow into bulk storage tanks on our property. It would not only save on extra trucking, but also greatly enhance delivery times. Baldy tried repeatedly to make a deal with PPG, but they held no allegiances to the oilfield and refused to even consider a tap on their line.

Baldy hired Charly Murphy and provided him with a 1966 red Dodge Polara with a white top, plus expenses. Charly worked for Alice Specialty almost two years, but his main purpose was to get a meter on that brine line. The line crossed not only property owned by people indebted to George Parr for his unfailing policy to step in when someone needed help, but also thousands of acres owned by Parr himself. PPG had no choice but to come to terms with Baldy when Parr's henchman, Murphy explained how it would go with Parr if they refused. That pipeline made Alice Specialty the premier south Texas supplier of ten pound brine inland and offshore for many years.

Here are some photos of the property in Mexico. In the first one, if you look closely where the field meets the horizon you can see clouds of doves. Charly Murphy took some hunters down to the ranch in Mexico. He is the slim guy with glasses and a cowboy hat. I don't know who the other hunters are...they could be PPG executives for all I know. The Mexican kids were very hard workers and extremely pleased to get the job of retrieving and cleaning doves.

ADD: Mark and I only drove that runabout we built a couple of times. It was too squirrely and by then we had something faster anyway. We sold it to Murphy's son, who was about twelve then, for a hundred bucks.

Gene East

10-16-2010, 10:29 AM

Wayne,

This last post mentioning political hanky-panky at the polls sounds more like Illinois than Texas.

The latest thing going here is many of the districts in Illinois did not send absentee ballots to our military in time for them to be distributed prior to election day.

This supposedly is an oversight.

Why would Illinois politicians not want the military to vote. Could it be most military people are not liberals?

I've seen 2 yard signs for our incumbent congressman Phil Hare ("I don't care about the Constitution) and thousands for Bobby Schilling, yet our local newspaper says the race is a toss-up. How can that be???

jrome

10-16-2010, 11:20 AM

Sounds Like Casrto must be running the election.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-16-2010, 08:53 PM

I think there are political bosses everywhere. The most famous are New York, Chicago, and Boston. Funny that they are all Democrats.

There is a saying about leaders of our country..."Behind every great man.....there is a great woman!" I believe in the very truth of that statement. I also believe this (which isn't a saying, but it's known to be true). For every corrupt politician, there is an equally corrupt and disgusting lawyer. That's my saying that can be repeated often and as well far and wide.

Wayne

Master Oil Racing Team

10-17-2010, 01:44 PM

The aloe group made up different formulations and submitted samples and procedures to the FDA (I think) for testing. One of the formulations was aloe vera juice to be taken internally for mild gastric distress, but it also improved the health of other organs. This as well as the topical creams and gels required testing by government agencies. I assume it was the Federal Drug Administration. The did test with rats. As they went through each phase of rat testing, the government ordered more. I am not sure, but I think the doctors had been involved even earlier and had already gone through a couple of rat tests earlier. Baldy was getting impatient. He was oilfield. When you are ready to get something done, you just call out the orders and it gets done. So after another one of the tests was concluded without any harmful affects showing up on the rats, Baldy went out on his own and put together a company called "Aloe 99" because it was 99% aloe vera juice with stabilizer. The other partners didn't object because it would further the cause and they would learn something from it, and Baldy was putting up all the money. I don't remember the type of products the doctors were having tested, but one was a cream with more than twice as much aloe vera than other creams on the market. It had one unique ingredient that was different from other creams also. It was an oil with the same ph as human skin and was derived from a certain process of removing oil from a grain.

In McAllen, Texas there were a number of independant plants that would press citrus crops, sugar cane, and other types of fruits to extract and filter the juice. I think it was in one of those plants that Baldy had the aloe vera juice pressed, filtered, pastuerized and bottled. It was shipped to Alice and stored in one of the storerooms at Alice Specialty Company on the west side of U.S. Highway 281 about a half mile south of Alice.

Baldy bought two white Dodge panel trucks from Jim Yawn to haul the Aloe 99 around to retailers. Baldy hired Ray Pippin, a full blooded Indian from Oklahoma, to make sales calls and deliver the product. It was pretty amazing how quickly Ray was able to move the product. There was the small white pump spray bottle I mentioned earlier as well as a one gallon container. Ray had a lot of Aloe stocked within a fifty mile radius. I imagine a lot of it was consignment, but sales were picking up quickly as there was not really anything else out there similar to Aloe 99.

Aloe vera has something in it that promotes rapid healing by enhancing growth of good healthy cells. That's one reason it shouldn't be used on serious deep injuries because they need to be healed from the inside. While it was not claimed to cure stomach ulcers it would help cure them if they were not really far gone. I am also one to testify that it helps with nausea. Baldy's aloe vera juice really tasted bad, so it was recommened to mix it with orange juice. Baldy always joked though not to mix it in with orange or grapefruit juice and liquor because it will carry the alchohol straight into the bloodstream. It did have the capacity to soak quickly into your skin and was deemed a carrier. I think that was one of the primary concerns with the FDA. I don't know if any of you have ever heard of DMSO. but it also has miraculous healing properties, but it is banned from use by humans. It goes into the skin and blood much faster than aloe vera and is also deemed a carrier. That means if you were handling rat poison, then put DMSO on your skin where there was rat poison, the DMSO would carry the poison into your blood. DMSO is an authorized drug for veterenarians though. It is used a lot on lame horses.

There was a tall lanky black man that had worked for Baldy many years driving a winch truck. He was in his sixties when he got an injury on the side of his left leg just above the boot and the outside part of his calf. He had neglected it and it had gotten out of control and became infected. Of course he didn't want to quit work, so he kept it aggravated and inflammed. The doctor had tried repeatedly to treat it, but the wound didn't respond to anything he tried. It was about three inches long and two wide, and not quite, but almost to the bone. Baldy took him off the truck and had him performing maintenance duties at the warehouse. Included in that was boxing and loading Aloe 99 for the vans to deliver, and restocking when new product came in.

His name was Moses, and he and Baldy like to swap fish stories. He was a fine old man and Baldy would explain all about the Aloe 99 and Moses took great care in listening to what Baldy told him. Occassionally there would be some damaged bottles, so Moses set them aside. One day he got an idea. He got a Kotex and soaked it in Aloe 99 then taped it over his wound, making sure it was stuffed down into it. He never told anybody about it, and he quit going to the doctor. Baldy usually talked to Moses once a day if not more often and Moses started calling him Doctor Baldy. Baldy was just amused by this and didn't say anything. That was just Moses' nature and they liked and respected one another. I can remember Moses catching up with Baldy as he was headed back toward the warehouse from the welding shop one day. Moses said "Look Doctor Baldy. Look at my leg." I didn't like to look at it after the first time he showed it to me, but I was standing behind and to the right of Baldy when Moses pulled up the left pant leg. I don't remember what Baldy said, but he was surprised so I took a look as well. It was only a very thick scab about the size of an elongated half dollar piece. He then proceeded to tell Baldy about how he had been soaking Aloe 99 in a Kotex and that he used damaged jugs and hoped that was okay. Baldy was very happy for Moses until a couple of weeks later. Moses waited for the injury to heal even more before he went back to the original doctor to show him. When Moses came back to the office he found Baldy and was telling him how the doctor was so amazed at his recovery. Moses said to Baldy, "He wanted to know who cured me and I told him Doctor Baldy." Baldy's jaw dropped and he told Moses, "No....don't call me Doctor Baldy Moses. I'm not a doctor. You could get me in trouble. Don't ever call me doctor again." "Okay Doctor Baldy." said Moses.

Bill Van Steenwyk

10-17-2010, 02:24 PM

Wayne:

I seem to remember you are correct about the FDA being the agency involved in the approval process of the aloe product Baldy was trying to market. Eileen says the same and I think he really discussed it more with her than he did me. The thing he was most upset about was that they (FDA) wanted the marketer's in the approval process to prove that it would not harm humans. In other words, prove a negative. His thought about the approval process, at least the way we remember the discussions with him about that part of the story, were THEY should be showing him or anyone else trying to market something, that there was harm involved in it's use. If they could not, get out of the way. Doing it the other way round as they wanted was putting an undue hardship in the way of cost, time, etc., on someone trying to market something that there was no evidence of any kind to start with that the product had ever hurt anyone, especially one that was natural and had been used for centuries by many cultures and had obvious healing properties. Makes perfect sense to me, but what do I know?

Regards the DMSO;

When Eileen and I first got married in 1973, we rented a house from a farmer about 40 miles south of St. Louis. He was in his late 70's when we first met him, but like most folks as they get older, was bothered by arthritis, and other assorted aches and pains. Because of his farm animal experience, he was familiar with DMSO from vet use on his animals, and used it himself, on himself, by rubbing it into his skin around joints and other affected areas several times a week. He swore by it as a product/means to keep his joints flexible and allow him to do the work on the farm that had to be done. He finally passed away at around the age of 91, showing no ill effects from that type treatment for the 12 years we knew him. I do not recommend that anyone run right out and use this product for the reasons he did, but I think it does show that there is a lot of misinformation out there about various home remedy's, their effects both harmful and beneficial, along with many other present issues of the day that incomplete or misleading information is spread about.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-18-2010, 08:25 AM

I think there's a whole lot of truth in what you're saying Bill Van. Baldy wasn't used to dealing with the scientific beauracrats, only the paper pushers and field personnel that worked the oilfield. He could lay such a barrage of b.s. and paper on them that they got out of his way. These Washington people were another story.

Regarding DMSO, I had a personal experience with that. I was on an oilfield location about six years ago and had to "dress" about 75 joints of 13.50 (pounds per foot) 4 1/2 casing with one turbolizer per joint. This required bolting a steel band around the middle of the joint, and wrapping and pinning a flexible bow turbolizer around that band. Trouble was, about 120 joints were pushed all the way to the front of the pipe rack and I had to start on the first joint going in the hole and dress the next 75. So I had a lot of joints to roll back to get started. These joints weighed almost six hundred pounds each and I was by myself. I roll them by shoving on with my right foot to get it moving, then hopping on a board with my left foot while my right foot keeps the pipe rolling. I started limping a little about three fourths through the job. On the way home my knee just above my right kneecap started hurting so bad that it was very painful to lift my foot off the gas to apply the brake. I took off my steel toed boot. After awhile it got so bad I couldn't even lifted my stocking foot so I had to finish driving back using my left foot. I limped to the doctor the next day and she gave me some aniti inflammatories and something else. I went back again a few days later, but when it didn't improve at all, I went to a minor emergency clinic. They gave me stuff that didn't work either. It continued to be extremely painful for a long time, and no one could gve me a reason why, or what the problem was. More than a month had passed and I could not work in the field at all. I only went to the shop to pay bills, and take care of payrolls, taxes etc. The rest of the time I tried recuperating. Then I ran into a rancher friend that told me about DMSO. That day I went to the CO-OP in Orange Grove and bought a bottle and liberally soaked my knee. The next morning it was very much better. After the second day I could easily walk and lift my leg with just very little discomfort. By the third day, I could go out on deliveries again. I kept up the treatment for ten days, but by the fourth or fifth day I was just about fully recovered. I looked it up on the internet and found everything from dire warnings to ecstatic miraculous recoveries. I don't know what to believe and since the human body can be so different in people I just took the way of caution and quit using it. However, I can tell you for sure I've got it in my arsenal for short term cure when nothing else seems to work. You have to be very cautious though you don't get any harmful substance mixed in with it.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-18-2010, 09:16 AM

I can't recall exactly when Baldy first invested in the aloe vera venture or when he got out, but his Aloe 99 business was less than a year from intial setup to going out of business. Sometime between around six months or so of his products being on the shelves some of the distributors began to complain that the Aloe 99 was starting to smell differently. It never had a pleasant odor, but it was not offensive. Somewhere along the way there was some contamination of sealed bottles, but open bottles would also start to smell after awhile from bacteria. The pastuerization and stabilizer could only last so long, so the aloe juice started to turn dark and give off a bad odor. At first Baldy and the others thought there were some isolated incidents, but then bad batches began to turn up all over. The spray bottles didn't turn so quickly because they were mostly sealed against oxygen unless you opened the cap, but the large volume of the gallons, plus opening the cap made them subject to bacteria. George Warren had advised Baldy against using 99% solution because it would be subject just to such degredation. He told Baldy that if he went with aloe vera in a concentration of around 50 to 75 % there would be a lot of room to put other additives in for a longer shelf life. Baldy though wanted a "liquid aloe vera leaf". He wanted his product to be as potent as a fresh leaf, but handier. That's the way Baldy always went about his business. Sometimes it was successful, sometimes it wasn't. He took a gamble this time that didn't pay off.

Baldy laid off the second van driver, but kept Ray Pippin on to drive around and gather up all the Aloe 99 products left on the shelves. Many distributors had gotten a thriving little business and were reluctant to give up something that was attracting customers to their stores. With the consignment products, Ray just went around and loaded them up and brought them back to the warehouse. Anything paid for and still on the shelves, Baldy sent all their money back for what was left and had Ray tell the distributors to give money back to anyone who came in complaining, and to let Baldy know so he could reimburse them. Of course a lot of it was used up before it soured.

The active ingredients of the aloe vera juice still worked, but nobody wants to put a stinking juice on a sunburn, and if you had a cut there could always be a chance for infection. After Ray finished gathering up what was left of all unsold Aloe 99, Baldy sold both Dodge Vans and kept Ray Pippin on as a salesman for our oilfield yard in Taft, Texas near the coast. He retired in 1986 after 20 years of loyal service to Alice Specialty and moved back to Oklahoma where he married his high school sweetheart about a year after they got reacquainted at their 50th high school reunion.

The agreement that the partners had on the overall growing and harvesting of plants and pursuing getting FDA approval required each partner contribute funds to keep the operation moving forward based on his percentage of the deal. It cost Baldy his friendship with Dickie Haas, another oilfield person, who threw in his hat and walked away after another round of funding was required. Baldy lost his butt in the Aloe 99 side venture, and bowed out. The doctors continued on with the drug testing and were eventually able to get whatever they needed to go into business. I only remember the last name of one of the doctors was Coates. I am not positive, but I think the name of the company ended up being "Forever Living Products" George Warren and Wayne Hendricks did not have the money to stay in the venture either, but we all remained lifelong friends. Some years later, George came up with a vacuum distillation process that separated the aloe juices into around sixteen to 20 components and was able to remove all solids as well as the bile tasting components to where it tasted like spring water and would not spoil. The last time I saw George before he passed away he loaded me up with so many of his aloe vera based products, that I still have some. It is called "George's Alway's Active Aloe" I didn't ever know it before, but after Baldy passed away George told me that he was struggling to make ends meet while he was putting his company together and Baldy loaned him the money to get him by without asking to be a part of his venture and he had no obligation to pay him back if he failed. Baldy did that for a lot of people. Sometimes it was just give a .22 rifle to a kid who couldn't afford one, or sometimes it was quite a bit of money. George's company finally caught on and he built up a large plant between Austin and Dallas where he turned out large volumes of Aloe product.

After Baldy was done with the aloe vera business, George Warren came to him and asked him if he remembered that hand creme that they had been playing around with and doing rat tests on. He did and George told him that one ingredient in it had a lot of potential and that was the base oil ingredient.

George explained to Baldy that the oil was very unique. It was extracted by a patented method from a grain at a small independant company in Louisiana, and not only did it have superior penetrating qualities, but it was non flammable. It contained naturally occurring extreme pressure lubricants, but it could be improved with an additional boost of that and one other additive. Baldy was interested, so George began to work on some formulations. This was also in 1966 when the Aloe 99 venture collapsed. They had transitioned from one venture to another without even slowing down. This time George assured Baldy they don't have to get government approval. They were going to make the best damn penetrating, lubricating , cutting oil and rust inhibitor on the market. Sperm oil from the sperm whale was the premier cutting oil at that time for the toughest jobs, and a treaty banning the killing of sperm whales just came into effect. This oil, with George's additives was tested with the lowest co-efficient of friction up to that point that the reknowned Southwest Labratories had ever tested.

Thus ends Baldy's Aloe Vera Venture, and begins what was to become MX-237 THE MASTER OIL.

Master Oil Racing Team

10-20-2010, 08:35 AM

After I posted the above, I began to think about the very first cans of The Master Oil. They were silver and black. That's when I remembered that the company was called ALDAC, Inc. That is a combination of Alice and Dallas, where the principal work of both groups was being done. It's possible that Aloe 99 was under the ALDAC umbrella, but I don't recall and any paperwork about it is long gone. Regardless, the MX-237 venture did include the Doctor's and chemists from Dallas, and George Warren from Houston.

The first aerosol can was only 8 ounces, and the gallon container was tin, not plastic. The containers were solid silver with black lettering. The MX-237 logo evolved over time, and I am not sure the silver and black even had a logo. I cannot recall. Some boat racer out there still has one of the original cans, but I can't remember who described it to me some years ago. It could be Denny Henderson, Bobby Wilson, or maybe Clayton Elmer.

The first batch of MX-237 THE MASTER OIL that was made up in bulk, and outside a laborotory was in an Alice Specialty Company mud mixing tank in Alice, Texas. It was a 200 barrel tank (8,600 gallons) with guns that swiveled for throrough mixing and powered by a Detroit Diesel 6V71 turning a Mission Magnum 8X6 centrifugal pump. I wasn't there when the brought the oil in from Riviana Foods plant in Louisiana, so I don't know if it was by transport or a bunch of drums. Later shipments were all drummed and batch mixed in a 500 gallon aluminum vat with a water jacket.

Baldy and Wayne Hendricks liked a lot of laughs and weren't immune to practical joking as the chemists learned early on when dealing with the aloe vera. So they conspired to pull a practical joke on Baldy and Wayne. Being non scientific, Baldy and Wayne believed whatever these chemists told them. They were advised that working with small quantities in a lab environment, it was pretty much safe in mixing this formulation because of all the safeguards and backup they had. They said that there was an order and rate in which the additives were put in the tank through a hopper as the base oil was being churned around and circulated through the lines. There was a critical time of several minutes in the process, that if the pump quit a layer of nitroglycerin would form and float to the top. If that happened then everyone would have to jump in the tank and swim around until the chemicals combined to make Master Oil. While it sounded preposterous, one of the ingredients was a form of glycerin, and neither Wayne nor Baldy knew what dibutyl sebacate or oleic acid was, so they took the warning with a grain of salt, but holding back the possiblity that the chemists weren't kidding.

While the oil was circulating, about half a dozen of the group plus several Alice Specialty hands were standing on the grating above the rolling oil. Just before the process began to add the other ingredients, they had a safety meeting and reitrated that nobody could ran fast enough to get away if the pump quit, so be prepared to jump in and keep the oil from setting still. Just as long as there was some agitation, the nitroglycerin wouldn't form and rise to the surface. Well....everything worked out just fine and the oil was mixed and transferred to a 9,000 gallon storage tank. Back at Baldy's house at the lake the group celebrated over some steaks and beer while the chemists got a good laugh. They fessed up, and Baldy told the story to many people over the years. Mark however, got even with them by accident, and Baldy always finished the story with Mark's revenge.

Mark had his driver's license by now, but no vehicle. I hung around the lakehouse on Saturday night, but Mark was always taking my Scout. I kept getting PO'd at him. He found three girls who were friends who's parents had lake houses a couple of miles from our place. He had them convinced I was a mean evil person, and they would not want to meet me. This went on all summer long. It was now shortly before Christmas in 1966 that the oil was mixed and the party was going on at Baldy's lake house at Pernitas Point. I was deer hunting and told Mark he couldn't have my Scout. Since Baldy wasn't going anywhere, he let Mark borrow his Chrysler New Yorker. He had bought some fireworks, and along with the girls and one of the girls brother, they drove around Pernitas Point popping firecrackers. Someone had put a half dozen or so in the ashtray down by the center console in the back seat.

Baldy or Wayne had picked up the chemists at the Corpus Christi Airport when they had arrived from Dallas, and George Warren offered to borrow Baldy's New Yorker to take them back to the airport Sunday morning. About fifteen miles from the airport they were cutting through Robstown to pick up Highway 44 on the east side of town which would take them to Corpus Christi International. One of the chemists in the back seat had been smoking a cigar and stuck it in the backseat ashtray to put it out. Suddenly there was a pressure wave, bright flashes, smoke and loud noises filling the interior of the Chrysler. It is an automatic instinct instilled in chemists to run when things start to explode. They were in the middle of an intersection making a turn when the conflagration started, and instantly all four doors popped open. It ended up that nobody jumped out because the asphalt looked like it would hurt and the popping quit. There ears were ringing and they rolled down the windows to clear the smoke when they put two and two together. Boy did Baldy and Wayne get a hoot when George got back and told them what happened. Mark would have gotten in trouble over that had it not happened the way it did and Baldy loved to tell about it. Even the chemists had to admit it was funny and told it themselves.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-09-2010, 09:20 PM

In July we travelled to our first ever race at Fort Buhlow Lake in Pineville, Lousiana. "The World's Fastest Water" proclaimed the sign at the entrance of the famed lake. It was the National Outboard Association "Southern Championships" to be held on July 17th and 18th following two days of qualifications.

Once again we took the coastal route over to Sinton then up US 77 to Refugio where we caught Texas State Highway 774 to Texas 35 that paralled the coast. Refugio is one of the oldest Spanish settlements in the United States. There is nothing but Ranch land between Refugio and 35. It was always an easy drive going to the races that route, but coming back we had to be careful. It was always in the early morning hours, we were tired, and deer could jump the fence and be on the narrow two lane highway before you could react.

We were excited to be going to Louisiana. We had almost tried to make one or another of the Louisiana races on the NOA circulars, but there was not time. This was the big one, and we got everything loaded the night before, with a late afternoon of measuring and mixing of fuel at the Alice Specialty warehouse before heading back home to pack up clothes. This would be our first trip out of state to race.

Heading north on 35 very near the Aransasa Wildlife Refuge where the whooping cranes winter, we made our way to Port Lavaca. For many years we would time our trip to stop for lunch at Gordon's Seafood Restaurant on the southern shore of Lavaca Bay. We made our way through all the small towns along the way, and most of the time just got through Sweeny just when the 3:00 p.m. shift changed at the Phillips 66 refinery. On up through West Columbia, and Angleton where 35 took a 90 degree easterly bend then find the road that would carry us over to 146 leading to Baytown. We weren't stopping at Jack Chance's everytime we went that way yet. We were friends with Jack and Clayton, and they helped us, but we had not yet teamed up.

We went on through Baytown and to Highlands where we picked up Interstate 10, then we were headed east making good progress. We treaded through the speed trap at Winnie and it was a long stretch to Beaumont. We finally got through there, then through the infamous town of Vidor in KKK territory and on to Orange and past the Sabine River. Sulphur Louisiana means Lake Charles is coming up then after that is the left under the overpass at Kenner where we pick up 165 north to Alexandria. We always got a good view on the high bridge coming into Lake Charles overlooking the race course where both alky and OPC racing took place, and maybe mods as well.

It was like a second wind, or breath of fresh air when we made that turn north on 165. We still had deputies of the parishes to watch out for as well as waiting for an opening to blow down hill past logging trucks, but we were on the final leg. As we got close to Alexandria we would start to see bars set out in the piney woods off the road with yellow lights strung among the pine trees. Then suddenly the road would widen and soon we were on a traffic circle. We always had to make one loop before we chose the right one for MacArthur Blvd. It always came up sooner than we expected, and although we knew it was coming, we were always in the inside lane at the first pass, and could not get over. I remember it fondly now how we could never get it right on the first go around.

Our first time at Alexandria we stayed at the Holiday Inn on MacArthur on the west side just south of another traffic circle. On the east side was the Ramada Inn. Almost all of the racers stayed at one or another of these motels.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-10-2010, 08:16 AM

Like us, a lot of the drivers that came later in the afternoon or night just came to the motels with their rigs. There were a lot of letters preceeding race numbers I never saw before...particulary "V"s and "F"s. It was really looking to be a big and exciting race.

We got up the next morning and headed north to cross over the Red River on an old cast iron bridge. I seem to remember that it was named the "Huey P. Long" bridge, a colorful governor from the past whose career was a model of corruption for Louisiana legislators, and was the subject of a movie starring Paul Newman. The race course was not far from the motels, and you had to drive past the first paved road to enter through the second. The road looped down and around between the concession stand with a covered viewing stand on the roof, and the judges stand. The pits were already crowded with boats and trailers several teams deep to the right of the judges stand. We drove on past and found a spot almost at the very end of the pits back in the sandy cove. Just slighty to the left above the treeline on the opposite bank of the little cove, we could see the arch of the cast iron bridge about a half mile distant. We were just to the right of a small stand of willow trees and just immediately left of W.O. Thompson from Haltom City between Dallas and Fort Worth. A couple more teams ended up past us on the other side of the willows, but I forget who they were.

We knew W.O. from our racing in North Texas, so it was good to be pitted next to a familiar face among the drivers who came from all over the south and midwest. He was a shriveled up man of about mid fifties and ran A and B merc deflectors in A and B runabout and hydro. I can't remember what the make of his boats were. He had one of those red and white puffed up life jackets and wore a motorcycle cop style half helmet with leather like we started out with. W.O. Thompson was a very nice guy and him and Baldy enjoyed each others company. I don't recall he had much help so we helped him in the pits.

It was a nice clear morning while rigging up, and I was in awe that we were about to be a part of the Southern Championships and competing against some of the best alky drivers in the country. The only ones missing were the drivers from California and Arizona, the Northwest and Northeast. It is possible that one or two like Rich Fuschlin or Ted May came, but I don't recall that.

It was the first time since 1963 that the Southern Championships would be held in Alexandria. They held the NOA World in 1965, after having to cancel in 1964 due to low water, and this year the NOA World Championships would be in Sanford, Michigan. The Fort Buhlow course was a surveyed 1 1/4 mile course, and the races were to be four laps, so 5 mile competition records were up for grabs.

Mark and I pretty much stayed around our pits while Baldy went up and down the line meeting people and gabbing with our growing list of friends. There were very few racers and pit crews of our age. I don't remember seeing Denny Henderson there, and I had seen Joe Rome at the races, but did not know him yet, as he was pitting for our "arch enemy";) Louis Williams. Joe Bowdler was teamed up with Raymond Jefferies so they were on the other side of the judges stand where the San Antonio bunch usually found a spot. Jack and Clayton had gotten in early enough to get a good choice spot over that way as well, so we just hung out by ourselves back in the cove. The pits covered from our area, swept around the cove, past the judges stand and the little "gut" halfway down the front straight, all the way to the last black & white checkered bouy before the first turn bouy. It was quite a turnout and we didn't know even one fourth of the teams.

I broke down somewhere around the bottom turn while testing A runabout. The water was smooth and a lot of boats were out testing. There were also a number of them breaking down for one reason or another like myself. A lot of trouble back then came from the Konig check valves that did not have the relief valve. I had to wait a little while for a tow, but we still had plenty of time to get ready before qualifying, so I was in no hurry. As I was being towed in, I was scanning the pits, and trying to grasp the size of the event and take it all in. About halfway between where we were pitted and where the cove made the right hand turn just before the judges stand, I happened to see two young girls in bikinis standing in water halfway up their knees looking at a boat coming around the bottom turn. One was just a little bit older, but not by much. I couldn't take my eyes off her. She had long sunstreaked brown hair, and looked like nothing I had ever seen in the pits of a boat race before. Who were they....who was the one closest to me, I wondered? Then before the tow boat got closer, they both turned and walked back to their trailer. Hah! It was the Wetherbee's, Alex and Tommy, from Corpus Christi. I had known who Alex Wetherbee's son Steve was, but we didn't hang out. He was a couple of years younger than Mark. So who were these nubile young creatures? I had not seen them before. I was smitten, but I knew I was too old for them at seventeen.

I was unable to find any results, but I did learn that Jerry Waldman barely lost overall points to Jim Schoch having won 5 hydro classes. I had not met Jerry at that time, but I knew who he was, and it was amazing and exciting to be able to watch the boat racer of boat racers perform his skills. It was less than a year earlier he broke his back here at Fort Buhlow Lake attempting a straightaway record on Monday after the races. This was the guy that Dan Waggoner told me was killed in the attempt, and also that we needn't bother to go to Alexandria because there were too many boats and we could never compete. That was the wrong thing to tell Baldy. Now here we were, and a better feeling about racing I never had. Somehow I was able to qualify a couple of classes and I ended up with $5.00 for one 5th place finish in B runabout and $5.00 for a fourth place in one heat of A hydro.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-10-2010, 08:59 PM

I had a bad problem making starts at Alex. That first time I was not used to having so much milling room. At Baytown there was not much room at all. You had to circulate past the start bouy and back or you would risk getting into roostertails.. In the races around Dallas, you dare not mill around the bottom turn lest you run into swells or yachts.. Alex was the perfectly controlled lake that you could test and race without worrying about outside traffic. This caught the attention of Baldy. He immediately understood how important that was in not only getting a race run on time, but most importantly, to control the safety of the boat racers. Denny Henderson's accident earlier in the year was most likely from an outside wake. We had seen other problems with open race courses, and Carl Riley ran absolute control over Fort Buhlow Lake. We left Alexandria monday morning with the satisfaction that we were able to at least get into the finals, and not only that....but get at least as far up as into placing into a money position. Since it was summertime, we only had to head south as fast as Baldy felt he needed to go to get home. He must have been fully satisfied himself as we didn't get scared with him driving a breakneck speed. Myself....I reflected on a girl standing halfway to her knees in the water.

Gene East

11-11-2010, 05:39 AM

Wayne,

I loved to race at Alex. The MOD guys call it Pineville these days, but it will always be Alex to me.

You are absolutely correct in your assessment of Carl and his crew. They ran a great race every year.

I can relate to your experience with the girls in bikinis at Alex. There were always lots of them.

I remember well one day when a spectator built like Dolly Parton was standing under a willow tree near our pits. I must have been enchanted by her beauty or something else and apparently was staring ( Imagine that).

I snapped back to reality when I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard a cajun voice say, "Ey Gene, how you lak t' walk bare foots ovah 10 acahs of dem tings"?

The Hebert brothers from Quebec liked racing at Alex as well. That was one of the few venues in the States where the P.A. announcer pronounced their names correctly.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-11-2010, 07:53 AM

Funny Gene. I broke down during testing once at Alex and had drifted against the cattails over by the airport. After the elderly cajun gentleman was under way with me on tow he said "Yuh know whut aahm doin'? I said "No." He said "Trollin' for alligator!"

It will always be Alex to me, and also my favorite place to race of all time. Sometimes Carl Rylee was criticized for playing favorites, or for certain decisions he made, but I think anyone who raced at Alex will look back and remember that him and the others who made the race work will agree that they were second to none. They put in a lot of hours of hard work and made it a lot easier for us who just showed up to race, pit or watch the show. That cajun who was towing me always came to our pits with his grandson. Joe remembers his name, but I can't recall it. The people were friendly, food was good, and the water was the best.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-11-2010, 08:10 PM

Master Oil Racing Team

11-11-2010, 08:30 PM

Between Alex and the next race at San Antonio, Baldy took all us kids to Dallas. I don't know how he convinced Brenda to go except the fact that she was supposed to be in charge of us. Mostly Jan I think. I'm not sure why we went, but I suppose it had to do with getting out of the aloe vera business with the doctors and maybe/or not investment with Aldac. Probably both.

We stayed at a Howard Johnsons at the western side of Dallas close to Arlington so we could be close to Six Flags. I imagine it was Baldy's way also of giving us a minivacation. He was gone all day all of the three days we were there and we went to six flags just once. Mostly we just stayed in our room watching TV. I headed down toward the candy machine and asked Mark if he wanted anything and he said "Yeah....but something with no chocolate....or no peanuts." I don't remember what I got him...if anything at all, but it was almost like a bit out of the first hit of the Statler Brothers song from later that year "Flowers on the Wall".

The two main things I can remember from that trip were that I found out there was a race at Corpus Christi that we didn't attend, and I didn't know about, and that Ron Musson was killed at the President's Cup. The race was during Buccaneer Days near the Naval Air Station. The Blue Angels put on an air show. I've never figured out how we did not know about a race in our own back yard, but Baldy never intentionally withheld information. I figure since it wasn't in an NOA circular, and we were new Lone Star members and they did not send notices back then, someone dropped the ball. I was really bummed out about not being able to race there.

More importantly though was picking up the copy of Hot Boat. Boating News I guess went out of business and seems like somehow Hot Boat picked up where they left off. It was the summer editon 1966. On page 14 was a story by Eileen Crimmen entitled "Boat Racing's Darkest Day: The President's Cup Regatta. The first man I saw on television pumping water high enough from a hydroplane to wash down a bridge was killed. I was devastated. Ron Musson and Miss Bardahl were my original introductions to boat racing. I read everything I could get on Unlimiteds, and especially Ron Musson. While they ran the ads I always stopped what I was doing to watch. It was very sad about Rex Manchester and Don Wilson as well, but the death of Ron Musson was very profound. I left the magazine in the Chrysler station wagon and every few hours I would go out to the parking lot and stare at the photos and read the story.

The best part about the trip was eating fried clams for the first time. They were very delicious. Every time I was traveling after that and had a chance to eat at a Howard Johnson's I would stop to have clams. For those who never saw one....they had a paint scheme of Turquoise and Orange.

Gene East

11-12-2010, 04:37 AM

His name was Rabalais. His son Bobby raced and sometime Reles LeBlanc worked his motor over at Bobby's house before the race at Alex. He took a liking to Baldy and myself and always came around to our pits. Joe first met Bobby's Dad, the one that towed in many a boat racer, back in 1956 at the first race at Alex. Mr. Rabalais and Louis Williams were tight...tight...tight! (That must mean something else besides paying for lunch, knowing Louis);):D

Wayne,

Sorry for posting right after the tragic posting of an event most boat racers wish they could forget, but have you ever been to Rabalais' shop?

We usually stopped in at least once a trip to use his welding equipment or to clean spark plugs etc. The shop was very disorganized and it was a challenge to find what you needed. It was there, you just had to find it.

The first time I went there, Chris challenged me to a scavenger hunt. He had been there before so he had a distinct advantage. There was a hydro in the rafters that was fairly easy to find, but the airplane/airboat? propeller was more difficult.

Mr. Rabalais was an avid bass fisherman and his tackle boxes were 180 degrees opposite of his shop. I have never seen tackle boxes so well organized.

I don't remember his first name but I do remember he was always a very gracious, courteous host. He called me Mr. Gene even though he was several years my senior.

He was one of the many people working behind the scenes to make boat racing at Alex so great!

Master Oil Racing Team

11-12-2010, 11:10 AM

I never did Gene, and I asked Joe and he had not been there either. I don't know if I ever knew his first name. I asked Joe who's shops he had been in and he said, not that many and most were in Louisiana. That got me to thinking whose shops Baldy and I had been in.

Curtis Michalczek,Dan Waggoner, Steve Jones, Jack Chance, Bill Seebold, Floyd Hopkins, Walt Blankenstein ,Tim Butts, Frank Zorkan, Dieter Konig, Hans Krage, and Ralph Donald in about that order. We both agreed it would have been great to see the shops of Harry Pasturczak, Joe Michelini, Bill Tenny, Harry Marioneaux, and of course the Quincy works.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-12-2010, 06:38 PM

[I]THE TEXAS PROFESSIONAL BOAT RACER[I] was a publication we got not long after we started racing. The inside cover says it was the April 1966 edition of the Texas Professional Boat Racing Association. I never saw another one, and I never heard of the association again. I think Lee Little might have been behind it. He was a great guy and a top notch racer. Something must have gone on in his life to get him out of racing, because he was a real hot shot, then disappeared. I can't remember his brother's name, but it might have been Bobbie. I read and reread this publication, and at the time I knew very few of these people so the "Short Subjects" were a little bit confusing to me.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-12-2010, 08:10 PM

August 24, 1966 the DOORS recorded their first album. On August 28, 1966 the BEATLES did their last public appearance at Candlestick Park, except for the impromptu appearance when they played on the top of a building and shut down the traffic. That was 1969.

On September 4, 1966 we went to a Labor Day race in San Antonio, Texas. I don't remember if that was a Sunday or Monday, but I think it was Sunday. It was a very small course. I'm not sure it would even make a mile. The pits were facing the bottom turn and we looked down the straightaway. Off to the left of the backstraight as we would look at the boats coming headon were some small dead tree trunks and branches sticking out of the water. I don't remember how we got there. It was in the boonies southwest of San Antonio.

Steve Jones pitted left of us and Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch just to our right. It was the first time I talked to Artie Lund. He was in the Army and was just released or just about to be released when he came cruising by in the pits on a Japanese motorcycle. I think it was Yamaha. He asked Freddie if he had any metric tools to work on his Japanese Motorcycle. I instantly volunteered that we had the metric tools. Freddie looked me in the eye and said "He's just kidding." I was just a gullible kid and wanted to help in any way I could. I didn't know Artie then, nor really any racers very well, and I could be sucked in easily.

The pits had a nice gentle slope, but below the surface of the lake, the mud was kind of mucky. Everyone tested and the race got off on schedule. As I was milling for the start of A runabout I saw Steve Jones sitting on his deck looking backwards at his motor. It wasn't firing well and would not plane out. He was not watching where he was going and the pickup boat had to move out of the way to keep from getting speared with Steve's red and white Ashburn. Baldy loved to tell that story.

About half the races had been run when the gun fired for the first heat of B Hydro. We let a couple of discs drop before I fired off our FB Konig then we slid into the water. I made a couple of laps. It didn't take long. Then the one minute gun fired just as I was heading toward the clock and inside the safety bouy. The course was so short, I had to cross the start/finish line before I headed back to come around for a flying start. I accelerated to get to the start/finish line, then saw ripples coming across the water. Until then, the water was glassy and no breath of air. One of the first northers of the year just blew in.

The little ripples turned into big ripples with the tops being torn off. Then it was full out fury, with whitecaps all in a matter of 10 or 15 seconds. I was head on into the leading edge when I first saw the ripples. I was running about 65 and immediately backed off. When the front of the wind hit, it was about 20 to 30 mph. I had back off already, but on the slick water and with the lift, that effectively put my airspeed up to around 80 mph.....making that Sid Craft want to fly. I felt it lifting and leaned forward. It rose about five feet and leveled off when I straightened back up. All was quiet and I didn't know what to do. The leading edge of the front went through and the wind did not increase so we stabilized and the Sid just made a lazy arc to the left, landed on the right side and I fell out into the water. So easy. That was my first dunk. The Sid didn't turn over, and the FB Konig stayed dry. Except for the rain to come.

After everyone was back in the pits, the rain came. It came in torrents from the first drop. We were soaked from the moment we began rigging down. The drops were tadpole size and cold. Water was running back down the red clay banks into the small lake as we slipped and slided carrying the boats back to the trailer to load and tie them down. As teams got their boats loaded and secured, others pitched in to help push them out. We helped push Freddie and Arlen's trailer out, then when we got to ours, I made the mistake of getting behind Baldy's left tire. It didn't take but an instant of biting red mud for me to realize I screwed up. Never made that mistake again.

The rain and wind was furious, but it was probably all over in fifteen minutes. That was enough to ruin the rest of the races, send the spectators hauling, and a financial loss for the Alamo Boat Club. I had always remembered that I was paid off for what little I won in beer. Baldy got two or three cases of Lone Star beer. I found that I got ten dollars for a second place for a step up in C runabout. Baldy must have contributed to the cause I guess.:D

Master Oil Racing Team

11-13-2010, 06:49 PM

It was some time during 1966 that Baldy bought Mark a performance boat of his own. Brenda was just interested in cruising the hangouts in her yellow and black Plymouth entitled "Suzy B" according to the plates (her middle name is Sue). There were three drive ins in Alice, and like Ron has told, the rest of teenagers across the country cruised on Friday and Saturday nights. Baldy figured she was distracted enough by the boys and her girlfriends, and Jan was still young,so his main concern was keeping the two teenage boys out of trouble.

I don't know how he found out about the Mustang boat except through Freddie and Arlen. Builder Pete DeLackner didn't start advertising his boats in publications that I could find until after Baldy bought a 17' Mustang from Pete.....or maybe Bryan Marine most likely. I never did ask or consider before how Baldy got it. In any case, it was a beautiful boat. It was bronze metalflake and had a Mercury 110 mounted on a jackplate, and besides the clubfoot, Mark also got a Mercury Speedmaster lower unit. I am thinking now as I write that the boat had to have come through Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch at Bryan Marine because we had no clue about a jackplate, and Freddie and Arlen helped us with much to do with this boat. Funny how cobwebs sometimes get cleared away when you actually engage the past.

Here is a photo of Mark I took from the balconey of Baldy's house at Pernitas Point when he was headed out to do a little testing. You can hardly tell, but he has on a Gentex and Bell Helmut with a bubble shield.

ADD: Note that black hose in the foreground. It was the suction line for a 5 or 10 horsepower centrifugal pump that Baldy used to pump lake water onto his lawn. It was my job to move the hose around to water the approximate 6 acre piece of property.

Mark75H

11-13-2010, 06:57 PM

How much later did you actually meet Pete?

Master Oil Racing Team

11-13-2010, 07:17 PM

We first met Pete in 1974 at Baldy's house when he came down for a race. My first impression of Pete was of a solid and dedicated boat racer that I knew before I started racing. It was like we never had not been friends with Pete. Baldy and myself could not get a word in edgewise listening to Pete talk about racing. I don't know if that's the same way he came across to you Sam when he came to your house in the snow, but it was like he didn't know a boat racer that was a stranger.

Mark75H

11-13-2010, 09:11 PM

We feel the same way about Pete. No boat racer is a stranger to him. We sat down to talk, the hours flew by like seconds. We were sorry to have to leave, but it was so late. I wish airfare to your area was less expensive, it would be nice to drop in on you and him once in a while.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-14-2010, 06:56 AM

I know what you mean Sam. I was glad we had the opportunity to get together this summer and hope to do it again some day either at our place or yours again. Even though Pete is here in Texas, it is still a long way from here. He said he had as many pictures as I do, yet we haven't seen one. I suppose he is still waiting for his daughter to hook his computer up. If he weren't so far from here, I would have already made sure at least some of his pictures were posted. He's got a ton from old California and Arizona racing days.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-14-2010, 08:34 AM

Pete called his Mustang boats "sleds". They looked a little bit tri-hulled from the front, though not as pronounced, but from the back it looked like a flatbottom, though it was slightly concave. The middle section was actually a sponson that quit a little before halfway down the boat. The two outer portions of the front of the boat gradually tapered down forming a tunnel untile they feathered out about 2/3rds the way back. For a fast boat, it handled rough water incredibly well. With the mosly flat bottom it planed out quickly and that center step really dampened waves that would pound a true flat bottom boat. The only problem Mark had was that in a tight fast turn, it would spin out every time. It was pretty spooky the first time it swapped ends. After the second time, he knew he had better watch it, and so Baldy, Mark and I began working on correcting the problem.

Baldy called Freddie for suggestions. I don't remember whether it came with a center fin or not, but I do remember at Freddie's suggestion to move the cast aluminum center fin back toward the transom. That didn't help. Then Baldy had his welder make a bracket and cut out and make a cutlass shaped fin to mount on the left side of the transom. It was aluminum and about 4 inches wide, 10-12 inches long and 1/4 inch thick. It lasted about halfway through the turn before a permanent bend of about 75 degrees. Baldy had the welder make another one just like it, but out of steel. Not much difference except the bend was more like 60 degrees.

Although we didn't actually meet Pete until 1974 Baldy talked to him on the phone. Pete had sold lots of his 15 foot sled, but not many 17 footers like Marks. No one had complained about the cornering problem. Maybe they weren't running Speedmasters with the lower unit cranked up to just below the bottom. Pete found us an inboard SK heavy brass center fin that was 10 to 12 inches deep and told us to move it further back toward the transom. In the meantime Baldy had his welder make a new steel bracket and had a fin made of springsteel and only 1 1/2 inches wide and about 8 inches deep. We had to move the SK fin back once more, and when it was about three feet from the transom, the boat turned hard and true.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-15-2010, 11:01 AM

We did a lot of skiing behind the boat, but we also like to cruise fast. We mounted a bracket for our Keller pitot tube on the transom, and found the Mustang would run in the mid to high 60's with the Merc 110. Mark got pretty good at dropping whatever lower unit was on the Merc, stabbing and bolting up the other one, and either jacking the motor up or down depending on the unit going on.

Here is the earliest ad I could find of Pete's Mustang boats. It was in the December 1965 issue of Boating News. The same issue that the picture of Diane Nelson is in.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-15-2010, 11:15 AM

These are class winners from the 1966 Havasu from the February 1967 HotBoat.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-15-2010, 03:33 PM

Even though we spent a lot of time on the lake, I was not a good fisherman. I could do o.k. fishing in salt water with live bait, but on freshwater my best fishing was done with a trotline. I never had the patience to learn proper bass fishing techniques, so the biggest one I ever caught was only around two pounds.

One day after working on the FA Konig, we decided to take the boat to Lake Alice for a quick test since it was only a couple of miles north of Baldy's house in Alice. Lake Alice was fed via pipeline from Lake Mathis (now Lake Corpus Christi) thirty miles north. It was not a big or deep lake, but there was one stretch going toward the dam that I could get up to speed. The only high speed corner was to the left of the dam. The end where we pitted was to narrow for a fast turn.

As I came at an angle toward the dam, and about 50 feet off the Sid Craft suddenly tried to fly and the bow was nearly 4 feet off the water. Had I not had flying lessons, I probably would have blown over. Just before the bow popped up I had the sensation of the boat being very light like when a plane is about to leave the ground. Trimmed right, you do not need to pull up on the yoke to get a plane off. All you need to do is get up enough speed and it can take off hands free. That's the sensation I had just before it started to fly. There was not much wind at all, not even what could be considered a breeze. I was wondering what that was all about so I came back around for another pass. This time I was prepared though. I felt the boat get light, and I adjusted my position while easing off the throttle, I got a little closer to the dam while balancing to keep the bow from not floating so high that the hydro would blow over. I did it twice more, and there was definitely some kind of effect going on. I'm not sure, but it was probably something like what slight wind there was was also being dammed up by the small dam and reflecting back to cause the hydro to rise. I don't know what else it could be, but it had a definite effect on the hydro.

Now back to fishing. As I headed back toward the pits, the FA Konig conked out. While I waited for Mark and Ken Kattner, a high school friend who lived nearby, to come get me, I turned around in the cockpit and rested against the steering wheel. Just before they pulled up, a bass jumped out of the water and landed in the cockpit with me. It was flopping around, but it could not get high enough to flounce out. I didn't toss it out either. Baldy wasn't at the lake with us and I wanted to show him the biggest bass I had ever "caught";)

I carried it home and took a few pics. It says 9 pounds on the scale, but I somehow remember dialing in a little extra poundage. I also hung it from a branch of the live oak tree with a string and backed up four or five feet while Mark took the picture, in order to make it look larger. Even if you're not a good fisherman, it doesn't exempt you from a little lying about your fish does it?:D To this day, it's still my biggest bass.:)

Master Oil Racing Team

11-16-2010, 08:50 AM

Not too long after Mark got his Mustang sorted out, we were playing around trying to get it faster. Baldy was know to do a little hammering on a prop now and then, and he put a little more cup in the speed prop. I think it was a Michigan wheel, but not totally positive. Anyway, Mark got it up to right at 70mph on the Keller. He had a long straight, more than a mile where he had it aired out the the motor seized. It wasn't locked up, but it had gotten hot enough where it stuck some of the rings. We took off the powerhead, boxed it up and Baldy took it down to the bus station and had it shipped to Bryan Marine. They replaced the pistons and rings, cleaned up the cylinders and drilled a hole in the top of the cowling and installed a tattletale. Freddie told Baldy that by the time the heat gauge shows the motor is hot, it is too late and told Baldy to instruct Mark to keep an eye on the tattletale to make sure the motor was getting plenty of water. Freddie didn't think it was jacked up too high, but he didn't have an immediate answer to what caused the overheating.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-16-2010, 02:59 PM

October first and second we were back at Highlands, Texas for our final race of our first real season. As in the first trip, we stayed at the Holiday Inn only just a few miles from the Baytown Tunnel. Having been able to finish a lot of the races, and some even in the money I was looking forward to this final event for the year. We had become acqquainted with a lot of drivers and their families and pit crew along the way, and no where was there a more friendly and helpful bunch than at the Baytown Boat Club.

This time we pitted a little further to the right of the judges stand, and became pretty much our slot from then on when we raced there. Once again Jack Chance and Clayton Elmer were pitted on our right side and the race them of Little and Wilkins on our left. Lee Little and Jim Wilkins were from the Dallas area and wore the racing colors of baby blue with white letters.

B hydro was tough in Texas with the likes of Clayton Elmer, Curtis Dumesnil, Lee Little, Tom and Alex Wetherbee, Freddie Goehl and others. B runabout was no different running against the likes of Bruce Nicholson, Freddie Goehl, Louis Williams, Curtes Dumesnil, Jim Wilkins, Clayton Elmer, Raymond Jefferies, and others. I don't know where we finished, but that FB Konig almost always got me home unless I got wet down.

The FA Konig though was a little tempermental, but I did manage one fourth place in A runabout and a forth in A hydro and with $5.00 for each finish, that put me at a total of $90.00 for the year.

It was already hunting season, with dove season already open and deer and quail season coming up soon. Baldy invited Jack and Clayton to come down and hunt with us. Hunting was one of Jack's favorite things to do. It would be the first of many, many hunts with Jack upcoming in the middle of next month.

Here is a picture of Jack's trailer pitted to our right. The second picture is the pits of Little & Wilkins. Left to right I don't know who that is standing. It may be a spectator. He has a plate of the famous "Baytown Chickin'". I recognize the face of the guy with the Baytown Boat Club on his coveralls, but can't place the name. Seems like Brannigan or something like that. To his right is Lee Little, and to the right of Lee is his brother whose name I can't recall. Next to him is Baldy and it appears that he has a toothpick. 99.9% bet that he just finished off some "Chickin'". Standing to the right of Baldy is the well known motor man from the Dallas area Henry Grupe. Everyone called him Grupe (pronounce groopy). He had a very sarcastic wit, and some people had a hard time knowing whether he was just giving you a hard time, or didn't like you. He and Baldy got along great, although I was intimidated around him for the first few years I knew him. Like a lot of guys like that, his wife was the most friendly woman you ever knew. I don't think they had kids, and she was with him at all the races. They were tragically killed in the early 70's when they ran head on into a column supporting a bridge over an interstate highway. The guy to the right of Grupe is Jim Wilkins.

ADD: I found this photo of our Sid Craft with the A Konig and chromed exhaust that Louis Williams loved so much:rolleyes: and the B Konig on the DeSilva. Jack and Clayton pitted to our left and Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch to our right. That's on of Freddie's T-42 runabouts floating in the water.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-16-2010, 06:53 PM

The racing season was done and although South Texas water was still warm enough to water ski....all us kids were back in school. The gang Mark had been hanging around with all summer were from Kingsville, Sarita and Vattman area (which are all south by about 45 minutes) You had to be from down there to know where Vattman was because it is not on any map.

So Mark and I just cruised around the lake racing anybody who wanted to try. The Kober Kats were no match in the rough water, and Powercats were not quick enough. We could cruise all day long going fast, But! The next time Mark got by himself to see what speed he would wind up with the Keller on board....he stuck that Merc again. He had been watching the tattletale closely, then the water flow just stopped.:confused: Baldy gave Freddie a call. Packed the powerhead back up in a box and shipped it by Continental Trailways to Bryan.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-16-2010, 08:27 PM

We got the powerhead back, new pistons, rings, cylinders cleaned up, and bolted back down on the tower housing. Mark drove it carefully, breaking it in and neither us, nor Freddie or Arlen knew what the problem was. They carefully checked the watercourse of the powerhead. We could find no obstruction from our end, so we just watched the tattletale. The lake water was cooling down some which helped, and since we no longer were pulling skiers, we just sped all around the lake, having no further problems with the engine sticking.

Now it was hunting season. We made a tour of the stands and cleared the sendaros. We started putting corn down certain roads and sendaros. Our hunting lease was twenty minutes west of Baldy's house at Pernitas Point. It was also twenty minutes north of our house in Alice. It was around 10,000 acres and we had free run of the place. We could hunt doves, quail, whitetail deer, rabbits, javelina, turkey, ducks, coyotes, mountain lion, bobcat....whatever we wanted. And there were plenty...(except we never saw the mountain lions).

Jack Chance may have come down earlier to scout out with Baldy where he wanted to hunt, and to help get things ready before the season, but I cannot recall one way or the other. I just know that he was very anxious for the season to get underway. When he did come down to hunt, he also came loaded down with stuff for our next years racing season. He had rolls of stainless steel wire, graphite to mix in our lower unit lube, nuts, bolts, washers, a tool to pull Konig flywheels, a 6 foot straight edge to check boat bottoms, and an untold assortment of myriad stuff a boat racer needs. I still have some of the stuff he brought that day.

It was also unusually cold for a November. It turned out to be a very cold year. The wind was blowing from the north around 25 to 30 miles per hour, and Jack showed up at Baldy's place at the lake around dusk. He showed us all the stuff he brought then he and Baldy began warming up inside the house at the bar and grill. Some cold beer and steaks, and baked potatoes warmed up the two compadres. I can still remember all the excitement of the evening and the promise of tommorrow's early morning hunt, and how much Baldy and Jack enjoyed each other's company. Baldy didn't drink coffee, but Jack did. As a good host, Baldy had set everything out before they retired so that he could get coffee on when he first got up. We would get up around 5:30 a.m. because the lease was close by. We needed to get everyone close to where they would hunt about half an hour before dawn. In my case I had about a half mile to walk to a tree stand. Jack hunted a couple of miles to the east in a stand Baldy could drop him off before taking Jan to hunt out of his Chrysler station wagon overlooking a bluff. Mark was also dropped off in a stand before I got out.

I can't remember how the weekend's hunt turned out....only that Jack and Baldy had a wonderful time, and Jack was back as often as he could get down for the weekend that season. While he was down, Jack would help me with motors and setting things up between the morning and evening hunts. It was really a lot of fun. Jack did not at all feel like he HAD to show me things.....he enjoyed every minute of showing me the ropes. I don't know that there was ever a more perfect match for two men having a great time together. Clayton Elmer was not able to get away with Jack at this point, but all of us were coming closer together.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-17-2010, 01:24 PM

So how do I remember what Baldy cooked on Jack's first trip down to hunt all those years ago? Four out of five times that's what he would have done that first day. That's a lot better odds than at Vegas. I might be wrong on the baked potato though. He could have done his special thick sliced grilled potatoes. This is how I know.

Baldy loved to entertain his guests and part of that entertainment was drinking beer and laughing with them while listening to and telling stories as he was cooking. In those days before cell phones, and bypassing of towns, you could only just guess at about when a guest coming from a distance would arrive. A little store that most people would remember as the last gas station, grocery store and bait and tackle shop before you made the right hand turn to Baldy's is still there. Even though he moved in 1970, the a store is still the turn spot because Baldy just moved to the next point over and about 3 miles closer to the store. The original one burned down in around 1990.

Edsel Lee from Alice built his first store in 1959. Baldy and Edsel knew each other when Edsel operated a hunting and fishing store in Alice. Edsel liked good food too, as he had a short lived stint running a cafe out of his converted sporting goods store. After that failed he built the place to what he figured would be a steady clientele on the west side of Lake Mathis where there was absolutely no competiton. Edsel had contacts in food service, and he knew quality food vendors so he stocked his little store with boxes of frozen sirloin, ribeye, T-bone and filet mignon steaks. He also stocked the dark skinned avocados and checked them every day for ripeness. He didn't put all of them out----only the ones that were ready. You could always depend on Edsel to carry only the best. Baldy generally bought his steaks from Edsel by the case so he would always have them on hand, but if he happened to run out, he would send Mark or I down there to pick up what he needed. Mostly he grilled the sirloin strip.

Since Jack would be staying the weekend, Baldy would have started working on chili and beans or chicken and dumplings before going out on the evening hunt the next day, or maybe see if we brought in venison to carve up a tenderloin and do chicken fried venison tenderloin, mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits. While the main meal would almost be done, Baldy would stand in front of the grill and stove finishing up while they talked, laughed and drank beer. Mostly Lone Star or Schlitz.

If a potato was baking, Baldy could take a frozen steak and turn it into a medium rare one and the meal ready and hot within fifteen minutes, served with a very tasty avocado. I have seen this done on so many occasions, is why I am probably right.;) Mark, Jan, Brenda, Clayton Elmer, Bill Van Steenwyk and Joe Rome would agree. By the way.....this was before gumbo days. It was Jack Chance's wife Gertie serving us gumbo she made at their house, probably in 1967 that got Baldy hooked on that. It ended up being one of his most famous dishes.

ADD: Here is a picture I took of Edsel Lee filling up Baldy's suburban. The guy to the right looks like Floyd Hopkins from the back, but I don't know why he would be down. This was just two months after I nearly broke my neck, and I still was wearing that collar and couldn't turn my head so we wouldn't have been testing. It might be Jack Chance, because Jack continued to come down then.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-17-2010, 05:52 PM

It was some time during these days that I had a three or four hour running battle with the pit crew that would sustain us for a couple of years....but not the upcoming season.

I'm not sure really how it started. I'm not even sure what side I was on. In the back of my mind, I had met my future college roommate, Bud Turcotte some days before. It was most likely during Christmas vacation between Christmas and the New Year celebration. We knew who each other was, but not really hanging out. Details are fuzzy, but the event was not. It was the christening of a pit crew and support members.

It was one of those days when you were not sure the day started, unless you had a real job, had an alarm clock, and a wife.....(I was going to say...or husband, but back then the taxes weren't so high that wives also had to work). Us kids on holiday didn't live by an alarm clock or watch. Our days began when the sun was bright enough to filter through the shades to tell us it was time to get up to go skiing. However, it was winter now and the low hanging leaden clouds filtered out all the sun, and I'm not sure exactly when the battle began. I don't even remember how it started, but it was definetly planned because there was plenty of ammo.

Now that I get the story going a little bit of memory kicks in. I'm sure if I could get the others to chime in, there would be other sides to the story, but since they don't...here is what I remember....up til now;)

Us kids were getting to know one another and find out who was who. Mark knew the girls, but some of the boys were left out, having been playing football or hunting, etc. I think someone threw a water balloon at another of the group as we were cruising around. Actually, Mark may have been cruising in my Scout. One of the other parties also had a Scout, and it was a simple task to take the doors and roof off and turn it into something like a Jeep. I could be wrong, but I think the intitial incident happened a day or two earlier. In any case...a battle was planned and a lot of balloons were bought and passed out. As I said earlier, I'm not sure really whose side I was on, but I think it mostly turned out boys against girls.

It was somewhere in the 40's or low 50's. Not a good day to get wet. Seems like there was a truce for everyone to load their balloons with water, then as Buddy McBride would say "It was Katy bar the door!".

We filled the balloons at Jeannie Huff's place at the very tip of the peninsula of Pernitas Point. No one was home at the time, but Jeannie was in the battle. The water faucet just outside the main door on the porch leading into their lake house had good water pressure, so that's where we stopped to refill our ammo pouch. Everyone stopped to fill up there, so there were a lot of ambushes, and also busted balloons from trying to fill up too quickly. We would slip the neck over the faucet discharge, then twist open the faucet to get about a 4 inch balloon, pull it loose then slip on the next one to charge. Sometimes we pulled the balloon off too quickly and lost the reinforced spout, which stayed on the faucet along with the rings from the burst balloons. They were all colors, and soon were stacking up, because we were often ambushed and had to pull out suddenly.

There was probably 800 acres among the winding roads among the Pernitas Point subdivision and since our families were among the earliest to locate there, and spend most of our time there, we pretty much had the run of the place during the winter.....especially on such a dismal day as this. We were in the two scouts, and maybe one other vehicle, but we didn't just cruise to find each other...we set out "snipers" to hit the opposing enemy as they cruised past, then we had to go back to find out where they were hiding haven run from where they made the hit, then go back to Jeannies and charge more ammo. We all got wet, and it was cold, but we kept it up for awhile. I have no idea how long we were at it, but when we finally got soaked and too cold to carry on, we called a truce. That was the day I can remember that we all became one. They didn't start to pit for the Baldwin Racing Team until the following year, but that day the seed was planted.

I can't remember if it was Jeannie's Mom or Dad that wondered what all those rubber pieces were on their faucet when they walked up on their porch.;):D

Master Oil Racing Team

11-18-2010, 08:35 AM

At some point during Jack's trips down here to hunt, Baldy took him to Klatt Hardware & Lumber Co. in Orange Grove. Jack fell in love with the place. It was a lot like the old hardware stores he grew up with. They have everything from farm and ranch supplies, to electrical and plumbing parts, nuts, bolts, screws, paint, drywall, cement and mortar, kerosene lamps, lawn and garden tools, windmill parts, hand and power tools, cowboy hats, and much more than you could ever guess. And it didn't matter if you needed barb wire, posts and nails for two miles of barbed wire or one six inch sixteen foot creasote post for your pier, they would deliver. Also if you needed them to, they would deliver a new hot water heater, hook it up, and haul off your old one. Many has housewife has been saved from a disaster in the middle of the day while her husband was off working the the old one sprung a leak.

You need to go into the back to see some stuff you would not think about. Years ago one of my neighbors just happened to ask if they could somehow order a leather belt for his grandmothers old foot powered Singer sowing machine. One of the guys at the counter asked him "How many do you want?" Charles followed him to the back and they had three in the bin. You could look up in the rafters and see an unused wooden airplane propeller. In the back between the bins of pvc connections on the right and galvanized on the left are three or four 1950's and 60's vintage bicycles covered in dust. Several years ago I was looking for some part and one of the workers led me over to a corner where I spotted an old American flag on a 6 or 7 foot wooden pole. It had 48 stars. They supplied the area schools with American flags. There was always one in each classroom. This one was in stock when Alaska joined the union in 1959. I asked if they wanted to sell it, but whoever it was helping me said that it wasn't for sale.

I don't know how old the store is, but Gordon Klatt is in his 80's now, and it was his Dad Perry who started it. It has old wooden floors, and they only just recently changed out the wooden drawers behind the counter that had been there since I first went into Klatt's in 1959. I was kind of sad to see it go. It is more expensive than Home Depot or Walmart, but they have some stuff that the others don't, they are close and all the workers are friends. I buy everything there except what they don't have on hand if I need it right then. I run into friends and neighbors there all the time, and we stop and visit. I don't know all the people that come to shop there, but Gordon, Gordon Junior, Joe, John, Carl and Otto (who works there part time) exchange greetings by name of nearly every customer. And there are a lot of women who buy things that don't know what they need or how they work, and the staff knows it all and can tell you without having to go find someone. But the friendly atmosphere and the old timey feeling was what got to Jack. During the years he came down, he often bought things there that he needed back home in Baytown. He got to know all of the guys behind the counter. Some names besides the owners, and sons have changed over the years, but not the way they go about their business. Jack made many trips there while we were working on boats and motors, but for some reason he always called it Katts. If we needed something he would say "Let's go to Kattses" (sounded like Katzes):confused: Just don't know.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-20-2010, 02:21 PM

I added a picture of Edsel Lee to post 223.

For the second time in my life it snowed in south Texas. A lot of us got big cardboard boxes and flattened them, then sledded down the outer embankment at Lake Alice. It was about a thirty yard ride.

Bob Burnham, and brothers Donnie and Whitley Reese rode with me that winter to Texas A & I University on Saturday morning to take our SAT tests for college purposes. Snoopy was battling the Red Baron over the airways, and The Monkees were taking "The Last Train to Clarskville.

At the William Adams High School homecoming I emptied our half drum of methanol. It would absorb too much water before racing season started again. When they went to light the soaring woodpile, they kept throwing the match in the wrong place, and cold as it was, there were not fumes to reach out for a boom like you get with gasoline. I got ridiculed, but after they got the huge pile of wood started with diesel and the fire spread around to the methanol, ooh's and ahh's erupted as a twenty foot brilliant blue flame swayed around the woodpile like a gypsy girl dancing.

The Alice Coyotes went undefeated all the way to the quarterfinals that year, when a bad call ended the hopes for a 4A State Championship title. Our winning touchdown of a low scoring game was called back. After reviewing the film when it came back showed that not only did our receiver not step out of bounds running down the sideline, but his foot did not even touch the inside edge of the white stripe. My friend Ken Kattner who was there at the lake when I caught the bass went to Texas Tech on a full football scholarship. He was All American in his junior year when he caught the game winning touchdown in a horizontal layup across the goal line to knock off the University of Texas from their number one rating in a huge upset. Texas Tech was way down the list and they were playing in Austin. The only reason he was never in the NFL was because he asked Tech people if he could beg off his final year of his scholarship in order to concentrate on studying, and he had brought so much recognition to the campus, they agreed. Our coach was hired by Texas A & M at College Station, but the sad part was what happened to our quarterback Duke. He was a junior when he took us to the quarterfinals. That summer he was invited to check out most of the top colleges across the country. I don't remember how Notre Dame was ranked in 1966-67, but seems like they were up at the top. That's who he picked. Two weeks before he started his senior year, they were scrimmaging on the field at Alice. Duke lowered his head for a short yard pickup, but the hole closed and he jammed his head. He went down and did not come up. They called for an ambulance. Duke was paralyzed. It was a while before he could even move his legs, and with much therapy and many months he could once again stand with help, but it would be a long time before he would be able to walk again, and only with crutches. I think years later, he might have been able to get around without so much support, but never really able to walk normally again. It was such a cruel turn of fate because Duke was not only a good looking guy, and very smart, but he didn't have a big head like some people would with such remarkable looks and talent. He was a very nice guy, and a good leader of his team.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-21-2010, 06:30 PM

In the meantime we decided I needed more boat for the B runabout. I was bouncing all over the place, and I had a hard time through the turns. Baldy talked to Freddie Goehl and they not only came up with a 12-2 DeSilva, but also a thick 13' to run a C on, and Freddie had just the right motor.....an FC Konig. I don't know for sure, but it may have been some of Freddie's old stuff that he gave Baldy a good discount on. The VC's were coming and this would be a good time for Freddie unload some old stuff, and I was still learning the way around a race course so a thick hulled DeSilva with a 2 cylinder Konig would give some additional experience. So now, we had to add on to the boat trailer for the additional hulls and motors. Baldy drew up his design on a sheet of paper with a pencil and instructions and gave it to the welder at Alice Specialty Company. He was very much used to working off of plans like this from Baldy.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-23-2010, 07:58 PM

Chicken' N' Dumplin's is what brought Baldy's neighbors around. It's really too bad that very few of Baldy's boat racing friends ever tasted his "Chicken' N' Dumplin's" because it took time and when racing was upon us, he was ready with sirloin steaks, Idaho potatoes, Avadoes, etc.

Baldy, as I have mentioned previously, could not cook just a little bit. He always started out with a pan, or cookpot, but as he went along......he kept adding more stuff. He would always eventually end up in a big slow cooker. After some years...he started with the cooker, and sometimes brought in another one.

Baldy always swore that the neighbors could smell his Chicken N Dumplin's. I don't know that for sure, but whenever he had the chicken done, and the dumplin's were simmerin' in the pot, most of the neighbors in Barbon showed up. Those that didn't ususally weren't around. Baldy enjoyed every minute of it.....and the neighbors weren't just taking advantage....Baldy looked forward for their presence and .they looked forward to the feast as if it were a holiday. Baldy didn't wait for a weekend to make chicken' N' dumplin's so it was almost like a mid week holiday. As a kid growing up, and an avid reader......that's what is written as the heady days.

ADD: Next post in this thread will be as close to the standard Chicken' N' Dumplin's recipe as I can muster. He was always experimenting and changing on the fly. When I asked my wife Debbie to help me remember...she reminded me of how it was. The recipie will be the basic of Baldy's with a couple of changes.

Master Oil Racing Team

11-24-2010, 08:24 AM

BALDY'S FAMOUS CHICKEN N DUMPLIN'S

This is the basic recipe of Baldy's Chicken N Dumplin's altered by Debbie for a little better healthy eating. Baldy changed a lot of his recipes as he went along, so you could never exactly nail it from one time to the next, but other than a few minor changes, this is how he did it. The main difference is that when Baldy started to cook it, he did it all the same day. In this case I cooked the chicken, then let it cool to debone, and set the broth in the fridge overnight. This allowed excess fat to float up and congeal so it could be easily removed. Other than that and trimming excess fat, it is the same.

Take one chicken and trim excess fat from the areas where the intake and discharge valves were formerly located. It would not hurt to add a half dozen thighs and legs, as I came up a little short compared to the dumplings. Baldy always used a much larger cooker and had more chicken.

Cut up 3 or four stalks of celery after washing and trimming the ribs. (wouldn't hurt to add the whole stalk if you want)

Cut a large onion in quarters. I prefer the yellow ones, or the 10-15's.

Add the chicken, thighs and legs, and celery and onions to about 3 quarts of water. Salt and pepper, bring to a boil, then simmer about 3 hours.

When the chicken is ready to come off the bone, remove it from the pot to cool. Remove the celery and onion and throw away. If you want to defat the broth pour it into a smaller container andlet it cool down, refrigerate, then skim the fat off the top after it has congealed. It is easiest to do this stage the day before you plan to make the chicken and dumplings.

After the chicken has cooled down enough to handle, remove it from the bone. Baldy did not do this, so it is not necessary, but if you do not plan to cook it from start to finish, most guests prefer it to be deboned. Don't take it off in little pieces. Do it in as big a chunks as it will come off. You will get little pieces to add back in as you are doing it, but don't purposefully try to make all the chicken the same size. You will probably not get all the bones, and don't worry about it. That's just part of eating chicken and dumplings. Don't forget to get the meat off the neck if your chicken come with that, and also throw in the gizzards and livers if they come with it. The chicken I bought did not. And don't forget the small pieces on the back and around the ribs. I don't try to separate the ribs though. One other difference in Debbie's alteration also is that the skin is removed also.

To make the dumplings, take two cups of flour, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix it in. Then take 1 beaten egg to the mix and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Start with 1/4th, then add as necessary. Work all this in with your fingers. It is kind of a sticky mess, but that's the way it's done.

Make the dough into a ball and roll it out with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thick. Baldy then added pepper to the top. Cut the dough into strips. Baldy did it with a knife, but if you have a pizza cutter it's much easier. The dough will greatly expand as it is morphed into a dumpling. If you are doing this all in one step, stir in one can of cream of chicken soup---any brand except Heinz. (Not chicken noodle soup---but cream of chicken.). then add the noodles one at a time to the hot broth. Salt and pepper the broth to your taste and simmer one hour, or til the dumplings are done and tender.

If you do the overnight method, put the broth back into a pot after removing the layer of fat, and bring up to heat. Add the chicken and cream of chicken soup (not Heinz). You can do the dumplings while the broth is heating up. As mentioned above, add the dumplings one at a time when they are ready. If they are too sticky, you may have to add more flour on the surface, and be sure to put flour on the rolling pin. Once again......simmer for about an hour after you add the dumplings.

Baldy always made a cast iron skillet of thick cornbread to go with it. I like it thick, Debbie likes it thin (about 1 inch)

F-12

11-24-2010, 02:03 PM

What time is dinner, Wayne?

Gene East

11-24-2010, 04:24 PM

Very similar to Mom's recipe, except she didn't add cream of chicken soup. I'll have to try this later in the winter.

BTW: Why not Heintz???

Oh yeah, I remember now!!!

Master Oil Racing Team

11-24-2010, 05:11 PM

I know you would have figured that out Gene. Hey Charley......too late. It was four days ago, and it's all gone.:( It took me two days to find out where the pictures went to.:confused: I guess I should have done turkey and dressing, but while Baldy's turkey was great, it was not any different than many other turkeys, and the only boat racers that really ever had his turkey were Ray Hardy and Tim and Ruth Butts. His dressing was better than average though, so maybe I'll do that around Christmas. We had turkey and dressing and ham then.

I'm wondering Charley....does anybody do gator and dressing?

jrich

11-24-2010, 09:57 PM

Logged on to the boat racing site and saw a picture of a naked chick and a recipe!! :p
My Mom, and now my wife, make some mean crawfish dressing. I was never a fan of regular cornbread dressing and my Mom was always looking for new ways to fix it. Somewhere she found the crawfish dressing recipe and good gosh it's good. It resembles regular dressing but instead of giblets you add crawfish and a myriad of spices and it is something else.
What's with the Heinz?:confused:

Gene East

11-25-2010, 04:34 AM

Crawfish dressing sounds good, but we still like the old fashioned stuff here in Quincy.

I will start on our bird shortly and Norma's 2 adult sons and 1 adult grandson, (none of whom can fry a burger) will say later in the day, "The turkey is really good Mom".

She'll tell them just like she has for the 8 years we've been together, "Gene cooked the turkey". She bakes the pies the day before and we cooperate on the side dishes.

The 3 forementioned "wingless turkeys" bring nothing but their sorry hungry butts, and that's probably a good thing!

What's Heinz all about?

Kind of fits these 3 guys. I'll let Wayne explain further.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and NO, I am NOT going shopping at 3:00 AM tomorrow morning! Did that once. Never again.

Black Friday is supposed to be the kickoff for the Christmas season, a time of the year that should be filled with love.

Won't be much love in those stores tomorrow!

Master Oil Racing Team

11-25-2010, 07:25 AM

Jeff Lytle

11-25-2010, 10:21 AM

Good Morning Debbie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First things first.......ask Wayne to take the garbage out cause' this posting is for you!

I wish to thank you for Wayne's time, and your understanding in his new found BRF passion.

When he first signed in as a member here, I knew this place was in for a special treat with his

creative writings and fantastic memory for detail. I for one, remember his articles he wrote

for Powerboat magazine, and still can quote some of his writings I read over 30 years ago!

That's quite impressive......how something I read over that long ago can still stick in my

memory--Ask my Wife.....I can't remember what I had for breakfast most days!

I don't know if he has showed you the number of times the threads he started have been viewed.

From "An Amazing Story", "Random Shots From The Pits", and now his latest creation "Baldy's",

there are thousands upon thousands of views by interested people like me who simply love his

stuff, either by reading it the first time, or many times over like I do.

I am looking forward to the development and writing of his new (old) adventures with his Dad.

I know he will take us through every detail of the journey to the best of his ability, with

his usual passion for realism and detail. I'm sure I can speak for many other old broken down

boat racers, we'll be there every day.......re-living our racing days with Wayne as his incredible

stories continue.

Gene East

11-25-2010, 10:50 AM

Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the company, finances the gigolo John Kerry's political campaigns. Same reason my Dad refused to have Cutty Sark in his house because the bootlegger old man Kenedy had exclusive importation rights.;):D What's with those guys from Boston now? Heck, they're the ones that held the first tea party.:confused::) That was very funny about the chick Joe. I busted out laughing.

BTW Gene, I meant to ask what were the differences between you Mom's chicken and dumplings and Baldy's?

Mom cut her dough in strips instead of squares and called them "noodles". To her, "dumplings" were dumped into the broth from a spoon rather than being rolled and cut like a "noodle".

Same dough, but her dumplings had a slightly moister consistancy than her noodles, but same great taste. I was going to say since she had 8 kids to feed she used bigger chickens than Baldy, but since he was feeding the whole neighborhood, perhaps that's not the case.

I cheat when I make dumplings or noodles. I use store bought. Some times I even use Bisquick. Does it taste the same? Of course not! We ain't talkin about pancakes!

P.S. Debbie, I echo what Jeff just said. Thank you!

Allen J. Lang

11-25-2010, 06:50 PM

Jeff, I have to add my amen to your writting to Debbie. :cool:

Master Oil Racing Team

11-26-2010, 08:08 AM

Jeff, I can't thank you enough for your Thanksgiving Day message! It was very thoughtful. I was really glad when Wayne started getting on BRFF. I could see how much he enjoyed it and you are right - He does have a lot to share. Anyway, it keeps him out of trouble!!

Debbie

Master Oil Racing Team

11-26-2010, 09:47 AM

First off I am humbled by your comments Jeff, and appreciate the opinions of Gene and Allen. Debbie very seldom reads anything I write, including none of the boat racing articles I wrote years ago. But the way you laid it out Jeff, I had no choice.....even if the garbage trailer won't come around again for six days.;) She says it keeps me out of trouble. Should I remind her of that next time she tries to get me off the computer so she can work on her business stuff?:confused:

As I mentioned at the start of this thread, I started it not only to honor my Dad for the known and documented things that he did for boat racing, but bring out some of the things he did that people were not aware of, including many that knew him well. Besides bringing out some of the photos and published history of some of those days, I hoped to kick in the memories of a lot of people that went through those times, and for those who didn't kind of set the scene for what it was like. That's why I divert to some of the highlights of things that happened in those days along with the music, movies and TV shows that were playing.

It's my thought that, even if a boat racer, pit crew, family or friend ever went to many races, there are a lot of things I write about that they can relate to, and that was one of the inspirations for creating the thread. I can't thank Ron and Ted enough for masterminding and overseeing this operation, along with all the help from the moderators such as yourself Jeff, Sam and Broc. While I look through old films, photos, newspaper and magazine articles I am brought back to one of the most wonderful times of my life. From the many pm's and emails I have received over the past couple of years, (including from overseas), I can tell that my hopes are being fulfilled. Not only has it caused me to reconnect with friends from across North America, but also Europe, and in turn many of these people have also been reconnecting with one another by phone, email, reunions, club meetings, races and other events.

BRF has inspired the likes of Danny Piggot, George Taylor, Tex Flagg and others to tell their stories and post pictures and documents. Ken of Liquid Nirvana fame along with John Sheldon put up an enormous amount of info regarding the rotary engine. It goes on and on, the wealth of information on this website. To try to relive my entry into boat racing, and do so in a manner that gets other people's interest gives me great satisfaction. Without Baldy, I never would have started racing. Without Freddie Goehl, Arlen Crouch, Jack Chance and Clayton Elmer, we might not have continued, without my cameras and packrat genes I would be sucking air, without BRF all my stuff would just be aging in the darkroom and study, and without the continually growing membership of BRF a lot of stories and pictures would be lost forever.

So with the garbage out and Debbie on the way to Kingsville with a friend to shop while getting her "Z 350" serviced, I have the computer all day. The bad news is I may have to go to Radio Shack for a connection. The good news is that I got the taped interview I did of Dieter in Berlin in 1975 reconnected to the spool.:cool:

Master Oil Racing Team

11-27-2010, 09:14 AM

Baldy got the trailer modified and brought it home for me to add the finishing touches. We added on to the box, but we also now had to have three sets of wooden rails to carry the boats on. I had to measure and cut the wood, fasten it to the channel steel uprights and then tack on the carpeting. It didn't seem like much of a chore, but a one hundred twenty pound kid trying to push a 5/16's inch bit in a Black & Decker hand drill through 5/16's channel in order to bolt down brackets for the cross members was a very slow process. There's no weight behind it when you are standing up and just about pushing yourself off and much as you are trying to penetrate the steel. When Baldy got home, I showed him my progress. I had only three or four holes drilled after a few hours. He said O.K., we could take care of it tommorrow. I was wanting to get it done, but I knew I would just be wasting time and energy when Baldy already had a plan.

The next day was Saturday. We hooked the trailer up and took it to the Alice Specialty yard and to the very back where the sandblasting yard was located. He didn't say a word about what he had planned. There were no workers back there then. There was nothing behind that part of the yard but open farmland, resting out the winter, and a trailer house over to the northwest corner. About one third mile further northwest was the Alice Gun Club, the rifle range and all the buildings on the site of the Jim Wells County Fairgrounds.

It was hunting season, so at that time of the day there were usually people sighting in rifles. Occassional reports from a wide variety of rifles and pistols was common this time of year...especially on Saturday morning.

After Baldy pulled the trailer up to where he wanted it, I unhooked it from the Dodge station wagon as instructed and Baldy drove around parallel to the trailer which was situated between us and the open field. Beyond was nothing but farmland for a couple of miles before the land became brush country. During hunting season we kept our rifles, pistols, ammo and knives in our vehicles because if we decided to go hunting at the last minute, the lease was only a twenty minute drive north. Baldy pulled out his 264 magnum rifle, slid the bolt back, then ran a round forward into the chamber. My eyes wide and surprised I shouted "Whatter you doin'?" Baldy answered "I'm going to drill the holes for you.":eek:

I didn't know what would happen. I had been around all sorts of firearms, and even down at the hundred yard range operating a running deer target with lead thumping into the dirt backstop only feet from where we ran the deer out. But I had never been only a few feet in front of a solid steel target set to receive a copper jacketed slug head on from only a few feet away. Baldy twisted the variable power Redfield scope down to 3, raised his window halfway up, took a deep breath, let it out, then one more breath and took steady aim about two inches to the side of a hole I had previously drilled. I was terrified something might happen to my Dad if the bullet zinged around in that piece of channel iron and shrapnel came back to him. I ducked down before he fired, and forgot to cover my ears. Baldy knew what he was doing beforehand and had stuffed something in his ears. A booming high powered rifle fired from the inside of a vehicle will make unstopped up ears ring for awhile. That's what mine were doing when I looked up, but I didn't care because Baldy was alright.

We got out of the car to inspect the hole. It was a clean shot with a little sharp ridge on the exit side, but that could be ground down very easily. It didn't even need to be though if I didn't want to because it would bite into the wood when I tightened the bolts down. I was drilling holes for a 1/4 inch bolt, so the 264 calibre rifle shot a perfect sized hole only 14 thousandths larger than the bolts I would use. That being successful, Baldy gave me a yellow paint marker commonly used in the oilfield and told me to make a yellow mark where each of the remaining holes were to be punched. He had to move the car around for each double set of holes to get them as close to perpendicular as possible, then we had to hook back up to the trailer and turn it around to do the other side, making sure the collapsed bullets would safely land in clods of plowed up farmland. I can't remember how Baldy did the holes for the top rail, but I imagine he laid his hunting jacket on the top of the roof of his car and got on the other side to get a good rest. We were in and out of there in less than a half hour....much, much less time and labor than it would have taken me to drill the holes. I would have probably spent three or four days drilling, yet it took Baldy only a few seconds to come up with the solution, and I have remembered that day he drilled the holes with his rifle ever since. And because we were doing it during hunting season, the sheriff's department wasn't called out to see what was going on half a mile south of the city limits of Alice.:D

Master Oil Racing Team

11-27-2010, 08:43 PM

Our original motor box was ugly. But I learned to paint letters. It was very painstaking, but with time I learned to speed up the process with the right amount of paint thinner and a swirl of my wrist on making the turn of a letter.

My Mom enrolled me in a private art class when I showed and interest in art. I actually was drawing pictures of Sgt. Rock of the comics on a chalkboard when she decided I should take lessons. So I did that for a couple of years. I was much better at copying what someone else painted than doing original work. I was in the midst of copying a scene of wild turkeys amongst a stand of hardwood trees in a forest with a blooming dogwood tree in the foreground when she became very ill. I wanted very much for her to see it, but she died before I finished. It was a year later before I added the last of the dogwood blooms in the foreground.

I didn't paint anything again until we started to race. I had already painted BALDWIN RACING TEAM and the other stuff on that flat brown original trailer box. That type of painting I was not used to, and it was slow as I mentioned earlier. I did not want to have to do all that over again so soon. But I wanted our trailer to stand out. Having been a year on the circuit, we got a better idea of racing and I wanted our trailer to have a better look.

I went down to JE Moore Lumber & Hardware and ordered several thin sheet of Mahogany faced plywood. Mr. Moore was very knowledgeble and told me how to add the mahogany on top of the existing box. That was my first experience with a two part epoxy. It was a mixture of a thick blue paste and other similar yellow paste. In the winter, they were slow moving and hard to mix, but when I blended the two together the mixture became a sickly industrial green. After letting it stand for a little while according to directions I began buttering up the mahogany panels I had sanded and finished with a clear epoxy. I placed each panel one at a time where it was supposed to go on the box, anchored it in place, and let it set for a day to set up and be fixed in place. I did that on each side and the back. Since it was cold, It was on the verge of not setting up, but it did.

The mahogany panels were to match the wood finishes of our DeSilva's and Sid Craft soon to be replaced by an equally clear wood finished Marchetti. After getting the panels fixed in place I cut aluminum angle pieces to finish the edges all around. Then I had to repaint all the letters again. I was not looking forward to that, but then again.....that's how I got to get together with Pam. So I did the painting when I figured she would be driving down the street....and she did.....and would honk as she sped by while I put the letters on the remodeled boat trailer.

Jeff Lytle

12-02-2010, 12:17 PM

Wayne must be away--It's been 4 days!

jrome

12-02-2010, 02:09 PM

Wayne and Debbie went to Galveston.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-05-2010, 09:34 PM

Although it took awhile to repaint the letters, I learned what brush and bristle to use, plus the cut. With that and my oil painting experience, I started staining our house while it was being built in 1980. I watched the interior painter and decided I could do as good as him. I didn't need to tape off walls or trim. I could cut in paint in a straight line without holding a thin sheet of tin against an edge or taping off. Whenever I have to paint anything by hand now, I always think about all the painting I did in the winters of 1966 and 67 on the raceboats. After that, we always hired a real sign painter. The only other letters I painted on our boats after that was "Spider" in 1968.

It was very cold that year. In the sixties, you had to keep up with antifreeze mixtures in your vehicles. I had been painting letters on the trailer after school while listening to the "Stones" singing "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the other side "Ruby Tuesday", as well as the Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" when Baldy came home. It was already dark. It was early, and it was overcast all day, but there was a forecast of a freeze overnight. Baldy was going to prepare supper and told me to take all the cars down to the service station to check the antifreeze levels and get them right.

I was freezing by then. The temperature levels had dropped rapidly after Baldy got home. I took his Plymouth Station Wagon first. I don't remember how each car went, but I had to take my Mom's old Chysler New Yorker, and my International Scout. Brenda had to take her own Yellow and Black Plymouth.

The places where you fueled up in those days were just called gas stations. There was no such thing as self serve. When you pull up....the attendandt put the nozzle in the tank, popped the hood to check the oil and radiator, cleaned the bugs off the windshield and dried it with a chamois cloth that had be wrung through a set of rollers. When he was done, he would dip the chamois in the 35 gallon drum to wet it, and lay it across the rollers for the next car.

So, when I brought back the third car, it was getting late (about 8 O'clock) and very, very cold for South Texas. The service guys were very quick, getting other cars into and out of the bays to check their antifreeze. While sitting in my Scout with the engine running Spanky and Our Gang did one of my favorite songs of that time about Sunday Will Never be the Same. I don't know if that's the title, but I can remember being very cold and shuttling cars before an unexpected and quick moving storm moved in. Every time I hear the song, I think of cold, cars and boat racing.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-06-2010, 08:07 AM

Jack Chance brought down a 6 foot straight edge and a "stink block" on one of his trips to Baldy's. I was having a hard time in the turns with my DeSilva. After I set it for the turn, it would start hopping just before I got halfway through. The cockpit was much wider than my SidCraft and I always had trouble getting firmly wedged in. Baldy took 8mm movies with his Bell and Howell movie camera, and for some reason he seemed to take more movies of our runabout than the hydro. It was always bouncing or hopping in the films. We watched them over and over during the off season. Jack said he could help fix the problem.

Jack laid that straight edge lengthways and sideways to get a look. Sure enough, the bottom was way off. We turned the DeSilva over, removed the center fin and Jack showed Baldy how to move the block around while he sanded. Baldy was a good sander. He had the height and weight to do it much easier and faster than I could. After the bottom was trued up, we waited for a warm dry day and put two or three coats of a popular polyeurethane of that time. It was the same that I applied to our new trailer box. I can't remember the name, but they were pioneers in the two part clear epoxy finishes. After that we refitted the fin and were ready for testing when it would warm up.

Jack bagged a young sow javelina on one of those cold December hunts, and Baldy barbequed it on his pit. A javelina is officially named "collared peccary", and is a small wild hog that can be very tasty if you know what to do. The first thing is shoot large boars only for mounting purposes. They are tough and musky. The young pigs of either sex, but especially a young sow is very delicious. You need a very sharp knife with steel that will hold an edge, or else you better have your whetstone with you. First step is to remove the musk gland on the back, above the hindquarters. You have to get between the blade dulling hairs and work the knife under the skin and then start slicing a patch about the size of a scalp. You have to grip the hair above the musk gland and lift while you slice between the gland and the backstrap. Then throw it way. Then you can proceed to gut the javelina, leaving the guts for the coyotes. They will not last through the night. Skinning is easy with a sharp knife.

If a javelina was a little older sow, or a young male, Baldy would sometimes make a vinegar solution to sop on the meat prior to barbequeing. He would wash off any stray hair and vinegar solution, pat dry, then salt and pepper moderately heavy. He sometimes burnt down mesquite to cook with, but if there was not time he would use real oak charcoal. I guess the kind molded with clay works O.K., but back then all you could get was the real charcoal that came in all irregular pieces and when it was all burnt, there were only gray ashes remaining.

Baldy grilled the ribs, the front shoulder, the hindquarters and the backstraps. He didn't separate the bones on the shoulders, or hindquarters, but kept them together. He cooked the javelina slow, and off to the side of the fire to bring it up to a dark reddish brown color on the outside, and pinkish white on the inside. It was thoroughly cooked through, but still moist.

We didn't just hunt with rifles though. Jack liked to hunt quail also, and we had many a fine meal of Bob White quail fried with gravy, mashed potatoes, greens and biscuits. Baldy and Jack usually hunted quail in the morning, then Baldy would fry them up after getting back from an afternoon deer hunt. The smell of quail on your hands after you clean them is very strong. When you hunt with shotguns, a pellet usually penetrates the intestines of several quail. For a little bird that eats seeds, they can have the most awful smelling guts. If you try to clean them and eat them right away, whoever did the cleaning will get a little whiff on every bite. You cannot eat them with a fork and a knife....you have to use your hands, and it takes several hours for the smell to go away after cleaning them.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-06-2010, 10:16 AM

In the fall of 1967 Pam got a metallic blue Plymouth Barracuda from her Dad Jim Yawn who owned the Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealership in Alice. She was now honking from a really fine looking car as she raced up and down the street while I was working on boats. Baldy had ordered a new Chrysler New Yorker with a 440 c.i. engine. I'm not sure why it was ordered and not available on the lot, but sometimes back then that's what a lot of people did, especially when there were much more non standard items you could get on a car. I can't remember if it was just before or just after hunting season, but Baldy and I were going up to Bryan Marine to either take Mark's 110 Mercury powerhead up their to replace pistons and rings or pick it up, along with maybe the time we picked up the FC Konig. At any rate, we had planned to drive up in his new Chrysler sedan. The old Plymouth station wagon had be giving some problems and Baldy had it in and out of Yawn's distributorship. The car didn't arrive when expected and we had to leave too early for them to have time to make it ready.

We got to Victoria, Texas about 9:00 that morning and on the way up, the Plymouth had been running sluggish. On main street Baldy pulled into a Chrysler dealership and explained to the shop manager that we were on the road and needed to have the car checked out. They were very nice and willing, and would go right ahead and get someone on it. Alice Specialty had a four truck yard in Victoria a few years earlier, and some of the people still remembered it. A salesman from the dealership dropped us off at a Shipley's Donut shop. Baldy didn't drink coffee or eat donuts, but I liked the donuts. After about an hour, the salesman came back to pick us up and said we were ready for the road. I think they must have changed points and plugs and tuned the carb.

We backtracked about one and a half miles to pick up alternate Highway 77 which would take us up through Halletsville, Schulemberg and on into Bryan, Texas on the Brazos River where Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch had their boat business. After getting past the north edge of town where the speed limit went up to 60, Baldy accelerated. He had a pretty heavy foot and the Plymouth burped, then tried to swallow the fuel, then started to surge and stall. Baldy then stomped it to the floor and into passing gear. We were only doing about 45 and trying to get up to speed when all that started to happen.

The automatic tranny dropped into a lower gear then the motor began to wind up....BUHUUUHHHUHHEEEEEEEEEEEKAAHBOOM! The hood pooched up and smoke, dust and debris blew out each side. I felt the explosion through my feet on the floorboard of the passenger side and the tunnel where the transmission rested underneath. I looked back and saw a two inch diameter piece of metal bouncing along the highway behind us. The force was so great, I thought Baldy exploded the transmission and it was a gear I saw bouncing behind us, yet the station wagon was still running.

Baldy got it turned around and headed back toward the dealership. The motor was running very badly, like it was only on half of the eight cylinders. As we approached a red light, the motor died. Baldy restarted it while we were rolling and it died again. He then restarted it once more, but this time kept his foot on the accelerator while he braked with his left foot. That was the first time I ever saw anybody do that. He kept the revs up while we were stopped and held the station wagon back with his left foot on the brake. The motor was shaking the car in a pattern and sounded and looked like Baldy had a bad a$$ cam in that motor. I looked at the old white haired granny that pulled up to our right and she had a look of both wonder and at the same time disgust. It took a few more red lights, but we got back to the dealership. Baldy made a call to Jim Yawn and told him to get his a$$ in gear and prep that new car. We needed it NOW!

The salesman took us back to the Shipley Donut place while they let the car cool down so they could dig deeper into the problem. About another hour passed and we went to a regular restaurant where we had lunch. Then back to the dealership. The shop foreman handed Baldy a sparkplug. The external tip of the electrode was almost completely straightened out. It had one crooked section in the middle. The foreman explained that number (I forgot which) cylinder had no compression. There was an explosion in the crankcase that drove the piston up into contact with the sparkplug and the tip broke through the top of the piston. The electrode was pulled straight when the piston went back down. The original problem must have been a leaky carb flooding the engine, and there was raw gas and fumes in the oil pan and crankcase. Must have been some sticky valves too. Anyway....when Baldy stomped the Plymouth into passing gear, a spark ignited the volitile mixture in the crankcase. It was the oil filler cap I had seen bouncing on the highway. It was before all the closed up motors with anti pollution equipment. The motors of those days could breath, and the oil filler cap was just pushed onto a round spout on the valve cover and held in place with spring steel rather than screwed on. most of the debris that blew out from under the hood was pieces of paper air filter and all of the fiberglass insulation in front of the air cleaner intake spout.

Alice Specialty general manager drove the hastily prepared New Yorker to the Victoria car dealership while Jim Yawn followed in another car to take Cheyney back to Alice. It was around 2:00 that afternoon before we got back on the road to Bryan. It was another 4 hours from there, so we had a very long day. After concluding our business with Freddie and Arlen, we turned around and came home. We enjoyed the ride back though in that brand new Chrysler New Yorker with a very powerful 440 TNT engine. Little did we know that this car would provide some even more spectacular events before it was finally gotten rid of about four or five years later after Jack Chance had "inherited" it.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-09-2010, 07:35 PM

I don't recall any New Year Celebration in 1966. I do not recall my parents celebrating New Years either. It may just be that since my Mom's health declined starting around 1957 and just got worse as time went along that our parents didn't attend or host any New Years parties. I know that before that, they celebrated Christmas and New Years festivities because I can vividly remember the time Baldy shot off Roman candles in our back yard.

It was in the subdivision where Baldy and another guy built the house we lived in. We had been there awhile, but there were two or three blocks worth of vacant land undivided between us and Main Street. We didn't have a clothes dryer. I don't know of anyone that did at that time. Baldy had a welder build two T's of 4 1/2 inch oilfield casing and planted them in cement near the back of the yard just ten feet in front of a 6 foot wooden fence he had built. He then had strung two strong parallel wires that spanned about fifty feet for a clothes line for our Mom to hang clothes to dry.

It was dark when Baldy decided to show us kids some fireworks. The Roman candles in those days were the real thing.....not puff farts of a few weenie sparkles....but the ones that would Poomfph...Poomfph...Poopmfph fireballs one after another for a hundred feet or more depending on your aim. Mamma had three white sheets still hanging on the clothesline when Baldy lit up a Roman candle and proceeded to throw fireballs in the direction of his white targets. I can remember being impressed by the metorite streaks of fire, but what I remember best is when Mamma saw that they reached her sheets about the time Baldy did.......he took off. It was too late. If I remember right, the fiery balls only hit one sheet and Baldy ripped it off the clothesline with the wooden clothes pins flying, threw it on the ground, then he began to stomp on the rumpled sheet until there was no more glow. Mamma was a little bit smoking off the top of her head at that time, and Baldy was not so gregarious as normal, but It wasn't long before both of them told the story and laughed. I grew up hearing it many times as both my Dad and Mom told the story.

It wasn't until Mark got me hooked up with the Lake gang of girls, and a few brothers;) that I can remember celebrating New Years Eve. They weren't part of the pit crew yet, but it was beginning to gel.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-10-2010, 08:33 AM

I compiled this list sometime during the 1966 racing season, but I don't remember exactly when. I learned how to tie off a tow rope around the bow handle for quick release pretty well.;):D

Master Oil Racing Team

12-10-2010, 07:58 PM

As I've said....music was a driver in our lives. At the beginning of 1967 the number one song was "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. The song about Snoopy and the Red Baron by the Royal Guardsmen was number two. "Winchester Cathedral" was number three. A song that reminds me of Joe Bowdler was number four, and many years later made a comeback with the original artist. The song was "Tell it Like it Is" by Aaron Neville. It was playing on the radio when I picked Joe Bowdler up at dark from a hunting trip Baldy had arranged. This was around eleven months after the song was number four. I guess it must have been put in the "oldies but goldies" rotation by then, only to reemerge as a top hit several decades later when Aaron Neville and his New Orleans brother's band made it back. Number five was Frank Sinatra's "That's Life". That is a tribute to the lasting talent of Frank that he made it on the pop charts of a bunch of teens two decades after he became a star.

January 13 the Rolling Stones were on the Ed Sullivan Show. He sang the refrain "Let's spend the night together" rather than the wording the Sullivan people said he should sing.

January 15 in Superbowl I Green Bay beat Kansas City 35-10 in Los Angeles.

January 18 Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler, got life.

January 28 "Let's Spend the Night Together" by the Rolling Stones was released. I didn't know this fact until tonight. They used the Ed Sullivan Show to promote it, then Mick Jagger sang the song as written instead of the suggested wording. I remember the controversy, but I always thought that they were on the show because of the popularity of the song, and not for pre release publicity. David Crosby double crossed Ed Sullivan too and he was never invited back.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-11-2010, 09:10 AM

Sometime during that winter, Mark got the Merc hot once again. Since the last time he stuck it, he had not tried to set any "speed records". This time it was with no boats on the water. It was a cold clear day with no wind and the lake was glass. It was days like this that it was fun to be the only boat on the water to cut wakes all over and chase mud hens. They are officially termed "American Coot", but we either called them "mud hens" or the cajun name "puldoo's". I'm sure there are a number of boat racers out there that tried to run one down on the water when they were kids. You can't do it. As soon as you get close, they start running across the water and flapping their wings. If your boat is too slow, they will eventually get airborne and escape. If your boat is fast enough they will suddenly fold up their wings and plunge beneath the surface. It doesn't matter if your boat will go 40 miles per hour or 70, they will always plop down just before you reach them. I've never known anyone to run one down, and there were always last second escapes. I guess we would probably be arrested now for attempting that. We never really wanted to hurt one, but it was like a coyote/roadrunner chase except we didn't crash, get blown up or smashed under a rock. Except this time. Mark's motor began to seize, but he had recognized the feeling and instantly backed off. He looked back and saw water start to spurt from the tattletale again.

The engine had not seized and Mark came back to pick me up and put the Keller pitot tube in the bracket. He had replaced the club foot with the Speedmaster lower unit for some fast cruising when the problem occurred. I sat in the back seat once again eyeballing the Keller and the tattle tell. There was a constant flow of water until Mark established a straight line and was getting near top speed. Around 68 or so, the water flow dropped off and again around 70, it stopped. I patted Mark on the head and he backed off like we had done last fall. It had dawned on Mark, that everytime he stuck the motor he was going in a straight line. He had not done any straight line high speed running since the last rebuild until that day when he had set a long straight run at a flock of mud hens floating on the water.

We took the boat out of the water and began to ponder what was causing the problem. We started to add up the facts as we knew them.

1. The motor started losing water around 68 mph, and at 70 there was no water coming out of the tattle tell,

2. As far as we could tell by now, the problem always occurred while running in a straight line, and only with the Speedmaster on. With the club foot of course, the boat wouldn't run as fast, but that told us that it was not some kind of restriction within the tube going up to the powerhead, or the powerhead itself. The Speedmaster itself seemed not to have any restrictions that we could locate either.

3. You could run wide open all day with the Speedmaster while just cruising around on a calm day. It was just when you settle in for a long straight that we started to lose water.

So we got under the boat and just started looking. We measured the depth of the nose on the lower unit, and while it was about four inches below the bottom, we could not imagine it propriding to the point of the unit surfacing and picking up air. The boat didn't ride that way. We looked at the center sponson however, and the angle the boat would have to ride that could cause that, but then concluded that the boat would be very sticky in the water and not handle lightly like it did. And there was no way that was the problem Then something on that SK turn fin caught my eye and I started thinking of a real possibility.

I learned quite a bit about aerodynamics in flight school. You cannot see air movement across surfaces except when you put something in a wind tunnel and watch how the smoke moves. The exception is contrails, which is ice particles formed in the vortices created by the wingtips of high speed airplanes when conditions are right. I started thinking of the principles of lift, how the air is parted, sonic booms, etc and then started thinking about how those principles may apply to water......hydrodynamics.

What caught my eye was the trailing edge of that bronze SK fin. The leading edge was sharp, and curved downward toward the stern. The trailing edge, however, was completely flat. As I looked at it, I could envision a parting of the water just like a displacement hull does, and thought about how the wake comes back together. The faster you go, the further back behind the boat the wake comes together. So I look at the fin, and it is barely three feet in front of the nose of the lower unit where the water pickup is, as opposed to the club foot which runs much deeper and had the pickups on the sides above the nose.

I could envision an air gap forming behind that fin, and trailer further and further back before it closed up as the boat went faster. If the air gap would extend just a little over three feet behind the trailing edge of the fin, that would put it at the water pickups. It could only happen in a straight line, because any turning at all would alter not only the water flow, but would not be aligned with the lower unit.

I told Baldy what I thought and he agreed, so we got a grinding wheel and went to work on tapering the trailing edge of that fin in the hopes that the water would converge again ahead of the lower unit. It was painstaking work, because we didn't want to take the fin off. Mark and I took turns lying under the boat and holding the heavy grinder up and trying to apply enough pressure to grind away at the bronze fin.

We finally got it done, and the next day put the Mustang back in the water. We were very hesitant and eased into it....not wanting to stick the engine again. Mark got it up to the mid 60's then he slowly advanced the throttle the last little bit. 68...69...70! That was the fastest we could go. The stream of water shooting from the tattle tell was solid and strong. We had solved the problem.:cool: Mark ran a long straight line wide open toward the dam and the stream remained steady. Finally Mark's confidence about his boat and high speed performance were back.

Here is a drawing of what proved to be happening. Looking at a cross section from straight above, you can the the air gap I suspected, then the water flow after tapering the trailing edge.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-11-2010, 03:06 PM

Now Mark was back on the water racing around the lake at top end with complete confidence. It wasn't but a few weeks until disaster struck again. This time it was the crank. All the abuse the motor had been through had taken its toll on the crankshaft. I think it was one of the upper mains that gave out and scored a cylinder too badly to hone out. That was the verdict of Freddie Goehl. But Freddie had an idea, if Baldy wanted to give it a try. The pistons from the 35 Merc were slightly larger, and the wrist pins were the same. There was enough metal to bore the block for the 35 pistons and replace the crank and other necessary parts and we would be back in business. Baldy gave him the go ahead, and said to hurry it up. There was an OPC race in Rockport coming up soon and Baldy wanted Mark to race in it. I don't remember if Mark was really excited about it, or he was just going along, but he had been handling the Mustang very well since the turning situation was sorted out with the fins. He had just competed in one heat of B runabout almost two years ago. It was a four hour marathon and Mark would drive the first two hours, and I would finish the final two.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-11-2010, 08:11 PM

The OPC race was either late February or early March 1967. It was an outlaw race. No national or state club that I can remember. It was all the local guys from south Texas that had boats that could outrun everyone else on the lake. I am not sure, but I think it was probably spearheaded by the guys that Mark and I had so much been in awe with driving their Merc Powered Kober Kats around the lake.

We got the powerhead back from Bryan Marine and mounted it back on the tower housing. We took it to Mathis Lake and put the Mustang Super Sea Sled in the water to get some time on the redone powerhead and break it in. I didn't call Mark up to ask him how much time we put on the motor to break it in, but on the Konigs...we didn't take long. What I remember is that we took some time. First bring it up to speed and then cruise for a little while. Hammer it hard, then back off to settle down at a little higher speed. Up and back with the throttle. Never set a speed and stay with it for an extended period. Run wide open for a couple of minutes, then back off. That's the way I can remember getting the bored out motor prepared.

Unfortunately, when we got to really hammering the throttle...the boat was not the same. It was washed out....like there was no life. Baldy called Freddie. After listening to what Baldy told Freddie that Mark and I had told Baldy, Freddie said that the timing was not right. I don't know exactly why, but Freddie said we had to change the timing of the motor.

They had done more than just bore out the Merc and swap pistons. Freddie and Arlen did some other alterations. When I tried to time the motor the next morning, all I did was screw things up. I was still learning about outboard mechanics. Timing a Konig was a few simple steps. Trying to figure out a 6 cylinder Merc with a distributor cap, and a moving timing mechanism was way beyond my experience.

The Mustang was running in the high sixties when we finally made a high speed run, but it seemed like it had a stuffed nose. No big response..no top end. So we took it to the local Merc dealer Cliff Walzel and explained the problem. We told Cliff that we had to have the work done immediately because we had a race to make. Freddie told me what to tell Cliff to time the engine. Cliff argued that that did not make sense. To this day I cannot say whether I accurately repeated what Freddie said to tell Cliff about how to time the motor, or whether I could not explain myself enough for Cliff to understand. All I know is that I didn't know what I was talking about, and when Mark and I went out to test, the motor was less responsive than it was before we took it in.

Baldy called Freddie and told him the motor was flat. We had to leave in the morning to make the race. He told Freddie that the outboard mechanic did not do what he was told regarding the timing. Freddie told Baldy that since I didn't have the equipment or knowledge to set the timing, all we had to do was tune it at the race course.

There was a screw on the distributor with a back up nut. All I had to do was loosen the backup nut then adjust the timing for top speed as we were underway. Freddie explained over the telephone exactly how to do it. I was prepared.

Next morning Baldy, Mark and myself headed eastward toward Rockport...about 1 1/2 hour drive. We had only been on Leopard drive several miles before we had a flat. Only two years later Leopard would be an access road to IH 37. We must have run into some kind of debris at the beginning of construction. We changed the tire and had only gone two or three miles further before the other tire went flat. After using the spare the only choice we had at that time was to take both the small boat trailer tires to some place to fix the best one or buy a replacement.

It was an overcast day. We were in a hurry, but it didn't happen. We jacked up the boat trailer again, took the other tire off,unhooked the boat trailer and Baldy headed off to who knows where to get one or the other of the tires repaired or buy a new one.

It was still early in the year. South Texas is not known for being cold, but close to the bay with all the moisture it can be very miserable. Mark and I stood and shivered guarding the boat trailer for nearly two hours before Baldy showed back up with a tire we could use. The tire was not of a size that was easily fitted into a machine. On a Sunday it took time for Baldy to get it done.

After changing the left hand tire, we took off again without any further problems and finally pulled into the pits at Fulton Beach. All the others were there and out on the water testing. We hurriedly got signed in and backed the trailer down the ramp to unload and begin to set the motor timing while underway.

Mark and I both donned our White Bell Helmets and orange Gentex life jackets and waded out to the Mustang and climbed aboard. We arrived late. Very late. We did not have much time. Mark fired up the newly rebuilt Merc and headed out on the course. It was salt water.

The race was around a sliver of an island. The course was a mile and a half or maybe two, with a switchback at the first turn where you would have to turn right again before heading to a long back straight.

Mark made one round to warm up the engine, then the plan was, according to Freddie.....I was to back off the nut to adjust the distibutor while underway until we got our best speed.. Mark was driving and as such was supposed to hold the throttle down while I adjusted the timing with a screwdriver and simultaneously looking down at the Keller laid near my knees.

Going down that long straight I saw the speed gaining as I slowly turned the screw. Then we got to the bottom turn. Mark didn't warn me. He didn't slow down first....then look back. He just dropped the throttle for the hairpin turn that is was and I fell over to my right side.

I looked back at Mark and he understood. We tried to make another round, but just then the cannon fired and they stood the black flag. While I was dialing in the timing, we were getting close to our high mark of 70. When I fell back into the boat, the screw backed off. When I tightened it back down in the pits, we endend up five mph short of our old standard.

Master Oil Racing Team

12-14-2010, 07:54 AM

We didn't know a soul racing OPC then. The half dozen guys that raced around the lake were there, and we knew who they were, but we didn't know them. The organizers of the race ran a very good meet, and we knew nothing about this marathon racing except what we had read in magazines. I don't know who did the scoring, but we didn't have to provide one. It was a four hour marathon, and I think at least one pit stop was mandatory. Mark would drive the first two hours, then I would finish up.

We were pitted toward the northern end, just about opposite of what would be considered the first turn if it were a clock start. It was a modified LeMans start, and I do not recall drawing for any starting position or qualifying. As I remember, we just all started from whatever pit area we staked out. It was around the upper 40's or low 50's and with the overcast sky hanging very low over the pits, and a stiff 25 to 30 mile per hour breeze coming off the bay, it was very uncomfortable in our windbreakers. The little island infested lagoon was separated from the bay only by an asphalt roadway with a beach and piers behind the pit area. The sand and oyster shell pit area was very good though. Great access to the water with a gently sloping and solid bottom.

There were a lot of semi vee's with a variety of outboards, but I think the majority were Merc's. The fastest boats were the Kober Kats, Powercats and our Mustang Super Sea Sled. The two fastest were the 110 Merc powered Kober Kats of the two guys from Johnston Automatic Transmission in Corpus Christi.

I don't remember how Mark made it through that first corner and around to the backstraight, but after a lap or two, he began to settle in. The fastest guy in the Kober Kat seemed to come up to Mark just going into turn one fairly often. He would charge up on the outside then cut Mark off on the tight left hand turn. Then there was a switch back to the right and left again exiting to the long back straight. Mark didn't run the last part of the backstraight wide open because the Mustang rode light enough that it ran a bit sideways. The southeast wind was just a couple of degrees starboard and the boat, when aired our, would point in the direction of the wind. It was like flying an airplane in a crosswind. Some of the others I'm sure had trouble with it as well. At the end of that long back straight was the hairpin turn where Mark caught me off balance while trying to adjust the timing of the Merc. Coming off the hairpin, he would race down the front straight to a bouy where he had to slow down to jink a little to the left toward the island we were racing around, then a right to straighten up and run parallel to the island back to the first turn. The tight left and right/left switch back was the calmest portion of the course, being between two islands.

I can't remember if we had any pit stops other than the one where we refueled and switched drivers, but that one occurred around the two hour mark. First time on the course in the driver's seat, I felt the boat start to aim right when it got up to speed and lightened up. I eased off at first, having been surprised at the boats reaction. We never ran fast in 30 mile per hour wind at the lake in open water because the waves would reach 3 feet or so, and we would plunge into the trough, or cut off the crest and it was miserable in a boat not designed for that type of water. Here though, the little lagoon was fairly shallow, but more importantly, the little islands killed wave action. There were whitecaps solid down the back straight, but no rolling action could be set up for high crests and deep troughs. Nobody had power trim. You just stick the pin in the hole you got the top performance from, tie down the tower and go for it. If you needed to make a change, you would have to go back to the pits to do that. Consequently, we chose to leave our motor in the pin hole for optimum speed and it lifted off the water more than it ever had because It was like running in a heavy chop. the two outside tunnel like bottom and the center sponson did an excellent job of pounding into the waves so the nearly flat bottom at the stern did not rebound off the water and cause us to lose bite. We would run hard. It took a couple of rounds down that back straight for me to get the hang of it, then I could run wide open. Having learned to fly in a crosswind, I could just let the Mustang air out, and do the slight correction with the steering wheel. I just had to be sure the motor was straight before I had to back off quickly for the hairpin.

Even though we were about five miles slower than we should have been, we made up a lot of time on that backstraight, being able to run wide open. Our Mustang had a couple of feet over the Kober Kats, and I am sure was much heavier, giving us an advantage on the back straight.

Somewhere around forty five minutes or an hour into racing I got into position racing against the leader. He was the one that had been cutting Mark off in turn one. That was where he always made his move because that Kober Kat could corner better than the Mustang. Especially in the calm water with the switchback. He was lighter and could accerate through that section and be gone and clear very easily. Whenever he pulled alongside Mark going into the turn, Mark would back off for the corner and the Kober Kat would hang on the throttle long enough, then snap his cat to the left and Mark would get off the throttle. He didn't know that we switched drivers though. Mark and I were almost identical size in those days and wore the same type while Bell Helmets and Orange Gentex life jackets.

I was on the inside as Mark always was, but I raced the cat to the turn. He was faster, and going downwind with the pit area blocking the wind, the water was in good shape and the Mustang held no advantage. The problem was, I was racing him to the turn and I went in much hotter than Mark had. He got around me, but he was going in much hotter as well and was overshooting the turn. The other little island on the outside had a sliver sticking out that he would not be able to negotiate after swinging so wide unless he got completely off the throttle and get back in the proper lane. Instead, he tried to turn harder to the left and stay in front of me. It was too much. He spun out directly in my path. I chopped the throttle, but the flat nose of the Mustang hit his Merc square on the left hand side of the cowling. Nobody was hurt and we were only going about twenty upon contact. There were a few moments while I was waiting to get clear of him. He finally was able to pull forward enough where I could take off again. He never was able to get back up to speed however. The blow of the Mustang bent the throttle linkage, and he was not able to get back to full throttle. I don't recall whether he finished the race or not, but he could only go about half the speed the rig was capable of. His partner won the race with a nearly identical rig, and we finished second overall. That was my first and last OPC race as a driver. Mark would do one more a month or two later.

ADD: I just reread this part, and I need to do some clarification, because it may sound like I was selling Mark short. He was the one who got us established in the earliest going, and set a pace that kept us in the front running. We had no clue as to our actual position during the race, but we knew we were up in the top tier. So I called Mark to see what he remembered. He had completely forgotten about that race, but some of it started coming back after he read the above account. He said that it was accurate, and he added a couple of things I had forgotten. He confirmed that there were somewhere around 50 entries. He said that there were boats all around the course during the racing. And he said "Some of the boats didn't run too good, They were flopping from side to side, and bouncing all over the place." I had forgotten about some of the deep vee's running, I now I can remember a little bit about them....especially on the backside. With the way the wind was blowing, they were blown over on the left side, then with correction they would straighten up, then a wave or something would flop them to the right, then back to the left they would go. The guys driving them must have been totally worn out at the end of the race.

Then Mark remembered some handling trouble with our Mustang in a turn. He said it was trying to dig. So I said "It must have been that right hand turn halfway down the front straight when you straighten out at the island." Mark said, "Yeah! That was it. It tried to dig in at the transom. We later cut the fin off some after that race." That deep spring steel fin was what helped to keep it from spinning out, but it was mounted on the left side. You can see the bracket in one of the pictures. The trailer was made for the center fin, but not the one on the left, so we had to take it off when we loaded the boat on the trailer. It was pretty long, and at the angle it was mounted, the leading edge would touch the trailer. It was wicked looking.

So, I just wanted to clarify that while Mark had limited experience racing, he knew that boat extremely well and kept us up front and in the hunt the whole time before I took over.