Wayne Baldwin's Amazing Story: Baldy's Eual Eldred Baldwin

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 02-20-2016

Thanks for the reminder Smitty. I can remember us kids looking back at the signs, and memorizing them to repeat back to our Mom and Dad. It may be that a lot of them were removed after 1963 and that they were not posted in New Mexico, Arizona or Nevada by the company, but possibly privateers might have posted some.

During that hurried trip through the Southwest that my Dad scorched US 9O to outrun that dust blizzard to keep my Mom from being smothered, we ended up in Albuquerque. Later we went to Santa Fe, then points east to the Texas Panhandle before we headed back home. Parts of that trip included traveling down Route 66 and that may be where I remembered the Burma Shave signs from in the early 60's in the western part of our country. No matter.....I think they were a great part of traveling for American kids and their memories, and an indispensable part of Americana.

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 02-26-2016

This has been a very difficult road trip to remember because we were tired and I cannot remember where we spent the night. The things I do remember don't jive with the timing. We did not spend two nights on the road, but I remember being about an hour out of Needles California near dusk the second day. What jinked my memory while I was thinking about this trip was that Bud Turcotte and I had a dark light hung up in our bedroom beneath a parachute. I had painted the walls and bannister leading up to the bedroom with eye drop liquid. It was invisible in daylight, but glowed green under the purplish glow of a blacklight.

I can remember looking out at acres of fields at night covered with blacklights. This was in New Mexico. The blacklights were about three feet in length, about three feet off the ground and spaced five to ten feet apart. These farms had hundreds of acres of them glowing at night for miles and miles. Alfalfa was grown in that area, but I'm not sure if that's what the crop was. It was dark and we could not see what was growing. I remember this part because Gerel and I were blown away by seeing all those blacklights. Don't recall if Baldy did or did not know what we meant by "blacklights" or if he even mentioned UV. He was driving at the time and I think he was more concentrated on a place where we could spend the night. I will have to look at a map and try to find where that might have been. Not many places to shut down late at night there in 1969.

**Ketzer** · 02-28-2016

In 1969, at least for July and August, I was in San Antonio going through USAF basic training, and my pit crew buddy, Patrick, was with the Navy and based in Meridian, Mississippi. According to Patrick, the barracks had many more resident roaches than sailors, so the sailors captured the roaches, painted them day-glo, and set them free. At night, when they flipped on the black lights...cheap thrills!

oldalkydriver · 03-04-2016

WOW! It has been awhile since I last visited this site. My sister's and I used to sit in the back seat of my dad's 1941 Cadillac on the long rides to the races. I remember several signs in Arizona and New Mexico, (along with the Whiting Bros. Gas Stations). Lots of signs, plus we used to look for cars with one light! I think we used to yell, "Popeye" and got to hit each other on the shoulder. I don't remember any Burma Shave signs in Nevada. Sometimes we were lucking and got to ride in the back of my Grandfather's 1937 Chevy pickup. Now that was a privilege and lots of fun. Ahhhh!, those were the days. Late night you could get WLS (out of Chicago), WOWO (out of Fort Wayne) and WHLR out of Bakersfield on the old am radio's as they had 50,000 WATTS! I must be getting old as lately I have been dreaming of traveling to the races back then. Maybe someone who passed is letting me know my time is coming.

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 03-09-2018

A year since I did anything here. Now that I can post pictures again I will go back to read some previous posts to see where I left off and resume this thread.

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 07-07-2018

My oldest sister Brenda came to spend the weekend with us today and brought some old pictures. One is from Needles, Ca. which is the next stop on "Baldy's", but the best thing is she brought a poster from the first boat race I ever saw....and the first boat race I ever raced in. It's a little too big to scan and fit right now but I'm going to give a preview. When I can get it to where I can post it, I will put it where it belongs at the beginning of this thread, and I will give notice if anyone wants to look. I just want it to be a part of the story as it goes along instead of having to look back, or bounce around.

**DeanFHobart** · 07-07-2018

Originally Posted by Master Oil Racing Team

My oldest sister Brenda came to spend the weekend with us today and brought some old pictures. One is from Needles, Ca. which is the next stop on "Baldy's", but the best thing is she brought a poster from the first boat race I ever saw....and the first boat race I ever raced in. It's a little too big to scan and fit right now but I'm going to give a preview. When I can get it to where I can post it, I will put it where it belongs at the beginning of this thread, and I will give notice if anyone wants to look. I just want it to be a part of the story as it goes along instead of having to look back, or bounce around.

What was that Range Grove Regatta year?

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 10-05-2018

Whoa! Didn't see your question til now Dean. It was near Orange Grove, Texas in 1965. I now have that poster framed and hung in our racing/music room.