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

  1. #111
    Team Member F-12's Avatar
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    Default I agree...........

    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.
    Charley Bradley


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    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    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. 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.

    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.



  3. #113
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gene East View Post
    I check BRF daily to see if you have posted anything new. I'm sure I'm not alone!
    You're not.

  4. #114
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    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.
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  5. #115
    Stanley Henderson shenders's Avatar
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    Default Texas History

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

  6. #116
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    Thanks Stan. Maybe it's too close to 2036. I will correct my error now.



  7. #117
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    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.

    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)



  8. #118
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    Default Delivery Boy...........

    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.
    Charley Bradley


  9. #119
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    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.



  10. #120
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    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.
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