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

  1. #121
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    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.
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    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, Baldwin Racing Team...etc.



  3. #123
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    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.
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    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

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    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



  6. #126
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    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.

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



  7. #127
    Team Member Jeff Lytle's Avatar
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    Looking forward to it Wayne...........as only you can.

    So sorry about the loss of your friends.

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    I finally got the trailer painted, and started to lay the racing gear out and take pictures.
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  9. #129
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    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
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  10. #130
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    Default I seem to remember the name A Y Alee.......

    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??

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