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

  1. #291
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I found a picture of our DeSilva C runabout that I thought looked fat. I had sanded it down well, and finished with wet or dri sandpaper of 400 grit and painted on several coats of Deft clear polyurethane. I taped it off in the same scheme as our A/B DeSilva and painted it with cans of aerosol white. I did this just before we left for Beaumont.

    After we got back, we had to start immediately to repair the A/B DeSilva that got two holes on the starboard side after I launched over Jim Wilkins. I did some of the work, but mostly it was Baldy. He wanted me there to help and learn, but since it was critical that the work be done right, he did it while I watched and he explained as he went along.

    He had a tape measure and a square. Feeling through the holes he found where the stringers and battens were and did some guesstimated measuring, close enough to get support. Then he marked off the areas to be cut out and made square cuts. After measuring the holes, Baldy made back up pieces of plywood to be inserted through the holes, with Weldwood glue on the outside surfaces that would contact the inside perimeter of the cut out holes. This part I can't remember, but I think he had screwed a lag bolt or something into the backup pieces to be able to grab them and force them back up against the wood inside while the glue dried.

    The next day Baldy cut plywood to fit the holes exactly and with wood glue and brass screws, they were driven home. The following day I began to sand down the repaired sections and prepare them for a couple of coats of Deft. I don't know if that's the proper way to make repairs, but Baldy didn't want anything to blow out. Especially since it was on the cornering side. He repaired landing craft that were all shot up in the Pacific front when our marines were "Island Hopping" during WWII so I figured he knew what he was doing.

    ADD: Looking at the picture of the C runabout you will see the louvered glass pane window behind it. To the left inside the shop was where the motor room and tack room was for the saddles, blankets, harnesses and all our horse stuff at Alice was kept. I couldn't find the negatives so I scanned the original faded pics I had tacked on the wall of that room just about 44 years ago. I did it so my girlfriend Pam could see them.
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  2. #292
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    Vietnam was hot, but not on the radar screen of our graduating class. To many it soon would be. Elvis and Prescilla got married and Mohammed Ali, the former Cassius Clay, was indicted for draft evasion. The AFL granted a franchise to the Cincinnatti Bengals, and Mickey Mantle hit his 500th homer.

    We lived with music while we went through our day, as everyone does. The Monkee's were at the top of the charts then with A Little Bit Me...A Little Bit You. Frank Sinatra had been around a long time by then. Baldy told me he got his start from his association with the Mob. He and his pals were called the "Rat Pack". They were Frank, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and I can't recall the others, but one was related to Maria Shriver, wife of the Terminator. Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy was hot. It was the day's of miniskirt's and calf tall boots. She had a hit called "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and her image was all over the place. She did a followup hit with her Dad Frank in a song called "Somethin' Stupid". It was not a typical song for a youngster of that age to like, but I always did. In those days, AM radio played rock & roll, soul, R&B, country & western, 50's style, and some of the old parade door type of music.

    A song I liked and later on had more meaning was a song by the Turtles called "Happy Together" David Crosby was a part of that group. More meaningful though at that time was a song by Tommy James and the Shondells called "I Think We're Alone Now". It was in full bloom and a big hit. Pam and I really liked it. I can recall listening to it on the radio with Pam, myself and Bob Burnham in our living room at the house in Alice. It seemed like everything was vibrant. I had a girlfriend, racing was fanstatic, I was only a month from graduating, and the music was intoxicating. I had no responsibilities whatsoever.....so how could this not be a great time to remember?

    Baldy, however still had several companies to run. He had the main one, Alice Specialty Company, Inc. (the ASCO logo on the DeSilva), Liquid Mud, Inc. (a drilling mud company), and the fledgling Aldac company which was to blend, produce, market, and distribute MX-237 The Master Oil to a worldwide market.



  3. #293
    Team Member Jeff Lytle's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Ahhhhhhhhh YES!

    Wecome back Wayne!

  4. #294
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    We had two weeks before the next race, which was at Highlands, Texas on the San Jacinto River and is the site of the Baytown Boat Club. We were ready. Baldy, Mark, our sister Jan, Bob Burnham and myself pulled out of Alice early Saturday morning May 8. Bob and I were revving in high gear because we would both be graduating very soon from William Adams High School.

    As we always did, we stopped for lunch at Gordon's Seafood Restaurant just before the causeway crossing the bay. After crossing the Bay I looked over to the left at the barges that were still moored, or abandoned in the distant off to the left. Up Texas 35 we went, through Angleton and over to catch 146 that would take us into Baytown. East of Angleton I checked out the silo to the north, looking past Baldy. It was still leaning eastward. A little bit more it seemed.

    We got checked into the Holiday Inn off of 146 then went to Jack Chance's house only four or five miles east then northeast. Baldy and Jack were glad to see each other again even if it had been a couple of weeks, and not that many weeks from hunting. But, we were at Jack's house and he was very glad to see us and wanted to be a perfect host. Jack's wife Gertie never went to the races, but she took very good care of us.

    First thing we did was head to Jack's shop to get done or get checked out everything that wasn't done or checked out before we left. I was still an apprentice.



  5. #295
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    Back at the Holiday Inn, Baldy and Jan stayed in one room, and Mark, Bob and I in another. As is normal, the A/C was turned off and in Texas we are used to cranking it up first thing after opening the door and bringing in the luggage. It rumbled to life and blew the curtains out as we unpacked.

    As I have mentioned before, and will quite often, Baldy always paid for the meals, regardless of how many joined us. Close to the coast I always enjoyed a seafood platter full of fried shrimp, fried oysters, stuffed crab, fried fish, a couple of hush puppies and a salad that was mostly for color to set off all the fried stuff. And it was only five dollars. We slept soundly in cold rooms and got up early for breakfast to head out to the race course. We remembered to look for Dill's sign after crossing the railroad tracks and once we made the left, all we had to do was follow the shady and winding road to it's end and enter through the gate on the right.

    As in the two previous trips to the race course at Highlands on the San Jacinto River, there were tents, campers and RV's to the left and close to the far left pits. I don't remember whether Jack and Clayton had already spotted their trailer, but I think they did. In any case everyone knew where they pitted and that we would be next to them, so we found our spot and Baldy backed the trailer in.

    I have very fond memories of Baytown to this day even though it was not a very good course for fast racing, and I came close to being killed there. It was, however, the very first place I was able to make and start, and also the first place I was able to finish. Baldy was very happy too. He recorded all that on an 8mm Bell & Howell camera.

    One thing I remembered from our first race at Baytown (Highlands) a year earlier was that there was a sunken barge just at the western edge of the shipping lanes on the river. It was tilted on its side and it was smack in the middle of the back straight. My first time racing, I slid out wide coming out of the first turn with the B runabout, and part of the time went on the other side of the barge. If there were a lot of boats hitting the turn at the same time, some would also pass on the other side. After the race strung out, everyone would go on the inside. This time at the Baytown race though, the barge either sunk further into the mud, was partly salvaged of steel above the water, or rusted away. I couldn't see how it could rust that fast, particularly since I kept an eye on grounded barges just across Lavaca Bay from Gordon's Seafood Restaurant. I watched them slowly disentegrate over the years and to this day there barely remains remnants of the last two.

    Mark, Bob and I began to set up sawhorses, untie the two DeSilva runabouts and single Marchetti hydro on top and unload them to begin rigging up. It's not as ingrained in my mind as our first race at Highlands, but I told Bob about the great tasting fried chicken and french fries they served. We had a very pleasant morning rigging up while Baldy made the rounds visiting with friends and learning what he could about alky racing and the Lone Star Boat Racing Association. This was our second year and second race of the season......and we had a DeSilva C runabout.....albeit with a two cylinder Konig motor. Everyone else ran Quincy loopers or deflector Mercs except for Clayton Elmer and Freddie Goehl who had 4 cylnder, 4 carb piston port Konigs. But the boat racing crowd figured then that we were serious, and intended to stay. Lone Star was primarily a runabout circuit, with full fields of some of the toughest and talented racers in the U.S. Charlie Bailey was a youngster then, and trained with the best. At a lot of the races in Texas then they combined A and B hydro and C,D,F hydro. Then they finished off with FFA.....the Free For All which every boat and motor was legal to contest. Mostly it consisted of Merc Quincy 44's, D Loopers, and some C Loopers, and Merc Quincy and Merc deflectors.



  6. #296
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    A runabout seemed to be a point of focus for us because I was able to complete some heats and accumulate points. B runabout I had many problems with. The two cylinder Konig had a lot of torque and I had lots of problems in the turns. Besides not knowing how to set up a runabout properly, the cockpit was so wide, I bounced around too much. Baldy had hired an upholsterer to make some padded canvas knee pads and cockpits pads with snaps.

    After they were built, I located and screwed in the male snaps on the bottom and right side. A big part of our racing was the fact that the knee pads in the runabouts were always sliding back and not only distracting me...but also causing my knees to hurt. I'm not sure why Clayton or Jack didn't pick up on this before, but we concentrated more on the motors, and set ups rather than getting beat up in the cockpit. I already knew how sore it was after a weekend of racing, as did everyone else, so why question how we went about it*



  7. #297
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    Had some french fries yesterday that matched those of the Baytown Boat Club from the days of yesteryear. It was at the Executive Surf Club in Corpus Christi. When I recently got recontacted with our pit man Bob Burnham, and asked what he remembered about racing he said " the french fries at Baytown".



  8. #298
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Lone Star Reunion II???

    When is reunion II for the Lone Star Boat Racing Club????


    I'm ready to head to Baytown, Texas...

  9. #299
    Team Member F-12's Avatar
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    Default I'm in........

    I'd attend just to see if Ron could eat 16 tacos. He is a legend..............
    Charley Bradley


  10. #300
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default F-12 Several Problems Here!

    1. Mrs. Dawe made great tacos. One at a time. She didn't rush you. She just kept making them and giving me Diet Rite Cola....

    2. That 16 taco record was only after I had had dinner at home.

    3. I was 18. Between graduating high school June 1962, at six foot 190 pounds,, I went to 6'5" 235 by June 1963....

    I did eat sieta burritos once....I thought Sieta was the kind of burrito, not SEVEN. burritos...

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