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

  1. #841
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    Been awhile since I have done a continuous narrative for a couple of reasons. Number one is I have been busy at work, but mostly because I want to keep the story straight and tell it like it happened. Two things here have hampered me, and I have started writing notes, time frames, music broadcast from then to help me get it straight. And the fact that in 1968 I moved away from home, and thus lost the daily contact Baldy had with boat racing friends. There's a lot I would have known, and stuff he would talk to me about, but I wasn't there. Couple that with the fact that I was getting enough experience that I didn't write down everything I did or was advised to do in order to become a better mechanic. Jack Chance had things written down in his dark shop, but that was all about specifications. He already had that in his head when he started teaching me, and what he taught me was more hands on, and tedious crankshaft and rod spacing work.

    The second and probably most important was that since I was away from home, and not working on boats or motors all the time I quit taking notes about the work, and the races. I was taking notes for my business administration classes and the other required classes plus electives. I was not writing down all the stuff we worked on for our racing agenda. Therefore, I remember a lot of what went on, but not exactly when things happened like I did when I was living in Alice and took notes. Since Bud Turcotte and I moved into San Marcos to go to Southwest Texas University I remembered most of everything on a time line, but it gets fuzzy within a few months either way from here on until after I graduated and started writing things down again. Some things until then are very specific on the time line, but other parts of the story I will have to take time to recollect and talk to friends about what they recall. It's been fun because I have talked to several before resuming this story.

    This next story falls sometime between December 1968 and January or February of 1969.



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    Sometime at the end of the year of 1968 just before classes ended and everyone headed home for Christmas break and the end of the fall semester, or possibly at the beginning of the spring semester in the early January days of starting back to school, I had told Joe Rome we were going to paint some of our boats. One of them would be the B Hydro Marchetti that Ashley Lawrence ran over and cut in half at the NOA World Championship's at Baldy's house.

    I was always partial to blue, and in fact had already had a couple of boats painted in a very ugly gray blue. When I told Joe that we were going to paint some boats he immediately injected "Don't paint them green". I asked "Why?". Joe said "Green is unlucky". I again asked "Why?" Joe replied "There was this guy racing NASCAR and he was the only guy with a green car. He got killed in a race. Since then nobody will drive a green car."

    Then Joe gave me the warning "and don't EVER throw your helmet on a bed. If it lands upside down.....you could be killed." I always headed that warning all the rest of my racing career, but I did question Joe on the green car.

    Having gotten to be good friends with Joe during the previous semester, and having ridden with him in his car to the Texan downhill from the campus many times, I had to confront Joe with my question "Why do YOU have a green car?" Joe cast his eyes to the floor and with a disgusted voice stated "I didn't know it was green." I started laughing...."What!....you didn't know it was green?................what did you do....buy it over the telephone?" Then Joe calmly stated "I am color blind".

    It was a 1969 Gran Torino that was bluish green, or greenish blue.....I don't know, but for Joe and I it became a famous car for the many adventures ahead of us.

    The rest of the story as Joe told me a couple of weeks ago. Joe was talking with a cousin of his right before this story and somehow the talk got to how Joe's cousin wasn't accepted into the navy many years before because he was color blind. Joe told him "I've got a bone to pick with you." His cousin was the the guy who sold Joe the "Blue" Gran Torino. Joe told his cousin he wanted a blue Gran Torino, and his cousin took him out into the lot to show him one, and Joe said "Yeah...that's the one. I'll take it."



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    I remember hearing that green was unlucky; while I never thought to ask why, being naturally superstitious, I've always avoided the color, whether on boat, car, or motorcycle. I've wondered, though, if new paint would remove the curse.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ketzer View Post
    I remember hearing that green was unlucky; while I never thought to ask why, being naturally superstitious, I've always avoided the color, whether on boat, car, or motorcycle. I've wondered, though, if new paint would remove the curse.


    Stevie:

    Don't know whether you remember or not, but "Sooey Pig" was green with its first paint job. I will leave it to you to determine whether it was unlucky or not.

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    That's right, Bill Van! We then painted it yellow and blue, but I still crashed it, breaking the "green" plexi-glass windshield that we replaced with clear, and then we were good to go...no more crashes.

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    Stevie:

    Don't know whether you saw the post or not, But Butch Leavendusky passed away last month. Thought you would like to know if you did not see the post.

    Bill

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    I never knew the name "Butch" to be associated with Stan Leaveandusky, Jr. until Bill Van kept calling him that. I always called him Stan, and when I was always around his Dad..."the old man". my Dad Baldy was always talking to him. I was always there so I never had to actually be introduced or he be introduced to me. I knew who he was and vice versa. I have lots of pictures, and stories to tell about the Leaveandusky's coming up, but I want to say that Thanks to Bill Van....He kept me in the loop....and told me when was a good time to call Stan..."Butch"... after he had gone through a long tough time of treatment and came out feeling very good. It was when Bill Van told me to call and I did. It was the last time I talked to Butch. We had talked a lot at the DePue Reunion, but the last phone call was very special. I knew what he had gone through, and we had a lot of fun talking about our Dad's. A little while after we hung up I got a call from Bill Van. He told me that Butch called him and said "Guess who I just talked to?"

    Bill Van called me a little bit later and thanked me for taking the time to call Butch and said that it meant a lot to him. I told Bill Van that I was very thankful that he let me know to call.

    It was a year or so late rafterI last talked to him. I wish I would have called back several times before he passed because we were always friends and he would have liked a little more talking before he was done.



  8. #848
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    Back to the story. I had to go back and see if I had covered the beginning of 1969, and I had not.....so here goes.

    Richard M. Nixon was sworn into office as President even as we were listening to the songs from the Beatles "White Album" being released. It was a double album, but the embossed The Beatles was hard to read so it was always known as the White Album. The thing to do a couple of weeks after the release was for us and our friends, and kids all across the nation was to listen to the songs and try to figure out the hidden messages or meanings behind each song. Might have been the first time many college students actually tried to use their analytical skills.

    The top country and western stars were Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and Merle Haggard. Top TV shows were Gomer Pyle USMC, Laugh In, Family Affair, Mayberry RFD, Bonanza and Bewitched.

    Marvin Gaye had a top hit that has lasted generations and has been included in numerous documentaries of those times. It was entitled "What's Going on". What a song!

    The Beatles performed an impromptu concert on the roof of the Apple recording studio in London. A movie was made of it. It was their last live performance. The Glen Campbell Hour debuted in January on TV.

    A jet fired up it's engine on the U.S. Enterprise without a shield in place to block exhaust and it heated up armed heat seeking missiles in the aircrafts behind it. No safeguards back then and the first missile to shoot up the back of the fighter plane in front ignited a firestorm on the flight deck that ended up killing 27 crewmen, injuring 307, and destroying 15 aircraft.

    After 148 years the Saturday Evening Post shut its doors. January 22nd a kid with a knife hijacked a plane leaving Key West and had it flown to Havana. On January 28 there was a blowout on a Union Oil platform in California resulting in 80 to 100,000 barrels of oil spilling into the Santa Barbara channel and coastline. It inspired liberal Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970. I have to admit that as a young college student at Southwest Texas I fell for the propaganda, and my first speech in speech class for the spring semester was anti oil and the pollution on the beaches at Santa Barbara.

    In February the Doors TOUCH ME was number one. Elvis signed a contract for his first major appearance in thirteen years. He was to start at the Las Vegas International Hotel next summer. Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company played in New York at the Fillmore for the first time.

    Yassar Arafat was elected leader of the PLO and Boeing's 747 aircraft made it's first flight.

    Average new house in 1969 was 15,550. Rent averaged 135 with new cars averaging 3,270 and gasoline .35 per gallon.

    1969 Was looking up to be a good year for racing. Baldy had made a lot of good contacts during the past year and followed them up with phone calls throughout the winter months. He liked to talk to fellow boat racers all the time on the telephone.



  9. #849
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    As I mentioned, I had a speech class in the spring of my sophomore year. I didn't want to take it, but it was required. It was THE most hated class I took. I liked to talk to people, but I was a shy kid, and only liked to talk to friends one on one or in small numbers. I did not want to be a spokesman for a group of friends, or play any lead parts in groups. I happened to have lead roles in two melodramas in speech class in the 7th grade because I was one of the smallest kids and the teacher chose me to be the hero to go against my adversaries, the tallest kids, in order to rescue the heroin. I hated to sing, and I was only participating because I had no choice. The teacher was young, single and good looking, so I guess I didn't want to rebel too much though as a very young teenager.

    Speech class in college though was a bunch of BS. Why did I need that. There were other things I needed to learn besides talking to a group of students whom most I didn't know, never would, didn't care, and they felt the same. If most of the teachers that had taught for so many years in front of groups of people weren't interesting, then why should I be able to have any interesting presentation, or why would any of my other classmates be able to pull it off. I know why they did it, and I knew that back then that it was to try to help business majors be comfortable speaking in front of a group. It didn't work then, and if they still do it the same way....it will not work now. It was just a credit I got, but it was a lousy class and wasted time to get it.

    The Santa Barbara oil spill though actually got me headed on the environmental path. It was in its infancy. I bought all of it. The media was all over the oil spill and politicians took note. No one wants to hurt the environment. It's in our own interest to do what we can to protect it. That's what I saw in the beginning. I never threw trash out of the car, but Bud Turcotte and I were extremely accurate in tossing out Dr. Pepper bottles to smash against roadside markers and signs on our way to and from San Marcos. It took awhile, but I quit tossing bottles after it sunk in that I was polluting with the broken glass.



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    I don't remember exactly when this took place, but it was sometime after Joe Rome and I got back to school for the final semester of the year. It was before racing began though and I think it probably came up because it was nearing the same time period that Joe Bowdler had died the previous year. His death was profound for both Joe and I and we both had great respect and admiration for his parents. It was Joe who came up with the idea. He said we need to take the Bowdler's out to dinner. I agreed.

    It was more common then for younger people to wear a suit and tie. I had such garments in my closet and so did Joe. Joe did all the legwork. I don't know how he got Sid's home phone number, but it could be found in a number of ways. Sid Bowdler worked at a very successful auto dealer in San Antonio, Texas by the name of Smith. Joe called up Sid and told him that we wanted to take him and his wife Maragret to dinner. I didn't call up Joe to ask what he remembered about all this so he can correct any thing I forgot tomorrow. Or the next day. Anyway, Joe and Sid agreed on the day and time. Seems to me it was midweek and Joe and I were not pressed for time.

    Joe drove us the forty miles or so south to San Antonio in his famous "Green" Toronado. We met the Bowdlers at their home, and Sid drove us to the restaurant. I can't remember what cars the dealership sold, but I remember that Sid drove a luxury car and that we had a luxurious ride. Can't remember anything about the food.....just the company. Sid and his wife were very pleased about the dinner. We talked about their son Joe of course, but Sid was very insistent that we keep on course that Joe Bowdler, his son, would have wanted. We had a very good time at that dinner. After leaving Sid and his wife, Joe and I were riding high on the way back to San Marcos. Not only had Sid and his wife entertained us with lots of talk, but we both knew and could see how much enjoyment they had in our asking them out for dinner.



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