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

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

I always knew that two good looking, intelligent gentleman like ourselves could settle our differences in a grown up manner.

On another matter and all kidding aside, Eileen and I were really happy to see you in Fl. last month. I doubt I would have gone to the trouble and expense you did, and get up as early for the trip back, if I had not been able to spend more time than you did. Just goes to show, old boat racing friends are the best kind, especially when you hadn't seen some for 30 years. Was great to see you and hope you make it to Lake Alfred this fall.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

To get back on track. I had originally planned to throw in the highlights of each year as I got to that point for everyone to recall those moments of time who were around then, and to give some perspective to those following the thread that were not. Our oilfield work is highly irregular both in time and date, so in the last couple of months I haven't been able to get this story going like I planned. So after thinking it over... I decided to introduce the highlights as I go along for the nostalgia of us that lived it....and to plant guideposts for those that were too young to remember, or were not born in time to get the climate, sounds and feelings for those days.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It was in 1964 that the United States of America authorized the war in Viet Nam. It was recognizing the fact that there was leftover business from WWII and the Korean War that the communists were really our long time insidious enemys.

Beatlemania had come to America and were the first wave of what was to become the "British Music Invasion". I loved every minute of it.

I never liked boxing. I hated going to my "Unce Buck's" house if we were going to stay up late have to watch the "Gillette" boxing matches. Those were televised boxing matches in black and white in the late fifties and early sixties that I had to endure. Yet in 1964...there was so much hype about Cassius Clay...I had to listen with the AM radio close to my ear when I went to bed. I was listening to a disc jockey who called himself "Wolf Baby" He was capitalizing on the success and fame of "Wolfman Jack", but he had a high and whiny voice. I did not get it. For some reason AM listener's from California to Chicago to New York could pick up Wolfman Jack less than 200 miles from my house, and it was a couple of years later before I actually heard what he sounded like. So that was when I heard about Cassius Clay beating Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title.

It was also the year that "Fatah" made the first armed attack against Israel, and the future and unrepentant winner of a "Nobel Piece Prize" Yasser Arafat was a leader.

On January 16, 1964 HELLO DOLLY appeard on Broadway. Two days later the Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand" appeared on the Billboard Charts at number 35.

March 9th 1964....one of the historical moments in automobile history...the much anticipated Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line. I think most if not all the production was already sold. A friend of my sister Brenda had been wringing his hands waiting on for his for awhile. I can still remember him driving up to the Pernitas Point Lodge at Lake Corpus Christi.

While we were asleep, sometime around 5:30 to 6:00 am on March 29,1964 the wave from the second largest recorded earthquake reached South Texas. It was 9.2 on the Richter Scale and originated at Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 28.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Baldy had brought in a drag line and made a canal for our boats to come in close to the house at Pernitas Point at Lake Mathis. It was a natural cove, but with the drag line, he had the canal and cove lengthened and deepened. the fill went to the left side of the accompanying picuture and additional earthwork was done to build the pond. It was a private fishing pond, but I was the primary fisherman. A three foot dyke was thrown up around the big mesquite tree to protect if from the water. It is an arid tree, and while it can thrive close to water...too much will kill it.

I had baited five or six throwlines and tossed them out into the pond on the 28th. I had been having a problem of catching turtles on a couple of throwlines and I don't remember if I tried different baits, or some different hooks, but I was anxious to see what the next morning's catch was. When I got up early to check the lines, I found the basin surrounding the mesquite tree was half filled with water and some perch and small bass were swimming around in it. I was totally confused. Then when I went to check my throwlines which were on the north and back to the east side going clockwise, I noticed a number of dead perch and bass, all small (1/8-1/2#) on the north shoreline. Then I noticed that the grass was wet all along the northern embankment,

It was shortly after I went back to the house that Baldy's ex partner Calvin Cron called Baldy on the Telephone. Calvin spent the money from Baldy's buyout to purchase a brand new lot directly across from us and build a Marina. He was sitting there early in the morning drinking his coffee when the big shake got there. Calvin told Baldy that the whole lake sloshed back and forth. We never felt it. I guess the earth didn't move, but the seismic wave moved the water. Here is a pic of the pond, and the mesquite tree surrounded by the dyke which became half filled with water.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We had a black and white television then. It was the next year that we got a color TV.

One of the ads on the B&W that I will never forget was the Anacin one where there were three blocks. One had a hammer pounding, the other a continually zapping electricity, and another of dripping water. That ad was on all the time. But the one that I always stopped whatever I was doing to watch was the Bardahl ad. Having only gone maybe 25 mph on water and felt so exhilerated, I could not imagine the feel of driving an unlimited.

I did not try to put myself in that pilot's seat, because there was no way I could even imagine that. I was just enthralled by the speed and the roostertail. The way the ad was done...and the slo mo way the roostertail falls is still an inspiration. The boat is long gone before the last of the water lands and is still.

This is when my gut for boat racing is forming. I never saw a boat race before and there was never any racing going on around where I lived that I knew about. It was just a feeling for going fast on the water.

[David Alaniz]

I have enjoyed your writing....it has stirred some memories of the "climate, sounds and feelings for those days".

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Baldy had built a workshop at the end of our carport in Alice....approximately 30' X 30' with a tack room/storeroom and bathroom on the west side. There was no longer anyone at our lakehouse that could take care of the horses. After summer was over I was too busy with high school, flying lessons and night school once a week to be able to drive back and forth to take care of the horses, so we moved them to a fifteen acre plat behind Alice Specialty Company. One of Baldy's first employees lived there and raised pigeons so he helped me feed and water them, but I still had to trim the hooves and groom them.

The shop had a large worktable right in the middle. About ten by twelve. Hand tools were hanging on peg board or in drawers and power tools were on the eastern and southern sides. In addition to the typical hand held power tools were a radial arm saw, jigsaw, drill press, grinder, and wood lathe. We had all kinds of woodworking hand tools. My brother Mark was good at working with wood, but I was not. I made a birdhouse and a few things that did not require much craftsmanship, but I could turn out more weird things on the lathe than he could. I could have made lamp stands, but don't ask me to make things with legs unless you didn't care if they didn't match. I could have made matching legs, but they would have been more simple, boring and time consuming.

It was sometime after school started in 1964 that I found blueprints for an outboard runabout in a magazine. This was before I found Boating News, and read about fast boats only in something like Popular Mechanics. I don't believe it was Glen L. In fact, the only plans we had were in the article itself if I remember correctly. It was not "Minimax" or "Minimost", but it was probably someone trying to capitalize on that formula.

We had a fine hardware and lumber store several miles west of us, and Mark and I got to know the owner of JE Moore Hardware & Lumber, Johnny Moore very well. I showed the plans to our Dad and he enthusiatically supported us all the way in the project. He even went down and bought some more tools he thought we would need such as planers, wood chisels, sanders, etc. He told Johnny let us have what we needed and send him the bill. JE Moore Hardware & Lumber already stocked marine plywood that the plans called for. He also carried the Anchorfast type nails in both copper and monel. Then of course, there was plenty of Weldwood powdered glue in stock.

We got home with all the basics to get us started and went right to work. That's where I first learned about stringers, chines, etc. The plans were not detailed enough for someone that had never built a boat, nor much of anything like that for us to get to far at first, but Baldy showed us some tricks and stood back to watch. It was slow going due to us taking time to measure, set up the tools properly, then make careful cuts. Mark and I took pride in our progress, and I think it was Mark's eye for woodworking that brought me, his older brother, some patience to see that we got it right the first time. For one, I could not imagine what we would have done if we got something wrong and that Weldwood glue set up. We didn't want to start over. I gained tremendous respect for how strong a powder can get when mixed with water and properly applied.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We got off to a tremedous start on building that boat. The first part of it went very quickly. Stringers and crossmembers got laid down. We worked hard, but got the chines correctly angled, nailed and glued in place. Then when we got to the deck, we realized the flaw in the plan. The bottom was almost 48 inches. The deck was supposed to be made from on 4 X 8 sheet of plywood. We had already split that sheet and cut the deck out according to the pattern. When you consider the extra width that the chines spread out from the bottom we were several inches short of connecting the deck pieces. There was a curved piece of wood from the "dashboard" to the bow where the bow handle screwed on, but the left and right section of the deck did not come together at a point to where we could fasten it to the framework. Baldy did not give us any guidance. I cannot to this day remember if it was because he wanted Mark and myself to figure it out, or because he was so busy with business. Anyway.....when my brother and I didn't know what to do......we quit working on it.