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

  1. #761
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    This is Corpus Christi Caller Times sports editor's writeup of the Lone Star Championships.
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    I found this ad Floyd Hopkins put in THE ROOSTERTAIL and concluded that the race between Bobby Wilson and Louis Williams had to have occurred during the Lone Star Championships that were scheduled in between the NOA Nationals. Joe Rome had always told me he wasn't at Baldy's to see Jack Chance take pot shots at Jerry Simison's mad weasel because he was in Mexico. But while Joe is very good at remembering events , names and what happened, he is not good at dates except for one particular date in 1965. Bobby Wilson told me in detail about what happened with his brother in law at the World Championships, and two weeks later when he said Louis went to Mexico. So I have to conclude that Joe was in Mexico like he originally thought and...aw who heck knows. All these stories from the races occurred at Baldy's within a two week period. I talked to everyone from Billy Seebold to one of my pit men who were there and no one can remember what happened which weekend except for the water hyacinths.

    Neither Clayton nor I remember any memorable racing events during the second weekend, but we both did pretty well. We spent a lot of time with Floyd Hopkins and helped him launch his prop making career.
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    Our racing was done for the season. Bud and I headed back to college at San Marcos. Other pit men went back to Alice High School and Texas A & I at Kingsville. Two of our girl pit crew went back to Incarnate Word in San Antonio and the youngest back to high school in Kingsville. We would be getting back to our studies while Baldy planned ahead.

    Baldy always knew the value of props in the sense that there was much more there than the eye could see. To most people looking at a propeller, they just saw how many blades there were and if the diameter of one was greater than the other, they would not notice any difference otherwise.

    Having served in the navy as a carpenter's mate first class and been with a crew whose chief knew how to hop up a crew boat to make it the fastest one in the harbor in Saipan during World War II, Baldy knew a propeller was the last key to get the horsepower down to where it counted. He had seen where the last couple of months working with Floyd Hopkins had gotten us. And, at the same time, Baldy paid Floyd to do a lot of experimenting. They helped each other out a lot. Baldy was basically the R & D for Floyd's early work. Whenever Floyd got a bunch of new props he and Baldy wanted to try, (and we were doing this for five classes, runabout and hydro with different gear ratio lower units) we would go testing. In those days, we didn't test during the winter. We had accomplished a lot during the previous year however, and Floyd, Baldy, Jack , Clayton and I got to be good friends.



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    Team Member jrome's Avatar
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    The certain date in 1965 was when we move location of Stafford Auto Supply. That date will hurt me till die. THAT RACE WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST RACES IN NOA HISTORY.I can remember putting fel pro gaskets on the shelf and wishing I was there.

  5. #765
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    I knew Joe would know exactly when I meant, but it bums him out, so I rarely mention it.

    Back at college Bud and I were getting settled in with our new friends at Harris Hall. Joe and I would get together for lunch at THE TEXAN, but in the afternoons and evenings Bud and I spent time at Harris Hall if we were not in our apartment.

    Ralph Peterson lived at Harris and I took Bud up to meet him and we had met his roommate Halle (pronounced Holly) Rea or Rhea. Although his family was from Houston, they had been living in Beirut, Lebanon for awhile. Halle's Dad worked in oilfield geophysics and used thumper trucks and explosive charges to bounce seismic waves to find potential faults and structures deep in the ground that could trap oil. They set up sound recorders and charts at points all throughout the North African deserts to pick up seismic returns. They employed sappers to go along with their surveying crews to detect buried land mines and they staked the paths they would take. To venture outside the flagged pathway could mean getting blown up. Halle's brother was a Green Beret in Viet Nam at that time. Halle and his mother were on the last ship to leave Beirut when the war broke out in 1967. Just before that time Beirut was a crown jewel on the Mediterranean and was one of the hot spots of the rich and famous. It has never returned to its former glory, and probably never will.

    I can't remember who else roomed with who in the next three adjacent rooms, but Bud and I met all and became friends and hung out with most of them.

    Chris Pastuch was from Rosharon just south of Houston and not only was a country and western music fan, but he owned a Camaro of the same year as Bud, but was blue instead of white. They became instant friends. The drag raced and did a lot of things together.

    Mike Stovall was from Hearne, Texas not far from Bryan and College Station where Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch had a marine business. "Stovall" as we called him wore a cowboy hat and boots, and also preferred country and western music, and also had a lot in common with Bud.

    Elliot's room was next door to Ralph and Halle's, but I can't remember who was his roommate. Elliot was probably a genius. He was smarter than anyone else I knew at that time, but he was kind of complex. He was a combination of laid back and antisocial. He liked certain people but did not like crowds or to be around too many people he did not know. Elliot was the first person I knew who could play a guitar very well. When I met him a few weeks after coming to Southwest Texas the guys in the four rooms all wanted him to play Alice's Restaurant. They kept it up until he played a few bars for me and Bud, but that was it. I never heard any more after that. Probably that first week that Elliot was in Harris Hall, he played the whole song to our newfound friends to break the ice. He didn't like to play Alice's Restaurant because it was to simple and takes to long to play and he would get bored. That was the first time I had ever heard of the song, didn't know who Arlo Guthrie was, and so went out and bought the album to see what the fuss was about. Been a fan ever since, and think of Elliot most times when I play it. If I'm at home to this day, I like to play Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving.

    There was a guy named Danny who might have been Elliot's roommate. Anyway he was tall, dark, and thin but very broad-shouldered. He lived and worked on a farm about twenty miles or so from Karnes City, Texas where Barth's Restaurant was. Danny was the first of his family to be able to go to college. He was very friendly to all of us, but kind of quiet. He was one of those guys though that you knew would watch your back. He did not talk as loud as a lot of the crowd, but he felt he was a part of us and was proud and in awe at the same time to be in a crowd of college guys that accepted as one of them. We didn't think of it like that, but I think he did. One time another guy was in one of the rooms with us and he asked Danny where he was from. Danny told him "Near Karnes City." This loudmouth was from up north and didn't know Danny, the area or the accent. He replied "Corn City? That must be a town full of smart people." It was kind of funny at the time, but it wasn't after Danny flunked out after one semester. We were all very mad and thought he should have been given another chance. There was something that happened with one professor that I can't remember anymore.

    Geral (correct--no D) Malmstrom was from Brady, Texas just west of the Hill Country and the eastern edge of what turns into West Texas. It is around 140 miles northwest of San Marcos. He and his family lived on a farm outside of town. Geral was borderline crazy. He was not anywhere insane or anything like that, but a lot of you guys know people who are always looking to do off the wall stuff for a laugh. That was Geral. It was uncommon for Geral to be serious. I'm not sure I ever saw him mad. But the way his brain worked, Geral saw and said things a little bit different from the rest of us. He would do things like what happened later on in the second semester. Going down Guadalupe, the main drive to campus, he just stopped his car in the middle of the road at the train tracks. Then he turned around to look at Chris Pastuch and his girlfriend in the backseat with his snarky laugh and grin. Just then the passenger train between San Antonio and Austin swooshed by. The cross bars had never come down, and the warning lights never turned on. Geral's offbeat personality just save the lives of himself, Chris and their girlfriends.

    The last guy I think was named Jerry. He was the only one we didn't hang out with except in the dorm. Geral and I saw and talked to him though one time at a park in Houston where he was from. He lived off of Dairy Ashford. I remember that because it was a weird name, and it is also one of the longest roads on the west side of Houston. It was out of the city limits at that time. He claimed he was a magician, and I guess some of the guys in Harris Hall might have seen a trick or two, but Bud and I never did. He had a great big trunk at the foot of his bed that was like you see on one of the old black and white movies of rich ladies having hauled on board a ship sailing to Europe. He opened it it sometimes and he showed us all kinds of props he would use in his magic work. Like I said, he never performed any in front of me or Bud. He had short, dark blonde and very curly hair. He talked loud and a lot and did a lot of laughing. Think of Herb Tarlik on "WKRP CINCINATTI". We got along fine with him, but he was different. The thing I picture in my mind when I think about him is what he wore. He always had on checkered bell bottom pants and long sleeve shirts with stripes. I have never been a fashion guy, but he looked kind of weird. He also put on a record one afternoon with Judy Collins singing "Both Sides Now". A bunch of us were in Elliot's or Ralph's room and he said I have this record ya'll have to listen to. We went a couple of doors down and he put it on. That's what I still remember when I hear that song. It was a few weeks later before it started playing on the radio. Who knows, maybe there was something to his magic stuff.



  6. #766
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    I woke up in the middle of the night and figured it out. Back in 1968, AM was the dominant band. Most cars only came with AM radio. Only big population centers had FM stations. Jerry was from Houston and it would naturally have one or more FM stations. Only FM had the quality of sound that High Fidelity fans liked, and they liked the ever increasing stereo sound on vinyl albums. The stations primarily were jazz stations, but many started playing "underground music" at night, and had some really laid back DJ's. It was on the FM radio that Jerry first heard Judy Collins, then it later became popular enough to move over into the AM band where all the pop music was. Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival and some others had already made it to AM, but there were many bands that never did.

    Somebody told us about 104.5 in San Antonio that played underground music at night. We found it on the dial of that monstrous music cabinet we brought from Bud's house. It was there we first heard Spirit, Greatful Dead, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Mike Bloomfield, and many others that we had never heard of before. It completely changed the type of albums I would buy. I started buying as much as I could afford of these new artists. Bud grew up on country & western, but we all listened to pop and underground music.



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    Of the friends we had made only Joe Rome, Bud Turcotte, Chris Pastuch and myself had cars. Joe bought his own gas, but Bud, Chris and I had credit cards and the billing address was back home. So we had plenty of gas to go wherever we wanted. And gas was cheap to. Down Guadalupe close to the Sonic was a Shamrock station (only Shamrock in the name then) and if you filled your tank up, at twenty five cents per gallon, you could get a tall light green glass. That's how Bud and I got our glasses to supplement our dwindling supply of disposable cups.

    Some of us decided to take a road trip out to Devil's Backbone. Hays County was dry back then, and somebody told us just across the county line close to Devil's Backbone was a liquor store. We decided to check it out. It was down Ranch Road 12 west, then straight on 32 after Ranch Road 12 made a right to the north. I don't remember stopping at the store, but we might have. We drove on a few miles further to a scenic overlook and parked. My red and white Dodge Polara was the only one we could all fit in. Geral Malmstrom was in a photography class at the time so he took his twin lens Yashica D reflex camera with him everywhere he went to pick up shots for photo class assignments. He shot 120 black and white film with a speed of probably around 100 ASA or so.

    Geral is not in the photo of course ,but on top is Bud Turcotte. Left to right are Chris Pastuch, Mike Stovall, me, and Ralph Peterson wearing Stovall's cowboy hat.


    The second photo I took this past December close to 45 years later. I was standing where Geral was when he took that one of our group back then.

    ADD: The pictures posted in reverse order. I keep forgetting the program does that.

    ADD: Looks a little different because Geral was using a standard lens which was probably 80mm for that camera and was the bottom lens that the images actually went through. The camera was held around the waist to chest and focused with a rangefinder lens looking straight down, hence a low angle.

    I was using a wide angle which moves everything back. And he was shooting up a little more because of how he held the camera, and I was shooting down to get the picnic table. That's about where the trash can was that Bud was standing on.
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    As far as I know this was the first picture taken of me wearing a mustache. Never been without it since. It must have been just before the Lone Star Championships I started growing because when I was home, Baldy told me he had put black shoe polish on his mustache when he was in the navy. I have never seen a picture, but the way he described it his mustache was several inches long on each side and twisted tight and turned up at the ends.

    Bud Turcotte, Geral Malmstrom and I decided to have a contest to see who could grow the best mustache. There was to be a big dance held at Lake McQueeny about twenty five miles southeast of San Marcos. Lake McQueeny was a very small lake upon which many Lone Star Boat Racing Association races had been held. They quit running on it just a few years before I started and I wanted to see what that famous lake looked like. Plus we thought we might meet some girls. I was still dating Ginger and that was a primary reason Bud and I chose San Marcos. Until we got to meet some girls on our own, we figured I could still go out with Ginger and Bud's sister Susan and her friend, both in our pit crew, could help Bud with some dates. We didn't know at the time that we would not only be forbidden to see Susan and Jeanie, but there was not way that the University was going to allow us to go out with any other girl. There was a restricted list of who was allowed to see any of the girls, and it was generally only one or both of the parents or legal guardian.

    That meant I could only see Ginger when she went home, and I would have to drive to Houston. So we went to this pavilion on Lake McQueeny to attend the big dance. Geral and Bud tried to coax growth out of their mustaches by the time of the dance, but gave up and shaved them off. Bud's was never more than wispy. Geral's was much better but it was so light and fine that it was all but invisible unless you were standing right in front of him. Mine was coming on good, but needed an extra week to really develop so I used Baldy's trick and darkened it a little with black shoe polish. I used it sparingly just to give a darker brown look. In fact, I probably used brown rather than black like Baldy. I didn't tell anyone, but I would have won anyway. If Ralph or Jim entered the contest it might have ended differently.

    ADD: Just found these pictures 9/15/14.

    These photos were taken at Canyon Lake sometime just before the group shot by the trash can. In one of the photos you can see me without my mustache and was probably the last one taken before I grew it. Some one else was also taking pictures because in one frame you can see Gerel lining up a shot with his Yashica D twin lens reflex camera.

    Mark brought the Continental flatbottom Baldy bought from Red Adair up to San Marcos one weekend. We went to Canyon Lake about five miles past the lookout at Devil's Backbone where the previous b&W photo was taken. Just like the earlier norther that blew in the first day of the continuance of the 1968 World Championships at Baldy's, we had another norther blow in that weekend. It was colder and overcast, but no big rain. We found a launching ramp and there was not another sole on the lake. Water had not been impounded on Canyon Lake that long, and there were no houses, piers or anything to be seen. None of us had ever been on the lake before, but the body of water in front of us was huge. As long as we stayed within sight of the launching ramp we should be OK. The water was rough, but Red ran it as a marathon boat on Offats Bayou and and Clear Lake near his home, so that was no problem. It was a heavy stable race boat. It was fitted with a 427 L88 Chevy engine and had wet exhausts so two people could sit in the back. Red probably used it more for entertaining his non racing friends on Clear Lake that racing it.

    Then we ran into a problem. Don't know if it was the cold and humidity or what, but the engine would not fire. Nothing Mark could do worked. We didn't have any tools to speak of because we were not there to work on it. Mark let it set a couple of times, but finally he wore the battery out. All we got out of it was a photo session. Ironically, a couple of years later a Texas Highway Patrolman who was a friend of mechanic Steve flipped and destroyed it on Canyon Lake. It is a deep and cold lake. Last I heard the engine was still on the bottom.

    First photo: Left is Gerel taking our picture then me then Ralph Peterson.

    Second Photo: L-R Ralph Peterson and Bud Turcotte.

    Third photo: L-R My brother Mark, Ralph and Bud.

    Fourth photo: L-R Ralph, Mark, and Bud

    There's another guy bending over in the first photo looking down by the back of the motor, but I don't know who that is. Could be one of Mark's friends that drove up from Alice with him.
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  9. #769
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    Reading your post about your friends in college and the name Halle Rea caught my eye. Back in the early 2000's we were leasing property for waterfowl hunting from a rice farmer in Chambers County, Texas by the name of Halle Rea......coincidence?

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    How old was he Joe? The Halle we went to school with was seems like around five nine, maybe taller, thin and dark hair. He would be about 63 right now. Neither the first or last name is a common one for Texas. Could be the same guy.



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