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

  1. #851
    Team Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    144
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Great stories, Wayne. Glad to see you back on it. Don't feel like the Lone Ranger about the college brainwashing. I came out of the University of Colorado convinced I was a communist and had two bumper stickers on the back of my '65 Chevy Van: one read "Solar Power" and the other "No Nukes."

  2. #852
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Thanks Steve. We were and are the group that the commies target. Fortunately most college students come around after they get jobs where they have to pay taxes.



  3. #853
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    We were gearing up for the upcoming racing season and Baldy was prepared. He studied not only the NOA rulebook, but also the APBA. After I told him about all the guys I saw at DePue when my sister Brenda and pit man Bud Turcotte drove up there to pick up three Marchetti hydros, the gears in his brain had been grinding. I didn't know it at the time, but he had decided we were going to do some racing at American Power Boat Association sanctioned events. The first one was going to be the APBA Golden Shores Winternationals at Needles, California. It was promoted as I remember as Needles, CA, and that's where we stayed, but the pits were a little way back east near Topock, Arizona.



  4. #854
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    There were ads in some boat racing publications about the $30,000 purse at the Golden Shores Winternationals, but I think Baldy had already heard about it from Ken or Gloria Steelman. They came to see us a few months earlier when Baldy hosted the second half of the N.O.A. World Championships. Baldy and the Steelman's hit it off magnificently. As soon as they got back to California Baldy was on the mailing list for the Los Angeles Speedboat Association. LASA.

    Between what I had reported to Baldy about some NOA racers racing APBA at DePue, and what the Steelman's said, and who knows what Doc Collins and Ted May might have told him, Baldy decided we were going to the Winternationals at Needles in early 1969.



  5. #855
    BoatRacingFacts VIP John Schubert T*A*R*T's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    East Galesburg, IL
    Posts
    504
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Master Oil Racing Team View Post
    There were ads in some boat racing publications about the $30,000 purse at the Golden Shores Winternationals, but I think Baldy had already heard about it from Ken or Gloria Steelman. They came to see us a few months earlier when Baldy hosted the second half of the N.O.A. World Championships. Baldy and the Steelman's hit it off magnificently. As soon as they got back to California Baldy was on the mailing list for the Los Angeles Speedboat Association. LASA.

    Between what I had reported to Baldy about some NOA racers racing APBA at DePue, and what the Steelman's said, and who knows what Doc Collins and Ted May might have told him, Baldy decided we were going to the Winternationals at Needles in early 1969.
    Steelman's

    Wayne, even being from the East coast I became very good friend with the Steelmans. Always searched them out when at Depue or APBA national meetings. They were boat racing throughout just as Charlotte & Clyde Queen were.

  6. #856
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    That's right John. They lived to travel and write and promote boat racing all across the country.



  7. #857
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Baldy had sold both our DeSilva runabouts, but I do not know who bought them. I think they must have been sold separately and probably to Lone Star Boat Racing Association members. If so, they must have painted them. I might not guess the Jumbo DeSilva if it went to North Texas because it was bought used and I didn't have any good recollections of driving it. Only when it did a 90 degree separation from me at Texarkana almost two years earlier. Our original DeSilva runabout I would have remembered if it stayed in the circuit with the same paint scheme. It was beautiful, and the best runabout I ever drove.....if I could have drove one competently.

    Since I was a college and not around the house in Alice, Texas I did not hear from Baldy what he was up to. Since I was in college and Baldy was not around the college in San Marcos Baldy did not hear what I was up to. We got along together great, but we did not call back and forth about what was going on. In those days I did not like to use the telephone. Still don't for the most part. Would rather talk to someone in person, but it's tough to do that anymore.

    As we were packing up for Needles, we did not have a runabout on our trailer.



  8. #858
    Team Member smittythewelder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    393
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Fun reminiscences, Wayne.

    One of the less-pleasing things about getting old is that the younger generations often don't get your (my) jokes. Couple of weeks ago I was walking past a pet store on the way into the supermarket. Out front, a young gal had set up a couple of folding tables, upon which she had two or three cages of pet rabbits. These bunnies had been abandoned by their owners, and this sweet young woman was trying to find them new homes.

    Always the wiseacre, I said, "You have all of these domestic breeds. But do you ever get a wild hare?"

    Alas, it went right over her head.

  9. #859
    Team Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    238
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    YEOW! Smitty! But where is the joKe in Wayne's post?? Benn in plenty DeSilva boats and what he said was pretty much it. Us old flatbottom guy's can tell stories and some of the best come from Nicholson! Steve

  10. #860
    Team Member smittythewelder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    393
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    I didn't think there was a joke there, Steve. As long as Wayne was leading us through the Sixties, a couple of posts back, I thought I'd throw in one our stupid sayings of the day.

    Remember when an automatic transmission was called a "slush," and in high school only a real grope would drive anything with a slush or four doors?

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 12 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 12 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. An Amazing Story: Part 2
    By Mark75H in forum Outboard Racing History
    Replies: 555
    Last Post: 10-13-2008, 05:44 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •